How can we apply creative skills to not only make a living, but solve problems? T&T Guardian feature writer Shereen Ali spoke to sign painter Bruce Cayonne and designer Debbie Estwick to see how their different but related projects seek to find solutions. Today, we focus on Cayonne's story, while tomorrow, we look at Estwick's take on recycled design products.
Bruce Cayonne has been making posters and signs for almost 30 years now. Born in Guyana, he came to T&T in 1979 at the age of 12; his father is from T&T while his mother is Guyanese.
He remembers that when he first came to T&T, he was struck by its faster pace: "I saw my first TV here...But my childhood in Guyana was really nice, you know. Coming here wasn't too big of a culture change for me, because remember, Guyana and Trinidad both have people of East Indian and African descent."
The family settled in Arima. He recalls: "I always liked living in Arima, especially how close-knit the people here used to be–everybody knew each other. But it's not so much that way now, because now Arima has grown perhaps three or four times bigger than it was."
Cayonne says he loves working from home because it gives him flexibility and independence.
It wasn't always so, however. He has earned his living running two bars in the past, and has been involved in other businesses. At one point, he had a regular day job working for a fairly large firm, painting billboards for its marketing department. And then, unexpectedly, the firm laid him off.
That was a difficult time for him. He describes it as bittersweet: bitter, because of the loss of reliable income; sweet, because it forced him into being his own boss, and building up his own sign-painting business, which turned out to be a good decision for him.
"It was salt–real hard for about five years, then income came from the party business," he said. Sign-painting has now given him an independent income for more than two decades.
"In '92 I first started promoting parties," he recalled.
"It started when a group of us wanted to raise funds to help somebody doing a surgery, so we say, leh we do a party. So I did the posters to advertise the party. Soon after that, promoters started approaching me to paint signs for their fetes," he said.
Cayonne reflected that his family has always had a creative streak, which has expressed itself in different ways: "My father was a joiner. He also carved wood, and would make paintings with emulsion paint of sceneries on hardboard. And he had a brother who was involved in all aspects of art–acting, painting, carving, burning."
Cayonne said his sign work is fairly steady throughout the year, but the July-August period is the best business time for him, with Easter coming second, and Christmas, third. Carnival is slow for him–because radio stations now do a lot of the fete promoting.
When he does a sign, he uses size, colour and style to make the letters convey the main idea or emotion–church signs might be in restrained, stoic blues, black or white, while a "Girls Gone Wild" fete sign would be more energetic, sexy and playful.
He says he imagines how a voice on the radio might change the pitch and inflection of words to add drama and interest, and he uses this idea to give visual emphasis to words in his signs.
A single job order might involve making anything from 25 to 400 signs. During one election campaign, he recalled a job for 400 eight-by- four-foot signs. He currently makes 16 different sizes of signs.
"Radio is popular for promoting parties, but it is expensive," explained Cayonne about the business: "For instance, a party promoter might pay anything from $10,000 to $15,000 for daily radio ads for one to two weeks for just one radio station.
Whereas with me, $10,000 can buy a whole lot more, and you will see it every single day, 24 hours a day."
How does he like being his own boss? At ease in his breezy back yard, beneath some mango trees, he says:
"I tell people right now, it is better to work for half your salary (and feel comfortable)...If someone were to come right now, and offer me something far far higher than what I am making, I would say no. It's not to say that I am making a huge amount now, but I just totally enjoy setting my own pace.
"Where I am living here, I can see bus route maxis passing, I see people going to work every morning, half-past six, seven in the morning, their heads back and sleeping...they are tired and they ent reach to work yet. Coming home in the evening, is the same sight I seeing. Some of them have little children with them at that time, all six o'clock in the evening and school finishing since half-past two.
"So to me, that is a sorry sight. Not to mention the traffic jam and all that kinda headache. To feel that you have to go through that.
"So working here on my own, I come out here on a morning, at whatever time. Sometimes I work in the evening. I can totally set my own pace. And it is more relaxing and more satisfying."