Yiull never walk alone

Damaso is not one to shy away from controversy, and he has a soft spot for Madiba, who he has painted elsewhere with long, grey dreadlocks. His latest installation involved putting up a number of posters on which the now out-of-date “Free Nelson Mandela from prison” message had been modified to “Free Nelson Mandela from hospital”. As it happened, the posters had only been up a few days when the ex-president was discharged from the clinic where he had been bed-ridden for weeks.

“See? It worked,” Damaso smiles.

Damaso exhibited those posters at the Yiull Damaso Artists Studio, where he shows his other work and hosts visiting artists.

“It’s my working studio-slash-gallery,” he explains, “in what was the original Craighall Park Post Office at 56 Buckingham Avenue.

“I still have the original entrances for black and white people. I’ve opened up one of the old public phone booths that was bricked up – it’s an interesting space.”

A child coming home one day and telling their parent that they want to be an artist when they grow up should expect a disappointed groan, followed by a speech about there being no

future in it. How is Damaso defying those expectations?

“It started off being very much a roller-coaster lifestyle – sometimes it still is. But the more you get your name out there, and the more work you have in different places, the less trouble it is. You have a lot of freedom; freedom that most people will never see because of their work lives. I have a happy life. I’m doing what I really want to do.”

There has to be a balance between earning a reputation and earning a salary, though, and that includes charging amounts for paintings that’s enough to reward the long weeks or months of work that goes into them, while still having a strategy to make ends meet during the even longer weeks or months that it might take to sell those works.

“You have to do a variety of work,” Damaso says,

“You have to do small things that don’t cost much that people can buy if they pop into the studio with only a little bit of money. They must still leave happy.

“Those are still original creations, which is good. You might get to become one of those super-famous people who can spend all their time working on a big project and then sell it for enough to keep them going while they work on and sell the next big project. Generally, even as you are working on something big, you’re drawing and sketching and you have ideas, and those ideas are all little works of art in themselves. And you do have the opportunity to sell those in between.”

The right attitude is crucial if walking this path is going to be viable. “The reality is that I just want to be able to afford the things that I like,” Damaso reflects.

Is controversy a useful marketing tool in maintaining the sort of profile needed to stay in that bubble? It’s important to not become the guy who just does something edgy for the sake of it …

“It creates discussion, which is the point,” says Damaso.

“There’s a very delicate line. The Nightwatch was on display in my first studio while I was busy working on it and people would come in every week as it progressed and have a chat about it. And then it was exhibited in Hyde Park, and it just took one person who didn’t like it and was very vocal about it to change everything.”

Such reactions can’t be unexpected, though – Damaso is an activist of sorts, so an absence of response would be a failure.

“There’s a world view I don’t like,” sasy Damaso.

“Some shops will give you those cards that allow a portion of the cost of what you buy to be given to charity. My thing is this: why do you need that card? If you know the right thing to do, why can’t you just do it directly? Let us know you’re doing it if that’s important to you. but get on with it.

“Hopefully the artworks are creating the sort of discussion that leads to direct action at some stage.”