Leroy Clarke paints a picture with words ‘Struggling back to grace’

Leroy Clarke paints a beautiful painting with words
alone at the CNCF Cayfest Lecture.

by Christopher Tobutt

Friday,  April 22, 2005

Distinguished Caribbean poet and painter Leroy Clarke was the guest at the Cayman National Cultural Foundation’s Sixth Annual Cayfest Lecture on Tuesday 19 April, at the University College of the Cayman Islands.

After Trinidad’s independence in 1962, the young Mr Clarke was among several of Trinidad’s s artists who experimented with a range of ethnic themes as they looked for a new cultural identity. 

Mr Clarke’s name has since been strongly linked with the Afro-centric approach to art, tracing the African strands of Trinidad and Tobago’s culture, as he has used his art as a vehicle for moving towards a culture of self-realization. He has therefore often been described as one who liberates, the breaker of the unseen shackles of Eurocentric cultural dominance.

So it comes as a surprise to discover that in his speech, Mr Clarke barely mentioned the topics of race, colour, or neo-colonialism directly. Instead, he concentrated on the fundamentals of culture, explaining principles that are applicable to anyone of any background, race or class. 

His message was not political so much as a message of personal self-discovery. Instead of the rhetoric that goes alongside the pointing of accusing fingers across cultural and racial divides, Mr Clarke explained that self-discovery, the pre-requisite of artistic development, whether in an individual or a nation, began with ruthlessly honest introspection. 

In other words, we have to begin pointing all the fingers back at us. 

“It has been written, ‘in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.’ Later the same passage says, ‘the Word became flesh.’ We come to get a glimpse of ourselves; the possibility of the Word being made flesh in us,” said Mr Clarke. 

Before that can happen, however, Mr Clarke explained the nature of the burden that had to be carried by the artist:

“We understand what it is to be born in iniquity; we have to struggle back to the graces from which we have fallen. We must learn to row for centuries upstream to get back to this un-fallen state.” 

It was the artist’s duty, Mr Clarke said, “to never become satisfied, to always be unsatisfied” in their quest for uncovering truth. 

That quest had it’s own value that we are in danger of forgetting: “We have become less familiar with the process of ‘Becoming.’ I say, “I am this,” or “I am that,” but have I stopped often enough to ask the question: Who is Leroy Clarke?” 

A central theme in Mr Clarke’s lecture was the need for complete, uncompromising honesty. It could only be attained if we bear our souls to the scrutiny of solitude; then we will gain the strength needed to testify to the truth:

“We’re afraid of solitude; we need a position with foolish credentials. We’d rather join a little foolish club. But then we lose the sense of communion with the maker of the moon, the sun and the stars.”

Building the cultural, artistic and spiritual heart of a nation began with the process of self-discovery. Mr Clarke likened it to the relationship between lovers: “I cannot love you unless I have a self with which to love you; I cannot say, ‘I love you,’ and yet when I come to examine myself, I am a void.

“The one you love should reflect you, like the mirror which, if you don’t break it, will tell you the truth. 

“We have the opportunity here to bring a new order of the world, not in terms of numbers, but in the power of the spirit of the space. Ripples that go out from here like a pebble dropped in a lake.” 

“The world is undergoing a process of dehumanization; we don’t see, we’re numb, we’re dumb; we’re absent. Yet we still have vast possibilities. You have a huge canvas on which to create something. Create a consciousness here in Cayman, it’s a very flat, bland landscape; it’s time we saw some hills of consciousness, a new level of aesthetic awareness to our space.”

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