The Indefatigable Alcina Nolley

Speaks About Art and St. Lucian Life

WHEN Alcina Nolley and her husband, Mell, first visited Saint Lucia in 1983, the purpose of the short trip was to check up on her father who had by then retired. They returned the following year and stayed a few days more. But after returning the third year and spending a few days longer, the couple decided to find a piece of land and build their island home.

By 1992, Alcina and Mell had relocated from their home in New York and settled in Saint Lucia. While awaiting the completion of her home studio, the indefatigable artist with salt and pepper hair began teaching art at Leon Hess Comprehensive Secondary School that same year. She recalled her experience at that school: trying to make something virtually out of nothing.

“I’m a born teacher, so I love teaching,” Nolley told me. “The only problem I had was that the teaching facilities and support for the arts were just not there.”

But Nolley, who was born in Buffalo, New York, was always eager to see what the Saint Lucian way of life was like. Every Saint Lucian she had met in the States had a good job and education. Her father was born in Brooklyn, New York because his mother was pregnant with him when his parents migrated there. Despite the journeys across time, she felt connected to Saint Lucia.

“My mother’s relatives were from St. Kitts but she and my father met in Buffalo. But the Caribbean family was always present: aunts, uncles, cousins and letters back and forth. So I’m two generations away from being Saint Lucian but always was Saint Lucian.”

The first year Nolley visited Saint Lucia, the M&C Fine Arts Festival was on at the time and she was drawn to it immediately. Aside from family ties and a longstanding pride of having an island heritage, she was amazed at how attractive and stimulating the local art scene was.

“Back then, Saint Lucia was a place where one couldn’t even get Scotch tape, rubber bands or peanut butter. But people were producing art out of nothing,” she explained.

Saint Lucians, Nolley said, are indeed an artistic people. However, she believes the government needs to recognize that everyone will not be a lawyer or technician and that the creative spark has to be nurtured so as to foster a deep sense of and more avenues for artistic expression.

“When people are creative, they gain confidence in themselves and that makes for a complete person who can recognize the environment in which they live and appreciate it,” Nolley stated. “That’s what’s missing a lot of times when people litter because they don’t care about the environment, because they don’t see its worth. The arts, be it music or drama, or whatever form, help in that regard.”

She added: “It’s not futile. Everyone isn’t going to be an artist. But everyone will gain that self-respect and have respect for the environment and other people. There will be less crime and littering. People will know how to make decisions for themselves.”

Nolley has participated in the M&C Fine Arts Awards Scheme for many years. That came after one of the scheme’s board members who lived a few houses away from her father’s encouraged her to become a member, which she eventually did and served as a judge for many years.

After M&C handed over the awards to, the Cultural Development Foundation (CDF), she decided to give up her position as a judge and instead participate as a competitor. Participation, and having someone to compete against, is key to nurturing and advancing the arts, she believes.

During her first year of teaching, she became involved in the annual lantern festival. She figured out a way to get her entire class involved in it by making a school of fish lanterns. The judges were impressed with the students and their fish lanterns swimming in formation across the stage and they won top prize.

Nolley is a painter primarily and loves images and colour. She paints water colours, acrylics, pixels and oils. But when digital art came along and she got her first computer, the new technolgy played a big part in her art work. She currently does a great part of her art work on her Ipad using apps. Some of the concepts she prints on paper end up being materials for her lanterns.

“When I print them out, I use handmade paper produced in Saint Lucia from banana leaves,” Nolley, who lives at Coubaril, said. “After it’s printed, it looks like a water colour. Anything that’s printed in limited edition is something you can save and continue to gain from its increasing value. So I try to impress upon people that it’s not just a print but an art print.”

Nolley also specializes in handcrafted silver jewellery using gemstones, shells, sea glass, seeds and common everyday materials. She also paints and is a member of the International Plein Air Painters, whose membership paint outdoors to get a look at nature firsthand instead of from a photograph. Every September, paint-outs in which every member around the world is painting outdoors, sometimes simultaneously, are organized. Her art is far from being a hobby, she said.

Nolley holds a B.A. Degree from State University of New York College at Buffalo, and has attended University of California at Irvine, and Edna Manley School of Visual Art, Kingston, Jamaica.

She has taught art in schools from elementary to tertiary level and has done consultancy for the Ministry of Education, Folk Research Centre (FRC), National Research and Development Foundation (NRDF), Cultural Development Foundation (CDF) and assisted in establishing and running the St. Lucia Arts and Crafts Cooperative. She has also won many awards for her jewellery and painting at the National Arts Festival and the National Festival of Lights Lantern Festival.

Nolley said she spends about six hours each day working on her art work. Secretarial, bookkeeping and marketing work, she added, “takes up an awful lot of my time, so I’m usually in my studio all day.”

Nolley listed clean air, clean water and friendly people as some of the other factors that make living in Saint Lucia comfortable for her. However, she remains hopeful that the art community becomes more cohesive.

“There’s a lot more we can do when we work as a unit. We can’t look to the government for help; we have to just get things done by ourselves as a group,” Nolley said.

Another of her wishes: that government makes a concerted effort to invest more in art, especially at schools.

“I’m always telling government officials whenever I meet them to pay more attention to the arts,” Nolley stressed. “There are about five or six CXC art teachers on island but there are no materials. The classrooms have no doors or storage. How are students supposed to get passes at CSEC exams without the basics?”

You can find samples of Nolley’s work on her Facebook page (Alcina Nolley) and website (www.alcinanolley.com). For more information about her work and purchases, you can email her at [email protected]. Her work can also be found at Inner Gallery and Island Mix.