缝纫界里出了个大画家！

Arun Kumar Bajaj has a very unusual skill – he can paint with a sewing machine. Technically, it’s embroidering, not painting, but his artworks are so incredibly detailed that they could pass as hyper-realistic paintings to the untrained eye. And the fact that he does it all with a sewing machine just makes it that much more impressive.

Arun Kumar Bajaj具备一项非常特殊的技能——用缝纫机作画。确切地说，他是在刺绣，而不是画画。然而，他的艺术作品拥有不可思议的丰富细节。如果没受过专业训练，你肯定会认为这是一幅幅现实主义画作。他的“作画工具”更令人印象深刻。

Arun was really good at drawing and painting growing up and dreamed of becoming a famous painter, but his father’s sudden death, 15 years ago, foiled his plans and forced him to abandon school in order to run the family business. His father was a tailor and he became one too, but he didn’t let the artist in him die. Instead, he started “painting” with needle and thread, but instead of using his hands, he decided on a rather unusual embroidering tool – the sewing machine. It took him a while to master this unique art form, but today he is recognized as the world’s only sewing machine artist.

在成长过程中，Arun一直非常擅长画画，梦想着成为一位著名画家。但十九年前，他的父亲突然去世。这阻碍了他的计划，迫使他辍学经营家族生意，继承父亲的裁缝工作。然而，他并未放弃艺术追求。相反，他开始用针线作画。他没有选择手工刺绣，而是借助一项不同寻常的工具——缝纫机。他花费了好些功夫，才掌握了这门独特艺术。如今，他被认为是全世界唯一一位“缝纫机艺术家”。

 

Photo: Arun Kumar Bajaj/Facebook

“I’ve been stitching for the last 23 years, since I was 12,” the 35-year-old artist told DNA India. “My father was a tailor but he died early, when I was 16, and I had to drop out of school to take over the shop. I was good at sketching in school, and this was a way I could combine the two arts.”

我从十二岁起开始刺绣，一直干了23年。我的父亲是一位裁缝，但他在我十六岁时英年早逝。于是，我不得不辍学接管店铺。读书期间，我素描画得很好。我通过这种方法，将两种艺术形式结合起来。我不想一辈子当裁缝。我希望出名，尽管我的执着使家庭经济有些不稳。

 

Photo: Arun Kumar Bajaj/Facebook

“I didn’t want to remain just a darzi (tailor) all my life,” Arun added. “I wanted to make a name for myself, even though my obsession has caused financial uncertainty to my family.”

我不想一辈子当裁缝。我希望出名，尽管我的执着使家庭经济有些不稳。

 

Photo: Arun Kumar Bajaj/Facebook

Luckily, his perseverance paid off, and his works became sought after both in India and abroad. It’s easy to see why, just by looking at them, but what really makes his embroideries special is the tool he uses.

幸运的是，他的坚持不懈终于有所回报，他的作品受到国内外人士的喜爱。原因显而易见，只要看看这些作品就知道了。不过，它们的真正独特之处在于他所使用的特殊工具。

 

Photo: Arun Kumar Bajaj/Facebook

Many countries around the world have a rich tradition of embroidered tapestries, and you could probably find a few to rival Arun Kumar Bajaj’s in detail, but good luck finding any that were made with a sewing machine. You won’t, and there’s a good reason for that.

其实，在世界各地，许多国家都有着丰富的刺绣传统。在细节上，有没有人的刺绣作品能够和他匹敌?应该有的。但是，其中绝对没有用缝纫机制作的刺绣作品。这是有原因的。

 

Photo: Arun Kumar Bajaj/Facebook

“You need to be very precise because once you’ve stitched the cloth, there’s no way you can undo it,” Arun said. “I also don’t overstitch – it’s all done in a single layer to give the painting a neat look.”

你必须非常精确，因为一针下去就没有反悔的余地了。我也不会重复缝纫，都是单层刺绣，好让画作外观整齐。

 

 

Photo: Arun Kumar Bajaj/Facebook

Some of the Needle Man’s most impressive works include a 6×4 feet painting of Lord Krishna, which took 3 years and an approximate of 28,39,000 meters of thread to complete, or a 4×2 feet painting of the court of Ranjit Singh, the fabled Maharaja of the Sikh empire, featuring nearly 2,000 human figures. The latter took the artist over a year to finish.

他曾耗费三年时间和约2,839,000米线，完成一幅6*4英尺的《摩诃迦罗》。另有一幅4*2英尺的画作，描绘了兰奇达(锡克帝国首任君主)的法庭，上面有将近2,000个人物，这幅画作耗时一年。

 

Photo: Arun Kumar Bajaj/Facebook

Arun runs a tailoring business in the Adalat Bazar of Patiyala, but he dedicates a lot of his time to his artistic pursuits as well.

目前，他依然经营着裁缝生意，但也花费大量时间追求艺术梦想。