Root art and my ‘twin brother’

I love art, especially if it is very different from that which I see regularly, something to gawk at and to inspire my own artistic abilities. So, when I heard of a man from St Thomas who turned tree roots into thought-provoking works of art, I did not hesitate to go see him at Eleven Miles, Bull Bay.

Upon arrival, the friend who told me about him said he looks like me. I brushed his comments aside because I have heard many utterances about people who look like me before, and I was never convinced. So, the latest utterance was not earth-shattering.

What struck me; however, were the ‘sculptures’ that were lined up waiting for my arrival. I sat in the car trying to figure out what they were. They looked like alien creatures from another space and time. They were contorted as if they were dancing. These were what I was brought to see, and they looked different from any wood sculptures I had seen before.

Brimming with questions, I pulled my ageing and creaking body from the car and looked around for my friend and the sculptor. There they were, standing under a tree smiling, and anticipating my reaction.

Yes, the man has black skin, is about my height, has a gap between his teeth, and a sturdy upper body like mine, but nothing jumps out at me to get me to say, ‘Wow!’ He was awestruck, and so was my friend. After brief pleasantries it was question time.

But as we chatted, I kept glancing at him, and my focus was now distracted. Then, suddenly I told him that I would look like him when I get older, assuming that I am the younger one, and they laughed. The conversation was now about us ‘twins’.

Yes, there is a slight resemblance, but I am a little taller. His name is Courtney Brown, and his head is smaller than mine, and our smiles reveal our gaps. Something was going on, and my friend was very fascinated.

Later in the evening, A Facebook post drew the most responses I have had in a long while. That he is my ‘twin’ was the general conclusion. My father has some explanation to do, some said. Yet, he is from the west, and he’s dead. So, I laid the matter to rest. It is just nature playing with us.

Back to the root art, Brown said he got into working with lignum vitae roots by chance in November 2015. The first piece he pulled out, he said, looked a dog, and he decided immediately to make something with it. He took it home “and get to work right away”, he said.

Whatever he created with it became an instant attraction. People were amazed, started to call him a sculptor, and created all sorts of excitement. He was motivated and decided to make some more, as a sort of creative zeal had taken him over.

He would push the roots, one of which he alone cannot lift, in a wheelbarrow for “four to five miles uphill” to transform them. He said he had never trained for such artistic work, had never forayed in the arts, and had never dreamt of such. “I never know that it in mi,” he revealed. And now he has “developed a passion” for it. One particular piece took him three days to be uprooted.

The pieces have drawn much admiration from his associates and friends, but most of them are still works in progress. As they stand, they are not exactly the way they were when he first dug them out. He had to trim and cut off pieces that were not in line with his concepts. Then he used arbitrary tools to create facial features.

Individually, they have their own essence, but together they look like they are having a discussion about what to do with us Earthlings who are destroying the environment, and when you reposition them they look like strange sea creatures in a ritualistic dance.

Brown does not intend to keep them as conversation pieces or his own home decor. He intends to make some money from his hard work. He has pulled out the roots, and the roots have unearthed his creativity.

And, he said, “While a making it mi mind more relax, focus. It make people laugh, and whatever I can do to make people laugh, I feel like it’s a good thing.”