Welcome, and thanks for agreeing to talk with us today. You were born in Saint Lucia, and your art looks very Caribbean in terms of colors. Yet you received your degree from a college in Canada and live there now. Can you describe how locale affects your art?
Thank you for having me. I appreciate the opportunity to talk about my art.
To answer your question, not only was I born in Saint Lucia, but I was raised there and left only as an adult. My spirit has been nurtured by some of the more vibrant aspects of Saint Lucian culture like our carnival, flower festivals La Rose, La Maguerite and other creole heritage activities. Even our national wear is produced from brightly coloured Indian madras fabric for reasons related to our colonial history and so colour has traditionally been a dominant part of our lives. Additionally, as the island is located so close to the equator, the sun’s luminosity makes these colours pop and vibrate. All of this nostalgia influences how I perceive colour and my choice of colour palette in my work. For opposite geographical reasons, being further from the equator, colours tend to be more muted in Canada especially in the autumn and winter months. So while Canada is where I live now, my primary experiences with colour are still intrinsically woven into me and this is what you observe as Caribbean in my art.
