Joel Sebothoma continues to amaze me. Some 10 years ago or so he approached a gallery friend of mine to show his work and although as a self taught artist, he showed a lot of promise and natural talent, he was not yet exhibition ready. Stuart however saw the potential in Joel as he showed determination and a willingness to learn
Joel has worked incredibly hard over the years and has dedicated his life to his art, up early every morning to work in his studio and only leaving his studio late at night. He paints what he loves about this country, the colours, the movement and the vibrancy of it's people and hope...there's always hope.
Many people are born with natural talent, but if you are not willing to work on that talent to improve...well you may as well not have it at all. Creativity takes time...lots and lots of time, huge amounts of dedication and willingness to see that there is always more you can improve on and more to learn.
Much like life I suppose, we dedicate ourselves to an endeavour and in time those endeavours start seeing rewards, perhaps in the way of promotions or salary increase or merely in the respect others give you for your hard work.
The life of an artist is however different, they work mostly in isolation, have so much competition out there and not nearly enough people (public) support in terms of buyers (well in South Africa anyway) and yet they remain dedicated to their creativity.
As for Joel, my hat off to him. He had little resources in a hard country and yet he continued. He manages now to support himself through his art and it may be a meagre living, but to him, he is living his dream. He'll keep upholding the vision of our Madiba, to create a place where all are respected.
