Beautyfull things

Today I just want to meditate a bit on beauty. About its mysterious ability to magnetise, to inspire us to be better. I’m talking about natural beauty — like a stupefying sunset, or that beauty generated by man in works of art — like “Woman on De Bass” by Trinidad All Stars… That magic… I just want to share some of the things that touch me as an artist, as a person fighting for the honour of local creativity.

BEAUTY IN PERPETUITY

I remember the first time I saw “Beauty in Perpetuity” by George Bailey and Terry Evelyn as a child. It was just a photo, yet the image terrified and compelled me. Later as a youth “Man Crab” by Peter Minshall thrilled me in the same way. And “The Apotheosis of El Tucuche” by Leroy Clarke. I remember — as young artists — we all ran down collections of Leroy’s drawings — the same way we ran down exhibitions by Stuart Hahn — probably T&T’s greatest figurative illustrator.

I remember as a child learning how the radio worked just so I could put it on Saturday morning to press my ear against the speaker and hear the late great Errol Jones tell the stories of Anansi. I remember ritually camping in the living room with my whole family watching Dimanche Gras finals every year — until about 1992… enchanted by the revelation of each song. I remember my family again huddled together watching Turn of the Tide, No Boundaries, Sugar Cane Arrows, and Play of the Month — just as we would later The Cosby Show… These were all beautiful things…