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These works are influenced by Augusto Marin’s 1977 El Defensor. In search for strong images to continue my ShortKnee translations, I came upon this image a few months ago, then subsequently realised that the artist had passed on. On April 18, Augusto Marin, best known for his large paintings and murals that blended Caribbean and religious elements around Puerto Rico, died age 89.


Over two nights, I extracted elements from El Defensor, in particular the positioning of the figures, to create nine works relating to the Grenada ShortKnee, defender of our cultural heritage. Marin has an authority figure enthroned and facing two claimants, in mid ground. At the back of the right figure, his supportive seconds attempt to diffuse the situation. In my translation, the arm of the chair/throne becomes the bow of a ship (transatlantic) and in the authority figure’s hand (in Marin’s work empty), holds a bottle of powder, talisman of the ShortKnee.

These works on canvas – black, white, yellow ochre, pthalo blue, cobalt blue, alizarin crimson and cadmium red, with outlines in oil pastels, overlaid with an old gold acrylic on bubble wrap wash – continue my ongoing visual study attempts to move this street performance to canvas, to expose the iconic Grenada ShortKnee, in the midst of continuous danger of disappearing in the pool of a global society. 

The ShortKnee is art.