People thought artist Mpho Mathebula was foolish when he gave up a job at a Stellenbosch art gallery to start his own business in Cape Town’s Khayelitsha township.

It’s still unusual to spend money on art in a township, he said in a report by Pharie Sefali in GroundUp.

“People were laughing at me saying that I was stupid to leave my job,” he said.

Mathebula rented a small space in a blue fruit-and-vegetable shack in Khayelitsha, where he sells his paintings and bead work. He struggled for a few months but now he’s getting orders, according to GroundUp.

His customers are tourists, shoppers at the fruit-and-vegetable shack and people passing by the nearby taxi rank.

Khayelitsha is a partially informal township on the Cape Flats of Cape Town. Its name is Xhosa for “new home.” The fastest growing township in South Africa, it had a population of 391,749 as of 2011.

Mathebula, 36, moved to Cape Town from Tzaneen in Limpopo in 2005, hoping to find a better market for his work, according to GroundUp. As a school student he painted and drew, but dropped out in grade eight, living on the streets for years. Arrested and convicted of housebreaking, he spent three years in prison where he learned art and bead work.

At the Khayelitsha store he sells beaded shoes from 250 rand ($18.17), paintings, and portraits made in beads (1,200 rand or $87 and up) that can take weeks. He also does commissioned work including advertising murals and company logos.

For artists like Mathebula who have struggled in life, their passion is a lifeline, said actress Andrea Dondolo, who commissioned a bead portrait.

Mathebula has two women doing bead work with him in the business and he’s willing to teach anyone who asks.