Welcome.

Sabelo Khumalo also known as 911 is a diverse visual artist that uses different meduims to connect with people from various walks of life and he is able to transform his unique thoughts into expressive art works.

BY AISHA MUDAYI & THAPELO MPHITHI

My name is Sabelo also known as Dirty Blade (911) I was born and raised in Johannesburg. I am an artist that uses different types of Art Mediums, I do digital art, art on canvas, sometimes on a sheet. My art is mainly about imagery.

DirtyBladetellsus,howwould youdefineyourartifwewere toaskyouwhatisyourarthow wouldyouanswer?

“I would describe my art as a world of its own, it is my mind. It is made of different consciousness and different figures and distorted faces, that’s just how I perceive life. So, whatever I make is purely thought, the same way God thought about creation then spoke creation into existence.”

That’sveryintersting,Yourartisnot conventional,wouldyouacceptthe observationorwouldyousayitis conventional?

“Firstly, I’ve never went to school for art. I’ve never really did art in school or did it my whole life, it is just something I randomly started doing. I wasn’t a good artist In the beginning, I just had to find a style and start working and making that style better. I couldn’t fit in a space where I could make really nice pictures or all this realistic stuff. We all live in our minds, because it is better there than in reality. The thought of something is what makes certain art great. I think I just had to adopt a certain style and just work on it.”

“I feel like as black people we have a certain rhythm to ourselves, we are always in sync there’s always things we do at a certain beat. When I look at my art works it is always about composition more, so it is about how these things are placed more than how it looks.

I imagine my art like sound waves, some faces have to be high and some low. I listen to a lot of music when I make art, sometimes because I do art a lot even when I am sleeping I would have visions of certain artworks then I would wake up and sketch it up quick to save the unique idea, then the next morning I complete it properly.” feelwhentheyseeyourart, whatemotionsdoyouwantto evoke?

I feel like my physical art is more authentic because no one can just take it and use it, but with my digital works I’ve seen people take some and put them as their profile picture and there’s nothing I can do about it ‘yet’, since it is digital and not physical. I feel like I am really good with digital, it is something I have mastered I just want to do more physical art more and improve because people always want physical art works.

Whatcompelsyouto choosethemediumsyou use?

“I started doing digital art and loved it, so I would say it is about the availability of a certain art resource. If I am moving around and I end up at a certain place then become bored, it is easier for me to just take my phone and create art. But, when I am at home just working I prefer to do it physically.

“I always refer to my art as comedy, I want it to be truthful in a colorful way. I want to put what’s true out there and I try to make it as colorful as possible. I am honest with my work and I just want people to feel what I feel. So, like a comedian you work off how relatable your joke is to people, if I say a joke and it is relatable it becomes more funny. All I want is for people to just understand me through my art.”