amjamin

Albert Einstein once said, "Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere" - in the case of these set of creative minds, they took the flight of imagination from recycling cans into carnival finery. The recently concluded Red Bull Art of Can/Art of Carnival competition oozed creative juices, which centred on creating costumes using Red Bull cans as the primary material. Jodi Taylor wears Nicolette Answer's carnival costume Nicolette Answer and Traci Wong, students of Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts, Kingston, recalled that their mission was to get as many cans as possible. "I used to stay back at the school parties and collect Red Bull cans," said Answer. "I started to cut up (the cans) and experimented with how I would put them together as a costume." Answer themed her costume around Red Bull's tagline - 'Red Bull gives you wings' - incorporated art and engineering by creating ...

Masquerade - courtesy Bacchanal Jamaica Spring is in the air, the foliage of the tropics blooming spreading innumerable colours of Mother Nature, from trees to flowers to mango trees laden with succulent, juicy fruits sweetening in the crisp Caribbean sunshine. As the monochrome rays of the sun refract into spectral colours at the Mas Camp in Kingston, in a quiet corner, Earl 'Fuzzy' Franklin sits surrounded by glue, stapler guns, pliers and scissors - unlikely tools one may think that transform mundane, raw material into sensuous, colourful carnival costumes. "I am not a designer," Fuzzy says, "I know how to put the costumes together." Fuzzy, who has been with Bacchanal Jamaica since its inception, says that initially the costumes were bought from Trinidad. "While we were out there (in Trinidad), I would watch them (the designers) at work, and I picked up the traits," he said. "After three years, we started making our own ...

There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who, with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun, said Pablo Picasso, world-renowned Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer. A group of students from the School of Visual Arts (SVA) Textile Department, at Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts (EMC), set out to transform their spots into the sun - ­ dispelling the colours of the rainbow. These creative minds were at work to create couture for the annual alternative fashion show at the EMC. “Alternative fashion show was created to push the creative boundaries of the students,” informed Robert Hall, lecturer at the Textile Department, SVA.  “It has now become a major fund-raising occasion for School of Visual Arts Textile Department and the mission is to create designs using non-traditional materials such as plastic, aluminum cans, stones, etc.” These stude...

"Even a sheet of paper has two sides," goes a Japanese proverb, which epitomises the strength in the delicateness of paper. It goes beyond to recognise the source, the nature - trees the paper comes from. Paper takes shapes and forms by intricate movement of hand - from cranes, pianos, lilies, to a jumping frog. The time-honoured Japanese art of origami goes beyond making intricate and delicate designs. "We learn to be patient and to be neat when we learn origami," says Yasuko Ishige, project coordinator at the Embassy of Japan in Jamaica, and an origami enthusiast. Ishige grew up learning the art from her grandparents and parents in Tokyo. Origami, derived from  ori  - to fold, and  kami  - paper, Ishige explains, is a very meticulous process with key emphasis on cleanliness and precision, creating a perfect contour for the design. These traits, she adds, are a reflection of the way things are traditionally done in Japan. The intricacies of the t...

Labour of boundless patience, care and love "Discipline is rooted in Japanese society," says Kaori Saito, cultural officer at the Embassy of Japan in Jamaica. "You follow rules, concentrate on what you do and communicate often with yourself." Saito's words capture the essence of bonsai, an ancient Japanese art form taking root in Jamaica - figuratively and literally. Inspiration can come in many forms, and often, it comes from unexpected places. Lionel Derizzio and Nigel Parke gravitated to bonsai because of Mr Miyagi, the karate teacher in the 1984 Hollywood film  The Karate Kid . For Derizzio, a former banker and past president of the Jamaica Horticultural Society, seeds of bonsai - which literally means plantings in a tray (bon: tray-like pot; sai - plantings) - began germinating in his mind. He has since been meticulously trimming, replanting, and giving shape to roots and leaves. "Bonsai is a great hobby," Derizzio says. "The ...

The stage at the Philip Sherlock Centre for the Creative Arts, UWI Mona, Kingston, transformed into the courtyard of a temple in India, replete with the adornment and grandeur of the ancient architecture, the beats of the tabla (Indian percussion instrument, similar to bongo) coupled with the tinkling of ankle bells created by the rhythmic movement of the dancers resonated in the air. The setting for the evening was Nrityanjali (offering of dance), a scintillating rendition of a medley of Kathak, a traditional North Indian dance form, transitioning into contemporary Bollywood-style movements. Nrityanjali, the five-member troupe from Suriname, was in Jamaica at the invitation of the High Commission of India for performances in Kingston and Savanna-la-Mar. "The objective of this show is to highlight the richness of the Indian culture and how it has adapted in the Caribbean," said Pratap Singh, high commissioner of India to Jamaica, on the sidelines of the show. Th...