Uncovering a passion for sculpture
By Ben Garcia
Maitham Abdal is an artist and sculptor who makes everything around him look stunning. Even his family home in Adan is superbly decorated with simple but elegant designs and colors. One canvas on a wall of his home is a charcoal painting of a lifelike cat, while another painting of a realistic-looking anime character adorns his living room. “These are my paintings that I love the most, so I display them at home. These are the paintings with which I can demonstrate myself as an artist,” Abdal told Kuwait Times.
Abdal graduated with degrees in education and interior design and teaches art to students aged 12 years and older. From interior design and graphic and anime illustrations, he later evolved into sculpture. “In 2012, I found myself searching for something more to do other than painting. I was struck by the works of famous Kuwaiti artist Sami Muhammad, which fascinated me so much that I made a sample sculpture for him, which turned out to be well appreciated by many of my friends and family. I studied his work and found myself sculpturing several anime characters. Now I cannot stop and people call me a sculpture artist,” he said.
“I discovered that I had a hidden talent and passion for sculpturing. It was easy and satisfying, so I continued working to make my pieces even better. I have a foundation in art and design and things like that, so I knew exactly what to do. I studied using tools available on the Internet, and carefully followed instructions and applied them accordingly. I started sculpturing Japanese anime characters, then American Marvel heroes, and local and international famous people now,” Abdal said.
Abdal hones his skills every day, pursuing his love for art and satisfying his passion. “There are lots of differences between anime and human anatomy sculptures. We need to study human anatomy in detail, but anime is mostly about the picture or image in your head. In sculpture, it’s the full 360 degrees and not two sides or one side like in a painting,” he told Kuwait Times.
“Also, the challenge in sculpturing is dealing with the tools and materials and manipulating the mold. But everything will get perfect with practice and doing it daily. Remember, there is no academy or institute in Kuwait specialized in sculpturing,” Abdal noted. His interest in sculpturing derives from the fact that he can easily communicate with people through his works of art.
“I dedicated my recent work to the Palestinian people. As human beings, we should not remain silent on what is going on and happening around us. We should send a strong message to the Zionist entity and people around the world on the fate of the Palestinian people, whose bravery extends for many decades,” Abdal said. He also spoke about his recent sculpture named ‘Spoon of Freedom’, which was featured on the front page of Kuwait Times this week. Abdal dedicated this piece to the Palestinian people eager to experience justice and freedom, which he said are the basic rights of every human around the world.
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