Thulaganyo Tells His Story Through Art
This month we are honoured to be featuring an amazing young local artist who found determination and affection in the world of artistry. Come across Mr Thulaganyo from Ramotswa village who does art with passion and believes that it glorifies life. Thulaganyo is a versatile artist and a biology student at the University of Botswana who does art as a healing tool not just for drawing and painting. He has seen it working for few people surrounding him and even his customers. He mentioned in an interview that basically what he does is to simply do fine art using pencils and pens only and transform the artworks by framing them in order to add value into them so that they become presentable to the consumers.
He revealed that he does his work at home and the business started in 2012 while he was at junior school where he did art as an optional subject. Thulaganyo indicated in an interview that he is grateful that he chooses to do art the way he does because it has somehow transformed many lives including his. He also mentioned that he took upon himself to make sure that his artworks reach prominent people like the former president Sir Seretse Khama Ian Khama, Joel Keitumele aka Ntsoro just to mention a few. He has recently submitted his art works to the above mentioned people and other Batswana.
Speaking about his inspiration, he said his father who is also a fine artist played a typical role in his life because he chose this type of art after he saw and loved the immeasurable talent displayed in his father’s artworks. Although his father never studied art at school, he does perfect artworks to decorate their house. Another reason to his choice of fine art is that, he wanted to capture all the details of the source interest and gratification to put that in. He said using pens and pencils is now his nature.
The motive behind the picture of the first president of Botswana drawn by Thulaganyo was a competition which was the brainchild of Sir Seretse Khama Ian Khama sometime this year, unfortunately he didn’t win it. Thulaganyo went on to say, “I am a person who believes in God, so drawing Apostle Joel Keitumele is one of the motives that drove me into his art piece and believe me when I say his art piece is the one that sold me best”.
Thulaganyo is not only an artist, but he also does t-shirt printing with the labels written messages about God. As a true believer of God, this is a way of preaching and sending God’s word to people.
Another type of art that Thulaganyo does is poetry. He writes poetry, but hasn’t yet started spoken poetry. On the uniqueness of his work, he said people see his artwork as something that is scenic, but the truth is he really wants to achieve that stage because he believes that he has a long way to go. He looks up to the Nigerian hyperrialistic artist, Oscar Ukonu. “I realized that in Botswana there are a few artists who stand out to be international and I am so determined to fill that gap,” he concluded.
Duncan Sebeso 
Celebrity World 
Administrator