Wabi Blues juggles fashion design, fine art
Spira Tlhankane | Friday October 9, 2020 16:30
Real name Tshegofatso Tlholwe, Wabi Blues specializes in portraitures and other figurative works. Portraiture is more challenging than many art genres because one cannot move or put anything in the wrong place, but Wabi Blues does it so well. She creates vivid images of people and her strokes show that in time she could defy any odds to become a successful female fine artist.
Looking back, the young lady told Arts & Culture in an interview that art captured her heart from a young age.
“My aunt Emily Lekoba became my motivation by giving me support since she was into art. From there, I had to push myself and learn more, I am a self-taught visual artist myself, so the passion and the love drove me to learn more about art,” she revealed.
Wabi Blues added that she started intensifying her research by going to business seminars, art workshops and exhibitions where she got inspired by other artists’ works.
She said whenever she saw an amazing artwork, whether it was realistic art, abstract, landscape drawings or mural paintings, she would want to try. Wabi Blues said during her journey she realized there were few women who did art in the industry.
“When people ask me what I do for a living, I tell them I am into an art because I challenged myself to try other channels of art like being fashion illustrator/designer. It is those figure sketch drawings that you dress up, animation and graphics designing. Art is a broad subject. That’s why I had to know how to fully explore it,” she added.
Wabi Blues acknowledged that all this comes with challenges. She also said she chose doing art as a career to prove herself to various audiences. “I have advertised my work through social media platforms and it is difficult to make a living through art, so for my work to stand out I had to produce attractive, unique and quality art to bring me more clients,” she further revealed.
As she is part of an art group called Basha Art, Wabi Blues said as a collective they groom each other. They are working on their first exhibition that will be her first.
“I would love to believe I did well as a solo visual artist and I have a page called Wabieart creations on Facebook that I constantly put my new artworks there for people to see and this has helped me market my work and connect with my audience very well. I also post my work on Instagram and Twitter @ Wabieart,” she concluded.