God. Family. Art. (continued)
Meet Ofentse Mnguni – you do not know him yet… (PART 2 – DRAWING)
Missed PART 1? CLICK HERE to read it!
“This journey for me started at the tender age of 5 and the
interest and passion was fueled by my then mentor, my cousin Mpilonhle Joka,
who I now consider a ‘part-time’ visual artist. For her this was a way to kill
time but this ignited a whole new world of possibilities for me,” says Fefe
whose upbringing tells a similar story to that of most kasi teenagers growing
up within lower LSM families and community. His love of art and illustrations bloomed when he avidly started
watching *Dragon Ball Z* on one of the SABC channels back in his primary
schooling days. He would ensure that his chores and schoolwork were done well
in time before Dragon Ball Z was on TV – thanks to his photogenic memory; he
would be able to draw some of the cartoon characters soon thereafter. They did
not have pay TV at home but seldom visits to his aunts’ homes opened up his cartoon
world and he was suddenly exposed to other kinds of cartoons like Ben 10,
Generator Rex, Transformers, Star Wars etc. he goes on to say to say, “that's
when my ambition for drawing grew stronger because I drew all the pictures of
those characters too."
One of the lessons he learned the hard and painful way was
to never trust anyone with his craft. “I loaned my first
ever portfolio of drawings to a friend (I won't name and shame him but God knows I want to) so he could go through it
and give me some pointers for my next victory lap in the *class competition but
when I went to get my file back I was met with and defeated by a lot of excuses
and that deterred my for some time – I could not master enough courage to start
again…” He adds that he now has three additional files and that his repertoire
now includes drawing of cars and houses – “and that’s not all, I can
practically draw anything I set my mind and creativity to!”
*Healthy competition always keeps him on his toes and this
also dates back to when he was doing Grade 4 (when his drawings
evolved from plain old stick men to 3 dimensional drawings) and had a friend
and classmate named Ayanda’MaAva’ Magubane who shared similar passion and
interests. These two became rivals by default because their class knew that
they were artists and Monday’s were deemed showcase days so the class could
vote for their number one. Regardless of the votes outcome, the two would
continue to learn from the experience and from each other by sitting together
afterwards and continue drawing and helping each other.
Will he pursue drawing beyond it being just a hobby?
Personally, I believe drawing will pave lucrative avenues for this young man
because the future is digital. He must just keep peer pressure at bay and let
sex, drugs and alcohol be the furthest things from his mind, lest they obscure
his vision.
Oh, and did I also mention that he dubs in poetry as well?
We’ll delve on that in the next installment of introducing this young
trailblazer to the world…
By Ngobeni Communications CC
071 722 8685
www.ngobenicom.co.za
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