Thanjavur-based pencil sculptor carves his own destiny

CHENNAI: They say an artist’s life is unusual and almost cinematic with an adequate amount of exposition, climax, and denouement; Savithru Muthu’s life is no different. Through his shares of ups and downs in his life, only his art sustained him.

Savithru Muthu, is a pencil sculptor from Thanjavur who specialises in making portraits and is known for his famous pencil sculptures of gods and goddesses. Talking to DT Next about how he discovered his passion for sculpting he says, “I was always interested in art as a child. I always painted and sketched portraits.

“During the summer holidays, we were given an assignment to research Brihadeeswara Temple. Seeing the sculptures and the details of the design, I wanted to try making a sculpture on my own. I initially tried sculpting on soap and slowly perfected the technique with the material. My first perfect work was a toothbrush holder.”

In 2012, when Rajamouli’s Naan Ee came out, it had quite an effect on the youth. Several young boys had a thread around their hands, similar to that of Nani in the film and some of them even adopted Nani’s style of dressing. In the case of Muthu, something else caught his attention.

“When the film came out, the idea of being able to sculpt on pencil fascinated me. I decided to try out sculpting on pencil and loved the challenge that came with it,” he says. He pursued his undergrad in Bachelors in Fashion Technology. In college, he began taking up commissioned orders on his Instagram page, musa_ the_sculptor. His work as a sculptor became known among his circle and in college.

In 2017, after having worked in uniform customisation for 10 months, he quit his job and decided to go where his art took him. “When I took up the job, I thought I’ll learn a lot about designing and will have the creative freedom to do what I please, but that was not the case and so I had to leave since I was going crazy with my creativity being underused.”

His family was not pleased with his decision and he decided to move out of the house to ease the tension that rose around his presence. He began designing products and experimented with several materials. “I had designed a very efficient toilet seat cover made out of plastic and approached several hotels with it. But exactly when it could get approved, the plastic ban was announced,” he says.

With the fire to prove his credibility and reverence for his passion, in 2017, he set the world for sculpting 200 sculptures in 24 hours. However, Muthu says that setting a world record today is business. “Anyone who has money can get a world record. When I realised how it had gotten, I stopped associating myself with that record,” he says.”

Muthu began taking up orders on his page more frequently and only worked on them if they were unique. “I always like a good challenge. If the order is simple, I don’t usually take it,” he says. Pencil sculpting, an art that requires an immense amount of patience and caution, expects the artists to use light fingers.

Talking about the challenges he faces as a pencil sculptor, he says, “There have been times where after hours of completing the order, during the final touches, the lead breaks. It gets frustrating but I quickly shove aside those emotions and get to work. Because that’s just how it is,” he chuckles. Muthu is currently trying to find his ground in NFTs by selling his recent artwork; the sculpture is a palm-sized item with the face of 36 freedom fighters carved and fitted on a shield made out of graphite base. “I want my work to reach more people. My art was there to sustain me when nothing was working in my life. Now, I want to be able to enjoy while making it,” says Savithru Muthu..