Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave him a pat on his back, literally, for creating ‘message-oriented’ masterpieces with discarded egg shells. He wouldn’t have imagined in his wildest dreams that the Prime Minister would come calling to his stall and spend nearly 10 minutes with him.
Meet egg artiste S. Durga Shankar of the city, who has carved a niche for himself in this unconventional art during the last 10 years. The excitement in his voice and on his face was evident as he recalled the brief visit of the Prime Minister to his stall and his volley of questions: “What is this art called”? “How much time do you take to make a single piece”? “What’s the cost”?
Mr. Shankar took the emu egg shell on which he had engraved the bust of Mr. Modi on one side and his ‘Swachh Bharat’ theme on the other in a bid to present it to him. “While appreciating the work, the Prime Minister handed it back to me and asked me to keep it myself as a remembrance of his visit.”
Around 25 items on 3-D egg art, multi-cut shell art besides a few art works with paper are on display at his stall (no. 12) at the IFR Village at the AU College of Engineering Grounds at Andhra University campus. A paper sculpture of Lord Ganesha, a Naval ship, a message-oriented emu shell engraving of the Nirbhaya Act and a railway locomotive, all encased in glass frames, were the highlight at the stall.
Mr. Shankar is doubly pleased with the visit of Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu to his stall on the inaugural day of the exhibition. The Chief Minister appreciated his work and asked the district administration to render all possible assistance to promote his work.
