Christel Kalil

Stationery and tools are my downfall. Forget shoes or handbags.  For me there is nothing more exciting than all the epilepsy inducing colours of Sharpies, felt and gel pens!  I can't draw a chair, seriously. "What is this meant to be? Didn't you read the assignment question"? Needless to say, my art teachers did not think what I produced qualified as art.

After completing my BA at University of Cape Town and my Post grad in Applied Linguistics at WITS University in Johannesburg,  I continued the academic route, completed my Montessori ESL Teacher Training and moved from South Africa to Vancouver Canada where I taught ESL to Adults for 20 years. I qualified as a technical writer after graduating from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver  and after 25 years in Canada, I  moved back to Cape Town and taught Professional Communications at UCT and City Varsity. The only art in my life that far, had been my colourful background.

It wasn't until I was in my 50's that I started to do more than just looking , but actually using my ever growing,  very colourful collection of pens, on ...Black paper. I just drew lines and squiggles and circles and dropped a few blobs of  bright yellow nail polish that one of my roommates had left on the table. The first drawing took at least 4 weeks to finish; maybe because I did not know when or how, but once I did, I did the next and the next and the next one. 100's of "Origins" later I moved to drawing simple lines on white paper, then started making steampunk hats using fabric and leather. I got bored with those and began  decorating wine barrel staves with leather, clock parts and lace. Cutex on glass tiles was another project that lasted until I discovered coloured wool and began rolling it to make felted rainbow coloured hair extensions. But life is a circle as I discovered. My "Origin" collection of drawings has taken on a new life, in the form of Photo Calendars. Follow me on my journey, let's see where it takes us :)