Saying it with paper

By Mihiri Wikramanayake

For Shama de Silva, being eco-conscious has always been a priority. Aware of the threats and dangers posed by man towards the world at large from her young days, she is one of who wanted to change things in her own little way.

To do this, Shama decided to recycle waste materials and use them profitably. She left her job as an accountant in a commercial company and ventured on her own to compete in the growing world of recycling.

Starting off with the help of a consultant from the Industrial Development Board, Shama launched a medium scale industry in recycling waste materials and producing aesthetic goods for sale. Her products come under the trademark Soleil because she was keen on emphasizing the sun. Soleil is the French word for the sun.

She uses agro-based goods such as tea fibre, banana fibre, paddy husk, citronella refuse and sugar cane with the paper pulp to beautify and create her stationary, calendars, cake boxes, pouches and other items to suit each occasion.

"I am capable of creating specific themes to suit any occasion," she says. She has produced cake boxes and wedding invitations to match the theme of the bride's choice. Last year she made personalized calendars and letterheads as corporate gifts for clients.

Shama has designed beautiful trinket boxes and gift items for Valentine's Day. Each item is intricately done up with hearts and flowers in smooth recycled paper. Wrapping paper is another of her specialities. With so much concern generated about the earth's pollution content and rising problems of this country's waste disposal, Shama has taken it upon herself to help out in her own little way with this wonderful enterprise.

Anup's colourful life

By Laila Nasry

Society sets standards and most of us lead frenetic lives trying to keep up to them. At times what we are, is what others want us to be. We are stuck in a specific routine and lead an extremely predictable existence. Some of us, at some point or the other feel frustrated and bored, but do nothing to break free...to be different. It is only a very few who venture out, break traditions and norms, throw caution to the winds and follow our dreams. Let our hearts rule and go where our passions take us.

Anup Vega (as his name suggests) is one such 'rare' person. An artist by profession, his life is as colourful as his work. As a youngster he loved to draw. He drew on everything he could lay his hands on, notebooks, tables and even on the ground. His artistic outpourings surprised him, when he discovered the beauty they generated. It was a new angle to his life he never knew existed. And thus began the transition from odds and ends to paper and then to canvas. "I was around 23-24 when I got serious about my work," he says.

His parents were not at all pleased with their son's artistic pursuits. Like most, they had big dreams for him. They wanted to see their son as an intellectual in a conventional profession. "My mother was a teacher and she wanted me to be either a doctor, engineer or lawyer." However Anup confesses he was a poor learner, never really good at his schoolwork. "Half the time I was trying to be someone else, trying to please my parents, relatives and friends." He battled with his parents, trying to reason with them, urging them to accept that his life revolved around paints and paper. "I so badly wanted to be an artist, so after my O/Ls I left home."

Surviving on his own was no piece of cake. For seven to eight years he worked as a hotelier trying to establish himself in life. However during that time he never gave up his 'arty' instincts, instead he diversified and dabbled music. It was at this time that he went to India to further his artistic abilities, to enhance his creativity...to find himself.

It was there that he met his guru Osho, in his ashram in Pune. Anup says he found everything after he found him. "I found myself and learnt to respect myself." He felt free like never before. He learnt to laugh and cry and do things without being forced into them. He learnt to let go and let things take their natural course. "Till then I was leading a superficial life. I was searching for the truth and after a long time I finally felt at peace."

He was given a new identity, a swami name-Dhiyan Anup. It felt like he was born again as a child, and as a child he started seeing things in a different light for the first time. "I always liked to do nothing...to just stand and stare." He drank in whatever was around him and it was this that inspired him the most to create.

However ironic it may sound, he's at his best when his mind is totally blank. To a lay- person it may sound like Greek, "but no mind space is home for an artist. When you experience it, you feel complete," Anup exclaimed, his eyes luminous. "When I reach this point I feel extremely peaceful."

It is at this time that the best of him comes forth. He is relaxed and acutely aware of what is around him. It is then that he paints. "It happens with no effort, like poetry, inspiration flows." He grasps for words to explain this inner force and drive. "The more headless, the better the results," he says.

He lives an artist's existence, close to nature. Away from Colombo and all the hustle and bustle of city life. Where he lives there are no vehicle noises or pollution. "The surroundings are so lovely that I don't have to go far to get inspired. I can reach that mind space easily."

"I totally enjoy my work," he says with a satisfied smile. He does abstracts, portraits and landscapes, anything and everything that interests him. Self-taught, Anup has no specific technique that he adheres to. His style is that of easy flexibity. Though other artists don't influence his style he is awed by and admires the work of Laki Senanayake, which he enjoyed as a young school boy and still does, and Raju whom he met through his Guru. He identifies the same vibration and energy in them to which he can relate.

Anup Vega's paintings will be exhibited from February 11-20th at the Barefoot Gallery. They reflect a person who dared to dream and dared to make his dreams a reality.

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