On January 17, chairman of the Tunapuna/Piarco Regional Corporation (TPRC), Edwin Gooding, stood under an overcast but clearing sky at Auzonville Park and shook his head: “This has blown me away,” he said.
White-topped tents dotted the scene, youngsters played on the swings, a bouncy castle was packed with noisy children while young people with pens, pencils, paints and brushes drew, cut, dabbed and painted even through a threatening rain.
Art in the Park had been a new component of Tunapuna/Piarco Week activities inspired by creative communication busy-body, Barbara-Ann Look Loy, and supported by her Wide Angle Media team.
Twenty young artists, some of them quite accomplished with careers in the field, had been shortlisted via Facebook, and judged by an expert panel headed by art veteran, Greer Jones-Woodham.
They were all there with their canvasses and art sheets, water colours, oils, pencils and pastelles interpreting the subject of Happiness.
Gooding confessed to an initial level of doubt about the event’s likely success.
“The idea was kind of far-fetched and we didn’t know how it would go,” he told T&T Guardian. “But what I see here today is amazing.”
Winner of the $8,000 Toyota First Prize, Sarah Chadee, later remarked on her Facebook page: “Happiness is such a subjective term so I decided to illustrate what brings me happiness the most: Wanderlust/travelling.”
The winning piece was a paper collage depicting Chadee’s “travel bucket list in a childlike dream way.”
The illustrations included “the Taj in Agra, St Basil’s Cathedral in Russia, meeting a Geisha in Japan, elephants in Thailand, pagodas and dragons in China, macaroons and the Eiffel Tower in France and the tropic beauty of Hawaii and Bora Bora.”
Chadee’s works can be commissioned via her Facebook page–Illustrations by Sarah Chadee–with murals, paintings and artistic craft on offer. This 20-year-old UWI psychology student is also a competent writer whose work has appeared in the T&T Guardian.
Not far away was Meenakshi Ganga Persad, paint tubes in one hand, brush in the other, hunched over her canvass. Earlier sprinkles had slowed her work but not stopped it. The 22-year-old UWI visual arts graduate took the second prize. Ganga Persad is also an accomplished photographer whose work can be viewed online. Her Tumblr page links you to both her art and photography - meenakshigpartwork.tumblr.com.
Also working quietly at the Park was artist/graphic designer, Haley Chanda Subit, whose startling colour pencil interpretation of the theme took the third prize. Haley’s Facebook page is a virtual catalogue of striking artistic work. One of her paintings once graced the cover of the telephone directory.
Artist Richard Rampersad, was among the panel of judges. He was impressed by what he saw at Auzonville. “The work is really strong,” he said. “The interpretations are varying from abstract to illustrations to landscape to figurative works … and a lot of people simply decided to play with the medium in unconventional ways.”
Jones-Woodham would not agree that the talent on display was necessarily a “snapshot” of the state of art in the country. “It is in fact a vehicle for the creative process,” she said, “but it is not the only picture.”
“It’s the beginning of good things to come,” she added.
“So few people have an opportunity to express themselves,” she said, “and art is the strongest vehicle to connect to yourself.”
Gooding pledged the Corporation’s support for the event on an annual basis. Some thinking is already going into use of the top pieces in a TPRC calendar.
Other top contestants included Matthew Dangleben - www.danglebenart.blogspot.com - who placed fourth; Prashant Ramkissoon in fifth position and Supria Deonanan who place sixth.