Monageng dedicates piece to Umoja�s Izms of Art
Thato Kala | Friday September 12, 2014 13:50
Sometime last year, his burning aspiration to be mentored and a far-reaching search on the internet landed him his dream-mentor in the 39-year-old guru.
The painting dedicated to Izms of Art has little to do with inspiration or honouring his hero, and everything to do with the fight against cancer.
“Carolina Montana is the title to my pink and white painting,” he explains.
The man popularly known as Frank de painter says the power of pink is undeniable and unavoidable, as the official colour of the breast-cancer awareness movement.
He says: “I created this artwork as a dedication to Cedric Umoja’s Izms of art and I have a big interest in the fight against all forms of cancer. That is why I used pink.”
Izms is an art organisation aimed at promoting arts in general.
Monageng’s upcoming show will be titled smART, which stands for Simply My Amazing Random Thoughts.
The smART collection, he says, is aimed at creating artworks about people around him who are artistically inspirational. The Carolina Montana piece will also make that line up. “I decided to make a painting and dedicate it to Umoja’s organisation. He is one of my biggest inspirations and mentors. I really look up to the guy. We should be collaborating on an exhibition very soon,” he says.
Meanwhile, Monageng depicts the unexpected journey of Nandipha, a painting inspired by a particular Xhosa girl.
“She is a type of girl who would do just about anything to meet her needs and wants. She just woke up one morning and decided to embark on a journey with the aim of trying to find her purpose in this life,” he says.
The piece is one of the few he intends to display at his Gaborone show at the end of the year.
Monageng, a go-getter, likens the state of no longer growing to ‘death’.
He says: “I want to keep growing as an artist. In life you just cannot learn enough. I want to share ideas with different kinds of artists as that can really help me to grow as an artist.” Monageng hopes upcoming artists will learn a lot from his collection, especially the use of brush strokes and colour.
“I want to touch lives with this collection,” he says.
Another piece that will be on show is Born Sinner, which tells the story of how he was born a sinner and hopes he has a place in heaven.
“I also have a painting titled I Saw It On The Streets. This is just me putting things I see on the streets on canvas,” he adds.
He aims to make the collection 10 or 15 pieces and says ‘only inspiration will determine at what number he will stop’.
Monageng attributes his growing passion to linking up with artists like Umoja and Fikile Mabula, his former senior at Tlokweng Junior Secondary School.
American-based painter, Umoja, says he is extremely honoured to have ‘met’ Monageng and considers the passionate artist ‘a brethren in the arts’.
The two connected through social networks and seem to have struck an amazing connection.
“For my work to resonate with him enough to share it, left me humbled and in awe,” Umoja says.
He describes his mentee as a young man with a distinct voice and believes that it is what sets him apart.
He says: “In my opinion, that is the most important part of being an artist; a distinct voice leads to originality. I also love his use of colour.”
The new painting sent by his protégé equally thrills Umoja.
He feels the Tlokweng-born painter continues to grow in his work.
“He was very happy about it and says he really loves my new style of painting. Even I can feel and see that I have really grown over the past three years or so,” he says.
Umoja is a revered miniaturist in America, but is of Moorish descent.
He grew up in San Francisco and Columbia. The revered artist glorifies graffiti for luring him into art.
“I started creating as most artists do, from the age of a small child. I did not really get into art until I was exposed to graffiti. It changed my life,” he says.
He learnt to combine fine art concepts and theories with street art techniques as he grew older.
A quick run through his works shows it is a phenomenal hybrid of street and fine art infused with symbolism, vibrant colour, ethnic expression and esoteric truths.
He uses spray paint, acrylic paint, latex paint, paint markers, graphite and charcoal. Of his many works, he finds it difficult to pick the best though two have brought him great fame.
The first is A B-Boy Alpha and the other is The New King of Rock.
Ironically, one of those two pieces was enough to convince Monageng he was the man to ‘sit under’ in as far as art is concerned.
“These two pieces took one month to do,” says Umoja.
Like Monageng, he does not view art as a hobby, but a way of life and says ‘it must be done just as our lungs must take in air involuntarily’.
After studying Botswana and its art, he is convinced the country has a rich and vast history of art and culture.
His solo exhibition ‘Beyonder’ and last year’s commission for the international multi-arts company, Cirque Du Soleil make up some of the highlights of his art. Umoja says Izms of Art, the art collective he co-founded, has previously received an artist grant through the Arts Commission of the state he presently resides in, South Carolina. He remains convinced something big will come out of his relationship with Monageng and yearns to visit Botswana.