Twenty-six-year old Luke Gegeu is a self-taught artist who hails from Malaita Province.
His products include printed T-Shirts and blouses, dyed and printed Lava lavas and wall Prints. He is the founder of the EKUL products.
Luke developed his interests in cloth printing at a young age, after dropping out of high school he continued to sharpen his skills by being around other artists, and assisting them in their art work.
In his early twenties, Luke worked with printing companies like DJ Graphics and other private companies but quit his job later to focus mainly on his business.
“Being around other artists gives me lots of ideas for my prints and helped me to start my own print business,” Luke said.
When Luke sees that his customers are growing and money is coming in, he attended short course business classes to help him manage his profits.
Besides that, the young artists continue to build on his Art skills and joined an intensive print making course in August this year, in which all his Lino print works from the course were sold at the Exhibition night.
Luke admitted that it is his first time to do Lino Printing and was surprised when they were all sold.
Such demands on Luke’s works encouraged him to go on with his business.
“I decided to just quit my job and concentrate on my business, even though it’s still small. I want to make it grow and I can’t do that when I’m working,” Luke continued.
Luke started selling his products to the public when he joined the Youth Market.
“I am very happy with what Youth at Work has done by providing this Youth Market venue – actually when I left high school I looked for a venue to sell my work but I couldn’t find any until Youth Market started.
“That was when I had an avenue to sell my products. It was from this event that many people now know about my work,” the young print Artist said.
Source: Youth@Work
