Fred Parhelion

Presented as a “Q.&A.” Session, as follows: * What was your first experience with/discovery of art? What made you want to become an artist? Art actually didn’t play a central role in my life for a long time! I was born on the Caribbean island of ...

Presented as a “Q.&A.” Session, as follows: * What was your first experience with/discovery of art? What made you want to become an artist? Art actually didn’t play a central role in my life for a long time! I was born on the Caribbean island of St. Vincent and was schooled on Barbados and Jamaica, as well as in Toronto. I worked as a corporate lawyer in the British Virgin Islands and reside on Barbados at the moment, where I work as a corporate lawyer and as a biosafety adviser with United Nations Environment. I never thought of being an artist or saw myself as such (I was even subtly discouraged from it by a distasteful incident of racism on Barbados as a very small boy). In fact, it wasn’t until August 2007 C.E. that I began exploring action painting, under the nom de guerre “Parhelion”. For me, therefore, becoming an artist is the flowering of a hitherto unsuspected talent manifesting itself comparatively late in life. I’m absolutely convinced it is my true calling, a passion—it’s never too late to discover and follow your true, willed direction. It makes itself known no matter the discouragement and disregard. As to what made me want to become an artist—why does any man make a life-altering decision that profoundly upends his personal Weltanschauung? I did it to impress a girl! I had idly bought a small canvas while struggling from a difficult break-up with the literal girl of my dreams. One day I was sitting at a table with my head in my hands and I thought I may as well try something, anything, with the canvas before I went even crazier. With the very first slashing stroke of paint, I was hooked—transformed! It’s said the brain has no nerves of sensation, but I distinctly felt the change in me. I’ve not looked back since. * Are there any key themes, messages or theories behind your work? In my art, the act of creation itself is highlighted as the ultimate message; the method of communication is part of what is communicated. Life is vibrant, riotous energy in constant motion (my Caribbean background reminds me of this constantly!) and the play of raw colours in my work expresses this—a spontaneous demonstration that creativity is the very antithesis of despair. Each piece is an unrepeatable entelechial event expressing the essence of an idea, concept, notion, or feeling. I don’t aim to capture the idea and mount it like a butterfly with spikes through its wings; rather, the point of bringing a given work to manifestation is to assist the underlying notion to fly free by giving it extra dimensions in which to move and have its being. Influences include Jackson Pollock, Hans Hoffman, Wassily Kandinsky, and Sam Francis. * Could you tell us a bit about your artistic approach? (Style, medium and specific techniques.) From the very start, abstract expressionism has called out to be worked through me. It seems to me to be terribly under-appreciated in the Caribbean generally and on Barbados in particular; but I have to work with the tune that’s playing me! I usually paint with the canvas flat on the ground to accommodate pouring, flicking, spattering, and otherwise conveying the paint to the surface that will bear it up. For me, the application of the paint to the canvas is the end of what may be a fairly lengthy process of contemplation or consideration of a concept, an idea, a notion—maybe just a title that’s come to me out of the blue. After that build-up of tension and energy, a critical threshold is crossed and the painting explodes into being—it has to come forth and be born. It’s not about thought any more—it’s about action! That for me is the “action” in “action painting”! It’s like what I imagine Zen calligraphy to be like—waiting for the perfect timeless moment to make the perfect timeless stroke. That’s why I work exclusively in acrylic (so far)—it dries so quickly that I have to get the stroke right each time, every time. That adds to the immediacy of the work! Key to this process is the ability to open up and trust in the idea coming through, as well as to trust yourself to come up with the method of applying the paint, even if you have to learn on the fly. I am very much aware when working on creating a work of art that I am working on myself. * Please write a personal quote/sentence that best represents you as an artist (in your own words, max. 30 words.) I aim to directly communicate symbolism to the viewer, bypassing pre-conceived notions and striking to the heart of the relationship between viewer and artwork, observer and observed.