A little about LJ

My actual name is Lourens, and “Lo” for short. As you can see, I do write many poems, mostly in Afrikaans. Poetry is not my main hobby or activity, but I love writing and I love rhyming words. There’s a sense of artism within poetry that I think cannot be found in other forms of literature, except for songs.

Poetry isn’t all I do as pleasure. There is also nature and the deep love for rhinos and lions, and basically all that is classified under “Nature.” I worked at a game reserve in Limpopo, South Africa, for nearly a year as a general worker, where I as blessed to experience conservation to the core; and found an intimate relationship with the endangered rhinos, lions and elephants on a daily basis; not excluding the other animals like cheetahs and plains game. There I also got to hike and do hands-on work on the game reserve like fixing fences and building roads, all in the open African wild. 2016 was the best year of my life.

The fear of rhino extinction inspired me to make the world aware about rhino poaching through illustration and art. Yes, I’m also an illustrator, mainly. This will hopefully also generate funds for conservation. Rhino poaching  isn’t the only cause fight for – there’s also canned hunting of lions in South Africa, and dolphins in Taiji. I use Instagram as my main platform under Wildlifeart_sa. Go check it out.

I currently reside in Strand, Cape Town and work as an illustrator and designer for a wonderful design studio called MDOT in Techno Park, Stellenbosch. For a person who grew up in Pretoria for 27 years, getting to know this windy Cape Town province is an ongoing journey.

I hope my poetry on this blog site inspires you. I’ll also try to post some posts about my travels around the Western Cape province. Please have a look at my illustrations on my main website: LJ Swanepoel • An Illustrator