Inspired by veteran calypsonian David Rudder’s classic album The Power and the Glory, Trini-born, New York-based artist Alicia Aberdeen is using artwork of the musician to purchase laptops for St Francis Boys’ College – formerly Belmont Boys’ RC Secondary School – Rudder’s alma mater.
The piece, a painting of Rudder’s likeness and recreation of the album’s cover, using oil paint and 24 carat gold, was the centre of Aberdeen’s third annual fall art exhibit in Brooklyn, NY, Paintings in the Garden in December of last year.
The month-long exhibit featured other work from Trinidadian artists and musicians, including a cover of Rudder’s Song for A Lonely Soul by Nickolai Salcedo (Gyazette).
In 2019, when she had her first instalment of the exhibit, she used the proceeds and donated it to a New York family who were at the time living in a homeless shelter. The family’s bills were also paid for that winter.
In 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, the exhibit was downsized but tickets were still sold out. Proceeds from that show will go to the development of a pan scholarship, which is still in the works.
In a phone interview with Newsday, Aberdeen said for the exhibit last year she decided to do something specific to her home country and reached out to Rudder for permission to use his image and music.
“He most graciously granted permission and gave me the rights to cover his songs for the exhibit,” she said. Aberdeen said instead of donating to a cause of her choosing, she gave Rudder the option to decide to whom the proceeds would go.
“In as much as he was willing to share with me, I decided to offer him the opportunity to champion his charity and he decided to give back to his alma mater, St Francis Boys’ College…I believe in paying it forward immediately. I did not follow the traditional academic channels and I learned the art world first-hand and decided to help others along the way.”
Aberdeen spoke highly of Rudder who she said was very helpful in the creative process. “What really made all the difference to me was we kept in constant contact. He in turn would send different pictures of himself at different angles so I could learn his face. If he didn’t do that I don’t think I would have gotten the eyes and everyone talked about the eyes. He was amazing. It was everything an artist would wish for.”
She said although he was involved in creating the piece, he did not interfere with the production. He was so gracious. He let me produce my show the way I wanted. The only thing he asked was to see my work and I said, 'yes'.”
Aberdeen said Rudder was impressed with the final product. “He loved the piece. He gave me his 100 per cent blessing. He even has one of the tees (with a print of the painting) in his possession. He told me when I finished the piece, ‘You nailed it.’”
On May 4, two laptops and one projector were received by principal Lucia Reyes-Griffith. The projector was donated by Kent Bernard, another former student along with US
