Myrlande Constant (b. 1968) explained how she became the most prominent female artist of the Vodou flag medium during an interview with the author in Miami Beach, Florida, in 2003. At age sixteen, she went to work in a wedding dress factory and went on to create floral embellishment for other kind of clothing, a process that seemed to lead naturally into crafting Vodou flags by 1990. Her first sale of a flag was to Richard A. Morse, manager of the Oloffson Hotel in Port-au-Prince. Subsequent sales of Constant’s exceptionally beautiful Vodou flags were made through the intercession of her husband Charles, who worked at the hotel and touted the flags to hotel visitors.
“I don’t know where I developed the inspiration,” Constant said. “My father is a Vodou priest and also a Christian. My mother served the spirits, but she wasn’t a mambo (Vodou priestess). I have no one to thank except the spirits and God before the spirits.”
The process of flag-making seems to be mystical, according to Constant. “They just come out,” said the artist, told by her father that she is motivated by an ancient spirit. “Everything I put on a flag is supposed to be there. I never went to school. Still, the spirit keeps me working.”
Milo Rigaud’s landmark book, Vévé, featuring symbolic drawings of spirits made on Vodou temple floors, is routinely consulted by Constant for inspiration. Then she incorporates her memories of Vodou ceremonies and knowledge of the spirits into her designs, which begin with pencil drawings on white cloth. She sews sequins and beads on the cloth, mindful of the colors associated with the spirits.
The artistry and uniqueness of Constant’s flags are beyond dispute. She embarked on an ambitious project, creating Vodou flags as large as bedspreads that depict significant events in Vodou and Haitian history. Beyond providing support for her family, Constant is committed to visually chronicling Haiti’s stroried past by means of needle, thread, cloth, and tiny adornments.
From “Masterpieces of Haitian Art: Seven Decades of Unique Visual Heritage” by Candice Russell. Schiffer Publications Ltd, 2013.
Bien-Aime is globally recognized as being one of the best living metal sculptors in Haiti. He incorporates classic voodoo and Christian themes. He has distinguished himself through the accentuation of relief in his work by folding the iron in places for effect, and by adding pieces of metal to the surface. Bien-Aime’s art is included in many important private collections and museums. His work is unique and dynamic, additionally he rarely repeats images unlike many other Haitian artists. This has given him the reputation of being a truly creative and original artist.
Magdalena specializes in religious themes and in particular the Madonna and Child. Each of her beautiful paintings is enclosed in a handmade paper mache frame with a leather back. Painting on glass is an art technique by which the artist paints a picture on the reverse side of a glass surface. She lives and works in Poland, and is in her 80s. Her work is treasured by many folk art collectors and layman alike. Her work is very popular – some of these images must be special ordered. Please inquire for availability.
Justin McCarthy was born in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, and lived in Weatherly most of his life. His family was affluent and he was exposed to quality museum art at an early age. He experienced tragedy with the death of his brother in 1906, and his father in 1907. During his second year in law school, McCarthy suffered from a severe mental breakdown after failing an exam. He spent five years in a mental institution. There, he began to draw and paint at the encouragement of his mother. He painted subjects from everyday life and many figures from popular culture, most notably female movie stars and celebrities, as he was an introvert and too shy for courtship in real life. McCarthy mostly created art with pencils and watercolors on paper, but later in his life he experimented with oil painting. He is a highly regarded American naive artist, with work exhibited in many museums around the country.
Janice Yvonne Kennedy was born fourth of six children the year 1941 in Harbins Community, Georgia, thirty-five miles northeast of Norcross, Georgia. Until the age of fifteen, she worked in the fields as a sharecropper. Janice never went past the ninth grade. Her dad made her stay home to work in the fields. By the age of ten, Janice could pick one hundred pounds of cotton a day. She now lives in Georgia with her second husband.
Janice Yvonne is a self-taught artist and born-again Christian. When she starts a painting, she asks, “Lord, what would you have me paint today?”
Janice Yvonne loves to make a nothing into something that hopefully someone would find a smile through. She has made quilts, painted furniture, floral arrangements, and loofah sponge dolls. What she loves most is painting with acrylics on Bristol board. She paints on her kitchen table when sunlight permits. She has been known to turn her paintings upside down to get the best effect. Janice is physically challenged. Her artwork allows a creative outlet for her life experiences.
Paul Graubard was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey in 1932 and grew up in Passaic, New Jersey, a mill town 15 miles from New York City and 50 years behind the times.
He spent his early school years reading, doodling and playing hooky and dropped out in the 10th grade to hitchhike around the country. After taking a high school equivalency exam, he went to college, married, and settled down in New York City to raise a family.
He worked as a teacher, a professor, and a psychologist, always finding work that gave him the autonomy he craved. His eldest daughter’s untimely death from cancer hit him hard, setting off a period of too much drinking and smoking.
On a whim, and maybe out of desperation, he started to draw. Two years later he discovered painting, gave up his practice as a psychologist and has been working full time and a half as a painter since then. He believes that stumbling onto art saved his well-being, if not his life.
He now lives in Lenox, Massachusetts with his wife Karen.
Self-taught artist Mary Whitfield was born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1947. When she was a child, Whitfield’s grandmother was a strong influence on her developing perceptions. She brought Whitfield to church and to civil rights meetings. She also told her many stories of slavery, black oppression, as well as of peaceful farm life. During her adolescence, Whitfield and her mother moved to Long Island. There, Whitfield would eventually meet her husband, David, a hardware salesman. Although she worked by trade as a supervisor of library services, she was inspired to translate her grandmother’s vivid oral tradition into visual images. While her children were still young, Whitfield began expressing herself with old house paint and plywood. Later, in 1990, she moved to watercolors on canvas.
Whitfield focuses her rich paintings on the historical and modern plight of African-Americans, and the cruelty and injustice they have experienced. The powerful works contain little detail; the figures have no facial features. Instead, the drama of their gestures or body language conveys the feeling of the painting.
Whitfield’s work has been exhibited at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland, at numerous galleries around the nation. It is also featured in the permanent collection at the Birmingham Museum of Art. Whitfield was recently commissioned to illustrate a children’s book about her husband’s youth. She is also the subject of an article by a Birmingham, Alabama curator in Raw Vision magazine. Whitfield currently lives in Port Washington, near Long Island, and paints on her lap every night in bed.
Still magical and special, Haiti is hard to explain. It gets to your heart and stays there forever.
This island that scares so many, is in reality a puzzle. Beauty and chaos coexist. A smile to or from a Haitian is all it takes to know that one is safe here. Much to the surprise of the American media, most Haitians have a good heart and soul and would not hurt a flea.
The ladies at the outdoor markets push and plead for a sale, but when they don’t get one, there is no sign of anger…only laughter and chitter chatter ….this is their life: selling a few mangoes and a few bunches of bananas every day, a few dollars here and there. It is acceptable to them.
Dire poverty, intense heat, sweating bodies clad in torn clothing, hard working people, dirt and trash and rubble everywhere, street sellers closing their eyes with heat and sleepiness overtaking their need to sell; the contrasts are many.
We wonder what goes on in these minds, in this apparent misery, and with conditions most Americans would find appalling. And yet it is their day to day existence, with no other choices available. There is a strong pride and an elegance that Haitian people have, though their manner is slow and deliberate. The smile is key !
The ironies are blatant. Expensive, brand new as well as old SUV’s line the roads, which are full of potholes and cracks, requiring big and heavy tires, and drivers who can withstand the delays and the tough road conditions.
A rainstorm is a deluge; intense, angry, over the top. extravagant, not your typical rain shower.
The traffic is so terrible that the SUVs, motorcycles and human beings weave in and out constantly, butting in front of each other, impossible and unreal conditions, absolutely no order or “system”, except that somehow it all does eventually and miraculously flow. There are no traffic lights, and very few police in sight. Crazy and chaotic are the best words to describe the scene on the roads.
Yesterday we encountered an old man on the street, making thick rope out of tiny strings of rush- twine. All day he works and proudly shows us the product of his labor: a few yards of heavy rope to tie around large baskets for sale in the street. His pride was on his face. We gave him a few bucks and some crackers; such gratitude that we received was very warming.
That’s Haiti: patience, endurance, resilience, diligence; completely unpredictable and chaotic.The phone service is horrible and completely unreliable. How can a country exist with no phone service? And yet it does, and business gets done, people get together, parties and weddings happen, life goes on in spite of hardships such as these problems and issues.
The “necessary” is a sense of give and take, acceptance, and a good sense of humor.
Don’t take anything for granted in Haiti; there is always a surprise waiting around the corner. Very unamerican in that sense: expect chaos, the exotic, the unique, the unexpected.
The earthquake has left its damage and its marks upon the land. The dead are ghosts whispering from their fallen spots beneath the rubble. The Haitians are slow to speak about this disaster that seems a cruel blow to an already tragic country. They all lost.
And yet life goes on, the pursuit of recovery and progress is apparent. They are not giving up. Hope and resilience are everywhere in this land. The survivors are here and very much alive, and life is about the living and their current problems, joys and sorrows.
The Hotel Montana is still my favorite hotel in Haiti. It has the ambience and charm that I love in a hotel; even though it is not completely “Americanized”, thank goodness. What I love is that it is unique and very Haitian. The views are the best in Petionville, and the terrace and swimming pool area, restaurant and bar, are breathtaking. Where the old , gracious and grand Hotel Montana main building once stood, stands a more humble version , still commanding an incredible panorama of the city of Port Au Prince. The new buildings are charming gingerbread style, with elegant and modern touches.
From the pool one looks up to see the huge mahogany tree standing guard against future earthquakes and tragedies such as occurred in January 2012. A beautiful garden memorial has been built to remember those who died , and it seems that the dead are honored and remembered. So much loss in just a few moments time. How does one cope and recover from that disaster? Yet the people here are living life , and time goes forward at the Montana. Little by little they are building a beautiful and wonderfully unique hotel. It is comfortable, safe, well-located, and pleasant. The staff are genuinely friendly and sincere. This hotel is “home” to many devoted International clients from many years. Like Haiti itself, the Montana is predictably different, and there lies the absolute charm.
The artists in Haiti are still working hard, making voodoo flags, metal sculpture, paintings, paper mache crafts, sequin and beaded purses, woodcarvings, and all kinds of wonderful works of art. There are many treasures in Haiti….and I was able to buy several of these to bring back to Galerie Bonheur. Below you will see some of the marvelous “finds” that I captured on my trip in May 2013.
All in all, I am happy that I got up the courage to go to Haiti. So many people are afraid for the wrong reasons. I would take my children and grandchildren, friends and family, without fear. I love Haiti and will always go back there to buy art and to get inspiration for life!
