Exhibition: "The Goddess Within" Featuring Botswele Mogotlane and Jelani Cleghorne

• The Goddess Within •

Sometimes we collapse. 

Sometimes we crumble. 

This is not our destruction.

This is our Birth.

Our Growth is Infinite.

Our (Re)Birth is Inevitable.

f e a t u r i n g 

Jelani Cleghorne @jetsavvy
Botswele Mogotlane @botswele

m u s e s
Monique Sypkens @sunflowrrchild
Linda Tembe @miss_lee_leila

I love the woman I am. I love the way I'm so comfortable in my own skin. 
I love my hair, eyes, nose, my big ears , breast every part that makes me, me. 
I love how my imperfection doesn't define me but makes me unique. 
I love that I can be myself in any situation but still adapt in my environment. 
I love the fact that even after all I've been through and still going through 
I can still keep a positive spirit. I love that I dream bigger than my failures. 
I love that I always go for the things I want because I believe in myself. 
Well mostly I love me because after God the only person I have to push is me. 
And I can only do my best when I am myself.

Linda Tembe captured by Botswele Mogotlane

"My birthday is January 15th, Martin Luther Kings birthday, I am the dream." 

I recited this before I even understood what it meant. Sharing a birthday with MLK 

and being half black and half white just gave me a sense of importance and purpose 

at a young age... I've always been someone to think very highly of others and their abilities. 

I just want people to understand how valuable and important they are.

Monique Sypkens, captured by Jelani Cleghorne

I cry every year on my birthday, tears of joy, humbled by God's grace,  

giving me yet another year to breathe, to live, to learn, to share.

Linda Tembe captured by Botswele Mogotlane

 

I've probably been camping 12 times in the past 4 years. 
I feel the most at ease and "at home" when I'm disconnected 

from technology, climbing trees, and swimming in some 

random lake in the middle of a forest. 

Monique Sypkens, captured by Jelani Cleghorne

I have a very beautiful and unique smile... It's a smile that is warm and welcoming. 

It's a smile that is contentious. When you're young and different, you are made to feel 

like what you have is wrong or you don't belong.  I  have a wide smile and for a long 

time I felt like it was the wrong way to smile. But I soon learned that your smile should 

come from the heart. And the things that make me smile are the things my girlfriend 

does for me like telling me how beautiful I am and what I mean to her she is a woman 

of little words but when she does share it, it makes me smile.

Linda Tembe and Brownie Karabo captured by Botswele Mogotlane

 

According to me, the purpose of life is to stay connected 

and worship our Creator and navigate your life based on Her ordained guidance...

To love others with abandon whether that be through your art, your service, your 

friendship, your honesty...And through doing that, you get as close as possible to 

holiness, to Jesus, and to heaven right before you actually make it there.

Monique Sypkens, captured by Jelani Cleghorne

For me life is simply a gift from God. 

I believe that it is given to us for a reason beyond our control, 

hearing my heart beat scares me at times more then it makes me happy,

knowing that it's the only thing keeping me alive is heart warming.

The purpose of life is to live. Be present in your own soul , spirit , mind , body... 

be present in your life and be who you believe you want to be 

and do that to the fullest.

Linda Tembe captured by Botswele Mogotlane