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| Sunday, 24 April 2005 |
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Life after retirement : New frontiers of creativity "What would I do after retirement?" The question may have never crossed your mind. However, in a context of improved standard of living and longer life expectancy, it is a pertinent question for Sri Lankans.
But, how do you enrich and improve the quality of retirement, turn it to a period of pure joy... perhaps an indulgence? The key is tapping one's inner strengths says Kusuma Hettiarachie an octogenarian and perhaps the only 'Needle painting' artist in Sri Lanka. The Sunday Observer met this happy retiree at her residence in Mount Lavinia, as she prepares for her 6th solo exhibition to be held at the Lionel Wendt Art Gallery for three days from April 28, 2005. by Vimukthi Fernando Enchanting. The picture hangs in a living room. A heron in mid flight, illuminated with the rays of the setting sun, distant and obscure but giving enough inner glow, to highlight its beauty. Instantly, my colleague is beside the picture. Surveying it from different angles, its workmanship, posing a great mystery. "How is this done?" he questions. The next moment, we are confronted by a smiling face, kindly and graceful. "I always had a fascination for needle, even in my schooldays," she tells us, as we are introduced to an intriguing craft called 'needle painting.' The picture, contains thousands of stitches, big and small - long and short, patiently and painstakingly placed there by each handstroke of the artiste, Kusuma Hettiarachie.
Needle painting is an ancient form of art which thrived in Europe during the 13th and 14th centuries and later during the Victorian period. It had received a new lease of life in Sri Lanka 'unknowingly', explains Kusuma, the veteran needle painter. My son had taken some of my work to the Victoria and Albert museum in UK, where it was complemented and identified as 'needle painting'. "I was unaware that I was reviving an ancient form of art," she says. Her introduction to needle work was during her school days. "Needle work was an important subject in the school curriculum and at the end of the year inspection, my work always got complemented," says Hettiarachie, reminiscencing about the time at her alma mater - Musaeus College. However, once she left school the responsibilities of marriage, children and a career as a teacher contained her intrinsic artistic skills, except for a few sporadic moments by way of decorative embroidery on her children's clothes and household linen. However, with retirement, the situation changed dramatically she recalls. "Then, with the luxury of time in my hands I got the idea of trying to portray on cloth what I had been admiring in nature around me," says Hettiarachie. "I was simply fascinated when I found that with each piece of work, the art improved. The particular stitch did not matter. The keenness was to depict nature as well as I could." Her fascination with watching birds in their natural habitats introduced an added dimension to her work. The growing collection of her paintings, the response from family and friends and many a member of her "extended family" as she calls her students, had resulted in the first solo exhibition of needle paintings in England in 1983. Since then, she has had three exhibitions in Sri Lanka and one in Canada to her credit.
For her 6th solo exhibition, her 4th in Sri Lanka, Kusuma will present birds, landscapes, moths and butterflies. Forty of her needle paintings will be displayed in an exhibition named 'Birds of a Feather' in keeping with the theme of her last exhibition in Sri Lanka, where bird-life including raptors her favourite birds due to their "majestic look in the eyes" were portrayed beautifully. The time consumed in completing a work of art is different, depending on the design and size of the picture she says. Needle painting, is not only joy but a therapy as well for Hettiarachie. "When I'm in the middle of a painting even when I stop, my mind is always there. I call this a therapy because I have no time to worry about aches and pains which I do have as any other. But, this helps me forget them. They just go out of my mind," she adds. Hettiarachie has a few hints for those who see retirement as dependence and misery. "I believe everyone has some ability. All what a person has to do is sit down, reflect and assess yourself. Find out your capabilities and work on it. Every piece of work is improvement. When you have the luxury of time in your hands, its a crime to waste it, make full use of it," she says being a living proof that retirement could be a time of pure joy and self fulfilment.
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