Lethabo Houma
Lethabo Houma is a South African artist who you may remember from last week’s newsletter. I dropped her video interview with Cuy Sheffield of VISA in the resources section. If you missed it, definitely check it out. Lethabo’s work is dynamic. She creates beautifully vivid characters who are gorgeous to look at, and in some instances, look right back at you. I got a chance to catch up with her this week to talk about her work and her new digital gallery and exhibit.
You have been creating art for some time. When did your journey in digital art begin?
Growing up, I’ve always loved creating. It began as a hobby but turned it into a professional career after I attended my first exhibition. I’ve been a professional artist for 5 years, the first two years were focused on traditional art until I came across digital art in the 3rd year (2018) of my career.
I watched digital art tutorials on YouTube and started creating digital art on my phone. As I got better at it I saved up for a second-hand iPad and used more powerful software to create, the name of this software is Procreate.
I’ve been using procreate to create ever since. What inspires your work? Anything and everything. What I mean by that is I am inspired by life, my work is a mirror of my mental and emotional responses to life experiences (mine or others).
How does your digital work compare to your physical artwork?
The theme is the same, all my work is a visual diary. The main difference is that my digital work usually has more visual information than my physical work. What was the impetus for your recent gallery show?
Not only did I want to create an alternative art-viewing experience but to also provide artists a platform to tell us, the viewers more about who they are and what their work is about. Will you be doing more curation in the future? Yes, I will be!
What excites you most about the NFT art space?
Two things that excite me is the fact that artists are getting paid their worth, while they are still young and alive. The second thing is the different types of artists you get to meet and the new artists we are yet to discover in the NFT space. There are so many amazing artists in this space.
What opportunities exist for artists on the blockchain that do not exist in the physical world?
The big opportunity with the blockchain is there is a higher chance of your work selling because it is easier to buy digital art than it is physical art. The blockchain removes the admin that comes with acquiring a physical artwork.
Where do you think things will go from here in terms of NFTs and digital art?
NFTs will become a lot more popular and we are yet to see a lot more artists with different art styles such as videography, literature joining the space.
As a Black woman in the NFT space, how has it been for you so far?
At first, I was intimidated because they are not many black artists let alone black woman artists in the space but once I engaged more within the community I found an amazing and supportive community of black artists and black woman artists.
Follow Lethabo on IG, Twitter, Behance and check out her works for sale on SuperRare.
