Art brought colour to creative's life

DREAM: VUYO WAS LOST LEADING A NINE-TO-FIVE LIFE

- Hein Kaiser

Artist Vuyo Mfokazi.

(Pictures: Supplied)

Give artist Vuyo Mfokazi a brush, some paint and space and he will return an emotion back to you.

The 34-year-old artist is in the starting blocks of greatness, because his work speaks as much as it feels.

Mfokazi was never going to be an artist. He grew up in boarding school and spent much of his childhood taking things apart and putting them back together again.

"I've always been a hands-on child, fixing radios, playing guitar, drawing, writing poetry.

"I was always busy," he said.

"But being creative and being allowed to pursue creative career are two different things."

Many promising artists, he said, pursued what sounded safe, instead.

Mfokazi became a development studies student at university to keep the peace at home.

"There's this idea that art doesn't pay," he said. At one point he was even steered towards medicine.