Far from Average

“A Glowboy is someone that takes care of himself mentally, physically and spiritually”. Richard Average, aka Glowboy, is an illustration artist from Somerset West. After completing a degree in graphic design at the Ruth Prowse School of Art in Cape Town, Richard began making his mark in the industry, finding himself exhibiting at the Artscape, and working with some renowned brands, such as Puma, Woolworths, Red Bull and Converse. His work for Converse was featured by American rapper, Tyler the Creator’s media crew for his clothing line, Golf Wang. Immersed in street culture, lover of fashion and all things art, and a longtime preacher of self-love and self-care – Richard Average is far from average.

 

The creative space is occupied by people trying to walk their own path of individuality and uniqueness. Now more than ever, diversity is celebrated, and peculiarity, encouraged. The problem is, in the pursuit of this we tend to follow the directions to someone else’s path, rather than pursuing our own – as if there’s a ‘perfect formula’ to knowing oneself holistically. Richard Average knows a thing or two about embracing your unique sense of self, and expressing it.

Polka-dotted t-shirt, white dungaree, bleached-blonde hair, a nose ring to accompany the earring, and two forearm tattoos – an aesthetic, no doubt. Richard confesses that he’s never really understood what is meant by ‘an aesthetic’ until people started telling him he has one. There are two great stories behind his tattoos – but more on that later.

Richard Average, or Glowboy as he likes to be known, started his journey to becoming an illustrator around the age of six when his older brother, who now does fine art in the States, inspired his curiosity for drawing with sketches he used to produce of Dragon Ball Z and Pokemon characters.

His first pursuit of this career started at the Ruth Prowse School of Art in Cape Town, where he would commute two hours by train from Somerset West to attend his graphic design classes. 

“I had to stay late in class because I didn’t have a computer at home. My classmates were much better off. They drove in, they had laptops, they had everything they needed.”

This didn’t stop the Glowboy from glowing though, graduating top of his class.  

“I was like, yeah this is hard as sh*t, but I’m not going to be mad about it. This is my reality and I have to make the most of it.”

Richard describes the many difficulties he faced whilst at college. One of the most pertinent being his understanding of mental health.

It’s quite scary to think that mental health is only now really getting the acknowledgement it deserves, and Richard believes that people of colour have taken even longer to understand its importance.

“I never knew I had anxiety. As a person of colour, the one thing I’ve experienced in my household and how I grew up, was that we weren’t taught about anxiety. We weren’t taught about depression, and insecurities. It’s more like you accept what’s going on and you have to brush it off.”

“You have to have tough skin.”

Whilst studying, Richard found it difficult to concentrate on his work and took the big step of talking to his lecturers and parents about it.

The advice he got was to go see a psychologist.

“That is when I learned about anxiety and all these things I’m feeling.”

“I took the time to really be introspective and realised its either I lay underneath this and let it beat me, or acknowledge it and figure out how you deal with it.”

It was at this point that Richard was able to become more open about his adversities. He often takes to Instagram to share his struggles and encourage those going through similar things, that they are not alone.

He advises that the first step is acknowledgement.

“You have to realise it doesn’t make you any less of a person.”

“You have to accept it for what it is and the minute you do that, you’ll feel more comfortable with yourself and more comfortable to do the things that you need to do.”

A freelancer now, Richard describes how it’s often quite difficult pursuing a career which strays from the ‘traditional professions’, coming from a coloured household.

“From my experience, as a person of colour, when you are younger and you have a creative talent it’s seldom that it gets cultivated because the picture that gets painted is don’t do this –  become a doctor or a lawyer – instead of, ‘actually my kid has a talent for this, maybe I should help cultivate it’.” 

He jokes about being the only person in his neighborhood to skateboard growing up, and how he was told that he should be playing rugby instead because “you are coloured”.

In an era where young people are opting for freelancing in the pursuit of flexibility, it isn’t always easy to make that leap. Richard admits that they are a whole new set of challenges that come with that, but the key remains in knowing yourself well.

“I can do what I want to do because I believe I am talented and the minute I believed it, other people started to as well. The reason I feel like I am successful, is because I found confidence in being who I am.”

He recalls how the time spent working a corporate job was the most unhappy he’s ever been. Despite a steady income, he had stopped doing what makes him truly happy – and that’s drawing.

Again, he brings it back to staying true to who you are. He says that even though it was a good job, “it wasn’t truly me”.

“I wake up in the morning excited about my day, because what I’m doing right now, it fills me with joy and passion.”

A list of work to be proud of – the Save Water poster competition winner, one of 20 Emerging Creatives chosen by Design Indaba to exhibit at the Artscape, and a list of clients that include Puma, Red Bull and Converse – Richard Average is far from average.

As cliche as it sounds, it’s never easy ‘finding yourself’ – but Richard believes that you never really find yourself.

“The thing you have to do, is continue trying to find yourself, because once you do that you allow yourself to grow.”

“We make a lot of mistakes, we don’t know who we are, but you can only really know by trying. So you have to try a lot of different things.”

“If you want to find out who you are, try to find what you love, and if you don’t know what you love, do a whole lot of shit until you find that.”

“Have the courage and comfortability to be like, ‘it’s okay if I f*ck up’.”

Coming back to the story behind his tattoos – one of which is a rose and the other a very traditionally inked heart, with the words ‘self-love’ bannered across.

He explains that the rose is an ode to someone dear to him that he lost in 2016 – with the last thing he gave to that person being a rose.

The self-love one represents a daily reminder to do just that – love yourself.

“It reminds me of all the shit I’ve been through and that I had to learn to love myself in order to love everything I do and everyone around me.”

“It’s on my right arm because when I draw with my right hand, it’s a reminder that I love myself, I love my work, I love what I do – so just keep going.”