When art becomes the paying job
Dumisani Ncube | Friday March 10, 2017 15:39
Reality struck as he failed to get a job or even under the internship programme.
“After failing to get a job last year I resorted to my hobby which is art. I started off by customising people’s shoes and bags artistically, with time I started growing from just customising shoes and bags to experimenting on the canvas as I grew my art abilities,” he said.
Langwane acquired enough skills and confidence to pursue different forms of art such as drawing and painting. He has grown to be an artist that has exhibited his work on different platforms and has created a client base.
His plan B though was not necessarily outside his comfort zone as he explained that from the days he was at Segomotso primary school in Selibe Phikwe, he was always drawing. But he never thought that he would take the discipline as a profession.
“I always enjoyed drawing, I would just find myself picking up a pencil and sketching. When I took art as a profession I then linked with other artists who helped me to penetrate into the industry and lean more which helped me grow as I practiced more often.”
While professionally he is still new, he is proving and established himself well exploring his creativity and not limiting himself. He has adopted different media of art, the latest one being the use of charcoal to draw.
“I decided to broaden my skill and experience which is why I decided to learn other art media, I didn’t want to limit myself, ” said the budding artist.
His work comprises portraits and abstract work, which is mainly on canvas and paper. He has even gone to the extent of customising sculptors done by other artists to give some color and more reflection to it.
Langwane is inspired by the different elements in life and experiences he has faced.
“Within this period I have learnt a number of things within the art industry, collaborations is one of the most important things I have learnt. It’s of great importance that artists work together, this opens you to a bigger market and it helps an artist to grow.”
Langwane is currently preparing for an exhibition dubbed ‘The Birth of Art Exhibition’ scheduled for May. He has previously exhibited his work at Chillstep Sundays. “Success comes out of persistence because it is not an easy thing, despite it not being appreciated and acknowledged much in the country you have to keep pushing,” Langwane said.
Of course he still can go back to Plan A, which seems to be coming together as just last week he found an internship post at a local broadcasting television station.