ART IN THE VIRGIN ISLANDS HAS CHANGED SINCE THIS BOOK WAS WRITTEN AND PUBLISHED! MAKE A DIFFERENCE SEND ME AN E-MAIL

For me, passion is an entity that demands justice.  Your passion for freedom, may determine  your career and even your mate for life. Others have and will, kill or die for freedom.  Creative passion, is a merciless master that demands freedom and justice.

 Artifact speaks for us all, and is created from this master's passion. Artifact's job is to tell each cultures story of creation and extinction. If you surrender to your creative passion and still feed your family, your passion is free.  If you must feed your family with your passion, and you cannot, then you are passion's slave.

This book is about "Artifacts"  and West Indians reality in America's Paradise, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. More than 80% of the population of the Virgin Islands is  West Indian, yet we could find no Native Virgin Island art originals in the art galleries in St. Thomas.  This anomaly is rancorous from the invisible remains of Native Art.

No blood in the artifacts in St. Thomas, no visual story of success from slavery to freedom.  An alternative reality in art galleries exist, of happy black slaves and vibrantly dressed servants, sold by white artists, to tourist looking for "Local Art".

 Would it be considered a crisis if art work of Americans was only created and sold by the Chinese? This is what has happened in St. Thomas. Original artwork of virgin islanders in the art galleries in St. Thomas are created by people with no cultural class. Give me a break! Slaves were brought to St. Thomas on slave ships, most of them died on the voyages because they were transported lying on a floor of blood and mucus.

The fact  that slaves are portrayed in artwork, singing and dancing unloading a ship, opens the wounds of slavery and exploitation leaving Artifact with no justice! Our task is clear, as the CEO of a global and diversified family owned business, I see capitalism in action at any cost.  As a descendant of slavery with my passion free and my family fed , my master, demands justice.

We are not torn between greed and shackles, we will have neither. And neither will you.
3/4/03

3/16/03

The Virgin Islands is America's South Africa, I mean America's Paradise. This may be one in the same for 15% of the total pouplation of The Virgin Islands.

I remember telling the principal of my kids school in rural Louisiana, that we were leaving Louisiana to escape racism. He cautioned me not to expect too much elsewhere. Alfredo I have lived in St. Thomas three times in 20 years, we are the majority. Mr. Rambin, thank you for your advise and the love you have always expressed for my family. He is white, it doesn't matter, the people in Louisiana are heard, all of them.
 

Introduction:
Outline 3/5/03

One company controls the media in The Virgin Islands. The Wall Street Journal reports:"The biggest priority in the Virgin Islands is public corruption." The media only bashes the government no suggestions on how to better the Virgin Islands. It's not in their bosses or their best  friends interest, all members of the good old boys club/board of directors.  Many of these club members are on many of the non profit boards, of not for profit organizations in The Virgin Islands.
 

What is Local Art?  Local art it seem in St. Thomas, need not be from native artists. When we travel, we expect cultures to be represented in the proper population ratio. In St. Thomas, original artwork in the art galleries should be 80% not 3%,  West Indian. We expect when we travel to Italy and ask for local art, to purchase artwork of Italians by Italians, especially art depicting Italian culture.  Check the search engines for Virgin Island Artist, and see who is benefiting from "Art Apartheid". According to The Wall Street Journal, "The islands economy is moribund, despite a program to lure investment that involves aggressive tax exemptions.

  Some of those tax exemptions are non profit organizations breaking the law. I am a witness!
They say because I'am black that white people that I tell won't care. My grandmother from rural Louisiana, says you do care.

"Messrs. Prosser and Prior purchased Vitelco (the phone company) and then repaid Hutton with a nearly $100 million credit from Rural Telephone Finance Cooperative, a new, not-for profit lending co-op in Herndon, Va.    Prosser owns the telephone company, two local cable television firms, a bank and the newspaper in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

St. Thomas St. John Arts Council- The Executive Board didn't even know what there articles of incorporation and mission statement looked like. A Greek descendant artist  that lives in  3 homes in 2 states and a U. S.  territory, is local where? The greek descendant/part-time resident, has more clout on the board of directors than any other member.  The greek descendant artist keeps up her tan, along with a nice artist from Yemen are the only color on the board.

The newly elected vice president, admitted to me (as I picked up my copy of the articles after more than a year of asking for them)  that according to the articles, ( she was reading for the first time) she was not eligible to be vice president. The first order of business for the president of the board "Local Mango Jelly Maker", was to pay the way for an art judge from Ohio, to judge the annual art exhibition, in St. Thomas. "Caribbean Colour". Last year the event had no indigenous art entries from St. Thomas indigenous artists. 97% of the professional "Local Artist" were non West Indian Artists from the states.

Paradise or The New Reservation  In St. Thomas Unfortunately, the absence of Native Art is a symptom of a disease, that infects most tourist based ventures in the Virgin Islands. America, look no further than the Native American's, we are true to form in St. Thomas. The new reservation is hell for the natives. Tourist are told by some resort management that St. Thomas isn't safe without resort escorts. We didn't believe this even though it came from one of our own artists. Native Virgin Islanders send their children to the states because natives are often paid less than someone white from the states.  The media does not report this because it is not in their best interest.

The Local Media Didn't Say A Word- A former vice president of the St. Thomas St. John Arts Council is also a member of the media. Did she know that the organization was committing fraud?  Did she know that there were no Native art originals on exhibit in the art galleries in St. Thomas? Yes! Save this answer for the editors of The Daily News in the Virgin Islands.

Art education Mentoring-No Grants-No Commissions for Native Artists- No Legislative Protection -Okay, you've been an art teacher in the Virgin Islands for 20 years and you have never had a student you thought was worth mentoring, try to get a grant for, suggest for a commission? Take Under Your Wing? You have never heard of grants, mentoring or suggesting Native artists portray   West Indian people in original art in their homeland. (The best West Indian artists active today, producing original artwork St. Thomas, are at the elementary school level). The teacher of the year is an art teacher that cares about West Indian culture. Many art teachers have been blessings to the people and some Teachers have just become "Local Artists".

Trust In Artifact- You cannot trust artifact in the Virgin Islands.  Without blood you have no ownership of culture. You have only "Local Art". The art galleries in Hawaii don't exhibit non Native artists in the galleries. When you go to Hawaii, and ask for "Local Art" you don't have to check the Birth Certificate or look for tan lines on dark greek artists.

What Can be Done for Indigenous Art? We have already started! Indigenous artists will not be charged a fee for representation from The Ninth Life Fine Art Gallery or our parent company Image Research & Communication. Our family's pledge "Travelers and seekers of "Local Art"  will soon find indigenous art originals from Native artists in St. Thomas. Those of us who are free, will free those of us who are not, even if we die trying". Our new print advertising in St. Thomas This Week, identifies that there is a difference between "Local Art" and "Native Art".

Passion's Slaves and Passion's Servants

 We offer this art gallery as proof of my service....my master ask me what is this local art all the tourist ask you for? Get me some. I did and he told me that passion was not satisfied with "Local Art" Artifact had no blood.

This is what happens when a poet must write about cultural arts genocide.

About art and it's physical affects on the human body. The shortness of breath, It is the same for the professional intellectual academic or the person who cleans his house, and everyone in between. The sudden unexpected well of tears whose emergence astonishes you, is shared by us all.

Geography, travel, culture and art have a primitive, perpetual and innate connection. You've decided to travel to your ancestral home, a little village in Italy. You grew up raised by your Italian grandmother, fed with stories of your homeland. You've seen pictures of how beautiful your grandmother was as a young woman. The village where your great-grandmother was born, you must travel there.( just like a fish)

You search for "Local Art" in this place in Italy, it is just as your grandmother described, in all of her wonderful stories.  When you visit the art galleries and your grandmothers stories aren't there, do you assume granny lied, or is there no truth in Artifact. You continue to search and find no history in the art, no depiction of your grandmothers culture, your culture.

Your grandmother told you times were hard, and she grew up eating off the tops of buckets, not china. In her village every family went to church twice a week, and she only had one good dress. What if the art galleries only have pictures of happy, lazy, Italian peasants, only painted by the Russians? Would this make you sick, mad, sad or do you respect "a clever marketing ploy".

The human body is still capable of producing the same amount of adrenaline our ancestors did, while being chased by a Saber Tooth Tiger.

Let's talk about stopping your heart with art!
 Writing online...now. refresh for changes.

Have you ever paid for physical pleasure? Answer yes, if you have ever purchased artwork you were not looking for.  The sweetest little painting, caught your attention, just out of the corner of your eye. It's just as your Italian grandmother described, in all her bedtime stories to you. It's a painting of a village, modest but clean, on a Sabbath Day, every family is going to church.

Maybe it was the unusual old cobblestone your grandmother often spoke of that caught your eye, or was it the beautiful young woman in the painting, with the mended tear in her faded red floral dress? Your granny is dead now, but when you look at this painting you can almost hear her voice, caress you with a story.  When you look at that painting your grandmother lives again, you can almost smell the fresh bread from her kitchen.....  How much is this painting and tell me about the artist, you inquire after you regain your composure (we have chairs in our gallery).

You realize your heart is beating a little faster than usual and there is a lump in your throat. You fear you may cry again, thank God it's available in a print.

Our family arrived on St. Thomas September 10, 2001. We were never welcomed into the art community or the business community. We were invited to sit on the board of the  St. Thomas St. John Arts Council , where we watched and waited for more than a year, for a copy of the Articles of Incorporation and  Mission Statement.

Chamber of Commerce business after hour meetings in St. Thomas were attended by our company representatives, yeilded no business. For us, in a place where you need business writers, grant writers, entrepeneur trainers, motivational speakers and web designers. No business for us!

When we attended Chamber of Commerce meetings in California and Louisiana, our company representatives attend and they brought us back business that generated revenue. They took us in and made us part of the chamber and the community with their business. They gave us a chance and we built a reputation and offer service to them today, that says thank you! In technology, we are never turned away. We have been online longer than America Online.

The art council board members, were like the  "Borg" from "Star Trek" assimilating the Virgin Island visual art culture, turning it into the profitable "Local Art" industry. From the first board meeting, I asked for the Articles of Incorporation, because there was not one Native artist on the board. Later in the year, "Caribbean Colour" an annual art exhibition of Virgin Island Artists and art, no Virgin Island Artrt from St. Thomas. Only apathy from the board of "Local Artists".

I have a background in non profit management, and no tax exempt organization can avoid breaking the law, if they operate  without the documentation that identifies their beneficiaries, purpose and methods. A 98% white arts council board, can promote cultural art in the west indies.

Many members of media attend secret meetings to plot the economic genocide of West Indians.

The media censors our press releases because we tell the truth about "a clever marketing ploy" that is "Local Art".   An Internet Service Provider had our internet access terminated, because they didn't like our e-mail. Even though we have the finest collection of fine art in the Caribbean, University Fine Art Professors or art educators will not even visit the gallery, because we are not in the club.

Yes, there is a good old boys art industry club in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands and there are no indigenous artists in it, because there aren't any indigenous art patrons, because there has not been art education as promised by the St. Thomas St. John Arts Council. There is however a lot of "Local Art" support, patrons and education in St. Thomas for club members.

The people are ignorant of Native art in the Virgin Islands. My husband asked me last night who this book would be dedicated to, I've written and published three for money. That's right, a bad speller (that is what editors are for, God bless them) and a published writer.

This book is dedicated to my grandmother, who said to me before we moved from California to Louisiana, "If you let them, those white people will be good to you". My grandmother was right.  more later.

Thank God for Louisiana. They usually say this about Mississippi in Louisiana because economically they are at the bottom of every list and Louisiana is second from the bottom.  At least race relations were predictable with my grandmothers advise factored in.

ABOUT US

We as it seems are the company model that is referred to, when speaking about the Internet, as a tool that levels the playing field. We are a large Internet company. Large could be determined by our number of pages published on Internet almost 600 or the number of visitors that will visit our site each year, millions and growing. Large as in we are the largest fine art gallery in the Caribbean, born on the Internet, expanded to  Brick & Mortar, the model again.

Fine art to our company was one of our products, from some of our clients, that hired us to promote and sell their product, fine art. Our forte is entrepreneur training. Having nothing making something.

We adapted to our lack of financial resources and applied what computer software taught us, in the same way war was re-written by Vietnam. There is more than one way to effect change.

I have always felt the day would come when we would celebrate the success of financial security this minority and multi-cultural family has realized from the Internet.

This is not the celebration we expected to have when we announced how powerful we have become, with an investment start-up of $70.00 . We didn't expect our announcement would come with a warning, it is: On the search engines, we are the Elephant looking for a seat when you query Online News St. Thomas web design or art.. Stop messing with us, please.   As we expose  "America's Dirty Little Art Secret" we know other secrets and we expect change or you can expect another book. Published on the Internet collecting hits perpetually. Only the names of the innocent protected. Your lawyers offer you no comfort when they ask you...but is it true?;

We got no respect in St. Thomas, it was like being Aretha Franklin with no respect in  Detroit!

 Passions Servant Forced to Focus

For us, a conviction is a belief worth dying for. Our area of expertise is entrepreneur training. We expanded our family owned business and revised our business plan 9/12/01.  Corporate and private industry citizens operating in the Virgin Islands, have created an economic environment that promotes financial and cultural genocide on West Indians.  According to a  member of the media, "everybody knows".

Our Gestalt did not have enough focus on art, when we expanded our company.  The private industry is so predatory in the Virgin Islands, our global family owned business had to go underground to remain solvent.

They have attacked us with computer viruses named for an artist we represent. We have suffered the loss of our Internet access and e-mail accounts repeatedly. For a web design company, death. For passions slaves, no food.  But we survived because we have learned to adapt. Like computer software, there are many ways to effect a change, and we remember Vietnam.

Our business expansion was forced and our family business members forced to operate underground, with their identifies concealed because we remain a threat to powerful people in the Virgin Islands.  There are serious problems in the Virgin Islands, prudent business strategy forced us to focus on the whole.   We were like a surgeon that couldn't operate on his patient because the patient needed a nurse.

It was like swimming underwater alone, then becoming aware that there is significant activity on the surface, all around you. Before you surface, you plan.... go up and take a look around, see all you can, then go back under fast, to analyze and evaluate.   We are like fish.

More than 90% of the entire private industry is controlled by non  west indians in the Virgin Islands. Yes even cultural art is considered an industry.  Even though west indians represent almost 90% of the population. More than 90% of the advertising in all mainstream mediums are non west indian. Most publications compositions, don't even look like west indians live here.

 Does this mean, when tourist come to the Virgin Island and find no culture only souvenirs, that there is no culture?   When tourist find only one minority culture represented in 90% of all advertising in the Virgin Islands, does this mean other cultures do not exist?  Are the majority cultures in the Virgin Islands participating in businesses that profit from tourism? No, save this answer for the question " is anything being done?"

Our Gestalt was forced open so wide that we were overwhelmed by the sight of wide spread economic genocide. Not just cultural arts genocide, which we discovered later, while not looking for culture we found indigenous art culture's assassins and accomplices.

 We are, where they do not want us to be, and we are successful. Convicted to freedom and addicted to justice, our passion will give you no peace.

 Art news today: The St. Thomas St. John Arts Council for the second year in a row had the same agenda. This non profit organization doesn't have a web site because they wanted a member of the good old boys club to design it, even though they weren't qualified. So they waited more than a year, for the qualified board member who volunteered to design their site, to stop asking them to take her donation.

 Last year the good old boys arts council picked experts in web design that were unable to answer basic web design questions and were embarrassed openly by their lack of knowledge. (check the minutes of the board meeting) Our company offered to design and host a web site for The St. Thomas St. John Arts Council free of charge and they could never organize a newsletter to it's members for participation.

The same board member/embarrassed web design expert who's job it was to organize the newsletter, was called upon to pic the next executive board members for the St. Thomas St. John Arts Council. This nominating committee/embarrassed web design expert of one, had one of the worst, attendance records of any other board members on the St. Thomas St. John Arts Council. She was not there more than she was there. Check the minutes, I am willing to print a retraction, anytime.

Their actions indicate, that the St. Thomas John Arts Council would rather not have a web site designed by someone with superior Internet skills, outside of the club for them free. The criteria in the Virgin Islands for business is membership in the good old boys club. No matter how good you or your services are, they always check your membership.

 Even though there is no indigenous art is St. Thomas. The St. Thomas St. John Arts Council has only one hour to discuss the exact same agenda they have been discussing since last year with no progress. It seems they need more than the allocated hour. Indigenous art is not on the agenda of the St. Thomas St. John Arts Council, just last years business.

I don't understand the lack of discussion about  Virgin Island Art, from an organization who's mission it is to promote Virgin Island Arts and Virgin Island Artists.  Virgin Island Art is not on the agenda, only " Caribbean Colour" an art exhibition in the Virgin Islands, of Virgin Island Art, without Virgin Island Artists and a judge from Ohio.

Being driven by passion, is like riding in the back seat of your own car with no one at the wheel, in San Francisco.  Your hands aren't on the steering wheel, and you can't control the direction you are going in. You can get out, stop, or ride with passion and tell others what you have seen along the way.

Passion's Servant seems more content than passion's slave and better paid. Not as vulnerable as passion's slave but not paid until the slave is free.
 

The grim reality of economic genocide in the U. S.  Virgin Islands must be documented and vocalized. Look no further than the entities that profit from crime, unemployment, uneducated labor pool and the lack of indigenous art. I see no mentoring, entrepreneur training, internships, management training programs or grant fund acquisition and no artists commissions..

The absence of indigenous art in St. Thomas is a symptom of wide spread apathy and lack of respect for cultures other than the culture that represents the private industry. Private industry citizens own the tourist industry in the Virgin Islands. They  have a history of treating West Indians in St. Thomas with very little respect.

Alfredo and I have four children 32-11. When I was 32 my 17 year old daughter went with me to purchase a pregnancy test, for me. We were laughing I had morning sickness. When it came time to pay for the test, the pharmacist started giving me a lecture on birth control. Saying to me that I could have avoided this pregnancy. I informed the nice white man (who seemed angry at me ) that I was (pointing to my wedding ring) married with a 17 year old and a two year old, I know about birth control. The pharmacist seemed embarrassed and I have tried not to think of this every time I pass by "Sunrise Pharmacy" in St. Thomas Virgin Islands.

How could a stranger assume so much? We were well dressed with money, it didn't look like my husband had been beating me and I was pretty looking, not teenage looking.  We are all spoken to as children, scolded, presumed to be lazy and stupid, yes even me.

One day last summer, out of nowhere a woman I have never heard of and never met sends me an e-mail, in the subject "dishonest and misleading", from Mary Blazine-Anderson. Mary is married to non indigenous Virgin Island Artist Les Anderson, painter of naked black, slaves and servants women and men. Les Anderson's art does not promote a positive image of self love. It is like seeing the way others see you. Stupid, vulnerable, powerless, poor and ignorant, these are repeated themes in Les Anderson's "art".

Mary was complaining about the absence a photo of the front of our gallery on our web site and she wanted me to put more text  on my web site about an image of a mural I was working on.  Mary's e-mail stated that I have done the art community and the artists we represent a  dis service, when we say our art gallery is " Brick & Mortar".  Mary felt a photo of our gallery on our web site, would prove that our Internet company did not have an art gallery made of brick and mortar, and this is just one of the changes to my web site that would make her happy.

"Brick & Mortar" Mary, is only a term, used by the Internet literate, to differentiate between a business on the Internet and a business with a physical building. Brick and mortar is an expression used to define a business with real estate not a business only on the Internet . We are not only on the Internet, we have an art center, (brick & mortar) it doesn't matter that our gallery is made of blocks of cement, on the Internet vinyl siding is "Brick & Mortar".

I phoned Mary and asked her if she knew anything about the artists we represent and the service we offer them. She said no. I explained to her that we have cultivated these relationships for years and all, the artists we represent are family with us. Who was this woman I had to know. Is she trying to give me advice on my web site that will help me qualify for a web award? Is she a famous web design critic, trying to mentor me? A spokesperson for all art and all artists? I wonder if Mary knows what "Native Art" would be?

I had to know who Mary Blazine-Anderson is; the wife of an artist who I did not know, Les Anderson who owns an art gallery in St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mary Blazine, Executive Director of the St. John Community Foundation. A respected spokesperson of 15% of the population 98% of the art community in the Virgin Islands?

Part of the culture killing machine in the Virgin Islands?: How many of these people are on the board of directors of the non profits in the Virgin Islands? Do people that respect the indigenous people replace their cultural art with"local art" ?

Mary said in her e-mail that she was all in favor of a clever marketing ploy. Is "Local Art" a clever marketing ploy Mary? I wonder how many more ploys there are? I wonder how many executive directors of the non profit organizations in the Virgin Islands know the meaning of indigenous or native?

  At the bottom of this linked page, click here they list their favorite artists, all white, not one mention of indigenous artists. Three of them teachers. all of them know about grants, mentoring, indigenous art and artists commissions. The culture of the minority has the biggest voice and all the profits from tourism. His machine is designed to keep anyone that is not him out of the club and out of business, especially us.

Please visit the foundations web site   Click Here
This woman the Executive Director of a non profit organization and the wife of an "artist" supporting culture how, in the gallery owned by her husband? Will the children of St. John go to Bajo el Sol and find their  great-grandmothers stories, or will they find shame in "art"?      WARNING; this art may contribute to low self-esteem click here if your stomach can take it.  Click on Les Anderson's name.

Mission Statement

                   The Community Foundation of the Virgin Island (CFVI) was created to
                   serve both donors and nonprofit organizations of the Virgin Islands that
                   want to ensure the highest quality of life for both present and future
                   generations. Its primary goal is to build a growing collection of permanent
                   funds, the income from which will be used to enhance the educational,
                   physical, social, cultural and environmental well-being of the islands'
                   people.

Is Native art cultural? Mary
 

Who is running the non profit organizations in the Virgin Islands?
 

                       History of the Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands

                   The Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands was established in 1990
                   with a $500,000 endowment. Since 1996, it has increased in size to
                   almost $2 million, equally distributing grants, awards and scholarships
                   across St. Croix, St. Thomas and St. John. CFVI manages close to two
                   dozen giving programs, administers scholarships and award programs,
                   and coordinates the establishment of memorial funds. Donors can make
                   unrestricted contributions--indicating a general field of interest (the arts,
                   education)--or direct the Foundation's board to use its judgment for
                   awarding the income.

Taken from the source web site:(The Friends of Denmark will host the visit of 70 Danes who'll be
                  arriving on March 29 to spend a week on St. Thomas and another on St. Croix ... The
                  Community Foundation of the V.I. invites applications for its mini-grant program to
                  benefit children and families) This benefits West Indians without a voice how?
 

 I spoke with Dee Brown, (her husband is a collector of Les Anderson's art,) she said after I told her that I was writing a book and Mary Blazine-Anderson was in it.  Then I asked her for a count of  board members by race: (How art effects the body)

 19 board members total

1 latino 8 West Indians 10 white

 The population of the Virgin Islands is 80% West Indian.

Dee Brown   do you know what indigenous art is?  Probably not she said, then she said she knew what indigenous was and she knows what art is. I asked her if she knew there were no original artwork of West Indians by West Indians in the art galleries in St. Thomas? She had to go to a meeting.

Do you own any artwork from indigenous artist would not answer. Own much artwork do you own from Les Anderson, my husband wouldn't appreciate me telling you. The good old boys club buys art!
 

The  St. Thomas St. John Arts Council was suppose to be networking with this organization to promote, educate the public about Virgin Island Arts culture and preserve Virgin Island Arts and support Virgin Island Artists. Did they? No

At last count there were no black West Indians on the Board of the St. Thomas St. John Arts Council.

United Way Racial make up of Board of Directors?  Executive Director Thyra Hammond

24 members on the board

21 are black 1 hispanic 3 white
This is representative of the community.

A respected member of the legal community in St.  Thomas said people in St. Thomas aren't worried about things like black and white. It doesn't matter that there is no original art paintings of West Indians by West Indians. He said it was okay if people with no connection to culture, represent it in St. Thomas. He doesn't see 80% of the population as being black.

The 80% are more likely to be paid less than the 15% white in St. Thomas, Mr. Lawyer. Culturally speaking the West Indians in the Virgin Islands should have the same protection under the law as the  Native Americas are awarded,

This lawyer is from the South, sadly. I wonder if he would feel the same way if he returned to the South and found only artists from the North representing culture in the South, solely.   This lawyer says he sees just one people in the Virgin Islands, with the same culture.  He must visit Mapes Monde.  This white lawyer feels we are all just one happy family, no race problems. He feels none of us in the Virgin Islands see black or white, we are just one big happy community, like the plantation art at Mapes Monde and Mango Tango Art Gallery. I wonder if he collects Les Anderson's art of naked black women in uncomplimentary ways.

Where is this utopia ?  This lawyer has sat on more boards in St. Thomas than 80% of the indigenous population of St.  Thomas. All that public service to people that are all the same race and same culture. This philosophy I admit does make things easier to run. If you believe as this lawyer.

Do you believe what this lawyer says, that in St. Thomas there are no natives, no Native people, food or culture to claim? (I'm laughing) This lawyer with the clientele with diverse activities, a lawyer with a staff with diverse range of experience- a lawyer published in the daily newspaper, encouraging us to defend our right to worship who we choose would indicate we don't all worship the same God. He calls us individuals - He speaks about powerful enemy's that don't play by the rules-

and equal justice under the law.

I immediately thought of the St. Thomas St. John Arts Council, a lawyer who dropped by the gallery called their practices fraudulent.

Mr. Lawyer again in print encourages us to Celebrate our Freedom and states our country's founders cherished diversity because they themselves were different.  When did we stop being different, Mr. Lawyer, and start being the same, or is that just in St. Thomas.

Words in print of Democracy and diversity from Mr. We are all the same in St. Thomas.

A Democrat, St. Thomas Historical Trust - Rotary Club Board Member -Board of Directors for the American Bar Association -Church Board of Deacons-  the same church that married Alfredo and me. One the board of directors of youth and drug dependency non profit organizations. This lawyer is mainstreamed....goliath!
 

Here is your proof of conspiracy!  The connection and difference between what they say and what they write!  Check the minutes of the meetings against their mission statements. And why  is St. Thomas is in such bad shape these are the people that have control of the non profit organizations and the private industry,  tourism. We don't need cultural art because according to this pillar of the community, we are all the same with the same culture.  Yet every chance he gets he writes of diversity.

This lawyer told me that we are all the same in St. Thomas, yet he bothers with diversity in his firm. He defends diversity and states our country's founders cherished diversity because they themselves were different.

Mr. Lawyer, we go to press today. We don't name you, but we know a lot about you, personally. Don't come after us and we won't come after you.

People should understand the way things really are in St. Thomas and with just a few documented phone calls we have proven our points. Economic and Cultural Genocide is engineered in St. Thomas.

The people that run the non profit organizations and the private industry are at war with the government constantly. The government of the Virgin Islands is run by the West Indians. The West Indian people are under siege from the inside by people they should be able to trust.

What happens when the oppressed can't be helped by the democratic party or the press? The media- non profit organizations - private industry - Some Educators have another agenda that includes the silencing of the Virgin Island people.

The people we have always trusted to help us have become  part of the system that attempts to make West Indians a permanent pool for cheap labor.

Look at your advertising publications, 97% non West Indian, majority white. This is hard for me to write, 98% of my clients are white and we are like family.  Every day this page virgin-island-art is on the Internet, we loose money.

The people of the Virgin Islands must be heard everywhere. There is an infection in the Virgin Islands that spreads through the board rooms of the non profit organizations that is designed to kill the culture of the West Indian in the Virgin Islands. The motive is the continued dominance of the tourist industry in the Virgin Islands.

You stop giving people a voice when you say we speak with only one voice. This is what is happening in St. Thomas. Those with the loudest voice say they are speaking for us all, they are not.

Mr. Lawyer was referred to us by someone who believes him to be symphatic to Virgin Islanders, their problems, concerns and issues. After all he is on all the right boards. I wonder if the person who referred him knows he thinks we are just one big happy family. If we are all that happy, why do we have so many lawyers in St. Thomas or non profit organizations or law firms with diverse clients and diverse lawyers? Who write about people that he respects, and how they cherished diversity.

Mr. Lawyer I am sure didn't expect that I would bother to check his neck, I mean his record. Mr. Lawyer is quoted extensively in print saying one thing but on the phone, he sounds like he could be helped with medication.

He sounds like Mary Blazine-Anderson who called me on the phone and told me to " Go To Hell" and sent me an e-mail about art and the clever marketing ploy. You could say Mary Blazine-Anderson web design critic/art community spokesperson, made us aware of the severity of the attack against membes of private industry who were speaking with their own voice.  The good old boys club is alive and well in St. Thomas just like "Local Art".

Economic Freedom in St. Thomas is as "Native Art", coming in April

Justice is blind in the Virgin Islands because people we are suppose to trust are blindfolding her. Justice is blind in The Virgin Islands just look for the art from it's native people.  It is not "Local Art".

Local Art News: 3/11/03 St. Thomas, U S Virgin Islands

"Local Art" is not "Native Art". Local art is art from artists from the states, not the Virgin Islands.

We preview our "Indigenous Art Collection April 13, 2003 at The Nelson Mandla Arts Center. 1 340 777.8190

Ask The Organization of Concerned Native Virgin Islanders what they think about all of us being the same?

Does the media ever dare to report that there are problems that can be solved by eliminating a lot of the greed from private industry.

Servants of Slaves

This is what happens when a poet writes about economic and  financial (Gestalt)  genocide.  The St. Thomas St. John Arts Council operates as a non profit organization to benefit Virgin Island public, Virgin Island Arts and Virgin Island Artists. When will they provide benefits to Virgin Island Artists? Are they committing fraud when they legally organize and swear to promote Virgin Island Arts and they do not? One lawyer who visited the gallery this weekend says yes! "That's Fraud!

The lawyer, Mr. Board Member says the good they have done outweighs the bad. How would he know I haven't seen him at a board meeting in 14 months. I asked him if they were above the law, he said he didn't think we would be able to find any support. Vietnam. This is why my family business operates underground. You will only get one of us, we will continue to get you.

The articles of incorporation identifies the purpose of the St. Thomas St. John Arts Council is to promote and educate the public and artists in all arts of Virgin Islanders. There are no Virgin Islanders on the St. Thomas St. John Arts Council Board of Directors. There hasn't been any indigenous art originals, depicting West Indian culture for a very long time and nothing was done or said.

Mr. Lawyer (we speak with one voice there is no indigenous people, food music or art), was once a board member of the arts council, he said. They did not educate him on indigenous art and he is ignorant, we are damaged.

Had the St. Thomas St. John Arts Council followed their doctrine, indigenous art patrons would have been cultivated for indigenous artists. Instead education was offered only to club members and only club members are art patrons in  St. Thomas.

The media covers all white "Local Art" events weekly and never notes the absence of "Native Artists".  The media's friends are "Local Artists" and if there was a "Native Artists" population, the art would be valued higher than the local products.

Who controls the non profit organizations and what they do  for the community? Who are they asking? Most Virgin Islanders are unaware that their fate is being controlled by people that feel that they don't exist. Treat everybody the same in St. Thomas because we are all the same. We aren't bruised with the same grim reality of race discrimination that every other community in the United States is disfigured with?

This is a take-over
I should be speaking to you in the vernacular Shaun A. Pennington of St. Thomas the Source and Mary Blazine-Anderson Executive Director of the St. John Community Center, web design critic/artists spokesperson, wife of exploitation art, Les Anderson, speak to me in. There are people in the inner circle of the Virgin Island non profit organizations that use their positions to direct the evolution of the Virgin Island people.

If you don't believe me check the minutes of the meeting of the  Hotel Association last year for the Focus Group on Hospitality.( the president and I went to the same high school in California). The president of the Hotel Association in the Virgin Islands, should be a Virgin Islander as first consideration. No, Marriott sends an Asian American to create an evolutionary change in the Virgin Islands.

In the board rooms in St. Thomas, U S. Virgin Islands you are ostracized if you speak up for the people of The Virgin Islands!

The one voice Mr. Board Of Directors Lawyer spoke of is the voice of unison from the 15% of the ancestors of colonialist.  They are just practicing good corporate business from the non profit organization board rooms. I have attended board meetings with just one other black person in a place that is 80% black.

You can read the minutes of the meetings for the Rolex Cup Regatta 2002. There was one other black person in the room when West Indians were referred to as "that other" referring to local food at the full moon party. I have seen them reject all West Indian vendors and select only club members for events they say want to benefit Virgin Islanders.  There was only one Virgin Islander in that boardroom and he will never forget what happen. He is the man in charge of conservation on Water Island. The people in the room that heard also, will likewise never forget that day.

And you thought this was about art. The absence of Native art is one symptom.

My forte is business development, start-up and non profit management.  There is no way to miss what is happening in St. Thomas. There is no way to get the word out for the slaves, the servants they should have been able to trust (the media) speak with one voice 15% of the population's voice.

There are meetings held in private that determine the fate of Virgin Islanders and they are never invited. The media is invited they know Art Apartheid exist in St. Thomas.

A doctor from St. Croix said in public after 9/11/2001, that he is discriminated against daily in St. Croix. This statement was made at an open forum at Tillett Gardens, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. The media is aware and the media censors in St. Thomas. When you report to the media with no result that the native people in St. Thomas are under-represented in non-profit organizations and no report is made, is that censorship?

Are Virgin Islanders excluded by silence from participating in determining their own future? Yes, save this answer for is it deliberate?

If it's not true media machine, then report the truth. The people of the Virgin Islands are being controlled like slaves by corporate and private industries private meetings, with no Virgin Islanders. According to one of the most regarded board member "there are no Native Virgin Islanders". Another Internet illiterate,  public servant to web design and art spokesperson, says she is "all in favor of a clever marketing ploy".

This book online, is part, of what happens when you speak your mind to people you perceive to be powerless and it doesn't match your record or what your record is suppose to be.

The people in power in St. Thomas are like Trent Lott -  Former US Senator - Mississippi,  who recently lost his job because he forgot he wasn't speaking to just  the good old boys club.  This is part of what happens when club members forget their sheets, I mean their boardroom demeanor, and forget we are not all speaking with one voice, that's just "a clever marketing ploy".

Board members behaving badly with people who's existence they do not even acknowledge. This could be a problem for you board members and executive directors of non profits/Internet illiterate web design critics, if the people you don't acknowledge, really do exist and are not powerless.

How can you send  the president of a global company, someone you don't even know and they don't owe you money, I'm not sleeping with her hustand, an e-mail and accuse them of being "dishonest and misleading", and fear no consequence?

My father was an aerospace engineer, now he's an account. I grew up on steak and lobster shopping at Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills.  You don't know me. I lived on the beach in California. (in a condo, not homeless) You dare to speak for my clients who are as family, of my disservice to them and the art community.  How does Mary Blazine-Anderson get the nerve to criticize my performance. Native Art was lost on her watch! Ms. servant of non profit organizations/servant of "Local Art".

According the bylaws of the St. Thomas St. John Arts Council, Mary and other executive directors, past board members were suppose to be networking with all other agencies to promote Virgin Island Arts, not "Local Arts", but they couldn't find the bylaws, they told me. For 14 months. How many years Mary have you noticed that "Local Art" was 98% white and there was no Native artists? Mary could know Les about "Native Art" than she knows about the Internet, and it's effects on the human body.

 If a young West Indian girl looks at Les Anderson's "artwork" could her self-esteem be damaged? Yes, same answer for the boys.  No concern Mary, Cheryl Miller/Mango Jelly Maker, Promoter of Ohio Art Judges in The Virgin Islands, do you know what Native art is?  Cheryl Miller the current St. Thomas St. John Art Council President, didn't have time for arts council last year, she said, count me out. This year she says let's spend our money on a air plane ticket, so a judge from Ohio can come to the Virgin Islands and see no  Professional Virgin Islanders Art.

Lynn Pacassi-Berry St. Thomas St. John Arts Council President 2002, contacted the board member with the worst attendance and asked her who she liked for Executive Board 2003. They decided Cheryl Miller for President because she is an artists and knows a lot about art, or because she makes mango jelly or because she speaks with the same voice that 15% of the population and 98% of the art industry speaks with?

 The election process the St. Thomas St. John Arts Council used to elect the new executive board, was not a legal action. Their bylaws state they must form a nominating committee, not call the board member with the worst attendance and embarrassed web design expert, for her picks.

How many boards are practicing fraud in the Virgin Islands? How many people that are perceived to be community servants, are enslavers looking out the the 15% in power.

Power is something you take. Check with the Hotel Association, they have a plan to keep the people as paid slaves. Citing a "service evolution" not management training. This is an Asian American speaking, the president of the hotel association in St. Thomas. I have heard him speak in the board rooms and I have never heard he speak of love for the Virgin Islanders only "service evolution", better servants. Check the minutes of the meetings. No talk of incentives for Virgin Islanders only more servitude and threats of dismissal.

Who are the resident artists at Marriott Hotels in St. Thomas, "Native Artists"? No.  The good old boys club doesn't have any Virgin Island Artists in it. That's right no Native art in the galleries or the hotels.  Can we change this? Yes, and if they don't, slow and steady wins the race.

 Convicted to freedom for life, addicted to justice one word at a time.

3/13 /03 Daily Art News from St. Thomas U S Virgin Islands - America's Dirty  Secret, I mean America's Paradise.

There is so much, I don't know where to start today. Supporters stopped by the gallery last night. 1 white 1 Native Black - 1 African American lived here 20 years, a local. I told them about "Spring Solstice" by Les Anderson.  This is a painting that depicts a black woman, nude, legs wide open, pregnant, in the mirror, doing her hair, butt and thighs appear to be lumpy and a little overweight.

Why can't we give these people the respect they deserve!  They died and killed themselves to keep from being slaves in a land that was not their home.  The Blood.  It was The blood on the hands of the grandmother that slit the throat of her grandson so he would not have to live as a slave, makes this their land!

It is the BLOOD of the woman (Les Anderson calls her "Indigo"). who is raped and exploited even now, that makes this land her descendants homeland. It was the BLOOD they washed from their backsides that fell to the ground, that  resorts are built on today. It was the blood that gushed from her womb, that fell in the field, as she birthed her rapists babies.

It is the blood of the fittest and the strongest.  Their ancestors, my ancestors survived  journeys of genocide when others didn't, they died from the BLOOD.

They killed others. Killing is hard. You aren't born a killer, from love. You are made a killer from atrocity.  Under what circumstances would you slit the throat of your grandchild or child?

The absence of "Native Art" in a place where the people have blood in the land is a symptom!

"Local Artists" where is the blood in your artifact?
Our survey of non profit board of directors is ongoing. To date we continue to find the boards of non profit organizations dominated by the minority 15% of the population:  They always say that West Indians aren't interested, they don't have time, those people why bother. I know we have tried to get onto private organizations boards that control the fate of Virgin Islanders and we were blocked.

The people that have control of the non profit organizations and the media do not want you to know about openings on the boards and so they don't tell you. They tell members of the good old boys club, some Republicans and some Democrats or pretending to be Democrats.

I didn't vote in the last election because I didn't know what was really going on. The Virgin Islands is a republican party take over target.  Some of the non profit organizations are run by all white board of directors from the states.

I see colonist in the Virgin Islands with a 100 year plan to take it completely over. The first step. Speak with one voice in the non profit organizations, speak with one voice in all board rooms, speak with one voice in the private industry, and ignore 80% of the silent majority.

Silenced by the media when they don't report news that benefits the people of the Virgin Islands not just members of the good old boys club, their friends. The media knew they have covered all white "Local Art" events for years and said nothing. No special feature, no reporter assigned to cover "Native Art".

Let's see  St. John has one native art gallery owner, St. Thomas has none, and St. Croix has one. Don't look for native art originals in the other galleries, 98% of the galleries. This means that native people are capable of creating cultural art, why aren't there more native artists?  The people in power saw the decline and did nothing to help, they just waited and replaced the dying patient with "Local Art", the tourist won't know the difference.

Where was the nurturing non profit organization to step in and keep "Native Art" alive? They were busy making mango jelly and replacing it with "Local Art".

The people's servant was only serving 15% of the population because they have turned the volume off on 80% of you, they are wearing ear plugs and their friends are "Local Artists" and local art gallery owners. Their friends are on the boards of the non profits that assist the good old boys club in the name of public service. 15% of the public often decides how 100% of the public is served. Not because West Indians aren't interested, but because they won't speak with the same voice and the financial and cultural genocide will not be complete if they start participating.

Culture and race are not the same thing. Everybody white isn't from the states and everybody black isn't West Indian.  West Indians and African Americans are as different as Puerto Ricans and Mexicans.

The media practices divide and conquer between the government and the Virgin Island people. Do they ever say anything good about the government? The media is pro nothing except the good old boys club, their friends in power. The media doesn't share the information that will make Virgin Islanders strong!

The media speaks with one voice in the Virgin Islands, and according to Shaun A. Pennington ( owner of St. Thomas The Source, award winning screamer/laugher), everyone knew that except me. Shaun may not ever call anyone a liar again, without hearing their side of the story first. Shaun A. Pennington may even eventually, appreciate the difference, between a tale and a tail, and a mother from an ass.

I think "everybody knows" when 80% of the tourist ask for "Local Art" you know that they don't mean art from white or black artists from the states. They are asking for the BLOOD.

3/14/03
The Media is owned by one person is St. Thomas and 80% of them that make a living in communications is paid by his media machine. The online news The Source, isn't even close and completely out of touch with 80% of the population they "serve". The connection between them, us and art is:

I asked Shaun A. Pennington, owner of The Source (onepaper.com?) former vice president of The St. Thomas St. John Arts Council, if there was a communications monopoly in the Virgin Islands. She never answered me. I have never been introduced to Shaun. Our Internet access had been terminated and we blamed the wrong person, she refused to correct us because they oppose each other. Shaun was using me to get to him.  (Everybody knows who he is) Shaun finally  answered my question, after I put her name on my web site. Her answer was "everybody knows".

The media in the Virgin Islands is Jeffrey Prosser's communications monster ( cable, news, publishing, internet, wireless and much, much more) and in a very distant second Shaun A. Pennington The Source, ST. Thomas, St. John, St. Croix, only online. They represent 15% of the population of the Virgin Islands.

Virgin Island residents spend a lot of time online. The distant second has a very loud voice, heard by many board of directors of many majority white non profit organizations.  In The Virgin Islands 15% of the population control the media and  private industry that is tourism.

Before we accused Jeffrey Prosser of terminating our Internet access, we asked the media, they ignored us. Our research uncovered the only other competition in telecommunications, Prosser's old partner  Prior.

They terminated our Internet access because we spoke with the voice of the people. They have been waiting for their names to come up, it's not necessary "everybody knows who they are".

The reason Shaun A. Pennington/Award Winning Laughers, name is being used and Mary Blazine-Anderson/Internet Illiterate Web Design Critic, is because there connection to the absence of "Native Art" and the success the media in the Virgin Islands makes of "Local Art" and "everybody knew", said and did nothing.

Because there is a very strong link to non profit organizations and abuse of power in the Virgin Islands. When an Internet Illerate,Executive Director of a non profit organization, demands my time so she can design my web site, I have to wonder about her sanity and ability to lead.

We have become a media threat with our web site, that is why  Shaun called laughing late last summer 2002.  We have become a threat to "Local Art" that is why Mary Blazine-Anderson, sent me web design advise in an e-mail late this summer 2002

Shaun A. Pennington called me a liar over the phone, (while screaming, I mean laughing) in reference to an assignment we agreed to take from the business manager at Reichhold Center. She never asked for my side of the story. Who does she think I am, that I would not find a way to defend my honor?

It seems in the Virgin Islands, members of the media attempt to manipulate private citizens for the benefit of laughing at them, deserve to be awarded some justice. Being called an ass, by a journalist who was suppose to be promoting Virgin Islands Arts and Artists, in a place where there is none, does not give me any confidence in the media or non profit organizations board of directors in the Virgin Islands.

The battles between Shaun A. Pennington and Jeffrey Prosser are infighting. They represent 15% of the population in their media ventures.

Both Mary and Shaun claim to be servants of the people, they swear with their friends on all of the boards of non profit organizations, just like The St. Thomas St. John Arts Council. The arts council is not to be confused with Virgin Islands Council On The Arts, I'm afraid to even look there. I would like VICA to please clean your house. It would not be fair to look at them and not at you.

The same people that are on the boards that control the Virgin Islands have been the same people that have sat on the board of the St. Thomas St. John Arts Council. Even media members.  Shaun and Mary, when you were on the board of the St. Thomas St. John Arts Council, were you operating as the doctrine demands?

How many non profit organizations in the Virgin Islands organize and swear to make the Virgin Islands a better place for all Virgin Islanders, do so without knowing or caring what Virgin Islanders need?

Virgin Islanders are not represented, or asked. They are accused of being lazy and not caring about their own destiny by people with all the nerve of Trent Lott before he forgot who he was talking to.

Mary and Shaun did not know who they were talking to and they spoke anyway.  It didn't matter to them because they have operated in the open wearing their sheets, because they know the voice of the people is as "Local Art". Just look at Les Anderson's art. A pregnant West Indian woman has no honor with Les.

These people perceive all West Indians that they don't know  to be stupid and they didn't think I would not be a threat because they remain Internet illerate and still won't learn from Vietnam, or Star Trek.

These people are the "Borg". Operating in the open, running non profits without regard for the law or the people that the organizations are suppose to serve, because they are "Taking Over". Just look at The St. Thomas St. John Arts Council. Look at the St. John Arts Council, how many "Native Artist" belong to their "Local Art" not for profit organization?

Look at the Virgin Island Community Foundation, does their board have more previous members of the St. Thomas St. John Arts Council like respected Virgin Island Art representative Mary Blazine-Anderson/Internet Consultant in Training?

We are saying art, but art is a big part of tourism and the private industry and the non profit organizations. When executive directors of a non profit organization, a person I do not know, dares to call me dishonest in writing and speaks for your clients, she begs me for attention.

Same people same bylaw breakers.

"Messrs. Prosser and Prior purchased Vitelco (the phone company) and then repaid Hutton with a nearly $100 million credit from Rural Telephone Finance Cooperative, a new, not-for profit lending co-op in Herndon, Va.    Prosser owns the telephone company, two local cable television firms, a bank and the newspaper in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Prosser owns the company at provides Internet Access for our company, Vipowernet. The service has been good and there is no Internet security in the Virgin Islands, it's an illusion, just a "Clever Marketing Ploy".

 Prosser arrived from Nebraska, where he was an accountant. Now he is embarked on "a concentrated, orchestrated plan to take over the Virgin Islands," contends Lee Rohn, an attorney who has tangled with him. The majority of media members that don't work for Prosser, work for Shaun A. Pennington, (who will do anything for a good laugh) former St. Thomas St. John Arts Council Vice President/bylaw breaker?.

Trudy & Cornelius Prior own Coral World and Viaccess, Choice Communications ATN. Their company terminated our Internet access because they didn't like the e-mail message we sent about cleaning up Coki Point Beach. We offended their friends and they cut us off at the knees, twice.

There is so much business board of director, incest in the Virgin Islands it was hard to discern who owns what and the media refused to help us. After all if "everybody knows" what's really going on in the Virgin Islands, they might all start speaking up with their own voices.

Mr. Prosser also formed an alliance with Ashley Andrews, a politically connected lawyer. Together with Mr. Prosser's long time lawyer, John Raynor, and a couple of Nebraska state senators, Mr. andrews sought to bring video gambling machines to the islands.

Nebraska state senator, John DeCamp. "Once you know the system in the Virgin Islands, it's like milking the biggest bossy cow in the world". Mr. DeCamp says. "The milk just keeps on coming if you know how to squeeze the big teat."

THE ABSENCE OF NATIVE ART IS AN SYMPTOM.
 

The media won't help the people in the Virgin Islands because it's not in their best interest. Unification is in the best interest of the people of the Virgin Islands. Education is in the best interest of the Virgin Islands and the complete identification and notification of every board vacancy in the Virgin Islands corporations, is in the best interest of the Virgin Islands people.

Who is the media in the Virgin Islands and who is running our non profit organizations? How many non profit organizations incorporate in the Virgin Islands and do not serve Virgin Islanders? The St. Thomas St. John Arts Council does not serve Virgin Islanders and there are many that share the same board members.

Then you have Mr. Lawyer democrats cloked in the Confiderate Flag, sheet wearing board members, saying we in the Virgin Islands, speak with one voice, we are all the same, there is no black and white. He spoke with a southern accent.

We are the opposition.  How can we write a book online, complete with names and fear no reprisal? Vietnam, bible stories and computer software.

The media does not return my phones calls, because I will ask them questions they don't want to answer.  Where are the management training programs and the articles about how badly they are needed? Where are the entrepreneur training programs and reports on how private industry lacks native participation? Where are the after school programs and the articles about how they reduce crime? Where are the articles that report on the lack of native participation in the non profit organizations?  Where is a complete list and racial make up of all non profit organization and available board positions?  How many non-profit organizations in the Virgin Islands are operated by all white board of directors from the states in the states, for the purpose of taking over the Virgin Islands?

They advertise in the newspapers! They make new non profit organizations, for the sole purpose of financing the take over of The Virgin Islands. Take a look at their record they want more than 300 acres of Magens Bay, a non profit with an all white board in Virginia.

The media in the Virgin Islands uses their position to silence the voice of 80% of the population of the Virgin Islands by keeping the government under media seige.
 

The Source online in the Virgin Islands - see how the media advertises that Mitch Gibb is a Virgin Island Artists? The Source knows that Mitch Gibbs is from Pennsylvania according to his web site. I saw was his slave plantation artwork in Palm Passage. As far as I am concerned he is selling slaves and servants just like Les Anderson.    Taken From The Source Online Today 3/15/03
click here for Mitch
                  Gibbs' collection of paintings spanning 18 years represents a return to the St.
                  Thomas artist's St. John roots.

The media said Mitch Gibbs was a St. Thomas Artists with St. John roots.

What are roots? What are St. John roots? Who has the blood in the roots in St. John? Mitch Gibbs?

I guess everybody in St. Thomas isn't reading this book.  This is where the media doesn't know the difference between a tale and a tail. St. Thomas Artist's St. John Roots are descendents of slaves. Do you know anything about the bloody slave revolt in St. John, Mitch? That is where the grandmother slit the throat of her grandchild to keep him from being the happy slave or servants you paint and sell in Palm Passage.

St. John Roots was what Les Anderson's  "Indigo" was depending on to get her through her next modeling job. Mitch Gibbs, tell us about your St. John Roots, the curise from Africa?  Your roots of being chained to a dead  slave, she wallows in the blood and the mucus of many family members dead and dying .

Please Mitch, show us your tale. I had no idea  there was white slaves in St. John.  His curator, a person not unfamiliar with grants, historical preservation, culture Janet Cook- Rutnik the white poster artist for cultural arts, Board Member Supreme in the Virgin Islands. Go to the top of the "Honor Roll Of Shame" with deaf lawyer, the illiterate Internet Web Design Critic and the media's, award winning storytellers.
 

Excuse me: Why Shaun, is the  Source calling this woman a St. Thomas Artist?
 Madeleine 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. (taken from the web site 3/15/03)

She sound like the "Local Artist" of greek descent, with 2 homes in the states and one home in St. Thomas. These artists are not from here, they don't even live here full time. Are they local everywhere they have a house? Or, is this the "Clever Marketing Ploy" Mary Blazine-Anderson-Executive Director of the St. John Community Foundation, spoke to us about.  Mary who offered me directions to the here after.

The media will call them Virgin Island Artists, or St. Thomas Artists, when they know there isn't any "Native Art" in their vocabulary.

The Media - The Non Profit Organization - The Board Of Directors - The St. Thomas St. John Arts Council - The Hotel Association's plan for a "Service Evolution" check the minutes of the meetings of the non profit organizations and the birth certificates!

How can I stop? You won't let me stop?  Is this your "Clever Marketing Ploy"?  You give me no peace and you demonstrate clearly with artists from Pennsylvania and artists from Cuba that Artifact cannot be trusted in the Virgin Islands.

Where these artists are from is well documented. Yet you engage in this "Clever Marketing Ploy" to make anyone who reads your source, that Virgin Island Artists are producting and selling art. Your non profit organizations like the St. Thomas St. John Arts Council does not have even one Native Artists on it's board.

The arts council of which we speak was caught with their hands in the cookie jar! Caught breaking the law.  Check the minutes of the meetings for years. Check the board of directors, where are they now? What boards are they corrupting now in the Virgin Islands with business as usual? Or as the lawyer put it, "the good they do  outways the bad".  What about equal justice under the law?

The Media knows these artists are not Virgin Island Artists or St. Thomas artist's with St. John roots. You only have one set of roots. How many roots can you have Shaun? How many places can you be from? How many places can call you local without telling tales?

The media in the Virgin Islands presents St. Thomas Artists from Pennsylvania and calls them Virgin Island Artists. The media calls Cuban born artists a St. Thomas Artist. What is she in Cuba?

I'm an African American, they only let you pick one place to be from.  What, Virgin Island artists are defined as being born from somewhere else, like California and being reborn in the Virgin Islands with a VI drivers license?  My son was born here. He is from St. Thomas.  Where else can you do this? I am a Californian, St. Thomas is my home. But, I am never going to be from St. Thomas. I am from California. If I were to become an artists, I would be an artists from California, give ten points to the Daily News.

You people need professional Internet help and medication, if you think I don't know who is visiting my web site. Check my stats, your Internet servers, you know are carrying more traffic to my site than the entire United States of America. The country of Canada has only 4 more visitors to my web site than the Virgin Islands.

You might need an Internet Consultant that is not a member of the good old boys club, to help you out of the mess your club member reads about you and themselves in. The St. Thomas St. John Arts Council knows a good one. She embarrassed their web design experts, read the minutes.

(How many times has the  Daily News used the word rancorous in the last 24 months?)

Today I am a Mother.  Here is something about - Why would the Executive Director of Riechhold Center For The Arts, send his business manager to us for a grant writing seminar, when UVI is so close?

How many non profit organizations in the Virgin Islands know we were offering free computer training, grant writing seminars for $25.00 including dinner?  The Board of Directors at University of The Virgin Islands, knew, all of them.....They have known that we were hard wired from the beginning.

There is a shortage of hi tech professionals worldwide. In St. Thomas in the boardroom of the Hotel Association and to the General Manager of Marriotts Renaissance Grand Beach Resort knew we were offering his organization access to free computer training and they never took us up on it. Why?

The employees that work across the street from us at Renaissance Resort and down the street from us at Sugarbay Resort don't need free computer training?Read the minutes of the meetings.  Powerful people, run the non profit organizations in the Virgin Islands and they want the people untrained, so they can continue to bring their friends in from the states.

This is why you don't have any hit tec training of the youth from the private sector. No non profits addressing the future needs of  80%Virgin Islanders, because they are to be kept as cheap labor.

The take over of the private sector including tourism is complete. Powerful people, members of boards of directors like David Yamada, Mary Gleason and Anthony Fina sat across from me at meetings when we offered to provide free computer training to low income wage earners at work at the hotels.  Do you think these people didn't know we could have been a tremendous help to the people of the Virgin Islands?

Do they want to help the people of the Virgin Islands or do they want cheap labor forever. Read the minutes of the meetings. We are hard wired, making money from the Internet and from tourism. We represent visual artists of note, internationally.  Did they invite us to join more boards? No. We have been blocked from joining the boards of non profit organizations because we are speaking with the voice of 80% of Virgin Islanders.

In the world, there exist a shortage of technology professionals. We offered to help they turned us down. Why?  Because The Virgin Islands doesn't need help?

We have been known to give the hotel good advise. Check the minutes of the Rolex Cup Regatta 2002 regarding Easter Events. I said the people of the Virgin Islands are going to be getting ready for chuch the day before Easter. Events were scheduled anyway. We withdrew from Easter Events because we know the market. They continued to plan events for children the day before Easter and the Daily news reported there were no children at these Easter Eve events.

The Rolex Cup Regatta 2002 committee was organized with including  All The Virgin Islanders as a theme." A Clever Marketing Ploy" it turns out.  They said they wanted Virgin Islanders to attend because West Indians and the yacht club have bad blood and they want to repair the wound. They were a room full of Marriott employees and me. Then you plan events when you know West Indians will be doing other things, and invite them, put it in the newspaper, knowing they won't show up.

Virgin Islanders are not stupid. The Newspaper is a joke in St. Thomas, that will only lead to low self esteem for Virgin Islanders 80% of them.

A recent editorial blaming our Tourism Director for, well everything is a perfect example. Why not just blame her parents for her existence and get it overwith.  If the tourism director had never been born American Airlines would still be in St. Croix. She must speak with her own voice sometimes.

I don't know her, but I know she must work hard at just damage control from the media and his friends.

We have been attacked by upstanding pillars of the community, and all they know about us is that we can help the people of the Virgin Islands, we are free and black, and that is not in their best interest.
 
 

Listen to your President, George Bush and other Republicans say go to the church to reach the people. Go to the church for community participation. What church do they go to? What would Mary Blazine-Anderson and Les Anderson look like in a West Indian Church, holding up a print of "Indigo", introducing Les as a  Virgin Island Artists and Mary the Executive Director of a non profit organization, claiming to love the people.

They don't know the people, they don't want to know the people and they sure as hell don't want to help the people who are in West Indian Churches or they would have gone and offered, as reccommended by our President.

3/18/03 Soldiers Are  Passion Servants Too

We are being investigated. We are documenting your investigation of us.

The Virgin Island people must be respected in their own home especially. West Indian parents sending their children off to college in the states and to establish careers and business in the states is like African Americans sending their children to Canada for a better life! It's BS

It is  West Indian sweat we forget, that built St. Thomas, not money alone from tourist or investors.

How can a place with so much culture, not export any?  How many tourist dollars should be for cultural tourist based ventures? This is the strength of the West Indian people in the Virgin Islands. Tourist travel to exchange culture, what do we offer?

Don't you think the board members of the non-profit organizations from the states know that  West Indians they have taken your cultural voice away from you and they have offered the tourist wave runners. Culture is money!!!!!, everywhere but here.

The majority board members of non profit organizations are smart enough to know that if you offer a visitor to the Virgin Islands to shop and exchange culture or just shop, visitors would know more about West Indians.

West Indians are a product that the Hotel Association will not promote because it is not in their best interest. Instead of  journalism that addresses the causes of crime and the best ways to prevent them. The high crime rate is an issue. The issue should be what is causing the high crime and how can we stop it. We are spending more money reporting about crime than reporting about what each Virgin Islander can do daily. These are the things that make a community strong.

My client confirmed that hotel management, where he was a guest told him that St. Thomas was not safe without resort personnel.  This is economic genocide on the people of the Virgin Islands. The greed outweighs the concern.

How can we become a stronger Virgin Islands? Go into the Church and speak to Virgin Islanders. Create advertising supplements and news information that provides Virgin Islanders with access to information that will improve the quality of our lives.

Stop meeting in secret and pretend the people aren't interested, after all you did put a notice in the newspaper. Does the Hotel Association promote more culture in the Virgin Islands or better servants?

Where is the advertising that says "Meet Our People"? "Eat  West Indian" Enjoy West Indian Music while you are here. We are playing  "The Rolling Stones" in our stores, we should all be playing steel pan or other Native Music. People travel to exchange culture and every board member knows that.  Most of them have organized against the people of The Virgin Islands, I know the St. Thomas St. John Arts Council has operated without knowledge of their bylaws for years.

They organized to promote Virgin Islands Arts and Virgin Islands Artists, all of them and each year they replaced Virgin Island Art with "Local Art".

Where are those board members from previous years? Are they on other boards operating without the Virgin Islanders they organize and receive tax exempt status for? Where is the Native Art, and what do it mean?

Virgin Islanders must seek self employment. The private industry, especially technology based ventures, must begin to operate training programs for youth. You profit margin is tremendous, I know when I work it's for up to $500 an hour or $5,000 a day if I travel.

The media must be a better more concerned friend to the Virgin Island people. The monopoly is not the problem, it's what you do with it. You can make more money being fair than being the peoples low self esteem daily. Reach out to the people, start in the church as our President suggest. We are all Americans, let's start acting like it.
 

3/7/03

Yes things are changing in St. Thomas art galleries. Gallery personnel at Bajo el Sol Gallery in St. John, now know the sound of my voice. After all everyone just assumes "Local Art" is "Native Art". When I call the galleries I introduce them to new words, "Indigenous Art or Native Art" ( the i word) I give myself away. I ask them if they have any artwork of black west indians they say yes, I ask if the artists of black west indians are black west indians, they hang up. The "Local Artists" featured in the Daily News in St. Thomas are no longer represented as Virgin Island  Artist, thank you.

I used the ( i ) word on the phone with the owner of Solo Arte, "St. John Artist, Janet Cook-Rutnik this am. It was understandably a bad time for her to talk to me, as I was asking for indigenous art.  We did speak long enough for me to inform her of the imminent class action law suit against the executive board members of the St. Thomas St. John Arts Council.  I gave her our web address after I informed her of the online book, "America's Dirty Little Art Secret".

Janet Cook-Rutnik, also offered excuses of why there was no indigenous art in St. Thomas, repeating a familiar refrain, " I have done all I can ".  Janet Cook-Rutnik was sent e-mail about " America's Dirty Little Art Secret", as others can attest I don't waste my time with threats or unsolicited bulk e-mail. She should have read her e-mail. This could be an example of " Arts effects on the human body".

Please click here to visit Janet Cook-Rutnik's web site

After visiting her web site I was convinced that Janet knew St. Thomas didn't have any indigenous art originals in the art galleries. Having received grants and completed her undergraduate studies in art, Janet has probably heard of indigenous art, she may even know what an artifact is.

More on the phone with Janet Cook-Rutnik, this am -
When I started throwing words like, artists commissions, grants and mentoring, again she remembered that this was a bad time to talk to me. Please tell me Janet, how long has the St. Thomas St. John Arts Council been promoting artwork from just one culture in St. Thomas? These are basic art health questions to educators and educated artists, who know good and d--- well that indigenous art was replaced by "Local Art".

How could you people think you could continue to get away with this cultural arts genocide? Your actions speak with no respect to the Virgin Island people. I have sat on some of  your other boards, when you spoke of a "service evolution" in St. Thomas. There is no love discernible in the Virgin Islands for it's people from the new plantation owners.  Just the modeling agency for former slaves and servants, I mean art galleries with no indigenous art.

These "Local Artists" who portray indigenous culture, have created artwork with no cultural connection to the people who are the subjects.  Tourist in pursuit of "Local Art",  seeking the connection from his grandmothers stories, are offered prints.

If a gallery sells enough prints from an artists, it is in the galleries best interest to commission the artists, whose work is obviously in demand, to produce originals.

Galleries feature original artwork in the press releases and in print advertising. You do the math.  It's not good business to spend $500 to advertise a $25.00 print.

Free my people from your framed and gallery wrap, sugar cane plantations. People said to care, financially secure, frequent travelers to Haiti for Haitian Art, Do The Right Thing, At Home. It's not right, you're willing to respect Haitian Artist but not St. Thomas Artist or indigenous west indian art.

These "Local Artists", not all of them but most of them, deserve membership the "Honor Roll of Shame". How can art educators, residing in a multicultural society, forge cultural at? They must cross their fingers behind their backs when tourist ask for "Local Art". Ask any tourist that hasn't swallowed your lie, about all the indigenous artists moving to the states. Tourist are disappointed when we tell them, there is no "Native Art" and explain that "Local Art" is created by artists from the states.

Indigenous art's death was not reported in the media, but one of the local journalist, former vice president of St. Thomas St. John Arts Council (St. Thomas The Source)  said in a phone conversation "everybody knows Nanci", then she called me an ass. Indigenous art wasn't even buried on a back page to be dug up one day, for a believer of bedtime stories.

Native Art is perpetually aborted by The St. Thomas St. John Arts Council, annually. The job of a non profit organization is to determine the problems and apply for grants to implement solutions.  The lack of indigenous art wasn't identified as a problem by the arts council, because they were busy replacing it with "Local Art". No art education for the public as promised in the bylaws, as a direct result no art patrons for indigenous arts support.

The public didn't know and the non profit agency that promised to keep them informed didn't. Each culture must be represented in art and allowed to benefit monetarily, from the products that are produced from their cultures. These exhibited, cultural art products are so inferior to an indigenous product, that there is no connection to culture, history and art, as it is suppose to say cultural art.

Black slaves in the  St. Thomas were terrified of sea travel for a good reason. Why do artists with no cultural connection to the events, continue to misrepresent indigenous people in original art? Because tourist are looking for artwork of native people, and you don't have any, because you rejected the message that is "Indigenous Art".

This artists brought his pain to you and there wasn't a market for it, so you turned him away saying his art wasn't good enough. Appropriately, art created by "Native Artists" relate to the pain of the past, the struggle and the future. The past pain in St. Thomas was slavery, exploitation in the worst way and bloody revolts. In the south we sell our war history even though the south didn't win.

Artists are allowed to recreate their heritage, share their culture and release their pain, in the south. In St. Thomas there is no story of pain, or love, or emancipation. In St. Thomas there is only docile black slaves and servants, perfectly dressed.

All the same art and the same artists, no art with a cultural connection in St.Thomas, not even for slave owner descendants.  The owners of slaves don't pose in the paintings with them. I don't why not, the workers are so happy, why was there such blood shed and revolt in the virgin islands to end slavery?  Surely the slave owners of the slaves portrayed by "Local Artists" didn't use whips on them, or sell off family members, like children.

Art is such a fantasy in St. Thomas art galleries they should be selling the alternative history books with the "art".

Visually depicted in fine art originals, black west indians in St. Thomas, are still slaves and servants in St. Thomas art galleries. Our first revelation was provided by the wife (Mary Blazine-Anderson) of an artist, (Les Anderson Takea look at Les Anderson, Virgin Island Artist), who said she was "all in favor of a clever marketing ploy".

Does this mean some white artists like to think of the black west indians they portray as still slaves or servants. Not running (tings) as Les Anderson refers to in "We Run Tings". An original painting that demonstrates no respect to Virgin Islanders, only mockery and more exploitation.

It's okay to sell artwork of St. Thomas natives, just not by them.
 

 Today, I am passions slave. You will know it when you see it.

Thank God for Louisiana and my grandmothers bedtime stories. Keep up those Civil War Reenactments. (like fish?) Our family still owns shreveportbossier.com (a division of Image Research & Communication) When we first arrived in Louisiana, we shopped for local art to decorate our home.  Alfredo and I were casually strolling in and out of  the craft shops that line the Cane River. When just out of the corner of my eye I saw, a painting,  my head turned, on it's own like auto pilot.

Thank God it was available in a print. The painting was of woman being baptized in a bayou, as was my great-grandmother, grandmother, mother, youngest son, and myself. My first piece of artwork in my first home in Louisiana was that print.

My first art attack was at the church I wrote an Entrepreneur Training Program for, just before the birth of the son that was baptized with me in the bayou. The painting was of a mother pressing her daughters hair, immediately l looked for the name of the artist, that was 12 years ago. Even though I have never seen that painting again or any other artwork from that artists, I believe I can still see the coral and lavender used in the painting.

Often, in my youth I was a motherless child. I found comfort from art in the Los Angeles County Art Museum, where art was pictures. My first art attack, was an attack of longing, emptiness from absence and then comfort from the pain. My father pressed my hair.

Cultural art connects with us in primitive and innate ways. It can give us comfort where we only had pain. We become excited and sad, we could laugh or cry, our culture in art, holds us as captives. Cultural art binds people together with in their commonality, with comfort, and I becomes "my" and our pain becomes art

In St. Thomas our art has become pain.

"My" may be the word makes cultural art possessive. When we sell art in the gallery it is because the buyer is in love. Before each purchase, we hear "I" love that painting, that painting reminds "me" when you hear the word "my" it  is of possession. "My" grandmother use to tell me stories about the pecan trees that looked just like that. " That painting reminds me of "my" first trip to Europe" "my" first kiss.

When I see a painting of my family laughing instead of running or bleeding, I look for the artists name. Cultural art is not art for entertainment. You won't find writers moving to south central L.A. to become a resident so they can write about being from South Central.

An artists can't move to the virgin islands and become a Virgin Island Artist and create cultural art without "my". Pictures of people that don't belong to you are portraits.  Paintings of indigenous people and their history is called cultural art  Why not paint your cultural art and include a representation of what your family may have been doing during slavery. My family was suffering, even though it is not represented in the galleries in St. Thomas.

My family was committing suicide and killing their own children to keep from living as slaves in St. Thomas. I believe visual artist can tell these stories with love because of ownership. History also belongs to art. Artifact. ART IS FACT
 

It is a great discomfort to be in the home, of the father of  impressionist art and bloody slave revolts to freedom and equality and see no great art speak. The south it  seems could be a good teacher of culture and respect in the Virgin Islands. I know it's already a good place to hear your  (my) grandmother stories speak again in art, even when I am not there..

I have never had a use for separate but equal before now. Cultural art should be separate but equal.

I have sold products/services to the wealthiest and most recognized as I have been the poorest, without hope, forgotten, passions slave.   People have loved me,  with nothing in common between us but bitter history and respect for God.  We sustain each other we are not each other.

That I would leave that,  to live in a place were my people represent 80% of the majority population, produces a picture in my mind of freedom and justice.  Art of happy government officials kissing babies, paintings of people celebrating freedom, not celebrating perpetual inequality.

Of Culture, I'm a Californian!

Here in St. Thomas the media censors my press releases for racial content. On the Internet we are, David.

BLACK WEST INDIANS REALITY vs Depicted Alternative/Reality during colonial times:
Quotes taken from: The Stark Reality of the Middle Passage - By Mallard Merriman

Visual Art tells a story everywhere in the world, past and present, just ask artifact. That is arts job. The story visual art tells in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands is of happy slaves and servants. Black west indians are not portrayed in artwork by "Local Artists"  outside of colonial times but they do seem happy to be slaves or servants.

This visual mythology is the dominate, often sole representation and interpretation, in original art form of colonial and modern day west indian culture in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. As it seems, art gallery owners with, financial resources like grant fund acquisition, mentioning or art commissions to indigenous artists.

 The lack of indigenous art in original art form in St. Thomas seems to be widely accepted and replaced by "Local Art and Local Artists".   Artists, like Aphrodite who has a home here in St. Thomas, Florida and New Hampshire and Lynn Pacassi-Berry both board members of a non profit organization who's mission is to promote ALL Virgin Island Artists.

Both  Aphrodite and Lynn are exhibiting artists at Mapes Monde Art Gallery. The New Plantation in St. Thomas, The Art Gallery Plantations, where slaves are still sold in the form of artwork by others. I don't know what else to call it when black west indians are not selling artwork of themselves by themselves.  Other people, "Local Artists" (from the states) represent more than 90% of the original artwork being sold in virgin island art galleries today.  I call it "Tourist Trap Art".

The logical course of action would be to have cultural art of indigenous people, commissioned by an indigenous artists, mentioning and grant acquisitions for indigenous art preservation.

"Frequently, I went down among them till the hold became so unbearably hot that I could not stay. Excessive heat was not the only thing that rendered the situation intolerable. The floor of the hold was so covered with blood and mucus, which proceeded from them in consequence of the flux, that it resembled a slaughterhouse.

Mapes Monde  Art Gallery had on exhibit paintings by Carlton of colonial west indians off loading a ship, but Carton's west indians were happy, well dressed and hard working.

Note: 'flux" is the early name for amoebic dysentery, an ulcerative inflammation of the colon. It may reach the liver by the portal bloodstream, producing abscesses on that organ. Today we know that this acute form of dysentery is caused not by 'foul air" and "excessive heat" but by the organism Entamoeba histolyticajound in bad water and rotted food. I.P

 This is how we were treated. We were not dressed at all.

No paintings of shackled slaves hang on the walls in the new plantations in St. Thomas, only healthy west indians, caring baskets of fruit and wearing pretty dresses. No rotten food or dead slaves.

"An exertion of the greatest skill and attention could afford the diseased Negroes little relief so long as the causes of the diseases, namely, the breathing of a putrid atmosphere and wallowing in their own excrements, remain. When once the fever and flux get to any height at sea, a cure is scarcely ever effected. . . . "

 Are we to believe paintings that hang in St. Thomas Art Galleries represent black west indians and their culture or history? Do artists like Carlton, Les Anderson and Mitch Gibbs create artwork from an alternative colonial period in Danish West Indian History? Where was there a time when slaves and servants were well dressed, cleaned up and happy to give 100% to slavery?

"Upon going down in the mornings to examine the condition of the slaves, I frequently found several dead, and among the men, sometimes a dead and living Negro fastened by their irons together. When this was the case, they were brought upon the deck and laid on the grating when the living Negro was disengaged and the dead one thrown overboard.

Where are the paintings that depicts the text mentioned above?

On slave ships that were poorly organized and overcrowded, Negroes were jammed into the holds with little regard for stowage. "They were literally piled one on top of another and the unsteady motion of the ship, combined with foul air and great heat made the place simply horrible......

It's hard to believe a black west indian would ever smile around a ship again, as depicted by Carlton in many paintings.

"The second mate and boatswain descend into the hold, whip in hand, and range the slaves in their regular places; those on the right side of the vessel f acing forward and lying in each other's laps, while those on the left are similarly stowed with their faces towards the stern. In this way each Negro lies on his right side, which is considered preferable for the action of the heart.

At Mapes Monde Art Gallery we did not see paintings that represent the culture and heritage of black west indians, why? No funds for indigenous artists commissions? Or  as Michael Paiewonski put it "Everyone knows the black man has suffered".

White artists creating visual fairy tales of happy well dressed, slaves and servants to sell to who? White tourist who believe artwork of black west indians are by black west indians. These artists paint pictures of exploited black west indian slaves, and sell them as "Local Art by Local Artists".

No unhappy slave ships in St. Thomas's art gallery plantations. No living African Slaves being unchained from dead fellow travelers. The west indians depicted in this former teacher's artwork makes slavery look like a Carnival Cruse.  I wouldn't be surprised to see paintings of slaves water skiing or parasailing in St. Thomas art galleries.
 

3/2/03

The new slave plantations are art galleries in St. Thomas where black slaves and servants are still bought and sold, in the form of art.  Newly emancipated slaves became exploited servants in the Virgin Islands. The sugar plantation slave masters have been replaced with "Local Art Gallery Curators and sales clerks without a clue". White artists, creating and selling paintings of black west indians, depicted during a time when they were either slaves or servants, are benefiting from the exploitation and the holocaust.

Again the artists "Carlton" exhibits with better art than I saw at Mango Tango Art Gallery. Her subject remains black west indian, all dressed up on the plantation, having a good time. While right around the corner, in the gallery, are photos of west indian slaves or servants, not at all dressed for success.

I hope Carlton didn't teach history as depicted in her paintings of black west indians, dressed to kill, new looking clothes without "Tide or Cheer". Does the owner of Mapes Monde know about indigenous art? Is a local artist in Italy Italian, or does he just paint pictures of Italians? When you go on vacation to purchase "Local Art" of indigenous people, do you want your "Local Art" from indigenous people or people that satisfy the residency requirement?

Today we visited Mapes Monde Art Gallery at the Grand Hotel in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands,  and found no indigenous art in St. Thomas by a St. Thomas artist.  We found the art plantation, where people are still benefiting from slavery and servitude.

The sales clerk had no idea why I was obviously upset. I asked her for art of black people by black people and she didn't have any. Suppose on her next visit to her homeland, there won't be any art of her people by her people, there will be only "Local Art".  She offered to get Michael (Virgin Islands Books, Conquest of Eden, 1493-1515; Other Voyages of Columbus,Guadeloupe,  Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, Virgin Islands by Michael Paiewonsky) for me, the owner of Mapes Monde. (taken from the search engine google)

Fairy Tale Art from a historian. Happy slaves and well dressed servants, just posing for the artists while they unload and load slave ships. No tear stained faces, just sweet black west indians. Exploitation for the sake of art or as Mary Blazine-Anderson puts it,  "a clever marketing ploy", is still exploitation.

If you want  cultural depictions of indigenous people in paintings,  you must use the product of the environment for the best representation and translation. The art of black west indians in Mapes Monde, by Carlton should be classified as "fantasy art" not "Local Art".

Original art from some of the more accurate photos of slaves and servants would be historically  and culturally correct. The artwork in St. Thomas of slaves and servants suggest an alternative reality, where slaves and servants were dressed in bright colorful garments and the promise of a bright future, painted on their clean faces.

You want to see how some slaves and servants were treated in St. Thomas in art depiction's, check out Les Anderson's "Indigo".  Immortalized in her exploitation, for what! To demonstrate in art that black colonial women were un- paid and used against there will for sex.
 

More about Mapes Monde tomorrow.

3/1/03   Most art educators/artists and the media, in St. Thomas, earn the highest scores for their parts in replacing Native Art with "Local Art".  Even I was surprised when the owner of Mango Tango Art Gallery in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, quoted the number of art educators including herself, that have taken over the art industry in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. They represent the largest group of exhibiting artists in St. Thomas!

Even though Mango Tango's owner stated the number one criteria for art acquisition for her gallery was quality, the quality was not there.  "Kathy Carlson" a former virgin island educator, had an extensive collection of paintings of black west indians, back during a time in history when they were exploited the most.

 I was not moved by the artist skill, subject or composition. I don't think this artist, Kathy Carlson can paint white people with proficiency in any style, why choose subjects like exploited black west indians?

Local artwork from Kathy Carlson, Mitch Gibbs, Les Anderson, Eric Winter and others, black west indians aren't wearing old ragged clothing, their clothes appear bright, vibrant and new.  During the era depicted in most "Local Art" of black west indians their clothes are color coordinated and crisp, while working in the field. This is a sharp contrast to what west indian slave history reports.

If you believe the paintings from "Local Artists" the west indians were happy, well dressed slaves, servants or workers. What could have been wrong with slavery or working for less that non blacks, if you believe the west indian slaves and servants, lived as they are painted by white educators/artists.

 Did slave owners coordinate slaves ensembles daily, to keep plantation slaves ready for a photo op, should a "Local Artist" like Kathy Carlson, Mitch Gibbs or Les Anderson drop by? Did plantations have modeling agencies, back then for slaves who wanted to be immortalized in the nude like Les Anderson's "Indigo".

Perhaps we expect too much - We expect educators and media professionals to know what Native Art is and respect it. We expect the above mentioned to be familiar with terms like "artist commissions" :Used in a sentence: Native artists can be commissioned to create artwork of their homeland and of their people. Another example of "commission" being used in a sentence: Grants can be obtained to commission indigenous artist if indigenous art is under-represented.

The fact that these educators/artist are prominent beneficiaries of "Local Art" which is not Native, and failed to mentor is disturbing.

No commissions for Native artists and no mentoring programs. They admit spending up to $50,000 a year on advertising "Local Art" but indigenous art is not worth saving, even for an island full of art educators. These recipients of the "Honor Roll of Shame" include past St. Thomas St. John Arts Council vice president, Shaun A. Pennington. Pennington owns St. Thomas The Source. Many would consider the complete lack of indigenous artists participation in St. Thomas to be news in St. Thomas. The Daily News, in St. Thomas, is also aware that there are no indigenous art originals being sold in art galleries in St. Thomas. No indigenous artists are being featured in any galleries in St. Thomas.

I wonder if Jane Dicola, Shaun A. Pennington and Janet Cook-Rutnik ("Janet Cook-Rutnik has established herself as one of the most  original and provoking artists from the United States Virgin Islands. ) (taken from her web site), know about grants, mentoring and artists commissions! I wonder if they have every come across the term "indigenous art" while collecting college credits and degrees. Shaun A. Pennington once contacted me by phone and asked me to take her name off of my web site, because she was trying to win some award. She was screaming (she said she was laughing) at me and called me an ass.

For the record Shaun A. Pennington, In the vernacular, I  am  a    MOTHER !   After viewing Les Anderson's "Indigo" I am one angry mother! Learning that you were involved in arts council and the media, makes me a the mother that is will expose your part in the over through and cover-up that is "Local Art".
 

I visited "Mango Tango Art Gallery" St. Thomas, Virgin Islands (2/27/03), found no original paintings from original St. Thomas native artists.

There was a lot of "Local Art", there was not a lot of original art from West Indians.   When I vocalized my desire to purchase art of black people by black people, she gave me excuses..."they all moved to the states"...she said she was an educator for many years and she has tried to give native artists solo shows, but for one reason or another they don't come through.

The owner of Mango Tango Art Gallery assured me that everything that could have been do has been done to get native art in her gallery. Mango Tango's  owner said she spends up to $50,000 a year to promote her gallery.  She even goes to Haiti for native art..She was providing all the materials for a native artist right now so she could have some indigenous art in her gallery.

I started to feel that I had attacked Mango Tango Art Gallery, she has gone further than even Cheryl Miller, President of The St. Thomas St. John Arts Council, who was willing to send for a judge, all the way from Ohio to judge  the Caribbean  Colour art exhibit in St. Thomas Virgin Islands, this year.

I then pulled out the post card from one of my artists clients and shared with Mango Tango's owner that our organization too are  providing resources for indigenous artists in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. I asked her handing her the post card, if she would be interested in purchasing art from native St. Thomas Artists. Mango Tango's owner spent little time examining the artwork image on the front of the post card.  She reminded me of the guest at a dinner party, raising a glass above her head to identify the maker.

I was busted. Even though my name wasn't on the post card, the gallery name was.. She called me Ms. Prince, and stated sternly that she had been patient with me. I rebutted that I also had been patient when she visited my gallery.  She said, handing me back the post card that quality was the determining factor in art acquisition in her gallery.

If you come by the gallery I will show you the post card from the artist, who's quality did not seem to be good enough for the owner of Mango Tango, who in the same conversation, before the post card said she did not turn native artists away.

When I handed her the post card, I didn't tell her that the artwork was from a native virgin island artist.

Then reality hit me! The owners of Mango Tango Art Gallery in St. Thomas, don't mind spending up to $50,000 a year to advertise artwork from white artists of black people, but they haven't spent one red cent to commission native artists who they say they respect, to create indigenous artwork for their gallery.

PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS. The truth is the art gallery owners in the virgin islands know that white artists are creating images of black west indians and selling this as "Local Art" This sounds like the clever marketing scheme or ploy, Mary Blazine-Anderson e-mailed us about. Except Mary was accusing us of being dishonest and misleading.

Do you suppose when tourist come into galleries and ask for "Local Art" they want art from white people from the states, creating and selling cultural depiction's of a culture they continue to exploit. The cultural identification white art gallery owners have with the black west indian culture is of the enslavers not the slaves.

We have changed the face of art in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands FOREVER!!! 2/28//03 Image Research & Communication...family owned and operated. established in 1989. BRING INDIGENOUS ART BACK TO St. Thomas! Stop spending advertising dollars replacing indigenous art with "Local Art". Invest in indigenous artists, commission them to create cultural depiction's from their culture. Stop the counterfeit art exploitation in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands.
 

More about my visit to Mango Tango Tomorrow

CRITICS CORNER - Cultural Art from Les Anderson and Mitch Gibbs  Click Here

The Critics Corner Today - "Still Selling Slaves"

Alfredo Prince, my husband is Spanish, French and African heritage  born in  Panama. Both of his parents are hispanic. Most people regard us as an African American couple or family because Alfredo doesn't have white skin. The truth is Alfredo is hispanic from Panama ( Central  America) and I am an African American. My family is African, Spanish, French, Native American and Irish. (I might know what you're thinking, my attitude might be from the Irish, it might be).  My fathers grandfather was Irish and my mothers grandmother was cajun from Louisiana. I could be offended by a lot of ethnic art exploitation, but I'm not.

Alfredo ask me to write about the profits being made from art that depicts African Slaves from non African descendent artists, because this is my rage.

Who are the new beneficiaries of African Slavery? I feel artists like Les Anderson and Mitch Gibbs are, as Mary Blazine (Les Anderson's Wife)  put it in an e-mail to me,... "I am all in favor of a clever marketing scheme". They are selling their imaginary, images of my family during the time of slavery for money. They, continue to sell my family members as slaves through their "art" why? Do they feel connected to the culture, past or present?  Are some of their best friends naked west indians that run tings?

First my African family members were sold into slavery, then after slavery is said to be illegal, paintings of them are sold as souvenirs by descendants of their enslavers.

Being a naked black African slave woman isn't in Les Anderson's culture, Les is white.  Who do Les Anderson and Mitch Gibbs relate to, the slaves or the masters. What is Les Anderson hoping to say with his art?

"Indigo" speaks to me and she says "a white man made me take off all my clothes and sat me here in this dirty dark place and told me not to move or else. I tried my best to cover naked body, but he forced me to show myself without dignity for his art".

Indigo's eye's seem dead and glazed to me, like she is trying not to be there. Why has Les created such a person that could not have been happy in her present circumstance, during the time the style suggest.

Let's be real! Les Anderson's depiction's of African descendants like "Indigo", are of unsophisticated west indians during a time which African descendants were exploited in the worst ways. "Indigo" does not appear to be a modern west indian woman. She appears to me to be a woman who lived during slavery.

Other artwork from Les Anderson, "We Run Tings". There is no love or flattery here. It's a good ting Les Anderson is not in Los Angeles selling his artwork of naked black people.

Culture in art from a perspective of your family culture, will produce art of what your family may have been doing at home, work, church or a social gathering. Your cultural family depiction's in art could manifest in the past or  present. It is clear to me "Indigo" from Les Anderson, is an African family member from the past, because she is represented in that way with the head wrap. The wrap "Indigo" models is of African Slavery.

"Indigo" does not look proud nor was she made to look pleased or created to be praised. "Indigo" looks to be exploited in the worst way. No make-up, no hair do, no smile. Why portray a naked black woman during a time of slavery and exploitation? Is Les  Anderson telling us that black women were treated like meat in the days his "artwork" portrays? Les Anderson could painted her with a smile and less around the middle. Les Anderson could created "Indigo" in her bedroom, without the shabby background, or with wings as he paints a naked white woman.

Les Anderson has painted "Indigo" slumped over not sitting proud, when he could had her sit any way he wanted. Is Les trying to tell us that "Indigo" is not proud or happy to be sitting there naked becoming a perpetual victim for as long as the paper and ink last.

Did you hire a model Les, to pose for your creation of "Indigo"? My mothers great grandmother was an "Indigo" Les, how much will you get for naked slave this year and the next. When will the Indigo's stop being sold as slaves.

Les Anderson could have portrayed a west indian  woman and man working on the beach in "We Run Tings". but he didn't. When I look at "We Run Tings" I don't feel confident in the government. I don't have confidence in the characters Les has created to run "Tings", what is Les Anderson trying to tell us about the people that run "Tings" in the virgin islands?  They don't appear to be slaves, they appear to be a west indian couple at the beach. The woman in the painting ($10,000 oil on canvas) is wearing an apron and the man appears to be carrying fish.  Maybe they are like me and Alfredo and they own a restaurant, but that wouldn't explain the apron at the beach.

How many elected government officials do you see in the virgin islands, wearing an apron on the beach, professing to run tings?
..more "tings" tomorrow...

Had you bothered to call me back Cheryl, you would have been informed of my outreach action. Your art reach action did however extend farther than mine. You extended an invitation to an art judge in Ohio to judge "Caribbean Colour" the art event of the season for virgin island artists!  A native artists who painted on our building said he heard the announcement of the arts council meeting "On The Radio".....so much for me refusing to do my job.

Where is your art survey Ms. President?!
 

"ISN'T IT IRONIC"
Our webmaster received an e-mail of inquiry 2-10-2003 about Aphrodite's art. Aphrodite is an artist that lives in her home on St. Thomas , Florida where she owns a home and New Hampshire. Does she represent herself as a virgin island artists? She is a board member of the St. Thomas St. John Arts Council and her heritage is Greek.

I phoned Aphrodite to inform her of the e-mail and inquire about renewing her membership fee so that I could forward the e-mail to her.  Aphrodite declined to renew her membership fee ($200) and invited me to do what ever I felt was best thing to do with the e-mail.

I asked Aphrodite how much the painting was and she quoted the painting was priced at $2500.

I then confessed to Aphrodite, that I had a conversation with another St. Thomas St. John Arts Council board member, just the day before we received the inquiry e-mail about her art.  The conversation  regarded Aphrodite's advice to them was not do business with me. Aphrodite was paraphrased as saying ...the Internet service with Nanci won't do you any good and other negative comments about our gallery.

Aphrodite did not deny giving a negative recommendation about our gallery and she did not deny saying that a web page with our company would not do the artists any good. She said she was not interested in renewing her membership and she was not going to offer our gallery any commission in the event of a sale.

THE IRONY IS THAT YOU APHRODITE HAVE BENEFITED FROM HAVING A WEB PAGE WITH US. WHY PREVENT OTHER ARTISTS FROM BENEFITING AS YOU HAVE?

To continue the phone conversation with Aphrodite she informed me that she had a conversation with her husband and they decided not to offer our company any fee if the e-mail contact resulted in a sale.

My comment to her was that she is a fine artists and I'm sure she won't have a problem selling the painting identified in the e-mail. Twice I had to caution her on her hostile tone toward me and asked her not to continue to scream at me.

I informed Aphrodite that if she needed some time to compose herself to speak to me as I was speaking to her,  that she could call me later.

In her return phone call, Aphrodite invited me to do what ever I felt was the right thing to do with the e-mail and there was no offer of a fee to our art gallery in the event of a sale.

 We are international fine art brokers.  We get paid to sell art.  Each month we get paid for selling art for the artists we represent. Many artists have offered us finders fees for sales assisted by our web site and we refuse by saying, "that is why you pay your $200 annual fee". Our company does not collect commissions on artwork sold on the Internet by it's members.

If an artists membership has lapsed, there is no penalty to renew. It is customary to pay an art gallery 50% from the sale they are a party to or a finders fee in the event of a sale.

We cannot afford to charge some artists a membership fee and others no fee. Each artists we represent makes a financial sacrifice to pay us for representation and this gallery represents each artists with the same love we receive from them.

It was reported to us that after our phone call, Aphrodite  approached one of the other board members of the St. Thomas St. John Arts Council and said she would not continue to work with me on the board. I was then voted off the board. Thank you Aphrodite...and please don't think I won't publish your side of the story because I will, as long as it's true.

St. Thomas St. John Arts Council

More than 97% of the art gallery owners are white, less than 3% of the artwork  in those galleries are from indigenous african descendent artists. Yet, more than 90% of the population is african descendent. This may sound like something left over from South African Apartheid, but it's not.  Our research team (Image Research & Communication) calls the significant lack of indigenous art,  "Art Apartheid", and it festers in the United States Virgin Islands. Cultural Arts Genocide is being practiced on the west indian arts cultures in America's Paradise, and it's being replaced by "Local Arts".

We believe the cultural arts genocide is being aided and abided by the media in the virgin islands. One of the Virgin Islands Senators said to us, "have you seen the Island Trader? It doesn't look like black people live here." (a weekly supplement to the "Daily News", in the VI).

Where are indigenous artists? Mostly, 97% of them are turned away by white art gallery owners in the virgin islands, repeatedly being told, "your art isn't good enough". Eventually most indigenous artists gave up and as a result, "Local Art" thrives.

What is "Local Art"?  In St. Thomas, Virgin Islands local art is primarily from white artists who live on St. Thomas or St. John, usually during the tourist season, December to May. These local artists paint pictures of black west indians, past and present cultural depiction's, just like they are one of them. Who knows the difference when tourist ask is this a local artists? We all assume local art in the virgin islands means from an indigenous west indian artists, not a snow bird from the states. Local art too must, be protected as part of the virgin island culture not the sole interpreter or representative of west indian culture in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Anthropologist, Archeologist and  Educators understand the historic significance of global indigenous arts culture, even in the U. S. Virgin Islands, it must always be created and preserved. How can university art professors and the media, in America's Paradise, operate within this society of indigenous art depravation, without even a whisper of missing it?  We have heard no one say, we must protect and promote indigenous arts.

 Shame on you all! The media, arts educators and most corporate citizens who operate in the virgin islands.

Year after year, the non profit arts organization, has not only failed to execute their mission to promote and educate virgin islands artists and promote virgin islands arts culture, they don't even know what their mission is. To make matters worst, until we inquired about their articles of incorporation, the past and current presidents had no knowledge of them, the content or documents location.

It seems for years, the organization that has sworn to promote indigenous arts culture, did not know exactly what  they were suppose to be doing, and they expressed no desire to find out exactly, what they organized to do. Our research team is making this information public outside the virgin islands because the daily news source outlets for the virgin islands, will not.

For more than a year, we have requested a copy of the organizations articles and bylaws, as they have continued to operate without them.  The racial make-up of the art council, board members and members is more than 90% white, not attempting racial equality, year after year. Not one mention at one board meeting of how to reach out to indigenous artists in St. Thomas or St. John.

There is no mention of indigenous arts preservation or education from the non profit arts council. There  has been no verbalized desire to preserve any west indian culture from the organization that was organized to promote it, after more than 12 months of art council meetings.

Without support from non profit arts organizations, indigenous arts will forever be replaced with the media's choice "Local Art, America's Dirty Little Art Secret".

What can be done? First, those who have sworn to promote virgin islands arts must be made to full fill their mission or relinquish their non profit status. If their sole mission is to promote the art of the minority let them form a club to promote their "Local Art".

Clearly, there is a demand for indigenous art in the virgin islands. So many non indigenous artists painting what they perceive to be african decedent culture for tourist and patrons.

The mission and purpose outlined in the arts organization bylaws are sound, if only the past and present leaders of the non profit arts organization would read and execute them. Could it be that if the leaders of the non profit arts organizations in the virgin islands feel that one public annual announcement, in the Daily News  to their victims of cultural arts genocide, inviting them participate in the eradication of indigenous art is sufficient or inviting.

The truth must be confronted, the inequality must be documented, and all virgin island arts and cultures must be identified correctly for historical accuracy.

Indigenous arts has no defender in the virgin islands. Indigenous arts has no respect and an insufficient presence in it's own homeland. It has always been the media, non profit  organizations and educators that protect and preserve ideas like truth and equality. Have they been replaced by "Local Art"?

We sent a press release to the Daily News, St. Thomas The Source and The Island Trader, about "Art Apartheid", they have had no comment.
 

Don't let the truth about art in history be a lie. ( STILL LAUGHING, GOLIATH?)
 

End Art Apartheid, Help From The Media,

"AMERICA'S DIRTY LITTLE ART SECRET"
By, Image Research & Communication

Take a look at Les Anderson, Virgin Island Artist
 
 
 

Don't let the truth about art in history be a lie. ( STILL LAUGHING, GOLIATH?)
 

End Art Apartheid,

Nanci Prince, President
Image Research & Communication
The Ninth Life Fine Art Gallery & Alfredo's Bistro
The Courtyard in Smith bay
The Nelson Mandela Arts Center
David
Worlddome.com
1 340 777.8190
e-mail webmaster@worlddome.com
 
 

"AMERICA'S" VOLUME II
Will Include Grant Proposal - free with purchase of Volume I

3/19/03

Let's try this again with information designed to build a healthy community! The people need the government and the people need the media to make them stronger from knowledge to enhance our self esteem. We need another industry in the Virgin Islands that is not dependent on tourism.

Virgin Islanders need victory gardens and agriculture/livestock co-ops. Catfish farming is government subsidized.

We don't need another non profit organization to promise to do the same things as others already in existence.

Virgin Islanders have a rich culture and history. Culture and history are products in tourism, that can be made ready for export, there are grant funds available to promote culture and tourism. Native Arts would be, literature, visual art, performing arts like music and dance. Community theater groups with retail selling environments would be ventures Virgin Islanders could receive grant funds to implement and operate.

The media must stop the siege on the government so they can help the people. The government practices damage control from attacks from the private industry citizens. All attacks must stop. We must all work for the betterment of the Virgin Islands.

Refusing to work together for all of us is corruption.

3/20/03

Peace to Michael at Mapes Monde, he has " Native Art"! The Ninth Life Fine Art Gallery in St. Thomas also has "Native Art".

Please somebody ask the Source, to stop calling Mitch Gibbs a St. Thomas Artist with St. John Roots. He was born in Pennsylvania he has lived here for a very long time and I noticed the absence of slave and servant art in Palm Passage today. Thank you. Please, Mitch correct the Source. When people learn that you have lived here for decades they will decide if you meet their local art criteria.  Remember, artists from  the Virgin Islands can't go to Hawaii and call themselves local artists, they can't even get in the galleries. There is a very good reason for that.

It would be nice if we could just see art in St. Thomas, without regard for the artists color. We remain vigilant until  all artists are respected.  We must care for all of art not just native or just local. We must achieve a balance that speaks of the people in all the galleries.  Then we can have pride in our civilization.

How can art galleries project pride and health in a community? The art is a reflection of the people, always.

When we travel and ask for "Local Art" you know we are looking for birthright not residency requirement for your VI drivers license, mortgage deed or lease agreement.   We're looking for the  Blood. Let's be real. The Daily News has made progress with their descriptions of artists living local.

There are two types of grant funds. Private, from foundations and Public, from the government. It is best to start with a list of  possible grant funders to determine the best way to proceed.

In your list, 20 may require a one page letter and four may require a complete proposal. Start with the largest first, work your way down. You can receive  grant funds with just a one page letter.

Please come to the booking signing in the Courtyard tomorrow have a drink and something to eat..777.8190 We had to print additional books at Office Max, Thank you Denise. Our first printing was sold out before the book signing. Thank you.
 
 

More later...