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Rasheda Tennant works on a customised ring of silver and brass   "My pieces have to tell a story," says Rasheda Tennant, a young Jamaican jeweller, who said she combines her clients' personal choices, their stories with an eclectic mix of media, colours, and design. The jewellery that she creates is a statement - literally and figuratively. Tennant said creating is in her DNA. Her grandfather and father were woodcarvers and she, from as far as she can remember, spent her childhood and teenage years in their workshop, tinkering with the tools, carving, and hammering wood. "I was always helping my father; I used to accompany him whenever he went to the sites. I helped him in his workshop," Tennant said. She told The Sunday Gleaner that the training was hands-on and on the job. "That's how I have these muscles," Tennant said, as she flexed her chiselled biceps, shaped by hammers, nails, saws - not your typical doll-totting girl. The play th...

The creator and his creations - Wazari Johnson “I am like a child on Christmas morning when I open my kiln,” said Wazari Johnson, his shirt dotted with spots, and hands caked in clay, ready to shape the docile, earthy mass of mud into statement pieces. It's love, he said, that makes the wheel spin around, fire in the kiln burning and ideas to create the poetry and prose in glazed ceramic. “For me, everything about ceramics is just simply awesome,” Johnson said. “I love everything about the process, from getting the idea of what form I want to create, to preparing the clay, to taking it on the wheel. I love seeing the piece slowly dry and finally proving what it's made of in the fire, I love glazing and glaze firing.” These ideas, like any artists’ creation, form on a blank slate. In this case, from specks of mud, which Johnson said is therapeutic to work with and is also adaptable to changes. “I find that clay is a very versatile and "forgiving" material,...

The high arches atop the Victorian columns of Scotiabank's King Street Branch lend old character to the façade of the building Imagine climbing a flight of stairs made of marble - the white shiny stone with black inlays. The flight opens up to a grandiose ceiling rising, and you find yourself in a hall surrounded by white marble, which also extends to the columns and countertops. No, this not transcending to romanticised poetry, nor by any figment of imagination is this a dream. This is a bank. Cold, hard currency and financial instruments are the last things that would come to anyone's mind in this early-20th century building - the King Street branch of Scotiabank, to be exact. A grand Victorian structure in downtown Kingston. "Not only does our branch boast a number of beautiful art pieces from a wide cross section of Jamaican artists," said Linley Reynolds, branch manager, King Street. "The building itself is an impressive piece of art and a Kingston...

Naecia Dixon with her illustrations "I am not a word person," said Naecia Dixon, a fashion illustrator, who plays with forms, colours, and figurines and expresses her emotions through myriad strokes than the defined shapes of letters and sentences. The fine lines that define fashion illustration, according to Dixon, are a work of art. "This form has principle elements of art," she said. "I am still a raw talent. I have so much to learn." The difference, according to her, is that in fashion illustration, the subjects are the clothes and the accessories, which become the focal point and have intricate details. In simpler terms, fashion illustration is the communication of fashion that can be expressed through drawing, painting, or illustration. Detailing is the key in getting the best results. "Fashion is a tough industry; it is very competitive," said Dixon, who is self-taught and dreams of taking this natural talent from paper to t...

The man, his canvas and the subject immortalised - Webster Campbell paints The Chapel at the Mona campus of the University of the West indies. "I am as old as Jamaica," said Webster Campbell, sitting down under a tree in the grassy expanse of the University of the West Indies, dabbing colour from a palette and meticulously painting an arch on the canvas. For an artist who measures his age not by years, but by the number of sunshine days that his country has savoured as a free nation, Campbell is one of Jamaica's most prolific painters. He loves to be on the move, encapsulating the history, landscape, architecture, and relics of the island on his canvas - for him, the beauty of the art lies in places where time is standing still and life is al fresco. "I have always been inspired by old buildings and monuments," Campbell said. "I want to capture them in my paintings, because we never know if those buildings will be there tomorrow." He is co...

Decked hina doll of the empress on display on the occasion of Hinamatsuri "I have always decorated the dolls since my daughter was small,” recalled Sayoko Takase, pointing  to the elaborate display of hina dolls, Hinamatsuri – or the Doll Festival, celebrating girls – which is about good health and future happiness.  Elegantly attired in traditional Japanese finery – silk kimono and jewellery – the hina dolls were intricately placed on a pedestal on March 3. “It (Hinamatsuri) is the celebration of health and happiness of girls, it does not matter how large the display of the dolls are, it is the thought that matters,” said Mrs Takase, wife of Japanese ambassador to Jamaica, Yasuo Takase. Her daughter, Yuria, is grown up now, studying in a University in Tokyo, but this occasion still finds relevance. “It is a celebration of being a girl, and I feel proud,” Yuria exclaimed. Hina doll of the Emperor The dolls, are not only pretty faces and grand attires, they ha...

A social commentary - severance and divorce, paintings by Mortimer "When I was seven and go to church, I used to use the blank 'note' pages of the Bible to draw," Mortimer McPherson recalled. "The notes were drawings in my Bible." Perhaps a divine intervention that was encouraging this youngster's creativity to ooze from his pencils and send a message to the Almighty, Mortimer embarked on his artistic journey. There were some other key influences in his life, as he was growing up in St Catherine. "My mother was a dressmaker, and I was always observing her process of putting things together," he said, "and there was a painter and sculptor in the community, whose works also inspired me." But, he said, his mother was not too pleased when Mortimer decided to pursue arts as a career. "My mother couldn't come to terms with that decision, my older brothers went to the university and she wanted me to do that too," M...

Ideas and the process, according to the fundamental principles of Apple, is a product of those who are round pegs in square holes, and those who see things differently and, most times, the bulb glows when one least expects it. "I was watching a documentary," said Tricia Williamson, social media and online communications manager, Jamaica Public Service (JPS), "I saw how, in Africa, they used material from billboards to make bags, and I thought, why we can't do the same here?" The light-emitting diodes (LED) of the television screen transmitted the inspiration and the BannaBags project was conceived. The objective was two-pronged,Williamson said, to reuse and recycle banners and billboards, which would have found their way into the dump, and to provide a cheap and sturdy option for school children. "This project is addressing a viable need and helping schoolchildren who are in need of back-to-school supplies, at the same time providing employmen...

"Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it," says Confucius, whose words of wisdom are embedded in the crystal-clear brew from the Land of the Rising Sun. Sake, the potent confluence of spring-fed water and grains of rice, has been an integral part of Japanese society, and Noriyoshi Nagai's family tradition for six generations. "It (Sake) is a historical beverage consisting of rice and water; it is not just a business, everything I produce are like my children," Nagai said. Nestled in a valley among the snowcapped Mt Hotaka range, Kawaba village is a postcard-perfect setting. Lush green foliage, crisp cool air and the clear spring water flowing down the streams, which Nagai recalls, became the source of inspiration for his ancestor Shoji Nagai, who founded the Nagai Sake brewery in 1886. The idea for the brewery came from the inherent desire to preserve the sanctity of the nature and purity of water. "The water is so pure that you can ...

Ska Vengers: Raghav 'Diggy' Dang; Stefan Flexi K, Tony Bass, Begum X, 'The Late' Nikhil Vasuedan, and Delhi Sultanate Think music and India - the image of damsels in their ethnic chic finery gyrating to the beat of percussions flashes in mind. But the home of Bollywood and the lip-smacking curry is whipping the tunes of ska. Begum X and Delhi Sultanate, lead singers of Ska Vengers, the new kids on the ska block from the heart of India's capital, breezed through Jamaica recently. "This trip is about absorbing the culture and the vibe from the birthplace of reggae and ska," exuded Begum X. The couple had their share of mystic, divine and serene eastern vibes to share as they sought to create a confluence of music in divergent cultures. "Music has the ability to bring people from different backgrounds together," said Delhi Sultanate. "So what I would really like to see is more alternative venues, more street dances etc." ...

World War I Trench Mortar The gaping 240mm barrell of the trench mortar, riveted to the ground, points to the sky and looks as cold and menacing as it did a century back, spewing bombs that were notoriously called 'flying pigs', and the results were catastrophic. The trench mortar, among several other pieces of weaponry and effects, have found a final resting place in Jamaica. These are reminiscent of World War I, which changed the face of the world, and the science and art of warfare. "First thing that came to my mind was, 'I wonder what stories these can tell, where they saw action how they came here to Jamaica'," says Captain Staci-Marie Dehaney, force curator, Jamaica Defence Force (JDF). The Great War, spanning from 1914-1918, was entrenched, literally and figuratively, in testing the limits of human endurance and resilience. This is evident in the evolution of the warfare and the weaponry from that era - large and lethal. Though silent and r...

Carl Lauder started working when he was a teenager and has since kept going Carl Lauder gently pulls out a record from its cover, dusts it and places it on the turntable, gently placing the needle on the groove, and lets the player turn out the sounds of music. Lauder is not a fancy disc jockey, in Randy's Record Mart in Parade, downtown Kingston - a melting pot of the city - he is striving to preserve and keep a musical tradition alive. "I have been working here (at Randy's) since I was a teenager," said Lauder, as he meticulously wiped traces of dust from an LP (long play) record. "I love what I am doing and this gives me the motivation to carry on." Lauder is a lone soldier, treading the path to keep the romance of analogue tones alive in the 21st-century digital world. Randy's is testimonial to the crests of the island's musical history. Sounds of silence: A stack of vinyl in the recording studio Established by Vincent 'Randy...