‘Issa’ love for art

Gene Pearson masks peering in every room: doubling as light fixtures, impressive clay standalones or colourful collages of the African-inspired pieces, give Couples Resorts’ four properties an ‘artsy’ vibe.

Then there are the ‘homegrown’ paintings of mother and son, Oriente and Jude Issa, vastly contrasting, but equally striking.

Artwork stands out at each resort, from Couples Negril and Swept Away in Westmoreland to Sans Souci and Tower Isle on the outskirts of Ocho Rios, contributing to an already homely atmosphere for visitors but not telling the story of the hotelier Issa family’s love of the arts.

Unsigned pieces by Oriente Issa, a Spanish artist, and wife of Paul Issa, deputy chairman, Couples Resorts, blend seamlessly into the décor of the lobby at Tower Isle, conjuring nature at its best with seagulls in flight over a turquoise pond. Another with red and white ginger lilies, shaded by taller trees recreating the lush, leafy exterior of the property.

Whereas Oriente’s pieces maintain an earthy panache, son Jude stays true to the theme of his first and only exhibition, ‘Jude Rude’, in 2017. A can’t-miss piece at the entrance of Swept Away’s Patois Restaurant is ‘Police and Ganja Plant’, showing a policeman in ‘uniform’ watering marijuana vegatation. Jude replaces the red ribbon in the policeman’s trousers and hat band with the Rastafarian colours of red, green and gold, which he also uses in the chevrons on the shirt sleeve, depicting a cannabis plant-watering sergeant.

INFLUENCE

Listing his influences as “mostly Jamaican culture and music”, Jude, who studied business and economics at university, described his art as “a curation of contemporary urban culture”.

Critiquing his work using third-person narration, Jude had this to say, “Jude Issa’s body of work presents an amusing, ironic take on these issues and appropriates and subverts the visual language of brand marketing and celebrity culture as it functions in contemporary Jamaican society.”

Continuing he added, “He invites us to reflect on what these things mean in the Jamaican context and what they tell us about contemporary Jamaica. A very timely invitation indeed.”

Jude pointed to the inspiration behind the painting of the policeman watering the ganja plant as “kind of a social commentary on the legalisation of ganja”.

“Just a few years ago, you could get locked up, or worse, for a little herb. I just found it funny and hypocritical how society’s whole perspective on this ‘evil’ plant shifted so rapidly, probably because of the intrigue of great financial profits, as reported in the US and Canada … look how long Rasta a tell unnu.”

Issa patriarch Paul might not be as nimble with the brush and anvil as his wife and son but studied acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York in the 1960s. In the early ‘70s, he returned to Jamaica to teach speech and drama at Excelsior High School and has served as chairman at the School of Drama at Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts.

All five children of Oriente and Paul are involved in the arts. Gideon is a graduate of the School of Visual Arts in New York. Abra is a recent graduate in fine art from New York University, and Noah and Balthazar are both musicians.

“Yes, both my parents are artists. However, growing up, I never really planned to be involved in the arts. It wasn’t until my mid-20s that I started really getting into painting, more of like a stress relief kind of thing. I never really planned on showing my paintings to anyone but, after a while, I had so many piled up, my friends and family convinced me to do a show. So we took it from there,” Jude recounted.

Jude’s mural in the coffee bar at Tower Isle, featuring a dreadlocked man on a unicycle, reminiscent of Wailers legend Peter Tosh, and a striking airborne female, ‘Grace Jones’, depicts what he describes as “an ironic juxtaposition of duality … bold and often reminiscent of graffiti and pop art. A colourful, humorous reflection on local culture and consumerism and what it means to be a Jamaican in this era,” he said.

“We live in the great age of brand marketing. Jamaica has produced and pioneered several influential brands, especially in the worlds of music and sports but also in tourism and the food industry, and has itself become a brand,” Jude said.

He described himself as “a contemporary Jamaican Renaissance Man; a modern Diogenes without the obscenity; a Socrates minus the coyness; a Kierkegaard with a happier spirit; an everyman’s philosopher, who roams freely among the world’s great ideas, especially those that have been forgotten, hidden, or otherwise dismissed.”

Jude says he has major plans for an upcoming exhibition … but, “I can’t share any details, however, as they are top-secret”.

ainsley.walters@gleanerjm.com