23 Aug 2018

In his journey to achieve his dream of becoming a well-known artist, Desmond Sebula has enrolled for a year with Francistown College of Training and Vocational Education (FCTVE) to study clothing design.

The 21-year-old Mmadinare born youngster, who is passionate about art, revealed in an interview that even his unsatisfactory Botswana General Certificate Secondary Examinations (BGCSE) results did not deter him from pursuing his dream.

He will be concentrating on fashion and will have the opportunity to mix his artistic work with fashion. “Fashion is all about art and being creative,” he said.

After failing to obtain qualifying points, he decided to polish his drawing and painting skills by investing his time on that.

He started networking, bench-marking from other art teachers and joining other groups to give him a platform to improve and sell his drawings and paintings.

Sebula joined five other youth in Selebi Phikwe who had the same vision and formed a group named The Best In Us to showcase and sell their work and improve their skills.

He added that through the exhibitions they held, they managed to penetrate the market, got exposure and met other well-known artists like Ronald Kegomoditswe, whom they learnt a few things from.

Although Sebula worked hard to always finish his paintings and drawings for the exhibitions, he said he faced challenges of buying materials such as drawing boards, paintings and others.

He pointed out that he worked hard by doing piece jobs in peoples’ homes and even worked at Ipelegeng to get money to buy his material.

 “I did not choose any fancy jobs but did any job that could give me quick cash and gave me time so that I can finish my work. It was a tough struggle but I knew what I wanted and that is all that mattered to me,” he said.

He expressed his gratitude to his aunt who gave him support during his struggles and encouraged him not to give up.

In addition, he said to keep his work going without falling short to buy material, he started painting for quick cash and went for abstract painting in which he could decorate an old shoe to look fashionable and new.

He started painting blazers, t-shirts, hats, bags as well as portraits. He used the social media as a platform to sell his goods quickly and get clients.

Despite that he has managed to create a market for himself, there are still challenges that he is facing.

The artist said locals always complain of the prices regardless of how well the painting or drawing was and that they lacked local support.

Sebula advised other upcoming artists to never give up as the journey might get rough along the way but they should never lose their creativity.

Relating how it started, Sebula said when he was still a young boy, his grandmother who at the time worked in South Africa would bring art pieces, some painted and some drawn and he would always be eager to know how they were created.

Sebula said as time went on, he started drawing everywhere, not knowing what he was doing, but drew so much that he would draw on the walls of their house, which irked his mother, earning him a beating for such a behaviour.

He noted that his passion grew and he got better every day, so much that at junior secondary school, he would make art his escape subject when other subjects gave him a hard time.

“I was poor in Mathematics but I would switch my concentration to drawing as it gave me courage to love school,” he added. ENDS