05 Jul 2018

Driven by passion, young Prince Mantswe has found his voice through art in a quest to make it in the creative industry. Ambitious as he is, his story is an inspiration of a determined young Motswana who does not allow barriers to define his course. Mantswe hails from Shashe Bridge and living in that part of the country with insignificant developments and limited access to resources has not deterred him to pursue his darling artistry.

“I speak my imagination through art and I get inspired by events taking place around me and whatever that is going on in my life and how it affects me, I reflect it through art,” he said in an interview. Mantswe describes himself as a versatile artist and his preferred medium of art is acrylic and oil paint on canvas adding that the love he has for art takes most of his time and he usually spends days inside his room, which doubles as his art studio trying to perfect his skill. Stepping inside his room, one cannot miss the mess caused by paints and a heap of shoes around and with his brush and paint, he gets to express himself, conscious to modern issues.

He said he draws inspiration mostly from either current or past events and their impact on people’s lives and also takes pride in his culture. As a young artist, Mantswe beieves it was imperative to tell story of the world from a young African’s perspective while embracing African culture and traditions.

He said he loved mixing colours in his abstract paintings, with an aim to appreciate how dynamic the customs have been. It is his hope that his work would be understood as it seeks to make art enthusiasts appreciate his world, expressed through his mighty brush. 

Interestingly, he has also taken up clothing customising art and deals with denim jackets and canvas shoes in this trade; thus finding a way of making a quick buck from it. His clients are mostly youth, who bring different canvas sneakers to him; some discolored and owners want a revamp to give them a new look. Others just want to add some swag looks with an art piece; all this is done with freehand painting.

Customising denim jackets and canvas sneakers is a way of making quick money, which is usually helpful in buying art materials like paints, brushes and canvas.

Mantswe said social media was a platform where he shares his work with the rest of the world, and is also helpful in advertising his products. Even though, he has great passion for art, he acknowledges the challenges that come with it.

Residing in Shashe Bridge is one challenge as art materials are not available. “The closest place where I can get my supplies is Francistown, but suppliers there are expensive. I sometimes request my aunt in Selebi Phikwe to help out with supplies,” he said.

He said the unavailability of a gallery in the vicinity of his residence also has been a frustrating issue. He recently travelled south to Gaborone where he had the opportunity to visit Thapong Visual Art gallery and learnt a lot from different artists’ works. One thing he recalls was how artists use technology to assist them on their works and learnt that they use a projector, which is an effective tool that helps an artist to work quickly and save time working on one art work.

Mantswe revealed that his love for art started during his primary schooling days, when one of his drawings made the then popular Moso calendar and from there, he never looked back as he enrolled to take art subjects at junior and senior secondary schools.

During his school days, he got to meet one of his role models in the world of art Prince Tom, another popular figure in the art industry.  He said he recalled the day Tom saved him from quitting pursuing art as his subject after he missed a mark he targeted and frustrated, he contemplated quitting, but his name sake made him see the bigger picture and convinced him to keep on practicing. Today, Prince looks to a bright future with his art, with aspirations of breaking into the world stage. His dream is to one day practice his artistry professionally and be able to produce art work that will take global attention. He said he is aware of the hostility of pursuing art as a career in the country, but his living in the village has humbled him to be able to appreciate the little things one can get and make use of. He explained that he had already experienced challenges posed by some clients who do not appreciate work done by an artist, take it for granted and always expect to pay less for an art piece.

Despite the challenges, his drive is to see himself thrive in the industry and currently, he tries his hand in different styles of art in order to explore his talents. ENDS