March 13, 2003 – St. Thomas artist Madeleine I.E. Meehan's "Mostly Music Art" is being featured in coming weeks at a venue that has provided the inspiration for many of her paintings and drawings of performing artists doing their thing — the Reichhold Center for the Arts.
The show comprises mainly aquarelle watercolor paintings on paper, but also some drawings and a few oils on canvas. It will hang in the Reichhold Art Gallery on the lower level of the center from Saturday through April. It's being mounted as part of the University of the Virgin Islands celebration of the inauguration of LaVerne Ragster as the institution's fourth president.
The official opening reception will come on March 20, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., when Meehan will join forces with one of the best-known performing artists on the St. Thomas scene, guitarist, singer and songwriter Sammy Watts, to celebrate the creative partnership of music and visual art.
Working in pen and ink, brush and magic crayon, Meehan has captured the creative energy of live performance art on paper in the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, on the U.S. mainland, and beyond, including at the Spoleto U.S.A. Festival in Charleston, South Carolina, the Sunsplash Festival in Jamaica, and a jazz festival in Istanbul, Turkey.
Many of her images are taken from the stage of the Reichhold Center: Anatomy of Latin Jazz, Ballet Concierto de Puerto Rico, Caribbean Dance Company, the Dave Brubeck Trio, David Sanborn and his orchestra, "Dream on Monkey Mountain," Eddie Palmieri's La Perfecta II band, "Folk Nativity," "Godspell," the Marcel Marceau mime troupe, the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra, Rennie Harris' Pure Movement, the Shenandoah Shakespeare Company, the Territorial Court Rising Stars Youth Steel Orchestra, and UVI music ensembles.
She has also been a familiar presence at V.I. Carnival events, concerts in Tillett Gardens, and at Pistarckle Theater, Gladys's Café, Moonlight Foundation concerts on St. John, the St. Croix Blues Festival and other music, dance and cultural arts venues throughout the islands.
Meehan, who was born in Cuba, attended New York's High School of Music and Art and has a bachelor of fine art degree from Cornell University. She is a life member of the Art Students League of New York and received honors at L'Ecole des Beaux Arts in Fontainebleau, France. She maintains studios on St. Thomas and in East Hampton, New York.
She has exhibited in more than a hundred shows. On St. Thomas, her work can be found at MAPes MONDe Gallery in Grand Galleria, Tillett Art Gallery and The Color of Joy, as well as at her studio.
Watts, a native of Nevis, has been entertaining St. Thomas audiences since 1965. He has toured throughout the U.S. mainland, Canada and Europe and has recorded his original music on six albums. His "Sweet Island Man" has been No. 1 in the Caribbean, as has his "Forward On," recorded on his first album. He also wrote the music and lyrics for the popular "Good Mornin' Mi Son."
Watts performed with "Soul Side" on St. Thomas in the 1960s and formed his own combo in the '70s. He also was part of the Isaac Hays "Black Moses" group. He can be heard these days at Bolongo Bay Beach Club's Beach House from 7 to 11 p.m. on Fridays and at the Sapphire Beach Resort pavilion from 7 to 11 p.m. on Saturdays.
The March 20 event is supported in part by a grant from the V.I. Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Publisher's note : Like the St. John Source now? Find out how you can love us twice as much — and show your support for the islands' free and independent news voice … click here.
