South African illustrator Karabo Poppy Moletsane's work is featured on today's Google Doodle in honour of International Women's Day.
International Women’s Day is celebrated on 8 March annually. This year‚ Google says it is celebrating the day by "examining 12 important themes through the work of 12 extraordinary women artists"‚ including Moletsane.
The themes are Adventure‚ Audacity‚ Chance‚ Connection‚ Growth‚ Heal‚ Home‚ Love‚ Possible‚ Strength‚ Together and Trust.
Google SA said: "The theme for Moletsane’s Doodle is 'Audacity' and deals with the unexpected - Moletsane has introduced a woman into a traditional male ritual setting. Called ‘Ntsoaki’s Victory’‚ the gif tells the story of Ntsoaki‚ who is destined to live counter-culturally and asks to join the male coming of age ritual of lion-wrestling."
A well-known Pretoria-based illustrator‚ graphic designer and street artist‚ Moletsane’s work can be seen locally at the Nike Football Training Centre in Soweto and the community basketball courts at Zoo Lake.
She collaborated with Woolworths in its Valentine’s Day campaign in February‚ raiding the Sandton City Woolworths shop front where she created an artwork showing roses in ways you wouldn’t expect to see them. She has also done work for the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive‚ featuring massively scaled up portraits of people she met on the streets of Johannesburg and Pretoria.
Her career highlight‚ she says‚ is a toss up between having Bill Gates tweet some of her illustrations and painting a mural that appeared in the Grammy-nominated music video Makeba by JAIN.
You can see more of her work on behance.net/Karabo_Poppy.
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