Sharjah: Over 2,300 nails, 800 metres of strings in the UAE flag colours, a huge plywood board and several hours of creative work in about seven months.
That is what it took Mujeeb Rahman, an Indian working as a school cleaner in Sharjah, to fulfil his dream of making a novel portrait of his favourite leader.
Making a unique portrait of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, had been a dream Rahman cherished for the past 10 years of his life in the UAE.
With no formal training in painting and no exposure to works of other artists, the born artist wanted to try something different from what he had done earlier.
“My brother is a better artist than I am and he has been my inspiration. But becoming professional artists still remains a distant dream for both of us as we only have menial jobs,” Rahman, who studied till Grade 10, told Gulf News.
Inspiration
It was one of the students in the International School of Choueifat in Sharjah, where Rahman works, who told him to search the internet for innovative ideas.
“I saw various types of art works … Tried to do some of it … But I had to drop those after realising that they are not meant for me.”
He said he had seen string art also on the internet during those days.
“But I didn’t pay much attention to it then. However, last year when I was on vacation back home in Kerala, I happened to see a work of sand artist Udayan Edappal. He had created Malayalam movie superstar Mohanlal’s portrait using string art and it inspired me a lot.”
When he got back to Sharjah, Rahman started researching more on this type of artwork.
“I Googled again and saw the photos and videos posted by many foreign artists. I went through them many times and kept memorising them for long.”
He set July 2017 as his deadline after he found out that Shaikh Mohammad’s birthday is on July 15.
“I got to know that when I was searching for his photos to base my work on. Then I wished to finish the work before that and present it as a birthday gift to His Highness.”
Hard work vs hurdles
But several hurdles were ahead for Rahman who lives in a small room he shared with two other colleagues. “There is no space in my room to do such a big portrait. Also, it would have been a disturbance to my colleagues when I work at night.”
A Sri Lankan driver in the same school offered him the space. “Since his family is here, he lives with them and comes to the room only during his day duty. So, I could use his room as my workshop.”
To make his masterpiece as beautiful as possible, Rahman said he followed the works of Kumi Yamashita, a New York–based Japanese artist.
“I started working fast since I had to go on vacation again last summer. Every Thursday night and on holidays, I used to work on this. I used to sit from 10pm to around 2.30am. Finally, it took some six to seven months to complete it.
“I finished it by the end of June and desperately wanted to gift it to His Highness. I searched a lot for people who may know him personally. But I couldn’t manage to catch hold of any. I am still hopeful that my dream will be fulfilled one day.”
Till then, the 37-year-old father of one has no other option but to keep his beautiful work wrapped on top of his bed as he does not even have a decent place to keep it.
“I’ve completed 10 years in the UAE and this is my humble gift to His Highness for all the good things that he is doing for the citizens and expats here. I sincerely hope that someone will help me gift this to him soon,” said Rahman, who also sent Gulf News the videos of the making of the string art portrait.
Making it
Nails: Over 2,300
Black string: Over 550m
White string: 50m
Green string: Over 150m
Red string: 50m
Plywood board: 120cmx180cm
