Maranyane: the rounded artist
Spira Tlhankane | Friday December 8, 2017 17:09
Emang ‘LadyArtist’ Maranyane has been building her artistic reputation in the last few years and recently told Arts & Culture in an interview that she has registered her creative company called Gemani Arts. She said she will launch the project next year in June and it will be launched in Gaborone, Selebi-Phikwe, Serowe and Franscistown. She said the name Gemani was coined from her horoscope and name.
She said after the launch her company will focus on young people who do not do well in JC and BGCSE final exams. “Gemani will tutor, teach and sell art. It will include visual artists management,” she said. Maranyane said she will engage the youth in rural areas so that they can learn where to market and exhibit their artwork. “After teaching these talented youth, I want them to work alongside me,” she said. She said she does not want to leave any stone unturned.
She said by the time she launches next year she would have involved a lot of people including interested sponsors and partners.
Maranyane was quick to highlight that her company does not only focus on visual arts but she would like to extend it to performing arts as well. The talented artist, who is also a make-up and a fashion designer, said she gets assistance from her parents and currently doing her art as a full-time job. “Financially it’s not that bad but doing this is a lot of hard work,” she highlighted.
Describing her routine, Maranyane said there are those days where she focuses on drawing and painting. “As much as I juggle these things, I do one thing at a time to avoid mix-up,” she said. The artist, whose strength lies in pencil drawing, said sometimes it depends on the client so her schedule changes from time to time. Maranyane said she has already started teaching art to school children. Maranyane said she is a combined fashion designer and dressmaker. The ambitious Maranyane said she wants to establish an art academy in the future still under her Gemani company. “We want to teach little children what art is from a tender age,” she said.
Maranyane further encouraged Batswana to buy artwork rather than showering compliments. “They always say this is beautiful but never support us,” she quipped. She said she wants to feel the support and learn more about art. “They feel that our work is expensive but we come up with these prices looking at things like material and labour,” she said.
Most of Maranyane’s portraits concentrate on realism than abstract. “People should have that desire to decorate their homes with our beautiful artwork.”