A symbol of new
life for the youth of Batuan village
Humble eggs have
served as a symbol of new life for thousands of years. This Sunday, eggs will
again play their part in that story for Christians, with the giving of Easter
eggs to mark the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
On the
predominantly Hindu island of Bali, eggs have also offered new life to the
youth of Batuan village. In a tree-lined and quiet hamlet, egg painter and junior
high school teacher I Wayan Sadra has been encouraging locals to learn the art
of egg painting to increase their incomes and exercise their creativity.
One of these
students is Kadek Suartama, who began visiting Sadra’s studio more than 20
years ago.
“I started
learning to paint eggs from Pak Sadra when I was just 8 years old. I would come
here every day after school. There are a lot of reasons I started learning this
art. I was happy doing this and it was cool to learn to paint. Another factor
was that I could make pocket money,” says Kadek who sits cross-legged while
working on a fragile duck egg that has been blown, washed and sanded to a fine
surface in preparation for decorating.
Egg painting
changed his expectations and gave him a real chance at life.
“We were a poor
family so I wanted to do something to earn a bit of money after school so I
would not have to ask my parents for things. Pak Sadra taught me this skill
freely, as he did my brother. My brother is now a teacher and I put myself
through the Indonesian Arts Institute in Denpasar. It was because of egg
painting that I was brave enough to try for a scholarship there, which I
received,” says Kadek, who now works full time as a highly skilled egg painter.
His earnings
from the work that he loves enabled him to marry recently.
“The
scholarship, my work here, all this is due to Pak Sadra. He is a very good
man,” says Kadek surrounded by hundreds of exquisitely painted eggs that are
exported around the world.
While Sadra has
given to his community through egg painting, it was the eggs that saved him.
Now 52 years of age, the former portrait artist says "if it had not been
for his discovery of egg painting, his life would have been very
different."
“I trained as a
painter on canvas, paper, hardboard, all the mediums for painting. But due to
competition from low-quality art shops, I could not survive as an artist. Where
I would only use fine art materials, my competition was using house paint — I
was a fine artist, I could not make art using poor materials,” says Sadra, who
in 1995 was invited to compete making Christmas trees with painted-egg
decorations for the Four Seasons Hotel.
“We won the
competition. I had produced lots of brightly colored eggs and so on the
following year, I painted the eggs for the competition and won again. By 1997
we were greatly improving our techniques and understanding of this very
difficult medium,” says
Sadra who has since worked to share his knowledge and good fortune with his
community.
“I have a
principle that we need to live in our community as one. So through that we
share our good fortune. Maybe there is a connection with that philosophy and
Easter,” says Sadra, a gentle man with a ready smile.
“In that
principle I invite street kids to come here and learn to paint eggs rather than
running around the streets. I give lessons for free and the kids make a bit of
money selling their eggs. With that pocket money they can put it toward school
or to buy jajan [Balinese sweets]. Once the kids are making eggs to a high level
they can sell their work for good income and through that they can plan to go
to senior high school or university,” says Sadra who crafts eggs with an Easter
theme for hotel orders each year and gives egg-painting exhibitions also during
the Easter festivities.
The positive
impact Sadra is having on his community through his skill sharing is evident in
11-year-old Krisna who began learning the art when she was just seven years of
age.
“I like doing
this because I like to draw. I come most days after school,” says the young
girl sitting in the shade of a pavilion with a couple of other egg-painting
friends, a delicate duck egg held in tissue in her hands as she paints it with
complex fine lines in black ink.
“I am already
selling my eggs. I don’t spend the money I make — I am saving it all for my
future. I want to be a painter when I grow up, so I can say that this
opportunity from Pak Sadra is a gift for my future,” says Krisna of the eggs
that offer her a good life and of the generosity of the man whose life was also
resurrected by the humble egg
