Over 20 artists across the Virgin Islands territory answered the call for the celebration of “Rebirth – Spring Equinox.” The upstairs gallery at the Caribbean Museum Center for the Arts in downtown Frederiksted is filled with the allure of springtime in mixed media, acrylic, watercolors…all colors evoking the spirit of the season.
The opening was a huge success. Artist/curator Lucien Downes collaborated with the museum in a win-win experience for all. The rain did not quell the anticipation and the enthusiasm of the patrons who came out expecting the best and receiving more.
Saturday at 4 p.m, the doors will close on this unforgettable boast of color, form, shape, and texture. The community is invited to come take a look, or come take a second look at this explosion of art.
The artwork is for sale and supports the educational programming of CMCARTS and local artists.
Patrons, please step up to the second-floor gallery. Take a look at some of the work that evokes the feeling of spring and will whet the visual appetite for more:
Angelina Springer is happy as a first-time exhibitor in this show. She has been doing art for a long time. “See Again” is her mixed-media piece of looking back at herself…a retrospective of her life in the past and a look in the present. Springer invites the viewers to take their own perspective in her presentation of the “third eye.”
Rane Rawlins has been doing art her entire life. “I am self-inspired. I grew up under the tutelage of two master artists: Sy Levine in fourth to sixth grade and Leo Carty in grades six through 12. It was a blessing,” Rawlins said. With two previous solo exhibits to her credit, Rawlins continues at her craft and keeps busy in her role as art teacher at John H. Woodson Jr. High School. Her contributions to this show are “Solar Craving” and “Aw@K€n¡NG,” created in ink and organic media.
Lyn Voytershark submitted four pieces that boast a full wall in the gallery. “Floral in Green and Blue” is a giclee photo edit from the digital original to canvas gallery wrap. “Flowering Allamanda in spring colors are radiating from a distressed surrounding.”
Therese Trudeau gives the viewer the opportunity to walk into a field of lush green with a hint of moonlight and feel renewed in her acrylic and marker on canvas board, “Jungle Dreams.” She likes the contrast between a back-to-nature scene created in a very illustrative way, she said.
“One thing that I’ve been working on is the connection to motherhood and fertility. How the ocean and moon and the phases of the moon control the tide telling us, guiding us and helping us create a new beginning each month. Each month, each full moon creates a rebirth, a chance to shed the old and a possibility at a new beginning. Thinking about the themes of rebirth, renewal, and new beginnings, each of my pieces represents a different theme,” Trudeau shared.
Patti Tullis works in stained glass creating the beauties viewers can see hanging in the windows reflecting the light in the waterfront gallery. “Man-Dell-a Flower” is a 1930s Blue Dell Tulip plate combined with confetti and wispy glass.
Eric Paxton worked in oil and acrylic spray on found metal in “One Year Old.” “The ‘One Year Old’ is a dedication to the first birthday (earth-strong) of a little Crucian girl on the island of St. Croix. Watching her new eyes see the natural world with curiosity and wonder inspire me to look at the trees and leaves in a different way. How the few red-orange leaves stood out in the sea of blue-green. She held one and presented it as if to say, ‘look at this one.’ She showed other people, and they also picked red leaves to show her. One man was 87 and had a red leaf, and she seemed pleased. Everyone made a little dance with their leaves. She changed the world that day,” Paxton shared.
Eliana L. Schuster-Brown is a Crucian artist whose “painting allows me to share a little piece of myself with the world and it affords me the opportunity to touch people in ways words can’t.” Schuster-Brown shares her mixed media, “In Full Bloom,” with several pieces in this exhibit.
Slyandi Matthais created a digital illustration in “Allat ah dese man does be playing.” “This work can be classified as abstract, so the representation is up to the viewer. Abstract shapes play together in movement, which can show signs of life by an imaginary object. Each drawing is a broken glass showing views from multiple angles or dimensions in contrast to the world we live in,” Matthias said.
Tralice Bracy is an artist and teacher of art at St. Mary’s Catholic Elementary School in Christiansted. “A Deep Need for Resonance” is a mixed media collage: pen and ink, colored pencil, and tempera crayon, which shows her interest in myth and the symbolic nature of imagery, she said.
Bracy shares her poem:
A Deep Need for Resonance
Sometimes
Special things go away.
And somehow,
the sound of emptiness (whatever that is?)
Fills up space.
And we find
A deep need for resonance.
Victoria Rundberg-Rivera, M.D., retired from her medical practice and found a new love – painting. “Ascendant” is acrylic on canvas.
Jane Akin works both as an artist and an interior designer. Akin creates in watercolor and acrylic and offers art classes to local residents at her studio. Her bold colors can be seen in the acrylic on canvas, “Big Bird.”
Elwin Joseph is an associate member of the National Watercolor Society. Joseph is self-taught and works in watercolor, acrylic, charcoal and pastel. He has participated in many shows on St. Croix. “Poppies” is a watercolor on paper Joseph shows with more pieces on view.
Lucien Downes is a Caribbean-born artist and curator. He collaborated with CMCARTS to bring awareness to new beginnings and transformations, a season that symbolizes starting fresh and starting over – the Spring Equinox – “Rebirth.” Downes’ artwork is diverse, as he draws inspiration from daily life. He utilizes resin, acrylic, fibers, raw pigments, plexiglas, inks, dyes, and found objects. When he is not coordinating and curating a show, he is out in the community, beautifying the environment with his colorful murals. His work brings a feel to everyday culturally significant subjects. “Bella Dona” in mixed media is one of Downes’ offerings in this show.
The doors close this Saturday in the upstairs gallery at CMCARTS. Come out for a second look at “Rebirth” from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
For more information:
cmcarts.org
Museum: 340-772-2622
