Art & Sculpting

The 25-year-old Shadrack Hlungwani sat around his older brother all the time and observed him hewing wood and fashioning it into amazing pieces of art.

“I had this deepened measure of curiosity, so that I did not tire of watching my older brother Leonard engrossed in his work,” he said. “He had an inborn gift for woodcarving, but he had to go to Johannesburg to fully realise his dream of becoming an international artist. Unfortunately, some bread-and-butter commitments diverted his mind from the arts.”

However, Shadrack had also vowed to become an artist in his own right, so he found some tools for himself and started carving wood into busts and doing some paintings.

“But, truly speaking, it seems like I was born into a family of artists because even at school I used to draw while the teacher was busy conducting lessons,” he said.

Shadrack won local arts and culture competitionsthat were hosted annually by the Valdezia community. “I took number one from 2007 until 2015,” he said.

However, he pointed out that an artist's life was hard as he could not put bread on the table all the time. “But I thank people like Cllr Sipho Masuka, who encouraged me to pull up my socks even though I was working on my creations all day, on an empty stomach,” he said. “He visited me at home after hearing about my artistic endeavours.”

During his visit, Masuka noted that the artist, who has eight siblings, stayed with his unemployed mother. Then the Ward 15 councilor offered Shadrack a job at the water pipeline to relieve hunger at his home. “I needed to focus on my art and not hunger,” Shadrack. “So I thank Cllr Masuka for his attention.”

The artist forgot about hunger and started creating busts for celebrities and high-profile politicians, such as the late Collins Chabane, Rejoice Mabudafhasi, Casper Nyovest, Stanley Mathabatha, and Prez Jacob Zuma.

His challenges included, among other things, the lack of a proper studio where he could create masterpieces.

However, this artist has gained popularity in his small village of Valdezia, near Elim.

He can be reached at 076 964 2486.