Self-taught artist gains recognition
Bame Bino Khiwa was denied a chance to study art at school but she never gave up on her first love so she decided to teach herself.
At Selepa Junior School, Khiwa was discouraged to study art because it was presumed to be a ‘difficult’ subject, which was only a preserve of the boys.
As a way to get access to the Art Laboratory the Ghetto born artist joined Social Studies fair project and became part of a team that was recycling waste and used the lab to do so.
Instead of focusing on her fair project, she learnt a few things about art from the boys, especially mixing colours and painting.
Today Khiwa is the proud owner of an Art Company called Bambino’s Touch, specializing in face paintings and facial make up.
Speaking to Voice Entertainment, Khiwa said hers is natural God given talent.
At first she did it for fun until October last year when her parents advised her to create a Facebook page and share her work.
“I started by uploading sketches and photos of body paintings and the response was amazing. During the first lockdown in April, I painted a picture that was meant to raise Covid-19 awareness and posted it on my page.BTV Reporters interviewed me about it and it went viral. The same artwork was shared and discussed on DW Radio for Africa in Germany. Mostly my art pieces are meant to send message or raise awareness,” said Khiwa
When asked about her painting of The Voice Newspaper on someone’s face, Khiwa said she did it to honour the legacy of a paper that started in the city where she was born and raised.
To sharpen her art skills, Khiwa has been taking herself through YouTube tutorials.
A teacher at Selepa Mantswe also saw her work on social media and offered her free lessons.
With the little money she has made so far from facial make-up, she has bought herself a sewing machine so that she can create another stream of income by venturing into fashion design.
