Art lovers whose tastes go beyond the Caribbean's often excellent "representational" imagery — the beach scenes, cottages, market ladies, fishing boats, tropical blossoms and colorful fish frequently judged by their fidelity to photography — should make a point of getting to the Color of Joy for the show that opens Thursday, March 16.
Alexis St. John is the featured artist. And she does not do market ladies.
She does abstracts and semi-abstracts, describes many of them as "dreamscapes," and unabashedly acknowledges that she often uses imagery that is "intentionally amorphous, leaving room for the viewers to find their own interpretation."
In other words, she is not necessarily sending a particular message, and two people viewing the same work do not necessarily have to agree on what they perceive, let alone what they think about it. This is, let it be stated, a widely accepted — indeed, widely applauded approach to "art."
St. John has collectively titled the 13 acrylic on canvas paintings in her show "Lost in Dreams." The exhibit "will feature my more dreamlike paintings," the artist says. "Some will feature my little spirit beings. Some will be textured dreamscapes."
A three-year resident of St. Thomas, she says she seeks through her work to explore "the relationship between spiritual and material." She adds, "I often use symbols borrowed from varied cultures to help me do this. When I come across an idea I have no symbol for, I invent one."
St. John, the daughter of Cobex Internet Services owner Peter DeBlanc, came to St. Thomas to visit her family here, then decided to stay. "Although the subject of most of her work revolves around spiritual themes," Color of Joy owner Corinne Van Rensselaer says, "there is a distinct Caribbean influence which is revealed through the color and mood of the paintings."
The meet-the-artist reception, from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Thursday, is free and open to the public. The paintings in the show are priced from $200 to $675. The Color of Joy is located on the street level of the main American Yacht Harbor building in Red Hook. There will be complimentary refreshments and music by James Anderson ("Una Guitarra") on the deck overlooking the AYH docks just outside the gallery.