We recently connected with Belia Liebenberg and have shared our conversation below.

Belia , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I started doing art at a very young age and I always thought to myself as a kid that this was something I wanted to keep doing for a long time, it didn’t matter to me in what form it took as long as it was something to do with art. I’d watch videos of other professional artists sell their work and I’d try to replicate that myself and sell my art to my friends in school.
I did feel very discouraged when I was younger because I didn’t think that anyone would seriously want my work or that it would never end up in a gallery because there might always be someone luckier than me or more talented.
Though I felt discouraged in my artist career it was always something I was drawn to and I didn’t want to abandon it.

Belia , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m a Namibian artist and I got more populare with my creative work through Instagram and Tiktok. I started posting videos of me doing drawings of my digital art and what they looked like as a final printed out painting, but my most popular videos were of me doing anime paintings.
I had done some anime paintings before of my favorite scenes or characters of a certain show, but it took one video reaching all the right people that got me more popular in the Namibian art scene.
I started getting more sales and commissions, took part in a lot more art markets and connected with a lot of fellow artists.
From there I started getting invited to take part in some radio, tv and newspaper/magazine interviews.
I also got the opportunity to take part in a few gallery exhibitions and even had my very first solo exhibition.
I was recommended and invited to do a children’s book illustration and most recently got nominated for a award at the Namibian Spectrum Awards.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

That the work I do takes time. When I started this whole career I didn’t expect any of this to get the traction that it did. I still have a part time job and I am studying at university at the moment.
So when I take on commission work it can take a long time, not only do I have a job and studies to worry about, but sometimes I have other clients who ordered something first before someone else.
I do try to warn people about the time it should take to do something specially for them, but I feel someone people forget that I’m not a grocery store and everything I do isn’t pre-made.
Luckily it rarely ever happens that I struggle with a client so for that I’m grateful.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Sometimes client work can be really daunting, but it’s at the same time the most rewarding aspect of the job. The amount of people who commission a painting because its for a loved one and this art your making for them has a special meaning in their heart, it always makes me so happy.
I’ve so made a few pieces of work for people who lost someone dear to them, it’s difficult, but it makes me so satisfied and glad that I could be some comfort for them in that grieving process, they have something now that will always remind them of that person.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: spiderlily_pokes_
• Other: Tiktok: spiderlily_pokes_