Dr Safeeya Mo­hammed

guardian.wemagazine@gmail.com

The art in­dus­try suf­fered sig­nif­i­cant­ly dur­ing the glob­al pan­dem­ic. The sec­tor saw rad­i­cal dis­rup­tions to many of its rou­tines, rev­enues and re­la­tion­ships. How­ev­er, this pre­sent­ed a dou­ble-edge sword, al­so giv­ing peo­ple with­in the cre­ative sec­tor the op­por­tu­ni­ty to in­tro­spect, en­gage in ac­tiv­i­ties to re­duce the over­whelm­ing stress and cre­ate mas­ter­pieces.

In 2020, with­in the pan­dem­ic, an un­prece­dent­ed time that put the spot­light on well­ness ac­tiv­i­ties, a time that fos­tered height­ened cre­ative ex­pres­sions, this group of artists came to­geth­er and found a way to cope us­ing the skill that came nat­u­ral­ly to them, art!

Cel­e­brat­ing per­son­al vic­to­ries

In a world where cre­ativ­i­ty knows no age lim­its, Is­land Artists TT, un­der the tute­lage of Paulette Nar­i­nesingh of Art De Joulie, proud­ly an­nounces its in­au­gur­al art ex­hi­bi­tion, an ex­tra­or­di­nary show­case of tal­ent, growth, and artis­tic tri­umphs. “Our art class isn’t about per­fec­tion; it’s about the joy of dis­cov­er­ing the colours we nev­er knew ex­ist­ed with­in us. It’s about step­ping out of com­fort zones, smash­ing self-doubt with a mal­let (metaphor­i­cal­ly, of course), and un­leash­ing our in­ner artist,” Nar­i­nesingh shares.

“Be­hind every brush­stroke, every colour choice, and every com­po­si­tion lies a per­son­al vic­to­ry. Our ex­hi­bi­tion proud­ly dis­plays the tri­umphs that come with over­com­ing chal­lenges, step­ping out of com­fort zones, and nur­tur­ing the cre­ative flames with­in. Each piece on dis­play tells a sto­ry of courage, self-dis­cov­ery, and the pur­suit of artis­tic ex­cel­lence.”

PAINT-Tings: Un­veil­ing cre­ativ­i­ty

“Is­land Artists TT, a com­mu­ni­ty of vi­brant adults who’ve dared to awak­en their in­ner artists and are now un­veil­ing their very first art ex­hi­bi­tion with a sym­pho­ny of cre­ativ­i­ty. It is not just an ex­hi­bi­tion; it is a jour­ney of dis­cov­ery, re­silience, and the joy of cre­ative ex­pres­sion. It isn’t just the ti­tle of our ex­hi­bi­tion; it’s a tes­ta­ment to the jour­ney each of us has em­barked up­on, the trans­for­ma­tive pow­er of art and the un­break­able spir­it of adult learn­ers.

“Show­cas­ing the col­lec­tive works of our nine art ad­ven­tur­ers‑Di­ane, Es­ther, Karen, Liesl, Mar­cia, Nicole, Paulette, Si­mone, and Ster­ling. This ex­hi­bi­tion en­cap­su­lates the unique artis­tic jour­neys of in­di­vid­u­als who dared to em­bark on a path of ex­plo­ration and growth, dur­ing an un­prece­dent­ed chal­leng­ing time. Art­works vary in ap­proach, de­pend­ing on the ar­eas of in­ter­est ex­plored. For ex­am­ple, ab­stract, mixed me­dia, tex­ture, col­lage, and rep­re­sen­ta­tion­al.”

Fos­ter­ing a com­mu­ni­ty of cre­ativ­i­ty

“At Is­land Artists TT we be­lieve in the pow­er of com­mu­ni­ty. The ex­hi­bi­tion serves as a cel­e­bra­tion of the bonds forged amongst us. It is a tes­ta­ment to the safe space we pro­vide for cre­ative ex­plo­ration and the friend­ships that blos­som through shared pas­sion. We en­cour­age, chal­lenge and at times when need­ed, find some­thing to have a hearty laugh at to break the frus­tra­tion and ten­sion that can be felt at times when a break­through seems any­thing but close at hand! We have be­come “fam­i­ly”.

Ex­hi­bi­tion de­tails

“PAINT-Tings: Un­veil­ing Cre­ativ­i­ty” opens its doors to the pub­lic on Tues­day at The Art So­ci­ety of Trinidad and To­ba­go, St Vin­cent Av­enue, Fed­er­a­tion Park, from 6 pm to 8.30 pm.

Oth­er ex­hi­bi­tion days are from Oc­to­ber 5 to Oc­to­ber 7. Ex­hi­bi­tion times are from 12 noon to 6 pm dai­ly. “We warm­ly wel­come oth­er art en­thu­si­asts, sup­port­ers of life­long learn­ing, and any­one cap­ti­vat­ed by the pow­er of artis­tic ex­pres­sion, to join us in this cel­e­bra­tion.”

Pre­pare to be swept in­to a world where can­vas­es come alive.

Join the con­ver­sa­tion:

Be a part of the con­ver­sa­tion

and share your thoughts on

“PAINT-Tings: Un­veil­ing Cre­ativ­i­ty” us­ing the hash­tag

#PAINT-Tings Un­veil­ingCre­ativ­i­ty 

on so­cial me­dia.

To learn more about Is­land Artists you are in­vit­ed to fol­low them @is­landartists on In­sta­gram for ex­clu­sive be­hind-the-scenes con­tent, artist spot­lights, and more.