{"id":296,"date":"2023-05-01T12:01:04","date_gmt":"2023-05-01T10:01:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/robertnzali.com\/?page_id=296"},"modified":"2023-10-26T17:23:42","modified_gmt":"2023-10-26T15:23:42","slug":"test","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/robertnzali.com\/index.php\/test\/","title":{"rendered":"About Me"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 id=\"wp-block-themeisle-blocks-advanced-heading-c2eb113b\" class=\"wp-block-themeisle-blocks-advanced-heading wp-block-themeisle-blocks-advanced-heading-c2eb113b\">Introduction<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>My name is Robert Nzali. I am a professional sculpture artist specialising in African Wildlife art in wood and stone<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Youth and inspiration <\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>I was born in Plumtree in a rural area called KoMpini near Thekwane School. I did my schooling at that very same Thekwane School. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a rural boy I grew up herding cattle. As the cattle grazed l would relax by sitting under a tree listening to the birds sing and enjoy the quietness, peace and tranquility that comes with nature in the African bush. I had a great sense of being part and parcel of this wonderful nature. There were plenty of dead and dying trees about that had died from natural causes like droughts and aging. I fell in love with the unique beauty of natural cracks and holes that characterized this dead wood. Everytime I looked at the dead wood I would be attracted by the shapes of what looked like animals and human figures, some holes in the wood looked like the eyes of animals and human figures. I would feel sad to see people gathering this beautiful wood to make fire. Such beautiful wood turned to ashes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As young boys herding cattle we would collect mud from water sources and mould it into images of animals and human figures. At the age of 13 years old I had started carving small objects that people could use in the kitchen and my mother would proudly use these in her kitchen. I was carving with the hand tools that I got from my grandpa. But all the time  those images of animals and human figures in the wood kept coming back to me. I guess that was the beginning of my sculpting journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Schooling<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>At school I used to love drawing and l would help the teacher with the drawing of school charts. The teacher noticed and encouraged me to pursue a career in Art and referred me to the Mzilikazi Art and Craft Centre. It was there that I intended to do drawing and painting. When I got there the art teacher saw my drawing and recommend I join the sculpture class. It was here that I created and sold the first piece l made. As they say the rest is history. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Gratitude <\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>I would like to thank everyone who has played a part in my sculpting journey, far to many to mention. I would especially like to to thank my mother who is an artist in her own right, specializing in basketry. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My name is Robert Nzali. I am a professional sculpture artist specialising in African Wildlife art in wood and stone Youth and inspiration I was born in Plumtree in a rural area called KoMpini&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"_ti_tpc_template_sync":false,"_ti_tpc_template_id":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-296","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertnzali.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertnzali.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertnzali.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertnzali.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertnzali.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/robertnzali.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":470,"href":"https:\/\/robertnzali.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/296\/revisions\/470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertnzali.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}