Lopang uses art to treat addiction
FRANCISTOWN: Twenty-eightyear-old Tamara Lopang popularly known through her Facebook handle as Arts by Tehlai X, has decided to use art therapy to treat her addiction for substance abuse.
The artist told Arts and Culture that she lost herself due to drug addiction eight years back but she has been sober for over a year now after tapping into art for therapy. She said art has played a big role in her drug addiction healing process. She further said there is a huge difference between her art creation now and while she was still an addict.
“My personal art now tells a story and has in-depth meaning as compared to before because back then I was just making art because I was capable,” explained the talented Tehlai X.
The fine artist drug addiction started back in 2014 when she was just 20-years-old. According to Tehlai X, she was addicted to drugs after she was raped multiple times, being homeless, which led her to depression and anxiety.
After all she went through, she began going through mental health issues and to make matters worse, she ended up not doing well on her academics at the University of Botswana (UB). She indicated that although she was a drug addict and it felt like life was unfair, art gave her a sense of purpose. She said making her paintings allowed her to be creative and communicative hence enhancing her therapeutic process. She said most of her experience swere painful to talk about but she manages to express her pain through art and through it all promoting healing.
“I built myself from the bottom to where I am now and managed to fight my demons because of art,” she added.
Tehlai X shared that she was told that she will never make it far with art but now she is making a living from art. When narrating her story, the brilliant artist said she was raised by her grandparents her and studied at Mophato Private School and John Mackenzie High School.
She added that when she enrolled at UB she did not know what to choose but ended up studying a Bachelor of Library and Information Studies even though she preferred art.
For choosing to study something she was not passionate about, she ended up failing and getting discontinued in her second year. Since high school, Tehlai X always wanted to be an artist but her family, only saw it as a hobby more than a career. She added: “My grandfather was the most supportive person and believed in my art but both of my grandparents have now passed away.” Speaking of her latest work, the visual artist said she has ventured into the four artwork series and made for prints focused on women. She said she wanted to sell prints of the original painting so that she could sell one artwork multiple times. The fine artist explained that the price of the print is lower than an original painting, which is therefore affordable for everyone to purchase.
“My original custom paintings range from P1,000 to P10,000 while each of my prints is P250 each.”
When speaking about international arts competitions, Tehlai X said she is always looking forward to international competitions as they are less biased. She said one thing that hinders her to participate on them is due to cost of transporting the artworks as it is very expensive.
Tehlai X was once picked up to participate in Zee Arts Africa Speaks-54 which was held in Dubai but failed to participate due to numerous reasons.
She urged other youth artists to find their niche of art style that defines them and stay true to it. She said it is mostly authentic artist that get recognition from international people so they should not have the mind-set to make art that they think will sell but make art that they resonate with.