By Rosemary C. Hanna
Andret John always knew that he wanted to be an artist. He was born in New Providence and went to Eleuthera at three months old. His parents are Gardina Cooper Hepburn and Roland John, both from Eleuthera. He has one brother.
Andret always knew how to draw and he describes how, as a child, he would become very excited when given a clean sheet of white paper and had thoughts racing through his head about what he would draw on the paper. And he still feels that same excitement today. He came to New Providence at age eleven to attend Queen’s College (QC) and lived with his mother’s sister who was a police officer. At QC he had two great art teachers in the persons of Ms. Fest who was from Hungary. and Mr. Pickersgill from the United Kingdom. Andret’s love of art and determination to become a professional artist was cemented when Mr. Pickersgill invited Brent Malone to speak to his class. Andret was particularly enthralled by Malone’s Junkanoo paintings and that sealed the deal for him.
When he graduated from QC and announced his plan to become an artist Andret says that a “family conference” was called to inform him that there would be no art and becoming an artist was out of the question, as he needed to find a real job. His aunt wanted him to join the Police Cadet Corps. This was most disheartening to Andret. So he spent a few semesters at The College of The Bahamas. An art programme had just started at COB, but he was studying criminology with a view to becoming a police officer.
He eventually went into the technical field and endured eight years of frustration working at Bahamas Telecommunications. He was very unsatisfied because he was not doing what he wanted to do. At that time he was involved in a tumultuous relationship and one day, when he was feeling down, he saw a photograph of a little girl and went out to his balcony and drew a black and white picture of the girl. He took it to be framed and on the day that he was collecting the picture Cheryl Grant-Bethel and Cathy Lieberman (whose husband was an executive at Atlantis) were in the store. They were impressed with the drawing and asked him how much it was worth. He said maybe $100. So they asked if he would be willing to donate the picture as a prize to be auctioned at an upcoming Zonta Club ball and he agreed. He got his complimentary tickets for the event, bought his tuxedo and says that when he entered the crowded ballroom and saw his work prominently displayed on an easel, up to that point, that event was the most glorious in his life! At auction time the bidding began at $100…silence… at which point Andret said that he became very nervous, but bidding resumed: $200, $300, $400 all the way up to $1,500!! Then he said to himself “You mean I’m giving away all of that money?” However, immediately following the event Mrs. Lieberman came over and asked him if he had anymore work for sale. He did not, but within a week’s time he produced there pieces which he sold to her for $1,000 each. Wow! $3,000 in less than a week! And, as the saying goes, “the rest was history”.
After this, Andret wanted to learn more about art. He attended exhibitions, read books and educated himself. He was also influenced by Antonius Roberts and then transitioned from two dimensional to three dimensional works. His first sculpture “Auset” was a feminine bust and head of a woman. Andret worked from his home for a long time and also with the Korean artist, Kye Shon, who worked in the window on Frederick Street (opposite Trinity Methodist Church). Most of his sculptures have been done in the yard at his home and now at Little Orchard – he never really left the yard and loves working under the trees and around nature. However, he is now looking for a larger space. Andret is mostly self-taught and he says that he is still learning. He has worked in wood for a long time and is now working with clay. His works are in many private collections in The Bahamas and all over the world including: New York and other cities in the United States, Dubai and Italy.
Andret and his former wife, architect Vanessa Clarke John, have five children – four girls and one boy ranging in ages form 15 to 7 years old and, for the past two years, they have been home schooled.
The artist creates lead head carvings for all of the major Junkanoo groups in New Providence. He initially started out doing work for the Fancy Dancers in Kemp Road. Before the introduction of the light weight aluminum rods, 2 x 4 wood was used in the construction of these pieces and they were very heavy. Andret recalls that when his uncle was in charge of a Junkanoo parade in Eleuthera he (Andret) was carrying one of these very heavy pieces and one of his knees gave way, but after a few seconds he recovered and then same thing happened with the other leg; but he was convinced that that the only thing that kept him going was the rhythm of the drums and, anyone who know about Junkanoo understands that it’s hypnotic. However, he agrees with my assertion that the true essence of Junkanoo was lost with introduction of brass instruments and I was a bit surprised to hear that some of the groups hire brass players. Andret recounted an occasion when the brass players who were hired by a group of which he was a member, came to the parade without properly fringed costumes (some in shorts and T shirts) and wanted to march ahead of the members of the group who had spent months preparing their costumes. Andret put his foot down and said there would be no brass and the group paraded without them. Furthermore, it is an unfortunate fact that many of the brass instruments are usually out of tune, which is not a pleasing sound to the ear. Andret has been involved in Junkanoo all of his life and he says there is nothing in this world like it!
The pieces that he’s working on now at The Orchard Hotel came about when Andret was invited by Dr. John Knowles, one of the co-owners of the property, to do something with a massive woman’s tongue tree trunk on the property; and the pieces shown here in various states stages of development have come from that trunk, a part of which is still in the ground. As the work progressed Little Orchard became Andret’s temporary home.
He created two Lucuyan head under water sculptures each approximately eight by six feet and weighing about one a ton. The pieces were created at the Airport Industrial Park and took about a month to complete. They are made of marine grade concrete and were deployed into the water at Clifton Cay in October 2014. Regrettably, the sculptures have been contaminated by the oil spill in the area.
Andret has had many solo exhibitions, the last one being at The Central Bank of The Bahamas Art Gallery in 2006; and also group exhibitions at The Bahamas National Trust, Government House and Albany. He plans to exhibit a new line of work by the year end or early next year.
© Copyright Rosemary C. Hanna 2015