縫紉界里出了個大畫家！

Arun Kumar Bajaj has a very unusual skill – he can paint with a sewing machine. Technically, it’s embroidering, not painting, but his artworks are so incredibly detailed that they could pass as hyper-realistic paintings to the untrained eye. And the fact that he does it all with a sewing machine just makes it that much more impressive.

Arun Kumar Bajaj具備一項非常特殊的技能——用縫紉機(jī)作畫。確切地說，他是在刺繡，而不是畫畫。然而，他的藝術(shù)作品擁有不可思議的豐富細(xì)節(jié)。如果沒受過專業(yè)訓(xùn)練，你肯定會認(rèn)為這是一幅幅現(xiàn)實主義畫作。他的“作畫工具”更令人印象深刻。

Arun was really good at drawing and painting growing up and dreamed of becoming a famous painter, but his father’s sudden death, 15 years ago, foiled his plans and forced him to abandon school in order to run the family business. His father was a tailor and he became one too, but he didn’t let the artist in him die. Instead, he started “painting” with needle and thread, but instead of using his hands, he decided on a rather unusual embroidering tool – the sewing machine. It took him a while to master this unique art form, but today he is recognized as the world’s only sewing machine artist.

在成長過程中，Arun一直非常擅長畫畫，夢想著成為一位著名畫家。但十九年前，他的父親突然去世。這阻礙了他的計劃，迫使他輟學(xué)經(jīng)營家族生意，繼承父親的裁縫工作。然而，他并未放棄藝術(shù)追求。相反，他開始用針線作畫。他沒有選擇手工刺繡，而是借助一項不同尋常的工具——縫紉機(jī)。他花費了好些功夫，才掌握了這門獨特藝術(shù)。如今，他被認(rèn)為是全世界唯一一位“縫紉機(jī)藝術(shù)家”。

 

Photo: Arun Kumar Bajaj/Facebook

“I’ve been stitching for the last 23 years, since I was 12,” the 35-year-old artist told DNA India. “My father was a tailor but he died early, when I was 16, and I had to drop out of school to take over the shop. I was good at sketching in school, and this was a way I could combine the two arts.”

我從十二歲起開始刺繡，一直干了23年。我的父親是一位裁縫，但他在我十六歲時英年早逝。于是，我不得不輟學(xué)接管店鋪。讀書期間，我素描畫得很好。我通過這種方法，將兩種藝術(shù)形式結(jié)合起來。我不想一輩子當(dāng)裁縫。我希望出名，盡管我的執(zhí)著使家庭經(jīng)濟(jì)有些不穩(wěn)。

 

Photo: Arun Kumar Bajaj/Facebook

“I didn’t want to remain just a darzi (tailor) all my life,” Arun added. “I wanted to make a name for myself, even though my obsession has caused financial uncertainty to my family.”

我不想一輩子當(dāng)裁縫。我希望出名，盡管我的執(zhí)著使家庭經(jīng)濟(jì)有些不穩(wěn)。

 

Photo: Arun Kumar Bajaj/Facebook

Luckily, his perseverance paid off, and his works became sought after both in India and abroad. It’s easy to see why, just by looking at them, but what really makes his embroideries special is the tool he uses.

幸運的是，他的堅持不懈終于有所回報，他的作品受到國內(nèi)外人士的喜愛。原因顯而易見，只要看看這些作品就知道了。不過，它們的真正獨特之處在于他所使用的特殊工具。

 

Photo: Arun Kumar Bajaj/Facebook

Many countries around the world have a rich tradition of embroidered tapestries, and you could probably find a few to rival Arun Kumar Bajaj’s in detail, but good luck finding any that were made with a sewing machine. You won’t, and there’s a good reason for that.

其實，在世界各地，許多國家都有著豐富的刺繡傳統(tǒng)。在細(xì)節(jié)上，有沒有人的刺繡作品能夠和他匹敵?應(yīng)該有的。但是，其中絕對沒有用縫紉機(jī)制作的刺繡作品。這是有原因的。

 

Photo: Arun Kumar Bajaj/Facebook

“You need to be very precise because once you’ve stitched the cloth, there’s no way you can undo it,” Arun said. “I also don’t overstitch – it’s all done in a single layer to give the painting a neat look.”

你必須非常精確，因為一針下去就沒有反悔的余地了。我也不會重復(fù)縫紉，都是單層刺繡，好讓畫作外觀整齊。

 

 

Photo: Arun Kumar Bajaj/Facebook

Some of the Needle Man’s most impressive works include a 6×4 feet painting of Lord Krishna, which took 3 years and an approximate of 28,39,000 meters of thread to complete, or a 4×2 feet painting of the court of Ranjit Singh, the fabled Maharaja of the Sikh empire, featuring nearly 2,000 human figures. The latter took the artist over a year to finish.

他曾耗費三年時間和約2,839,000米線，完成一幅6*4英尺的《摩訶迦羅》。另有一幅4*2英尺的畫作，描繪了蘭奇達(dá)(錫克帝國首任君主)的法庭，上面有將近2,000個人物，這幅畫作耗時一年。

 

Photo: Arun Kumar Bajaj/Facebook

Arun runs a tailoring business in the Adalat Bazar of Patiyala, but he dedicates a lot of his time to his artistic pursuits as well.

目前，他依然經(jīng)營著裁縫生意，但也花費大量時間追求藝術(shù)夢想。