The Amazing Pencil Art
“ART is anything you can get away with”- That’s the simplest plain definition I was able to pull off via the internet.
As far as I remember ART was something that I used to relate to a picture on my drawing book, many a times just a scrambled figured and with lots of colors.
But as I grew up the different dimensions of ART started to reveal its hidden meanings and my perceptions started changing. Though the basic funda remains the same- “Representation”, but the forms and ways of expression have changed with time. ART is no longer confined within the boundaries of a pen and paper or a brush and canvas. If you may ask-even writing is an ART of its own kind, cooking is an ART, Singing is an ART, Dancing is an ART and the list goes on and on…
Rather I would say ART is a unique form that separates one from the rest and hence the name “ART”.
When I was googling “ART” I happened to stumble upon the amazing and extraordinary work of this genius named Dalton Ghetti.
The work of this 42 year old man from Brazil who currently resides at Bridgeport, Connecticut leaves the viewers awestruck. He does not simply carve but he engraves sculptors and it’s not just any sculptor but sculptors on the tip of a pencil.
Rick Torres, the owner of Harborview Market, in the Black Rock section of Bridgeport says:
“You could see how he could do this — he’s Zen-like, very patient and quiet and I think you would need to be that way to do that kind of work.”
Although by profession he is a carpenter; still for the past 25 years he has been doing this work passionately and with utmost dedication and he continues to do so.
Dozens of his works have been framed as well.
As a child he would experiment carving the barks of tree, chalk pieces, soaps and almost anything he could lay his hands on. But the beautiful miniature art is not meant for the impatient ones. Sometimes it takes months and years to complete a work and that’s what amazes people- his patience. [He completed a set of 26 pencils containing all the alphabets from A-Z in two and half years]
All he needs is a sewing needle, a razor blade and a carpenter’s or No.2 Pencil and the next thing you could see on the tip is:
Elvis Presley sporting his shades,
A Tiny Saw,
A Mini Mail Box,
A Tiny Hammer,
A miniature Chair;
Just to name a few from the huge collection of his brilliant ART-lot.
At times he would also get frustrated working on the fragile material that would break in an instant and months of hard work- lost in vain.
He states: “It would drive me mad when I would be just a bit too heavy-handed and the pencil’s tip would break. I would get very nervous sometimes, particularly when the piece was almost finished, and then I would make a mistake. I decided to change the way I thought about the work – when I started a new piece my attitude would be ‘well this will break eventually but let’s see how far I get. It helped me break fewer pencils, and although I still do break them, it’s not as often”
There’s not much on the offering for his hard work, yet he proudly says that it’s not for mere money but for the love of the art that he dedicates his time on it; though deep down his heart he does have this unrealized desire to have an exhibition of his art works in a Gallery.
As said by Elbert Hubbard –“Art is not a thing, it is a way.”; Its inspiring to find certain people like Delton who would dedicate so much time simply for the love of it and would not demand anything in return when the rest of the world lives in the policy of “Give and Take.”
