David Msia, also known as De_Uru, is an avid actor, artist, poet, photographer and traveller. Known for his popular portraits, he can be found in art galleries, at events and online showcasing his passion for art. We caught up with De_Uru to try and understand his motivations and processes a bit more. Here’s what he had to say.
1. We see your work focuses on portraits. What is it about people’s faces that is important to you?
When I started doing art at a young age, I drew mostly people. It was rough and at the time most of the art I saw around my hometown was of animals and tinga tinga but it did not catch my eye as people did. At first there was a joy of people recognising the person I drew, whether it was a drawing of a pope or a teacher in class: And then this joy developed to something more.
See, people’s faces have the same basic features, and yet each drawing I do stays unique, and sole to that person in a moment. Ten artists may draw the same person ten times and each piece will be very unique for each artist. Portraits are very personal. They communicate a lot about a moment in time when they were taken and for me as an artist it shows a client has trusted me enough to open up his or her self to me to portray and communicate that moment with them. This is why I love and enjoy doing portrait drawings.
Portraits are very personal. They communicate a lot about a moment in time when they were taken.
One last thing, before we had cameras to take photos, portraits paintings and drawings were the means to preserve the moment and remember those who meant something to us. It’s classy now to commission an artist to do that for you. Back then only the rich and powerful did it, and now I see we have people who prefer portrait drawings than photographs.
Because portraits are personal artistics works it is also good for business. That means we can at least make a living compared to abstract art works.
2. Where did you pick up your skills, and how would you recommend one learns to do what you do?
I am a self taught artist. That means my journey as an artist has been inspired most by seeing and imitating, trial and errors from almost all the artists I have met growing up.
I started drawing at a very young age. I remember my dad, found me drawing once and did a quick sketch of a man walking and I loved it, then I discovered with some friends at primary school that if oil falls on a rim paper it becomes transparent and then you can sketch better, and then I met a friend in seminary school who did use grid system to draw and coloured using crayons and i picked the technique as well.
I discovered with some friends at primary school that if oil falls on a rim paper it becomes transparent and then you can sketch better.
Then finally after form six I met a very experienced painter at Makumbusho Arusha called Sikenguru. And his painting technique was beautiful and he was a great teacher as well and did help me a lot to learn about the history of art and how to improve on sketching techniques, and since then the internet had also become popular and youtube started to catch up on art tutorials and so i started learning and practicing till today as a professional artist i still learn and improve.
3. The assumption about art as a career is that it’s tough to make money. How do you make ends meet as an artist?
It is true that it’s hard to earn a living as an artist. When you think about it, it’s generally hard to make money in any other field. Art career as a business, it requires to be handled as such. I produce an art piece. The art piece has to be sold. The income has to be enough to cover the cost, savings and profit. When this simple model is practiced then it becomes clear that artists are business owners and have to be treated an such otherwise they won’t earn and the ends don’t meet. This is the knowledge that most of Artists and other people don’t preserve it as such creating a gap.
Artists are business owners and have to be treated in such.
I do portrait drawings. My clients are 90 percent Tanzanians and 10 percent foreigners. They commission for drawings as gifts, decorations etc. my work is to make sure that materials used are of great quality, the drawing is done neatly and well, and delivered in class. This helps to set a standard. Before wasting materials I charge advances to make sure a client is committed to purchase the drawing and to make sure i deliver the quality they intend or else i won’t get paid. This works so well because i do portraits.
Before wasting materials I charge advances to make sure a client is committed to purchase the drawing and to make sure i deliver the quality they intend or else i won’t get paid.
For creative artists like abstract art, or wildlife it’s all another story. One will need to have exhibitions, the clientele is also unpredictable and the pieces have to be very unique and creative. But still this is the field with most opportunities as well so one has to be keen to such for them, sadly most of these opportunities aren’t so accessible to most local artists because they are hosted by agencies that aren’t directly linked with them, or have no education to access them.
4. You seem to be quite liberal when it comes to sharing your work online. What are your thoughts around copyright of visual art?
It true pirates are everywhere these days, but also the next best thing as an artist you can have apart from unaffordable website to showcase your profile is through social media.
People may take advantage of your artwork and call theirs truth is an artist’s stroke on a canvas is like fingerprints, it can never be forged. A fake stays fake and original stays original so it doesn’t scare me much.
Other copyrights are on the side of clients as well, if a client does not give permission for his or her drawing to be shared online then i don’t. For creative pieces as well BASATA has a way to help us to get ownership copyrights for the pieces as well.
5. At the end of a fantastic series of Black Panther drawings, you said “The end of one journey marks the beginning of another. I need a new challenge.” What keeps you challenging yourself, and why bother?
An artist without a challenge is just another artist among millions of artists. To stand out, to improve, to develop and grow I crave challenges to achieve that.
An artist without a challenge is just another artist among millions of artists.
That drawing was a very long project and very detailed one. I would spend an hour working on a 2x2cm grid. And the result was worth it. Because of it, I got a lot of new customers, and it still brings more. And that was the lesson that if we put ourselves in a corner and put a bit more effort in whatever we do then the fruits will always taste better. That’s why I bother.
Every now and then i will do a piece that is more detailed, a bit harder and different and at the end I hope to have learned something new.
6. [Bonus] What are your recommendations for the Art industry in Tanzania – how would you organise, manage, lead?
Art is an asset. Its value increases over time. Tanzanians should wake up and start investing and preserve what artists are creating now. It reflects our society now.
We still pay to go watch cave drawings at Amboni caves, we still pay to see stone drawings at Kondoa province at some point when our generation is gone, the stories will be told by our artworks.
Think about it, electronics can only store so much information, prone to viruses, deletion and at some point data collected will be lost but for an art piece purchased expensively will be passed from one generation to the last before it will be lost.
An art piece purchased expensively will be passed from one generation to the last before it will be lost.
It’s time we take artists’ works seriously, give them room to be critical to tell the real stories of our societies. And hopefully it will be a dream and a career to many young folks in the future if investment is made to ensure the industry grows.
[end interview]
Thank you for your time, David a.k.a De_Uru! You can follow De_Uru online using the following channels:
- YouTube
- Instagram: @De_UruDraws
- Instagram: @OfficialDe_Uru
