When art comes out to play

Sipho (Pina) Hlengetwa; Sikhumbuzo Nkosi; Shane  Hlophe; William Mcolisi Mahlase and Pamela Nokwazi Mahlalela.

Vincent van Gogh said: " ...and then, I have nature, art, and poetry, and if this is not enough, what is enough?”

When is enough, and what would that enough look like? This is the perfect question for Deanne Kim, the director of Nebulae Productions cc - Artz Africa Cultural Projects.

She studied art after completing school, fine art whilst residing in the Philippines, and then visual arts through Unisa. In 1995, whilst in the Philippines, she was invited to be a judge of the country's arts festival in Baguio. She also taught fine art to ex-pats while living in Baguio.

Back in South Africa in 1998, she opened her first art school, teaching students from the ages of four to 85. In 1999 she met the late Dr. NE Phaswana - at the time, a lecturer at Wits University.

They started Kalahari Productions and Publishing. Deanne also called Lerato, then went on to design more than more 500 book illustrations.

"In 2002 I moved to Kaapsehoop and also became a Kalahari Productions director," she said. Where she gets her infinite energy and zest for what she does, boggles the mind.

The flood gates then opened - 72 OBE educational textbooks followed. She oversaw 25 African writers and also translated her Life Skills Grade R-3 OBE textbooks into nine indigenous languages. These were all later approved by the Department of Education.

"My Nebulae Productions Publishing cc was registered in 2009 and aims to engage with other JVs to assist and enhance education."

Deanne Kim

In 2016 two of her books, When Cinderella Gets Divorced and The Cracked Slipper, saw the light when she launched them at the Casterbridge Book Festival, and now sell on Amazon.

"I met the talented Bob Mnisi at the Mpumalanga Agricultural Show in 2018 where I exhibited my socio-political contemporary art and this meeting kick-started the birth of Artz Africa. With some 100 Mpumalanga artists (most of them unemployed) on its database, Artz Africa, intends to up-skill and enable natural talent to become independent self-employed artists and or writers," said Deanne.

Part of this initiative is also to get artists involved in justifiable and sustainable projects within their communities. The latter may, in due time, include involvement with local schools so as to develop and nurture artistic talent from a young age.

“The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.” - Aristotle

This is how Deanne describes her own art. "My art lends toward a contemporary style yet some works are more spiritual. I enjoy doing expressive paintings of native Americans, a tribe that I have always been drawn to. This is due to their them being so drawn to the earth and its elements.

"The political works I paint are not realistic portraits, yet one can visually see exactly who each political hero/icon is. I use metaphors and symbolism to extend additional visual information to the viewer. My preferred medium - definitively oil. I love the smell and the feel of it when I put it on my pallet, it gives me emotional and psychological satisfaction even before I have actually started to paint with it."

So let's highlight just some of the talented Artz Africa artists who are part of Nebulae Productions - Cultural Creative Projects. These artists are all undergoing visual arts skills training which is funded by the National Arts Council.

Bob Mnisi Mpumalanga

Bob Mnisi is acknowledged as the father of Artz Africa. He hails from KaBokweni.
After being selected as one of the ten beneficiaries of Nebulae Productions - Artz Africa Creative/ Cultural Projects / National Arts Council (NAC) Visual Arts Skills development, Bob developed a unique, new, visual art style which is bound to attract the international galleries. This assumption is based on the massive interest in his work generated on social media.
Bob is currently working on a series titled "Isolation”.
In 2017 Bob Mnisi was the winner of the Mpumalanga Agricultural Show. He was also selected as one of the top 100 Standard Bank artists to present his works in Johannesburg.
His works have sold nationally to many five-star private game lodges and it has also found their way onto the walls in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

William Mcolisi Mahlase

William Mcolisi Mahlase.

William qualified as an architect and is one of the latest up and coming Mpumalanga Rural Youth Visual Artists.
He recently started making masks for his KaBokweni Covid-19 Community Project. Besides this, he has sold many of the artworks he created during lockdown.
William is a perfectionist and totally committed to improving his visual art skills. Besides producing art, William and his elderly mother deliver vegetables and groceries to those in the KaBokweni community who are unable to do their shopping.

Pamela Nokwazi Mahlalela

Pamela Mahalalel.

This multi-talented, 28-year-old cultural creative artist is the founder of another Covid-19 community project, named the Khumbula Project in KaBokweni.
Pamela is a fashion designer, writes short stories and poetry.
"In the next five years I see Khumbula Project - with the support of Nebulae Productions Artz Africa Projects, assisting elderly, disabled persons and orphans," she said.

Sipho (Pina) Hlengetwa

Sipho (Pina) Hlengetwa.

Sipho is a contemporary visual artist and founder of a Covid-19 community project NPO in Matsulu.
Prior to the lockdown, Pina’s visual artworks were exhibited at Bohemian Groove Restaurant in Kaapsehoop.
"My mission and vision are to grow in the art industry. I learn from and teach others about the art and one day may open my own art gallery or art center that will give the youth a platform where they can express themselves."
Sipho became the breadwinner at a very young age. He is self-taught and art became a catalyst for overcoming life's challenges.
  

Sikhumbuzo Nkosi

Sikhumbuzo Solomon

Sikhumbuzo is a young 23-year-old KaBokweni artist. His works are created mainly on fabric and seem to attract the younger generation. His recent Artz Africa community mask-making project became a great success with orders rolling in.
"So I am happy," he said.

Shane  Hlophe

Shane Hlope

Shane is another upcoming KaNyamazane visual artist. He won an award at the Mbombela Agricultural Show in 2018.
His visual art paintings were exhibited at the Mercure Hotel/Nebulae Productions - Artz Africa Cultural Creative Hub just a few days before the start of lockdown.
Shane has continued to produce quality artworks throughout the lockdown courtesy of the support of many of his Mbombela clients.

Photos: Supplied
First published in Getit Lowveld

Antiques and Artifacts

This entry is as much about a life-saving prescription for the love of your life, as it is about an antique and artefacts extraordinaire cum collector and dealer.
Antiques and Artifacts at Casterbridge in White River is more than just a quaint shop where you can buy expensive and not so expensive gifts - it is a trip down memory lane. "I love every item in this shop and will simply not display anything that I don't like," says owner Angie Bunyard.

Angie can probably write a book on people's responses, remarks and body language as they walk through and explore the many pages of history - all cemented in the minds of young and old. Angie is in fact, in my mind, selling memories - reconnecting people with experiences on an academic and emotional level.

"I meet the most extraordinary people, we engage and talk about everything and all, they share and sometimes, I can be but only amazed."

Angie thrives on the solitude and quietness of nature which nourishes the soul like nothing else. She grew up in Rhodesia. As the owner of a Safari Travel company in Botswana for more than 20 years, she supports various causes but "I am most certainly not an activist for anything," she says. She still organises Safari Travel for a very specific conservation market.

Angie studied fashion design - explored some opportunities in Los Angeles and New York and the rest before her stint in Botswana. "Nature, and to a certain extent also antiques, offers authenticity which is not to be found anywhere else. And, she landed in the antique business purely by coincidence, but that's a story on its own.

She supported Greg Duffy in Rocky's Drift with his antique business before setting up this business which offers a fusion of African art and artefacts, morphed with various genres of furniture and interior design. And, for a moment my attention is drawn to the music playing in the background - "Bob Dylan and tequila" she chirps - beautiful...

Yes, actually this is a place for peaceful and quiet contemplation, where every piece in her store has a story to tell - and sometimes, just sometimes, that story is yours. This shop really offers a "breyani" of life experiences and things.

But it is time to get a little technical. This is also the destination where you can now get that life-saving prescription for your classic or older-generation car. Angie has recently been appointed the exclusive supplier of the Castrol Classic range of engine oils in the Lowveld.

The range includes six engine oils as well as a Running In oil for rebuilt engines and transmission oil. These products have been developed specifically for owners of pre-1980 vehicles and motorcycles and offer a 100% correct formulation and viscosity as per the original engine manufacturers. "A classic car engine can have the opposite characteristics with cork/graphite/rope seals, low-pressure gear-driven pumps, larger oil galleries and greater dependence on splash and cling lubrication compared to modern engines," says importers Paul Williams and Giovanni Schule.

Using these products will prevent the scouring effect from carbon flake-off blocking jets and oil galleries. "With its perfect corrosion inhibitors, the engine components in these older engines, will enjoy significantly better protection than what modern oils - as good as it is - can provide, says Paul.

Well, Antiques and Artifacts is a destination shop for both connoisseur and casual browser. It offers perfect warm-fuzzy-feeling prescriptions. And, in this day and age, the latter are priceless.

Authored by me and was first published in the Autodealer Lowveld.