At Fort Jacques
The visit to the fort was as I remembered from last year: a short enough drive uphill, through some residential districts, past two petrol stations, and numerous billboard advertisements which I had time to read, at the crawl of the traffic. Passing the umpteenth Digicel logo—on vendors’ umbrellas, wide swathes of redden walls, neighbourhood signposts—I said, in jest, to Andrea that in ten years, if not sooner, Haiti may well be renamed ‘Ile de Digicel,’ with the white logo on the lower red portion of the existing flag.
Forts Jacques and Alexandre were built close to one another at an elevation of more than 1300 metres, surrounding the town of Kenscoff near Petionville . The forts were intended to protect the capital Port au Prince from a French attack (that fortunately never happened) after the independence of Haiti. Fort Jacques is named for Emperor Jean-Jacques Dessalines. Fort Alexandre is named for General Alexandre Pétion, for whom Petion Ville is named.
Haitian artist, Melchiade Domond discusses technique with Andrea
We have been having such beautiful weather in Haiti… cool, with clear skies. Perfect for working outside, and for camaraderie under the trees on the upper level of hotel Ibo Lele. We have had wonderful choice of work space – poolside the first few days, then just past the pool, a quiet space on a flight of wide stairs where we could focus and get work done, without too much friendly interruption. We have been extremely fortunate, and grateful, to be able to interact with our Haitian colleagues who have been generous with their time and process, and we’ve been taking lots of notes. Communicating in a mix of Spanish, French and English, we are managing to do just fine, speaking the language of art. We were also given recent copies of the local daily, Le Nouvelliste, in which the art camp is featured, along with a photo of Team Grenada with the Mayor of Petion Ville, and camp organiser, Patrick Cauvin, doing Grenada proud!
After our long day of work, visit to historic Fort Jacques, then supper, (with bananas flambe for dessert!), I put in a few hours on our balcony atelier, before falling into bed… gravity at work. Tomorrow is another free day for creation. Translated: artists hard at work!
Article in Le Nouvelliste