resident_artist

ARTISTS STATEMENTS:


	Alexander Gabriel Lees - Zimbabwe: lxndrlees@yahoo.com A highly motivative workshop, one never stops learning, art is a process of exploration and creation. It was a privilege working with artists from different walks of life, you learn so much about your fellow beings and what makes them "tick". An artist is a thinker, a philosopher . you can never separate an artist from his art. It is part of his soul. To all those who made Thupelo 2005 possible, I Salute You. Thank you	Chikonzero Chazunguza - Zimbabwe: chikonzero@yahoo.com It’s always good to be at an artists workshop, one is filled with a sense of belonging – professionally, and that feeling enables one to experiment with no fear of doing the wrong. Thupelo has opened yet another door for me. I now have a clear way of combining my print making with painting. I now see prints as possible motifs for building a painting. Thanks Thupelo

	Lynette Bester - Cape Town, South Africa: papershere@yahoo.co.uk Courage, permission, expression, immediacy, community, reconciliation, transformation, initiation, education, exposure, agendas, politics, internal, interaction, city, urban, local, location, other traditions, past, restriction, frustration, struggle, future, visual language, art making, people, friendship, order and chaos, acceptance.	Thembinkosi Kohli - Cape Town, South Africa: thembinkosi_kohli@yahoo.com "The Thupelo concept, conceived in protest, and founded during the height of Apartheid’s State of Emergency in 1985, has spanned a period of twenty years." Transformation of the heart and mind. Conceived by Thembinkosi Kohli Edited and Consolidated by Lynette Bester [read more]

	Lionel Davis - Cape Town, South Africa: lioneld@robben-island.org.za There is so much more space to learn. Every workshop has its own dynamic. The common denominator – all are passionate about art making. Watching the interaction between the artists is inspirational and stimulating. The child in me comes alive…	Loyiso Qanya- Khayelitsha, South Africa: loyiso@mailbox.co.za Thupelo is but one of those particular spaces worth going through. As such I have come to develop a further understanding of endless possibilities.

	Margaret Otieno-Perkin - Kenya: otieno@bigfoot.com My journey from Kenya into Cape Town and to the Thupelo workshop has been one filled with mixed emotions from the excitement and heat of summer to the chaotic and random use of co lour and mixed medium in many art pieces I have come across from the artists. In Thupelo I have in the right sense of the word “abandoned” my every day sculpting style to experiment, play with and realize how other mediums can influence and inspire my mood in an open learning environment. Everything good and odd has resulted into the end process of my work. I take home with me the freedom of chaos and the beauty of art pieces that has in this workshop tried to characterize its master.	Mmakgabo (Helen) Sibidi Johannesburg, South Africa: gallery@everard.co.za It has been so long since my last Thupelo. I needed to come to collect some communication. Thupelo gives energy, the feeling of freedom. I find that I have to be engaged, at home I lose energy. Thupelo is like re-empowering your life in your work so that you can become new again. It would be good to empower the teaching, to motivate the youngsters to want to work harder in order to become a Thupelo Workshop Artists. Communication helps to move you, helps work not to become limited. Hidden process … it’s the art therapy in studio where other things are being healed – we are not alone.

	Daniel Mosaka - Pretoria, South Africa: dmosako@nwpg.gov.za Made more friends. Collected more techniques. Approach painting differently from the traditional way. Artwork has “cross firing” interaction with others.	Benedict Francis Bukenya - Uganda: bukenya_ben@hotmail.com Thupelo was wide. Thupelo was room. I did not finish a single cup of coffee

	Falcao Mussagy Narane Talaquichande - Mozambique : falcon2076@yahoo.com Thupelo is a very good idea. First time workshop out of Mozambique. First time to Thupelo. Heard from artists friends. Good experience. Want to start workshop in Mozambique. Taking a lot of baggage back to Mozambique … GOOD BAGGAGE.	Gerald Tabata - Gugulethu, South Africa: tabataart@yahoo.com Thupelo gave me an opportunity to express myself fully at my work. A freedom of expression.

	Isaac Chibua - Botswana: rbakwena@excite.com Thupelo 2005 was a great experience working with different artists with different characters and views. To me it was a baptism of fire!	Itai Vangani - Zimbabwe: artaiworld@yahoo.co.uk This is a tough workshop. Artists are very good and full of ideas. When I came to the workshop, I was blank, but now I have plenty of ideas to take home. I enjoy working with artists from Africa. It’s my first experience and I love it.

	Jeanne Hoffman - Cape Town, South Africa: jeannehoffman20@hotmail.com Kissing the wall. The work is situated between wall and floor, between sculpture and painting, between self and other – between you and me.	Kitty Dorje - Cape Town, South Africa: kitty@electriclead.co.za My focus has been on pattern. How to bring the flow of my creativity into the structure of the physical world. I found in the workshop it was not always easy to get the individual artists to agree on a structure. Be it what time to have presentations or how to co-ordinate the space in the exhibition. The end pattern looks simple, but the simplicity is very hard to achieve.

	Lundi Nimrod Mduba - Khayelitsha, South Africa: lundi1@mailbox.co.za As an artist I see myself as a social commentator. Also I reflect what is happening around me. An artist. I find inspiration from people and artists that surround me. Out of my comfort zone. In this workshop I am shifting away from figurative to abstract, and I find it quite challenging than figurative paintings I usually paint. Making art is like a ritual. It is a gift NOT TO BE IGNORED. NOT TO BE IGNORED NOT TO BE IGNORED	Desireé Brand - Vredendal, South Africa: oerwoud@telkomsa.net I found myself making moulds, doing rubbings and planning prints; being aware of the positive and negative form in the different disciplines – it seems to symbolize some kind of completeness that I am searching for. “Reading” and recording life by tracking form and contour, I am expressing my own “spoor” in sculpture, drawing or printing. This Thupelo workshop was an initiation into knowing myself through others

	Reuben Mpangane- Nelspruit, South Africa: mahundula@yahoo.com You’ve opened my eyes to see yet another mountain to climb with flexible use of gel and other materials. I can now deal with painted surfaces much better that before. There was cross-pollination of ideas and inspirational talks about other artist’s work.	Rose Kirumira - Uganda: kirumira@sifa.mak.ac.ug Workshops never cease to amaze me. They create this enormous space that gives you the feeling that you have numerous directions that you can take. Thupelo has been special in this regard. It has helped me reconfirm the various roles that will contribute to achieve my vision; promoting interactions among artists and making art tat makes the public aware of the positive side of life. Thupelo in the city has been quite a positive challenge!

	Xolile Mtakatya- Khayelitsha, South Africa: xolilem@mailbox.co.za It was healing, so inspiring and meditation, when focusing on work daily progressing … interacting with colleagues from other parts of the continent.	Yvette Dunn- Durban, South Africa: yvette@afri-art.co.za I will never be the same artist after this. Keep the struggle of art, never to give up. My first workshop ever. This should happen everywhere. Try to make a plan for Durban. This should be a mobile workshop. Durban artists are stuck and need Thupelo there.

	Rocky Mafafo- Kimberly, South Africa: whag@eject.co.za It was a healing, inspiring meditation to focus on my artworks daily progression. Interacting with colleagues from other parts of the continent. I only know that I am kind of stale and I’d like to criticize myself, I have not been childish and playing enough. So here is the Thupelo initiation workshop to render me a child once more. In Thupelo you experiment with a lot of mediums for two weeks, doing it collectively. One mind is married to 27 other artistic minds for two weeks. There is no way you can’t be inspired especially when you are childish and open minded. To enter the Kingdom of Creative Realm, you have to be concerned of your brother man’s creative instinct. There is no 1st or 2nd class, no black, no white, no discrimination. It is your ability and convictions.	Bartholomew Barthosa Nkurumeh - USA: nkurumeh@juno.com "It was an educational experience. The workshop and support community tours were essentially delightful and enriching. Because of the interaction and my openness, I feel like I have known most of the participants for years."

	Connie Noyes - USA: cyd@connienoyes.com www.connienoyes.com NOW I AM REAL. Thank you Thupelo for an unforgettable experience and education.	Gakunju Kaigwa- Kenya www.kaigwa.com gkaigwa@yahoo.com

	Fikile Skosana - Nelspruit, South Africa:	Jill Trappler - Cape Town, South Africa: www.jilltrappler.co.za trappler@telkomsa.net



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