My name is Nonceba (Nonci to my friends) and I am a freelance Interior Stylist and Artist.I was born and raised in Harare, Zimbabwe. I moved overseas for university many moons ago and have lived in Melbourne, Perth, London and now I’m based in Sydney, Australia.
I have always had a love of art and expressing myself creatively through handcrafts and painting; be it making friendship bracelets as a child and little handmade ‘good luck’ note cards for my classmates in junior school before exam time - making things is just something I’ve always enjoyed doing. I’ve been drawing and painting since I was a little girl and after several years of university study (Behavioural Science and Counselling among other things) I decided to revive this area of creativity again. A short period at art school several years ago, was a definite catalyst to me wanting to do more with my artwork and thus Nonci Nyoni Art was born! I am on what I describe as being a progressive journey of discovering beautiful art from within me and bringing that to the surface with paint as my medium and the finished canvas as an expression of that creative journey!
What I create:
I paint abstract works and love to explore shape, pattern, linear and dot markings in a varied colour palette. I really enjoy starting a project and not knowing where it will end up. It’s the unpredictable adventure of creating that keeps bringing me back to it over and over again.
Why I create:
I’ve tried many different hobbies and pass times, but this is the one that I’ve never strayed from and it is certainly one where I experience true joy, satisfaction and wonder when I’m engrossed in a particular piece of artwork for hours and hours on end! The time really goes so quickly and it’s never enough! I just love doing it. Painting never has to be complicated or overly demanding of energy and honestly I do it for the process and for what I can see being birthed out of me. I love being able to be a conduit for a message and in this season, I believe that message is ‘letting go and letting God use what He’s given me for His glory’. I truly hope my work can be a blessing to whoever sees it.
What I’m trying to say through my art:
I want my art to say - Be Free! Be Bold! Live Outside of the Box!. I think I spent so much of my teens and early adulthood trying to be something for everyone, and my starting to paint and wanting to make it more than just a hobby, is me breaking out of a cultural and societal box and choosing to put my dreams and vision first. I want my art to say, ‘There’s Hope out here’ and ‘There’s a whole world of your dreams to explore if you just dive in’.