Magadla hopes to experiment with new drawing techniques and new methods of mark making this year.  

Zona Magadla is a freelance graphic designer and aspiring artist living in Cape Town. 
Born in 1993 she obtained her BA (HONS) Fine Art degree at UCT, Michaelis School of Art with her major in New Media in 2015. This led her to enter the marketing industry as a graphic designer. 
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She told State of the Art that what inspires her at the moment can be called ‘accidental visual treasures’. 

Magadla said: “I could be inspired by a brittle leaf on the floor or the cement markings left on a wall by old tiles. It doesn’t help that I’m short-sighted which means I can undoubtedly find anything interesting. However, with all that said I remember seeing a Jimmy Law artwork and being taken aback by the playful colours the expressive tones.
“I can definitely mark that moment as the moment that made me want to get creative again. I watched a YouTube interview of his and I was inspired by the way he paints. I’m not a painter but looking at his work made me feel like I can paint, in the same way someone with a bad voice would think they sound like Adele for a brief second in the shower.”

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Art and inspiration 

Magadla said a pivotal moment in her life was during Grade 8 and that’s when she knew she would become an artist. 

“In Grade 8 I drew a portrait in pencil of a famous pop star, and I couldn’t wait to show my parents because I was so proud of it. Looking back at the drawing it wasn’t all that great, but I was completely proud. It helped me to know that I should be in Visual Art class and not Consumer Studies in high school and then three years later I was happy to find myself at the Michaelis School of Fine Art,” she said.

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She added that she is still trying to identify her artistic style in her work. 

Magadla said her art is meditative. “It’s a meditative process. Drawing helps me reach a trance-like state and I quite like that. I make the crosshatch markings on the lips of the portraits lighter so they would stand out more. I wanted to highlight the thick lips being that I am a proud owner of a pair. I’d also like to think that my art as forever-building. It will always teach me something about myself. I am forever learning in my life; therefore, I am also learning as an artist,” she said.

She said she finds her drive from a constant yearn to give her own artistic interpretation of things she finds beautiful or ugly, unique or mundane.
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Of all the artists in the world, Magadla said she adores the late Gerard Sekoto. 

“Gerard Sekoto’s Song of the Pick is an artwork that left an impact on me. It was the first time and maybe one of the few times that I allowed myself to feel and interpret so much out of an artwork beyond its subject matter,” said Magadla.

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Magadla hopes to experiment with new drawing techniques and new methods of mark making this year. 
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