As the Normandie Hotel prepares to open its sprawling arms to warmly embrace the expected flow of Art aficionados to its next exhibition at the St Ann’s grounds on June 9, a quietly tireless, resilient artist named Christopher Ross-Dick is waiting to emerge as part of his own exciting, personal evolution process.
Here’s how Ross-Dick saw himself as an artist from early days when his work appeared at a presentation by Idlewood Bespoke:
“As an artist I’ve taken a great step over a mountain during these past couple of years. Initially, I began making art because I felt like it would be my doorway to legendary acclaim and fortune. Unfortunately this blinded me from both God and who I truly am.
Brought me to a really low place, actually”, he said.
I had to discover what I really enjoyed was the act of making, the moments of discovery and sharing those breaths of insight with others. This has led to what feels to me like a monumental change in my disposition towards art and making”, the artist was quoted as saying.
Like all future front runners and aspiring masters, Ross-Dick paid homage to the revered Jackie Hinkson at whose feet he seems to like sitting for words of advice and wisdom.
In this connection, he observed:
“Before I made one of my biggest mistakes thus far Jackie Hinkson gave me some advice along the lines of ‘scaling it back, making it simpler and letting it be about the work’. Maybe I’m finally and unusually ready to listen.”
This selection of work here consists mainly of plein air watercolor paintings that I’ve done over the past two years. They revolve around this sentiment that longs for home. In making these paintings I’m almost trying to propose that we take the light that passes by us daily and use it to build ourselves a new house. This work is a conversation between ourselves about ourselves for ourselves”, he added.
Having exhibited and collaborated with a number of artists of his current and older generations since graduating from the UWI Campus of Visual Arts studies five years ago, Ross-Dick has been a quiet fire living in active awareness of the experience of struggling through the crucible of change which all heroes must undergo.
Among the many he has worked with are: Shayna Karim * Anna Power * Dhillon Khan * Lendel Fraser * Amrika Sampath and
* Marie Diaz
From an early stage, Ross-Dick displayed the ability to adapt his artist’s brush to drawing lines that could generate business in the real commercial world
One of these interesting adaptations was done with ta firm of Architects known as
“This project’s aim was to make the living, dining, kitchen area more spacious and update the kitchens and bathrooms into a cohesive interior that exudes a “relaxed-luxury” feel. Specific interventions include new flooring, a 2-tone paint finish and floor-to-ceiling curtains and blinds to provide a warm monochromatic background” ,the project’s brief said.
Color accents are provided by wood and upholstered furniture, mixed-metal accessories, and vibrant original artwork from two artists, Christopher Ross Dick and Khaffi Beckles. The kitchen design incorporates modern, handle-less cabinets, quartz countertops with a textured tile backsplash, new lighting and stainless steel appliances.
With artists like Christopher Ross-Dick and his cohort of young, practical dreamers still alive in our often frenetic societal mix where so many young ones die by the bullet before getting a chance to
breathe from the land’s sweet, fresh air therefore, it’s good to feel a sense of hope in
our future which, from all appearances, is still in good hands.
And, as the old people like to say:
You can put that in your pipe and smoke it!
