The belief is that each grain of rice has a name engraved on it, of the person whom it is destined for. Not until you meet Thomas Jacob and he shows you the rice grain on which he has painted the face of Jesus Christ.
Then there is a landscape art work – a lone boat in a river as the sun sets, as two birds fly towards the horizon, again, on a grain. “There were more, but it fell off my palm and I couldn’t find it,” recalls Thomas, who reveals that he doesn’t use either a microscope or magnifying glass. Even the brush, is a modified point brush with all its bristles except two or three cut off.
That’s not all. A specialist in miniature art, Thomas’ art works range from micro art on chalk to pencil lead and crayons using paper cutter or safety pin. The chalk engravings of Marilyn Monroe, Baahubali, Kabali, Pulimurugan, mother and child, Krishna, Mahabali, Arab and the falcon; the crayon structure of Spiderman; and dancing girl, lock and key and crucified Christ boast of such precision that as he shows you around his Kochi apartment filled with his artworks and colour pencil portraits, you wonder how he manages to do all these. “It has been difficult. For the past 10 years, I have been working in the IT field and used to work on micro art at nights. If your heart lies in art, you can’t devote yourself to another job. So last week, I resigned from the job to focus on artworks,” says Thomas.
Before writing him off as crazy to have quit his job, know that his artworks have been getting good responses. He says, “I keep on experimenting. Earlier, it was terracotta jewellery. Then came micro art and later, diorama (miniature landscapes) and paper cup works.”
