Ramabele: Talented artist with a difference
Nnasaretha Kgamanyane | Sunday February 26, 2023 06:00
Despite this, the freelance artist has not allowed his condition to dampen his talent as he continues to make fascinating artworks. AMC refers to a group of rare congenital disorders characterised by multi-joint contractures (stiffness) and involves muscle weakness found throughout the body present at birth.
Ramabele hails from Mosweu, a small village in Tswapong located eight kilometres from Maunatlala. In an interview with Arts & Culture, he said he started being passionate about art at a young age when he was six-years-old.
He further explained that unlike many artists, he chose to be more of a doodle and caricature artist even though he could do some photo-realism drawing and comic strips.
He added that 99% of his work was rendered with a BIC ballpoint pen, mainly because he felt like a lot of artists used lead pencils, charcoal and paint. Ramabele said since he started drawing at an early age, he is not sure what could have inspired him to love art but said he suspected that his love for drawing could have been triggered by his condition. He believes maybe it was a way of distraction from the fact he could not do most of the activities other ‘normal’ kids did. “I am intrigued by other artists' work such as Pablo Picasso, Juan Francisco Casas, Sagaki Keita, Kelvin Okafor, Wilson Ngoni and Goabaone Mogwe.
Not so much for the meaning or story portrayed behind their works. I see things for what they are but more about their ability to capture the likeness of whatever reference. I always ask myself how did the artist draw that? I draw for fun and to simply pass time,” he explained.
The talented artist stated that he never thinks of creating art pieces that evoke some emotion, which in turn gets him a certain number of likes or followers and sometimes monetary benefits.
He added that getting followers, money or likes was a bonus for him because he simply draws and goes with the flow while enjoying the process. Ramabele further said he gives much effort to any art he does, so he does not prefer one art over the other since he draws for fun.
He pointed out that he got support from his family and friends whose advice to him to share his content have been relentless because they unconditionally support his work.
He stated that he was terrible at marketing himself, but all thanks to social media since he uses it to sell his work to the world. His work can be seen on Facebook at Mo'ramabele Art and Instagram at mo.ramabele even though he does not post his work more often. “Commercially the support has been lacking, but that will soon change.
Batswana are more into traditional type of art, mainly dominated by portraiture and animal scape. On my side, if I make a caricature or doodle, they would rebuff my efforts as compared to if I created photo realistic drawing.
So it will probably take time for contemporary art or even the digital art to breach,” he sadly explained. Moreover, he pointed out that artists were still taken for granted saying it was as if their profession did not matter.
He said they are not paid in time adding that people always say they are expensive while they (artists) still could not make a living from their profession. He explained that he could only focus on the now and enjoy the process of whatever he is doing and let the future take care of itself.