Nikita Buragohain: A journey from being a curious art loving child to becoming a beloved art teacher of the town.
‘Anupama Baruah’ is a well-known face in the field of art, belonging to the beautiful town of Tezpur in Assam. Her journey from being a curious art loving child to becoming a beloved art teacher of the town is a story that inspires many.
To teach people the true meaning and importance of art, irrespective of any age, is all that she has been striving for throughout her existence. Even after teaching more than hundreds of students, batch after batch, she continues to love and enjoy her profession and wishes never to let her beautiful teaching experience come to an end.
In a conversation with the artist, Hello Guwahati came to know about her early experiences, her views regarding the world of art and her stirring journey of becoming Tezpur’s art teacher.
Since when were you engaged in the field of art?
Even as a child, I used to be engaged in making sketches all day long and my mother would wholeheartedly show my sketches to the guests and neighbours, who would compliment my skills and say that I had something unique in me.
However, my parents began to notice my potential, when I started winning every single competition, that I participated in.
Whom do you consider as your inspiration?
Sir Pradip Ganguly, my first ever art teacher, is the person whom I consider as my inspiration. Back when I was in Chabua, Pradip Sir was the one who introduced me to the beautiful world of art and its nitty gritties. His weekly Saturday & Sunday classes taught me everything that I know about art today.
What do you recall as one of the most enriching experiences as a child?
When I was studying in Class-VI, I had attended an art workshop in Calcutta and that was my most enriching experience. I and eighty more students, from all the districts in Assam were selected for attending this workshop and I was the youngest one there. During the workshop I got to meet the eminent artist of the time- Benu Mishra along with his wife, and I clearly remember being praised by them for my attentiveness and artworks. There and then I said to myself “Anu, you too will become an artist someday!”
Could you tell us about your early life in Tezpur?
My father who was in the Air Force, back then, was transferred to Tezpur. From the very first day in the town itself, I began to miss my art classes in Chabua, and so, my mother started searching for a new one. Luckily she ended up finding one named, “Jagat Singh Kachari Charukala Vidyalaya” of Lt. Deb Kumar Das Sir. It was a school that taught oil painting and from then on, oil painting became a keen interest of mine. However, after a month, I had to leave the oil painting classes, as it was somewhat expensive. At first, I was very disheartened, but deep down in my heart, I was not ready to give it up so easily. So, I started giving art tuitions to a nearby kid and began earning Rs.500 a month. This amount was more than enough for me to pay the fees and to buy all the essential art related tools and colours.
I remember making my first ever portrait of the Dutch post-impressionist painter, Vincent van Gogh, which I have kept with me till this date.
When did your profession as an art teacher began?
It was in 1997,when a brother of mine named Rupam Das, offered me to take the art classes in his school. I remember being extremely happy with the offer and it did not even take me a second to say yes. Back then I was only 19 years old when my official career as an art teacher began. During that period, I realized how good I was with kids and at communicating with them. However, it was in 2007, after the birth of my daughter (Chime), when I finally decided to start a school of my own. For this I took a nearby room in Chandmari on rent and started conducting art classes there. The initial classes began with only 7 students and it gradually increased to 100 in a year.
Could you describe your teaching experience?
My 24 years of teaching experience has helped me immensely to explore a bit more about myself. From the very beginning, I only strived to be a friendly and encouraging teacher towards my students. I did so because I understood the necessity of proper guidance and how great of an impact it can make in one’s life. I believe that my way of creating a comfortable and friendly environment, is the reason why the number of students in my school continues to increase by hundreds and hundreds, year by year. Also, when I look back now, I feel so proud of my students who have learnt under me and have passed out to become art teachers themselves or to have started schools of their own. Every time my students refer to me as “Artor Baido”, I feel real blessed and I feel like I have succeeded in building my identity that I was striving for all these years.
What makes an artist different from the rest?
I believe that the eyes of an artist tend to view the world in a far beautiful way than it really is. Even in the simplest of things in our lives, we try to discover something artistic, like, while cutting vegetables we try and find something artistic in the shapes of the pieces, in broken pieces of glass we tend to explore some designs and patterns or while drying up clothes in our backyard, we notice the beauty in the placement of the wet clothes. Infact, a thrown away broken kettle that I had once found, is now a beautiful showpiece kept in the drawing room of my house. So, being an artist for me is something very magical and powerful.
What are the art forms known to you?
Due to my interest and gradual experiences, I know quite some of the forms. Like – sketch & drawing, portrait, glass painting, collage making, human figure composition, water colour, acrylic painting, oil painting, pen drawing, charcoal art, still life, knife painting, sponge dabbing, wall painting, doodle art, palm art, abstract art, stone art sculpting, warli art and many more.
Also, I am a self-taught sculptor and so, I believe that it might be somewhat difficult for a sculptor to learn painting. But for an artist it becomes a bit easier to learn sculpting.
What is the role of art in your life?
Art gives me strength and peace, it reduces my anxiety and imbibes in me a kind of confidence; the confidence to repair, re-create and correct anything without the fear of failure. Like if I am making a fabric design on a piece of cloth and it accidently gets smudged, I don’t feel sad or angry, instead I find it exciting to be able to figure out a solution and to create a new design or a pattern out of the smudged mistake. So, the fear of failure fades away, as I know I will definitely come up with something new and better.
What do you think about the artists of the new generation?
Regarding the artists of the new generation I think that they have become super practical even in such a field of creativity and spontaneity. Art is something that must come naturally to us. But I have seen that most of the new generation artists are mostly focused on creating art for merely gaining money and fame from it. This should not be so, as I believe that, if your artwork makes you happy and brings you inner peace, it will do the same for others as well. That’s the real happiness that you want. Trust me!