I think of myself as an accidental artist. I have always loved art in any way, shape or form whether it’s paintings, drawings, music, plays, dancing or movies. In the past I have dabbled in pencil drawings being especially attracted to the realistic shapes and images of the Realism art form, but that never lasted very long. Life carried on as usual, until my husband and I moved back to South Africa after living in Dubai for over 7 years. We decided that we wanted to live in an environment completely opposite from the city life of Dubai and settled on a farm on the outskirts of my hometown Wellington. While settling into life back home, living on a farm and finding a job…I met with my new neighbor Lucille. In getting to know her, one day she showed me her drawing pads filled with her doodles! Pages and pages and pages filled with random lines and shapes that made up beautifully intricate patterns, with hidden shapes of flowers or animals. I was amazed that something so simple can fill an entire page. I went home that day and decided that seeing as I free time on my hands, I also want to doodle! So I asked my husband if I could use the pen set that he bought for himself (years ago) not knowing that these were the pens that actual artists used doing anime, portraits and mandala drawings. I probably did about 10 doodle drawings, before I had an idea and took out a random high school Mathematics set that I somehow had in the house. I cannot tell you why exactly I had this set in my possession, even now thinking about it…I genuinely cannot even remember buying it. *Can you say Kismet?*
I started drawing these pencil circles and start drawing lines and shapes all the way around these layers of circles, building pattern upon pattern upon pattern. I had a faint idea of what a mandala was, but I wasn’t even aware that that was what I was drawing. After a few of these round circles, I had an idea. When I was younger, I loved tracing my hand on a piece of paper and then drawing inside the lines of my hand. And that was the start of drawing a mandala inside different shapes of faces, animals or things found in nature. With every drawing I completed, I got better and better. Like we all do these days, I posted these drawings on Instagram just sharing it with my few hundred followers. I started receiving positive comments saying, “You should do something with these drawings”. And that is where the thought of ‘doing this full time’ started. My first drawings weren’t even on good quality paper and to this day the paper hasn’t aged well. I started documenting my process, taking pictures and videos of every step of the process and the drawings were getting bigger and more complex. A4 drawings morphed into A3 drawings, just a simple mandala on a A3 page morphed into a A3 page filled to the edge with patterns and shapes. Then people started requesting drawings for themselves. Here I was…making money off my drawings! I just couldn’t believe it! My husband and I discussed my art and we decided that I should take out the next few years to hone my craft and build a business around my art.
My idea was to print my drawings on t-shirts and mugs, maybe a canvas print. So I worked on my business plan and doing market research about my small business. Then one day a year into my drawing journey, one of my friends visit me from Johannesburg and at the end of catching up she asks me “What are you doing these days?”. I explain my whole business plan to her and I show her my latest drawings. Her first thought was that I was taking those Adult Coloring books and filling them with black ink and patterns. And I go, “No, I draw these from scratch!”. Then she said the words that changed my life, she says “This is not meant to be on a t-shirt, this is art Yvette. This should be on someone’s wall.” In that moment everything changed. I put that business plan on hold and just immersed myself in my drawings. With my husband sitting next to me busy with his day job working from home full time I was busy drawing at all hours of the day. Between the washing, cooking, grocery shopping and doing the laundry…all I did was draw. Earphones in the ears, focused and in the zone only stopping when it was time to go to bed. Then some nights I just couldn’t sleep because I was constantly thinking of new pattern ideas or drawing ideas. More commissions were coming my way and I was quite busy. And that is how it all started and is still going!