Local painter beating poverty one painting at a time
He wakes up every morning hoping that it will be the day that someone sees his work and helps him to achieve his dreams.
LYDENBURG – One painting at a time, this is what a local painter believes will get him out of poverty.
Arsen di Carloss is an artist who does his paintings on the side of the road along Voortrekker Street. He wakes up every morning hoping that it will be the day that someone sees his work and helps him to achieve his dreams.
According to him, when he displays his pictures every morning, he tells himself that today something will happen and when he packs them away, he believes tomorrow is another chance. “I believe that one day the right people will see me and they will help me to take my career to greater heights.”
“I hope that someone will invest in my work so that I can get the exposure I need. After that, I will go overseas to sell my work. My paintings and signs will be seen by the entire world!”
Carloss has been painting for the past 10 years and his first picture was a portrait of his parents. “The fear of living in poverty helped me stand up and start using my God-given talent. When I completed high school there was no money for me to further my studies. My parents could not afford to pay for me,” he said.
He is originally from Mozambique. His first job was at their department of education. They offered him a contract to do signs for schools in his area. When the contract ended, moved to South Africa and he worked in a tavern in Rustenburg.
“I left that job because I was not happy and moved to Potchefstroom. I started selling my paintings there and also in Sun City. Then I moved to Lephalale. There I started displaying my work on the side of the road. A Lydenburg resident saw it and asked me to work with them in Lydenburg.”
His first job in Lydenburg was to do signs for cars only but he was not happy.
“I left because my passion was pushing me to focus on paintings and that is when I started doing my paintings on the side of the road again. Painting is the only thing that fills my heart with joy. When I’m sad I paint, and when I’m happy or angry, I just paint,” he explained.
