IN AID of ocean conservation, local artists have showed off their creativity on the blank canvas of white takkies.
Wavescape Surf and Ocean Festival, which will feature a line-up of ocean-conscious events, teamed up with a popular shoe brand, who provided ten pairs of white takkies to be decorated by artists.
The takkies will be auctioned on the Wavescape South Africa Instagram page (@WavescapeSA) during the festival, which runs from December 4 till December 12.
Proceeds from the auction will go to beneficiaries such as the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) and The Beach Co-op who are known for beach clean-ups, among other organisations.
Local creative Amy-Lee Tak is an artist who is doing well on social media with her Amy-Lee Originals line of paintings and illustrations.
The 26-year-old’s art is centred around acceptance and celebration of the feminine form.
“My art career started from a very personal space. As a creative this means to express the journey I was, and that I am still on, with accepting and loving my own body, in its entirety and unapologetic humanness,” she said.
Her art career started off with a stark, linear black ink style, but since she began playing around with colour, she fell in love with it.
With regards to her sneaker painting, she used fabric paint after trying fabric markers which bled into the surrounding canvas.
“It was my first time painting on an irregular shape and material, so it took a lot of planning and overthinking,” she added.
Tak said inline with the theme “Ocean Adaption”, she had a mermaid that represented humankind adapting to become one with the ocean, instead of completely destroying it.
“It's really rewarding to be a part of something that's challenged me to try a new medium, while simultaneously raising funds for organisations that exist for this exact purpose,” she said.
Another illustrator Russel Abrahams, also known by his artist name Yay Abe, described his takkie art as a landscape of happy people all coming together around the ocean.
The 27-year-old from Milnerton has been working as an illustrator for the past eight years.
Abrahams also created the poster artwork for the festival, which portrays a half-animal-half-man character that surfs.
“I try to always stick to using red, blue and yellow when creating my work. So it was great that Wavescape allowed me to have my creative freedom. I guess everything kind of flows from there,” he said.
Festival director, Shani Judes said for the last 15 years, they asked artists to paint surf boards, which were auctioned and raised around R4 million over the period.
“We support and have supported a number of organisations in the past. It's our way of showing support for the great work that these organisations do for our oceans, its survival and how we need it for our survival,” said Judes.
Non-profit ocean conservation organisation The Beach Co-op, founder Aaniyah Omardien, said that they were excited about being a beneficiary for a fourth year now.
“We would like the funds to go towards our marine education art mural project we started at the St James tidal pool. In 2018, we secured funds to paint our ’Meet the locals’ mural at the tidal pool depicting the plant and animal life that we share the pool with,” said Omardie.
She added that the organisation would like to extend artwork along the walkway to Muizenberg at Surfers Corner, where they host their monthly new moon clean-ups.