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Charlotte Amalie
Thursday, March 28, 2024
HomeNewsArchivesFOOD, FUN AND ART AT WHIM

FOOD, FUN AND ART AT WHIM

When asked during Saturday’’s Starving Artists Day at the Estate Whim Plantation if he qualified as a starving artist, Marv Porter laughed.
"That’’s questionable," said Porter, the head of the Palleteers, a 45-member group of St. Croix artists. In front of him was a table full of watercolors and sketches belonging to him and his son Charlie, who also paints conch shells.
Starving Artists Day is held three times a year at the Whim as a benefit for the Landmark Society. It draws hundreds of people looking for bargains on local art and the traditional food that always accompanies festivals in the Virgin Islands. Particularly enticing at the Whim are the old-fashioned Johnny cakes made in a brick oven and served, still warm, with sugar.
Hundreds of people milled around the breezy Whim grounds Saturday, some appearing to be seriously contemplating pieces of local art, others enjoying the festival’s atmosphere. Along with paintings were a range of local crafts, from stained glass and calabash bags to pillows and jewelry.
Sitting on a blanket with his oil paintings propped around him was Bryan Hayward, whose work included an abstract silhouette of William S. Burroughs and a rendering of Jack’s and Isaac’s Bay.
"It’s been a hobby but I’d love to make some money at it," he said.
The day was broken into performances by the St. Croix Heritage dancers, steel drum bands and the Danish Gym Team, which is touring the territory partly sponsored by the V.I. Department of Tourism. Saturday they vaulted, somersaulted and performed native Danish folk dances. During one, they wore traditional costumes, with the women in long peasant skirts and aprons and the men in knickers and red stocking caps.
Demonstrations included drum making and fish pot making, basketry, bush tea making and rope doll making. There was also storytelling and a performance by Ali Paul’s mocko jumbies.

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