Translated: Art in the Caribbean, An Introduction
Art in the Caribbean, An Introduction by Anne Walmsley and Stanley Greaves covers art in the region from 1940s to 2000s. With a scant sprinkling of mentions about Grenada state in the Leeward and Windwards Islands section pages 146 -148, there is not one image of...
London, Leeds and Liverpool – part 2, the paper
My visit to the UK was to attend and present a paper at a conference in Leeds. My paper on the Everydayness of Visual, accompanied by about nine handcoloured sketches, was part of Session Eight, on Day One of the Narrating the Caribbean Nation conference hosted...
London, Leeds and Liverpool – part 1 the masks
My April visit to the UK was to attend and present a paper at a conference in Leeds. But as we well brought up West Indian people know, you do not go empty handed. My ‘gift’ shall we say, was to do a bit of community service, and that is how ShortKnee art met the...
Grenada ShortKnee in Puerto Rico
Luanne Frank (r) and me at the conferenceMarch 22: I presented a paper titled Our Present Image: The Grenada ShortKnee, Instrument of History at the Negritud Afro-Latin American Studies 3rd International Conference in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, as part of the panel on...
ShortKnee compositions
In Grenada the ShortKnee emerged from West African Egungun masquerade traditions fused with French carnavale elements, a masked carnival character wrapped in six and a half yards of vulgar fabric, mirrors, whistles, bells and baby powder. The...
Refuse defeat at every turn – after Hemingway and Caboverde, Part 3
The first time I read Hemingway’s Cuban novel was at school, a long long time ago. By the time Hemingway (re)crossed my path, I had begun to feel creatively evaporated. Enter Caboverde’s neocubist fish images, and Hemingway’s words bubbling in my head, I began...
My works after Hemingway and Caboverde, Part 2
Last year, I re-read The Old Man and the Sea and reacquainted myself with Roel Caboverde’s rural fishing images. Caboverde’s neocubitst paintings and Hemingway’s words inspired new visual and written content based on my childhood memories of fishing, off docks, rocks...
After Hemingway and Caboverde
Last year, I re-read The Old Man and the Sea. The first time I read Hemingway’s Cuban novel was at school, a long long time ago. By the time Hemingway (re)crossed my path, I had gone without a creative spark long enough that I felt in truth, as if it had leaked...
In Goat’s Head
A plain white towel covers the entire head of the ShortKnee. This headdress is referred to as being ‘in sheep’s head, a simpler and economically preferred version of a starch-stiffened and wired cloth headdress, a ‘crown’ that is referred to as ‘in goat’s head’. Both...
Women and a ShortKnee
My exploration of Grenada’s carnival icon, the ShortKnee focuses on translations of other artists’ works featuring pierrot figures, or those dealing with war, migration, desolation and isolation, elements which birthed an unique and iconic masquerade. Chaotic events...