Greetings all,

I wish you well for 2025 as you expand your journey. 

Recently, I was reminded by a friend of the value of showcasing my work and creative process in more intimate and direct ways. This is the result. I welcome you to the first of a monthly newsletter to share more aspects of my work and creative process with family, friends and  those who continue to demonstrate an appreciation for my ideas and work. It is also an attempt to encourage dialogue, I welcome your thoughts and engagement. 

On a whim I started exploring my archives doing parallel readings of my old and contemporary pieces. I had no specific objective, just exploration. As I delved into the collections, I reconnected with aspects of my work and felt inspired to give insight into my process as a Caribbean artist using photography as my medium. 

My goal has always been to create, release (into the world) and let the piece take its own life as it is connects with the viewer. I have never wanted to explain or over-explain the themes and intention of the work, preferring to leave it to the viewer to take what they want. Part of my work is to be in conversation with other established and contemporary artists, writers and creatives from the region and around the globe. As an artist, my desire is to create a new series of work which focuses on the re-imagining of some of the art world’s most celebrated paintings, photographs and sculptures in the Caribbean context.

This month’s selection, “The Wheel Has Already Been Invented” (2012) is what I like to refer to as a beautiful accident. It is one of those ‘in-between’ shots, unplanned, fleeting, organic, ‘perfect’; reminiscent of Belgian surrealist painter, René Magritte’s 1946 painting “Le fils de l’homme” (The son of man). These pieces cross space, geography, form and generations. Similar to Magritte, very little is given to the identity of the person. What can the visibly invisible offer me in my exploration of the Caribbean space? I take it as an ongoing challenge to always look beyond what is there, to see what isn’t there. There are so many invisible elements that contribute to shaping our Caribbean space and identity. Foremost for me is how Caribbean identity is layered; there is no rigidity in its formation. The malleability and transparency of the chewing gum speaks to this as it is broken down and reformed enveloping the subject. This for me demonstrates a resilience evident in the evolving lives of Caribbean people. The symbolism of the dreary and muted tone of the painting juxtaposed with the vibrancy of the photograph demonstrates that connections, messages, commentary can cross space, time and cultures. Looking back can teach us about similarity in difference across space and time. While Magritte’s work is muted and dreary it communicates a seriousness in the tone of the image speaking to the significance of the visible invisible. It elicits curiosity. My work asks similar questions, but I embrace vibrant colour, environmental elements, a different body, movement, embodying my Caribbean aesthetic to produce a similar message. We gravitate to the visible, but what about the invisible? 

At the time I took this photograph I had no ulterior motive, I just wanted to re-create a famous painting I enjoyed with elements of my everyday. It evolved into something with much more meaning. It Is my hope that this work does for you what Magritte did for me, remind me to always look beyond and see what isn’t there.  

As the wheel has already been invented, I just want to modify it with a modern Caribbean twist. 

There are no new ideas. There are only some new ways of making them felt.

- Audre Lorde