Sunday, May 6, 2012
THE BELIZE TIMES
Eulogy for Artist Benjamin Nicholas By Yasser Musa Saturday 21st April, 2012, Sacred Heart Church, Dangriga Today we say goodbye to Benjamin Nicholas son of the late Ignatius Nicholas and Perfecta Avilez Nicholas, and siblings Victor, David, and Andrea Nicholas. He leaves to mourn his passing, his wife, Mrs. Ysidora Lauriano Nicholas; children, Pastor Caleb Nicholas, Aaron, Isaiah, Bernadette and Avis Nicholas; eighteen grandchildren and four greatgrandchildren. Sisters, Dorothy Nicholas, Luisa Nicholas Grinage, Shirly Nicholas, Christine Nicholas Lambert, and brother, Maxie Nicholas; daughter-in-laws, Mrs. Barbara Nunez Nicholas and Mrs. Rebecca Sabal Nicholas; several nieces, nephews and friends. From Boyo Creek to Barranco Born on August 6th, 1930 Benjamin Nicholas grew up on a farm near Boyo Creek where they grew banana, yams, cassava, rice, badu or dashi and coconunts among other crops. However, his family roots are firmly planted in the great village of Barranco. His father would play a key role in his early development often telling the young Benjy vivid stories about the United Fruit Company. As a primary school student young Benjamin demonstrated a love and affection for all things visual. He carefully studied nature and would examine papaya leaves trying to figure out its aesthetic essence. His brothers said that he was never one to obsess over academics. He was more a free spirit. He loved fishing as a boy. He would paddle the trip to Barranco from Boyo Creek to attend school with his brother Victor. From age five until recently Benjy carried a pencil and brush in his hand. Always drawing, always dreaming. Victor recalls Benjy saying that when he grew up the heaviest thing he would carry is a paint brush. His father was the only commercial sign painter in Barranco, but on seeing his son’s artistic inclination encouraged Benjy to create something of his own. This idea stuck with him the rest of his life. Moving Around His early adult life could be characterized as a period of moving around. He went to Guinea Grass, some say he ran away and others say to intern as a teacher with his uncle Mr. Avilez. Whatever the circumstance, one thing was clear to
Benjy, he did not want to be a school teacher. After leaving Guinea Grass he lived alternately between Barranco and Punta Gorda with a brief stint in Guatemala, and Belize City. When historian Dr. Aondofe Joe Iyo was compiling his research for the book Benjamin Nicholas: Painter from Boyo Creek he indicated to me that this period of Nicholas’ life was difficult to frame in chronological order and it was Benjamin that closed that part of the book with a perfect phrase, “I was all over the place, all over the country, all over Belize…I care little for dates and time.” The Emerging Artist In the late 1950s and 1960s Benjamin Nicholas began to take his work as an artist seriously. It was a struggle in then colonial British Honduras with a system designed to treat anything indigenous or original with contempt and disregard, but Benjamin was strong-minded. His attitude of self-determination, and cultural pride was growing and this
is why we consider him one of the fathers of our cultural re-birth. The Struggle From 1970 to 1973 he studied art at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. On his return to Belize, he settled in Dangriga and painted to the time of his death. What can we say about his extraordinary longevity? The artist Pablo Picasso said, “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.” Benjamin Nicholas figured that out. It was not easy. He struggled to put food on the table for his family often lamenting on the image of his studio full of unsold paintings. In a television interview in 1994 he said that “I spent a lot of my life without selling anything.” Benjamin Nicholas always insisted on two things for his children: get a good education and speak the Garifuna language. And while it must have been difficult to deal with a father who was an artist, I am sure today as his children reflect on the life of their father they will find great pride in what he stood for, worked for and struggled for. The bold Garifuna Artist How do we build up ourselves as a society? This question is as important today in 2012 as it was for Benjamin Nicholas in the 1970s. As this nation struggled toward its Independence in 1981, it was artists like Benjamin Nicholas, Pen Cayetano, George Gabb, Wilfred Peters and so many others that we the people, leaned on to define and clarify our cultural situation. Today we head toward a cultural dystopia be-
17 cause we still struggle to value and understand the role of the artist to his or her society. With his images Benjamin Nicholas inspired us to appreciate, respect and recognize the rural life as a potent function of the growing nation. He boldly narrated with his brush the many aspects of Garifuna culture. His art encapsulates the human spirit of cooperation, of unity, of hard work and dedication to community. His pictures will stand the test of time because not only are they snapshots of a nation’s soul, but they were done with the honesty and sincerity of an artist in the glory of his imagination. The legacy We admire Benjamin Nicholas because he was an original. He worked. He produced. He delivered. He used his isolation to bring forth dedication. His art works hang on the walls of ordinary people, art collectors, in museums around the world and in the halls of power of many friendly nations including Cuba, South Africa, Venezuela, and Canada. The Garifuna people have lost one of its great pioneering visual narrators. Belize has lost an artistic and cultural warrior of extraordinary courage, determination and gift. We are thankful that his works will serve as evidence of his greatness. We come here today to pay our deepest respect to a man whose work was his life. His work must never die. In the words of the Colombian artist Fernando Botero “When you start a painting, it is somewhat outside you. At the conclusion, you seem to move inside the painting.” Benjamin at his earthly conclusion moved inside his painting. I pause, to pay homage to the thousands of hours, the loneliness, the isolation, the quite time, and the dignity - his life’s work. I pause, so I can truly understand that here in Dangriga lived a great artist from Boyo Creek near Barranco. I pause, to pay tribute to Benjamin Nicholas the cultural marathon man who never put down his brush and never swayed from his self-imposed responsibility as ringmaster of the peoples’ canvas. I bear witness. Rest in peace, Benjamin Nicholas…