In­nis Fran­cis

in­nis_fran­cis@ya­hoo.com

It is usu­al­ly the case where af­ter Car­ni­val ca­lyp­so­ni­ans have very lit­tle work to sus­tain them­selves in the in­dus­try and are forced to find al­ter­na­tives.

For Maria Bho­la-Paul, a ca­lyp­son­ian and com­pos­er, her liveli­hood out­side of the Car­ni­val sea­son is de­pen­dent on oth­er as­pects of her cre­ativ­i­ty. In ad­di­tion to op­er­at­ing a mo­bile spa, Let’s Spar­ty Uni­sex Mo­bile Spa in Trinci­ty, she is al­so an event plan­ner, dec­o­ra­tor and de­sign­er.

Af­ter the COVID-19 re­stric­tions af­fect­ed the op­er­a­tions of the spa, Bho­la-Paul be­gan fo­cus­ing on her artistry.

“I am main­ly self-taught as I have al­ways been artis­tic, but I have a friend I take guid­ance from as well. She is my go-to per­son for ad­vice Hal­cian Pierre,” she said.

“When COVID hit, I went vir­tu­al with the paint spa. Peo­ple pick up paint kits and do ses­sions with us on­line. Vir­tu­als are dif­fer­ent en­er­gy but change is con­stant. It is a re­lax­ing and re­ju­ve­nat­ing ex­pe­ri­ence.”

Bho­la-Paul’s many ca­lyp­so ac­com­plish­ments in­clude: Na­tion­al Ca­lyp­so Queen 2007, Po­lit­i­cal Monarch 2017, My First La­dy Na­tion­al Young Com­pos­er 1999, Eman­ci­pa­tion Monarch, Ju­nior Monarch’s young com­pos­er, and so­cial com­men­tary and win­ner of many re­gion­al ca­lyp­so com­pe­ti­tions. She al­so worked with a dai­ly news­pa­per for three years and, was for­mer Pres­i­dent George Maxwell Richards’ me­dia re­la­tions as­sis­tant for four years.

Her lat­est ven­ture is jew­ellery de­sign. Af­ter re­cent­ly com­plet­ing an on­line jew­ellery course, she got straight in­to de­sign­ing and cre­at­ing pieces and has pro­duced a col­lec­tion. Mu­sic To My Ears, a name sug­gest­ed by Car­ol Prince Man­dela. Artists like Vaugh­nette Big­ford and Ter­ri Lyons have been seen sport­ing some of her de­signs on so­cial me­dia.

“I love ac­ces­sories, jew­ellery. They are the first thing I look for, then my out­fit,” Bho­la-Paul said. “I start­ed my jew­ellery with mu­si­cal notes be­cause of my love for mu­sic.”

She said with Moth­er’s Day com­ing up she has been get­ting re­quests for per­son­alised lo­gos on ear­rings and neck­laces.

Bho­la said she tries to keep her prices af­ford­able and ex­am­ples of her work can be seen on her In­sta­gram pages @bhold­e­signs or @paintspa01.

In­ter­est­ed per­sons can al­so call or

What­sApp 344-9898 for more in­for­ma­tion.