Dr. Uma Sharma - Freelance Artist

Dr. Uma Sharma
(Mathura, Uttar Pradesh)
-Freelance Artist-

Uma Sharma is a prominent and bewildering personality, representing Mathura across the country by her artworks. She is renowned, far and wide known for her famous collage, made without using brush and paint. She uses this tagline “no brush no paint”. She is an amazing artist and a social worker who has made her motive to work for people throughout her life. She is a record holder of making the world largest (16/6 feet) and smallest (3/3 inches) collage on canvas 

She has grown seeing her mother doing various peculiar works apart from her household chores. She never sat idle and kept pacing constantly towards other creative things. Her mother being her first teacher, taught her various household allied art and craft, and always supported her art. During her time, education hardly played any role in the field of art and craft, she kept scribbling and decorating her notebook. Since the very beginning, she was enthusiastic about learning and exploring new things. She took everything as a challenge for her and looked forward to accomplishing her target.

 She is very fond of studying. Even when, she was busy with her service, she did not stop studying. She had achieved a lot in the field of education. She did M.A. in 5-6 subjects and holds a Ph.D. in Hindi. While pursuing her studies, she came across several obstacles but overcame them gracefully. It has now become a habit for her to read before going to sleep. She loves to read literature and magazines. And these magazines paved the way for her creation. She knew about colors and was engrossed in painting.  The color magazines used to print the advertisements were normal but once those are wet and dried their color just turned out to be very enthralling. It was then, that it walloped her mind to toil using these colored papers. Though she worked using diverse mediums, over time, making collage was the one that caught her attention.  She made many paintings and series using this, but at that time, she had no idea about the procedures of exhibiting her art. When she started with these, she used wooden boards and fevicol to stick them, then she switched to clothes and finally to the canvas as boards were not portable for long distances. Earlier, it was just her friends, who saw those collages, but soon she got her first breakthrough by AAKAR ART GROUP led by Mr. Laxyapal Singh Rathore. Since then she is attached to this group, learned a lot, and is constantly growing, being a part of their team.

She is meticulous and gritty towards her goal. She is fond of traveling. And on her every visit, she made sure to visit the famous art galleries and museums. She always looked forward to taking hold of the opportunities that would come in the way of her passion for art. During 1984, she traveled to Bombay, she also visited the famous Jahangir art gallery and fancied to showcase her work there. Later during 2001 she again visited the same art gallery and applied an application to showcase her work. Although the waiting time for the result was of four years but she patiently waited for it, but when the day finally came, she got rejected. She did not lose hope, she was adamant. Instead, she went to the art gallery and inquired on what aspect she was rejected. This turned out to be, a complete misjudgment by them. So she explained the medium of her work and as a proof got them her collage in real. When they saw it, they were very astonished by her work and they straight away arranged a meeting regarding the matter. She immediately got her chance to showcase her first solo show in that gallery. People appreciated her work and then she apprehended her merit and how tremendous her arts were. 

Miss Uma Sharma is a person who preaches what she followed throughout her life. Many people suggested her many things, she listened to them carefully and analyzed it, but did what she found to be best suited for her. Some advised her to quit these collage making and continue in some other medium, she just heard their saying but followed her heart. She goes with the thought of “first decide a goal of oneself and then work accordingly, there is no use of doing and indulging yourself in various fields all at the same time, this will lead you nowhere”. Since then she has been working with the collage making and she has been enjoying the fact that people are amazed by her work which says ‘no brush no paint’ and it’s different from what others have seen so far.

She was not born with a silver spoon in her mouth. She faced many hurdles yet denied giving up. When she got her service, she was certain about it as she was aware of the fact that to pursue her passion she had to be financially strong. After some time her service was confirmed, she finalized her goal of doing something out of the box, something for the well being of the society. After she retired from her service she had no worry about what she'll do because all these years apart from doing her service she had managed to prepare herself on the artistic ground.

She is a social worker and she devoted most of her life on instructing other interested children. Since childhood, she made sculptures from paper, painted them, and then reused those by making something new from it. It would not be wrong to call her an all-rounder. She had little interest in music, so, she chose it as her extra subject during her school days. Apart from doing art on paper, she also perfected the art of sewing, stitching, and knitting. She also taught these along with music and playing Dholak. She never backed out from doing anything. She always made it a point to complete it within a stipulated time even if it required extra efforts. 

It was her goal to keep doing social work, teach students, and share her views and knowledge with children. She is an active member of SANSKAR BHARTI as well as of the SENIOR CITIZEN GROUP. Uma Sharma is always ready to lend her helping hand to those in need. Her motto in life is never to give up. She is full of energy and a kid by heart. She preaches to learn something new every day. According to her, nothing is waste, everything can be recycled, reused, and reformed. She is a very affable person. She held her firm belief in god but she is not superstitious. She inspires others to live their life to the fullest and make the full use of the platform that they have got.  Even if she falls a hundred times, she makes sure to get up and start all over again.

For all the aspiring artists out there, the biggest moral from this story of a great woman is that everyone should follow their passion after completing their studies and should be financially independent. Many obstacles will come forth you but you must not give up in the times of adversity instead grow through what you had gone through. She appreciates the beauty of nature and believes that nature teaches us lessons for life. During these hard times of COVID, she says not to be depressed instead see it positively, explore yourself and try different things that one always wanted to. According to her, this pandemic had brought us closer to our family and strengthened our connection with our grounds and values. She wishes everyone to take good care of themselves.

Author: Ritika Lath