June 14, 2009 – After being born in England, moving to Africa then sailing the Atlantic for 22 years, artist Mandy Thody has taken root in the rain forest of St. Croix.
Her art career has also moved, evolving from discipline to discipline. She has gone from a silk textile painter to watercolorist into ceramics and sculpture.
She found it was not feasible to work on a sailing vessel so she set up a small studio ashore on St. John, but the cost of land there made it impossible for Thody to grow and expand into a larger studio and specialize in large commissioned works.
“I don't tolerate the heat well so I have to be in the shade of trees or on a boat in the breeze,” said Thody.
In 2006 Thody bought two acres of heavily forested, lush, green land in the St. Croix rain forest, on the ruins of a sugar plantation village. Her father, Tim Thody, recently bought three more acres.
“The village dates back to the 1840s or 1860s,” Thody said. The village consists of five cottages and slave quarters that was part of the Lawaetz family estate in Little La Grange.
“I fell in love with one particular kapok tree and decided this was the place to have a studio,” Thody said. There are more than 20 different types of fruit trees on the property, she added.
Thody and her father, who is an architect and builder, are restoring the cottages together.
“I grew up seeing this kind of work,” Thody said. “My father does restorations, so it isn't so hard for me to do this type of work.”
The first cottage, completed in 2007, is set up for living quarters.
“The only bad part about living here are the centipedes that live in the damp walls,” said Thody.
Thody has a rustic shanty studio set up outside the cottage where her 17-year-old daughter, Merryn MacDonald, also an artist, teaches the throwing of pots on the potter's wheel and Thody teaches basic clay classes and sculpture.
Thody works with terracotta and white clay, sculpting busts, animals, platters, tiles and large reliefs. Her primary theme is humanity, expressed through the face in drawings, watercolors and sculpting of Zulu tribes women, West Indian market ladies, men, children or babies.
Thody and her father are half way finished restoring a second Danish building. Plans are for it to be a 2,000-squarefoot studio-gallery with separate studios for rent. She said the studio may be open within a year.
“My hope is this will become an art village with others doing what they love here in nature.” Thody says.
Thody's art is for sale at Bajo el Sol on St. John and Mango Tango Gallery on St. Thomas. On St. Croix her works can be commissioned through the Whim Museum Gallery and Design Works where she currently has a small body of works on display.
Those interested can learn more about Thody's work and purchase pieces by visiting her website.
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