Security guard takes art to the next level
FRANCISTOWN: Though he may not have gone to college to attain qualifications to be an art teacher, 24-year-old Aobakwe Padipadi has decided to impart his creativity and artistry skills on the younger generation. With over 150 students that have benefited from the God given talent, the former Mater Spei College student is determined to make his mark.
It is not often that you find an alumnus going back to his/her former school to share knowledge with the current students. The artist attained an A* in the 2015 Botswana General Certificate Secondary Examination. According to the Borolong native, who also juggles between his security guard job at Decades Security and hotdog selling business, he was among the best students in art at Mater Spei College in 2015. But despite these splendid results, Padipadi found himself without anything to do, as he did not get admission to tertiary or any institution of higher learning.
However, Padipadi did not despair as he took the road less travelled by reaching out to the school in order to assist Form Five students with their art final projects. He has over the last six years shared his arts and craft skills with his former school’s completing art students. Padipadi told Arts & Culture that he offers tutoring services to the students by teaching tapestry art. He described tapestry as a form of textile art, traditionally woven by hand on an object. He further said tapestry is weft-faced weaving, in which all the warp threads are hidden in the completed work, unlike most woven textiles, where both the warp and the weft threads may be visible.
He said he earns commission from his services. He added: “The school engaged me after they realised my passion for art and how I used to assist my colleagues back in the days.”
Apart from tutoring at Mater Spei College, Padipadi said he also provides private lessons to parents and children who want to enhance their art creativity. He indicated that so far over 150 Mater Spei students have benefited from his tutoring services.
He said he uses some of his profits from the hotdog business to buy the much needed materials for his art tutoring lessons. Furthermore, the multi-talented artist stated that he also does self-commercial portraits, which are very profitable. “In this case I use my time during the night whilst on guarding duty to draw up some portraits and deliver early in the morning,” he added. He said he is driven by passion to achieve all that he sets his mind onto, also stating that his love for art developed when he was doing Standard Six. Padipadi said back then he used colouring, drawing and tracing books to enhance his art skills. He stated that during his senior school tenure, he became more interested in his work and started working on techniques such as painting, pointillism and blending using oil and chalk pastel. Pointillism is a technique of painting in which small, distinct dots of colour are applied in patterns to form an image. The go-getter shared that he also learned new skills on his own by blending two different art mediums such as crayons and pen or substituting one with paint.
He also shared that he weaves doormats using wool. Padipadi added that most customers want self-portraits while others are interested in nature.
Padipadi further said he uses animal portraits to enhance his artistry as they cover hard details. He said animals have a rough texture and if one uses any media they have to include the dark tone and the texture. His advice to the youth is to go all out and hustle hard by using their creativity in order to put food on the table. He said he earns commission from his services. He added: “The school engaged me after they realised my passion for Arts and how I used to assist my colleagues back in the days.” Apart from tutoring at Mater Spei College, Padipadi said he also provides private lessons to parents and children who want to enhance their art creativity. He indicated that so far over 150 Mater Spei Students have benefited from his tutoring services. He said he uses some of his profits from the hotdog business to buy the much needed materials for his arts tutoring lessons. Furthermore, the multi-talented artist stated that he also does self-commercial portraits which are very profitable. “In this case I use my time during the night whilst on guarding duty to draw up some portraits and deliver early in the morning,” he added. He said he is driven by passion to achieve all that he sets his mind onto, also stating that his love for Art developed when he was doing Standard Six.
Padipadi said back then he used coloring, drawing and tracing books to enhance his arts skills. He stated that during his senior school tenure, he became more interested in his work and started working on techniques such as painting, pointillism and blending using oil and chalk pastel. Pointillism is a technique of painting in which small, distinct dots of color are applied in patterns to form an image.
The go-getter shared that he also learned new skills on his own by blending two different art Mediums such as crayons and pen or substituting one with paint.
He also shared that he weaves door mats using wool. Padipadi added that most customers want self-portraits while others are interested in nature. Padipadi further said he uses animal portraits to enhance his artistry as they cover hard details. He said that animals have a rough texture and if one uses any media they have to include the dark tone and the texture. His advice to the youth is to go all out and hustle hard by using their creativity in order to put food on
the table.