Africa-Press – Eswatini. It was a dream come true for award-winning fine artist Mcebo Fakudze as he met his international muse Thapelo Mokoena. Fakudze is the brain behind Lifa Walls and he specialises in making portraits using graphite and charcoal. He met Thapelo after he made a creative portrait of the celebrity and his Nero wine last year in October.
Thapelo did not waste time but simply shared his excitement on social media; Instagram to be precise.
“Finally got to meet the brother behind the Nero art piece. The brother came all the way from the beautiful Swaziland (Eswatini). A talented fine artist with a great vision. An honour my brother @lifawalls, keep on keeping on,” shared Thapelo on Instagram. Fakudze said it was an honour to be noticed by the South African celebrity. “The wine in the drawing really drew his attention and he couldn’t wait to see and touch the drawing. “We started texting on social media and I made an appointment to meet with him for a handover of the drawing.
“That wasn’t easy because he is a busy man, but by the grace of God, he was able to make time and we met on Saturday and the meeting was truly a success,” he said. He explained that it all started with a quote that goes, ‘Don’t wait for opportunity. Create it’.
“Thapelo Mokoena never requested for this drawing. I had to do a serious research to come up with an idea. I’m so happy that at the end the idea worked out so perfectly. Mokoena liked the drawing and also made an effort to meet the artist behind his drawing,” he added. Fakudze last year won the Best Fine Artist gong at the fifth edition of the MTN SWAMA awards.
He competed with other seasoned artists such as Thembinkhosi Mabuza, Lwazi Tsela, Honest Mhlanga and Mqobi Mndzebele. “All this was about creating an opportunity.
I knew for a fact that it wasn’t going to be easy so I had to do something different. After doing Slotta’s drawing with ‘real honey’ insert, I then thought that maybe I can also make use of whiskey or vodka or wine because these do not easily lose colour when stored correctly.
“I then started browsing for a drawing I can do that will incorporate this feature and after a while I came across Thapelo Mokoena’s picture on Instagram,” he said. Thapelo Mokoena is a South African actor and television producer and presenter best known for his role on UK’s Bulletproof S3 as William and presenting the first season of the South African version of the reality competition Fear Factor in 2005.
He has also played the role of Cedric Fatani in Wild at Heart from 2007 to 2012. He also played Elias Motsoaledi in the 2013 film Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom. He is the owner of his own production company, Easy Sundays Productions. He has starred in quite a few movies and television shows, one of which being Between Friends: Ithala.
He has played a major role in Nothing for Mahala as well. He also acts on Broken Vows as Uhuru. He played on Mrs Nice Guy in 2016. He plays Quinn on the hit series Trackers.
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