Left the coastal low country of South Carolina for the south eastern coast of Portland, Jamaica. Here working with locals on http://jamaicanaturally.weebly.com/blog making progress and seeing results. I am posting some of the goings on here on my blog, with more detailed information on the Jamaica site. For anyone who wants to come and check out the Jamaica you always wanted to see but never thought you could? Link us there on our contact page. We can connect you with some of the best Jamaica has to offer in terms of 100% natural yard vibes.
One cool brother doing fantastic things in Norwich, just outside Port Antonio city limits is Junior. A tall man with boundless energy and drive, positive to the max, so well in tune with his environment that he can make trees bear fruit way before they are 'supposed' to. "Who feels it knows it" - and the trees definitely feel it. Speaking of trees, his relationship with them is something very special. In particular a large breadfruit tree. This tree is Junior's special project. The Laughing Treehouse, (named due to the laughter he hears whenever anyone occupies it), is a work of art. The inspiration came from a Japanese friend he met some years ago who suggested a tree house. He really liked her and thought if he built the tree house she would come back to see him. So he built it. A treehouse inspired by love and built with love. It is almost complete, and another one is in the works. Please check JamaicaNaturally where we will go into more details about Junior and his creative genius. Another great place is the Portland Art Gallery founded by Hopeton, in Port Antonio. I am sharing textile skills with the artists, in order for them to expand beyond original paintings and into one of a kind textile designs they can sell. Functional art pieces made from recycled materials and objects. Rust dyeing and natural dyes. When it comes to food and eating here, I like to foraging in the hills for edibles. I am finding cacao that is ready to eat, then plant and some we also dry. Sometimes I go fishing and catch my dinner. I also look for plants that 'stain' my clothes. I grab leaves, roots, bark and flowers to see if they leave a strong stain on white fabric. If they do they might be a good natural dye. Experimenting with them all. A sample book is in the works. Mango blossoms are everywhere, breadfruit is soon ready to pick, calabash are being carved, and the artists are documenting it all on canvas. Jamaica is truly wonderful. Lots going on, very busy here with projects. I will soon volunteer and teach a workshop to local youth in Port Antonio, at the Jamaican Ministry of Youth and Culture location, demonstrating how they can make a Weebly website and promote their own cause/ideas etc. One Love, Kotahi Aroha, Peace, Progress and Positivity, Monique
0 Comments
aaaahhhh - the days are getting warm enough to be planting food, warm enough for mosquitoes to know we ARE the food, and warm enough that everyone seems to be happy...humans and insects.. or it is just so nice down here everyone/everything IS happy..
So, yesterday I'm at the library, making my art, and I apologize to the librarian for smelling like campfire/smoke all the time.... and she says - "really? - I thought you were big into incense" I'm like 'really? for real? Are you kidding? Or just being nice? 'Nope' she says.. "I just thought you liked incense a lot....maybe it's that wood your burning?" Hmmmm, so even the wood down here is nice then? I'm guessing it must be. Or at least I really hope so. And then people are just cool. Relaxed. Chillin'. Fishing. Oyster roasting. Or thinkin' bout doing that when they get off work. Or wearing really amazing boots to the library like a lovely lady I happened to meet.. Bought 'em in Asheville NC - she said. And she welcomed me to the island like I was her long lost cousin.. beautiful woman..wish i could remember her name, but I know i'll see those boots again. Driving on the one road everyone seems to take everywhere, (hwy 21) my eagle eye happened on some 'haint blue' wood pieces being thrown out, from the old Blocker's General Store on St Helena Island, which is undergoing a renovation, (hopefully not gentrification)..... I'm gonna use those for framing my paintings. Most definitely. Blocker's General Store was a white family who farmed the land for many decades. After them came a man who sold fruits and vegetables for about a decade. The builder who is doing the restoring told me all this. I believe him. A local. My partner in primitive everything - Forrest - comes in one day with a plant that looks edible, and is growing all over the island. Put pic on FB and find out from the 'Ancestral Plants' experts it is edible. Known as Daikon Radish. This means I have greens. Free. And radish. Everywhere. Wild harvesting is the way to go. I am realizing Loquats are considered more of a 'decorative' tree by newcomers here, and for businesses they seem to be more of a landscaping strategy. Talking to the locals though, it is something they grew up with and ate a lot of. Speaking of eating a lot of, I went to the local supermarket and found a section of strictly Caribbean foods!! Wickid!! Highlight of the highlights? I think so. Well maybe not. I would say the haint blue wood for framing is the winner. Low Country niceness for real. And the wonderful church bus that I wish I could buy and turn into a mobile arts workshop for under-served communities/schools in the south east. Keep on dreaming....everyone..set the short term goals to make your dreams a reality, and it slowly becomes real....really. Ain't nuthin' to it but to do it, people. Peace, Positivity and Progress. The dream of being able to create art for the social good, and have a space my family can come to see me if they want to, is the driving force behind what I am doing. At long last I am brave enough to make it to the land in the Low Country of South Carolina and begin the task of developing a space to create. With nothing but positivity and progress in mind. Brave - due to the fact I have a young homeless man (braver than me) assisting me, and I am not here alone at night. I am driving him nuts, because what I see as history, looks to him like an old shack that needs to be torn down. It is an old shack, but it IS history. So yes, I am driving him crazy because it must be restored and saved. Not torn down. History, gotta love it.
As we beat down the bushes and got closer to the shack, we found interesting items. A 'haint' gullah blue painted panel of wood (my favorite), a piece of wood with interesting symbols on it, and old no trespassing signs. An old hubcap that is extremely useful as a cooking top on our fire. Locals drive by and slow down, checking us out, in particular because of the constant fire burning for warmth, heating water for showers, and cooking, Also it's the first time a lot of locals have seen the ol' shack minus all the bush that was hiding it from their view. We have cut a LOT of bushes and small trees by machete and axe. No power tools, although a gas chainsaw would be really nice to have. If anyone wants to come and camp out for a weekend, with a gas chainsaw in hand, please contact us. We need it temporarily. We can trade you a weekend camping in one of the most beautiful locations on the east coast USA. Proud to say we now have a driveway of sorts and a little area cleared. Way more to go still with the machete and muscles. Meeting locals who have passed by and wandered or wondered in. An elderly man (nicknamed geechee), who was a shrimp fisherman on the local trawlers for decades until illness struck. He rides his bike to get back his health, and checks in on me frequently. (he loaned a ladder so I could get to the damaged part of the roof) He hasn't been to the local beach since they started charging a fee to enter it. But he did talk about the times when he used to go, when one part was the white beach and the other, the black beach. They were close enough for everyone of both races to see each other, he said. A young woman took me to a church around the corner and i met the pastor, who is allowing me to collect water when needed. It is the home church of a young American Idol winner from a few years ago. While I was there I noticed two beautiful loquat trees on the church grounds. I haven't eaten or seen loquats since I grew up in New Zealand. I felt like I found gold! Food, and food I love. Happy it is cold enough to not worry about hordes of ticks and mosquitoes right now. Not cold enough in the day to keep away the snakes though. A big black snake is (i guess...?) My new best friend, since they keep away the so called 'bad' snakes I'm told. This post would be longer and more detailed, but the effort required to live without running water and electricity, all while trying to fix a space to live in, takes a lot of time. I am keeping a daily journal and will post a timeline of each days events very soon. Thanxoxo for your interest in an artist determined to make art by any means necessary. Peace and progress - Monique de LaTour |
the artistand the journey ...... Archives
January 2019
Categoriesall images and products copyright ©2015 Monique de La Tour and protected under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)
|