Charl Baker The Creative Alchemist

Interview by NeFesha Ruth

A few months ago, I had the opportunity to interview the artist, Charl Baker. I first came across Charl Bakers art while watching a miniseries on YouTube, recommended to me by my parents The miniseries is called A Taste of Marley. In the show, Rohan Marley is travelling through Jamaica, sharing some of its great food destinations along with the culture and soul of the island During episode 1, Charl Bakers art was highlighted She had completed a mural at the Bob Marley Museum in honor of Mama Rita Marley

After watching this episode, I reached out to Charl Baker to chat about all thing’s art in Jamaica. I had the opportunity to have a lively discussion with the self-proclaimed, Creative Alchemist

NeFesha: How did you begin creating murals?

Charl: I've kind of been painting and creating art my whole life I always say that I was created to create, so I call myself a creative alchemist I'm always making something out of nothing From as a child, I was always painting, doodling, drawing. And then, when I came back home, because I was born in Canada, but I grew up here (Jamaica). Went back to Toronto and came back to Jamaica.

I used to paint, and it started actually with a friend asking if I've ever painted on walls and I used to do trees a lot. I still do trees and they asked me if I could do something in their home And I'm like, “yeah, I'd love to!” It kind of started from there. And then, you know, even my cousin, in New York, she wanted to put, something like a garden and flowers and stuff in her girls' room cause of course “concrete jungle.”

Then in terms of Jamaica now, there was a group that started called Paint Jamaica. She's actually foreign, a French girl and there's an inner-city community called Southside and it was really just using art as an instrument for change. As we know it, it can make such a great impact, on society and your actual environment So, this area was kind of like a ghetto as you'd call it. But we went down, and we transformed the place We used art as a tool to bring the community together and to bring about peace; to change the environment that we were in It kicked off from there, like in terms of doing big scale, you know, for John Public to see, so to speak. And then from there, as they say, ironically, you know, the rest is history I’ve just been blessed to get these great locations to paint. You know, one thing has just kind of led to the other. I've been able to paint in some significant locations. So, it's just been a blessing one after the other

NeFesha: You mentioned trees in your paintings, and I saw this pattern of hummingbirds in your paintings as well.

Charl: I love nature, I love outdoors, I love trees, flowers, whatever, et cetera And of course, being Jamaican, but, Canadian born, coming back, you know, I always get a lot of hummingbirds and stuff in my garden, and for me, the hummingbird has just become a symbol of Jamaica. You know the saying that we're little, but we're taller You know what I mean? And I've always been considered little, but you know, I’m bigger now, but I've always been slim I've always been, you know, that little girl, so to speak, more petite or skinny. So, to me, the hummingbird represents, the beauty and the grace of this tiny bird that's made such an impact, but yet it's quick, it's fast, it's beautiful, and to me, it's a symbol It's a reflection of who we are as a people It's also our natural bird

So, a lot of times, they'll refer to women as chicks or birds It's just kind of making the association and he ends up making an appearance in a lot of my murals as well. I mean, my spirit animal is actually a giraffe, but the hummingbird was significant for me

And just the whole, you know, we're really fast in terms of we have the fastest man and woman in the world. You gotta keep up with us and try catch a hummingbird, they're so quick. You know what I mean? So, I feel it's a true representation of us as Jamaicans. And even when I paint, a lot of the times people are like, how do you paint so fast? I'm like, I just do, I work fairly quickly. So, I think it symbolizes so much about who I am as a person and work ethic and just associations, Jamaica and all of that

NeFesha: Tell me about Jamaica. I’ve seen travel alerts so, when can I come?

You can come anytime! I will be your personal tour guide Don't let that dissuade you from coming Jamaica's a great island. Yes, we are kinda getting outta control right now, but it's more a lawlessness and undisciplined But it’s just like anywhere in the world, there's crime, there's poverty, there’s… you know, they're gonna show you the worst of the worst

But I mean, there's still places I go in Jamaica that I'm like, oh my gosh, is this really Jamaica? You know, I'm still blown by my country There's lots to see There's lots to do. I'm a little biased I mean, I've been to a lot of the Caribbean. I have traveled from places all over the world, and Jamaica's very special. There's life and energy here that you can't get anywhere else And I mean, come on We're the epitome of cool and culture, reggae music, food. You know, the dancing, our athletics, like everything, you name it And you know, we big them up enough. But we have a lot of scholars such as people that have contributed to inventions and medicine and, you know, they don't wanna big up that aspect of our culture, but I mean, globally as black people. You know what I mean? We're still seen as funky natives living in the bush, but it's far from, you know There’s lots to see and do. I mean, you can come and do the tourist thing, the hotel, all inclusive. That's not me. I hate that. Anywhere I go, I'm really more in with the people, I want to see the country, the culture; you know, experience, the whole street vibes and all of that

But there's lots to see and do. If you really watch and go through all of Rohan’s series which is really well done, and it really shows you a cross section of the country. Jamaica's been put on the map for so many reasons Everybody wants to come to Jamaica

NeFesha: Yes, that's why I wanted to bring that up because a lot of people talk about Jamaica. They said,

“There's this travel alert.” So, I think it's important to kind of debunk that because they do that with any Black space.

Charl: Of course, even me, I went to Africa by myself and everybody's like, “are you mad? You can't do that.” And I'm like, who says? We can do anything we want to do? The only limit is yourself.

NeFesha: Tell me about the Rita Marley mural that you did and how you ended up on A Taste of Marley. What was that experience like for you?

Charl: Okay, well that I had already done work with the Bob Marley Museum. It's funny because if you saw the interview with Marie, I'd worked with Marie in production, I'm also a stylist, so I work in film videos and commercials and I had worked with her. And she knew that I was an artist and that I painted So, we had already done the front gate and then they wanted to do the visitor center. They had done some renovations there and they have the Bob Marley Cafe

They wanted to do this tribute to Rita because everything there at the museum is mostly about Bob or the kids or even at the back an intuitive painter did some stuff with Bongo Herman You know, I mean street art has been always popular in Jamaica, but not to the level of murals that we know, like in a space such as Wynwood in Florida. So, they wanted to do something for Rita and then at the time she contacted me and she's like, “will you do a mural again?” I'm like, “Sure Where? When?” And then they said they were renovating the space and putting in the cafe and then they were making a stairway to go on top that they can utilize So, it was going to be like this kind of curved wall. And at first, you know, I heard curved wall I'm like, okay, sounds interesting So, I pretty much went for a site visit and when I saw it, I was like, “oh wow, that's a great space!” Then, when they had the opening for the actual center, Rohan was there, and they were dedicating the space. And it was just special for him because as he said, she's not his biological mom, but she adopted him and pretty much took care of him, you know, when his physical mom couldn't I was invited there for the opening and unveiling, and I actually didn’t know at the time that it was going to be filmed and used for the show. I didn't find out until after So, it just ended up being a blessing

NeFesha: It just broadens the reach, lets more people know about what's happening in Jamaica and what's happening in the art scene there. I used to live in Miami and, and so when you mentioned Wynwood, I remember going down there, that whole mural area district.

Charl: Yes, and then what's happened now is that I'm also a part of another group now called Kingston Creative, and they're trying to create Wynwood downtown. They're trying to recreate an Arts District. And it's just reclaiming that space, it’s placemaking. It's bringing about social change, getting people to go back around, and taking back the streets. Having pride in our country and fixing up of downtown, of course, there’s the threat of gentrification and all of that but hopefully it won't get so bad. I mean, all the murals that we've done, we have people from the inner-city communities join in, in the projects and stuff like that. You can find their page on Instagram and you’ll see a lot more stuff there too. I also have a couple murals down there as well.

NeFesha: Do you all do like grant funding or your, how do you get funding typically for your murals?

Kingston Creative has gotten some grant funding. They also engage with the people that own the buildings for sponsorships from them as well because it’s beautification for buildings. There's been funding from the Tourism Enhancement Fund They also have a thing where they started with 50 first, which reaches out different corporate entities to invest So, yeah, monies have been collected from various means and different avenues to pay artists for the murals.

There is an element that I don't particularly like and it's that, okay, yes, they've paid us to do the murals, but they've been doing a lot of these workshops too about diversification and offering different products and stuff to your consumer and intellectual property for artists, and yet they're kind of doing other things that they're not quite including the artists on, which I don't necessarily agree with because in turn you're not practicing what you preach You're doing these walking tours and stuff, which is great and is needed, but I think they need to put something in place now that artists can also benefit from that because if the artists had not created these murals, you would not have this district So, it can't be a one and done situation. So, that's something that I plan to advocate because if you don’t look out for yourself, ain't nobody's gonna, you know

NeFesha: so that's for sure. That's a lesson that I've been learning like over the past few years for sure. Because a lot of artists, you do the work no matter what, right? Like you're, you're going to create. So it takes people like yourself to advocate for others.

Charl: Yeah, unfortunately I'm always the big mouth Sometimes you know, it, it doesn't go in my favor, but I don’t know how to be quiet about certain things It's kind of hard because you know, when you see the hypocrisy or the double standard, I have to just say something, you know what I mean? And part of the thing is that for the longest time as artists, you don't get the respect that you really deserve. Always fighting. You know, everybody's always like, “oh, you know, I'll do this and get exposure.” Okay, we're, we're past that You know, exposure doesn't pay the bills. Exposures for film We have to change that narrative, this whole starving artist mentality. No, I don't subscribe to that at all

NeFesha: There's a quote that I like by an art historian, she says that art is not a respite for life. It's a necessity. It's the core to life. Now, I one more question for you. I saw some murals that you did and there was one for a children's space. You talked about it on your Instagram about painting with your left-hand sometimes and that you were born, left-handed.

Charl: There was another Garris community called Cassava piece and Laura Facey is like a big artist and they wanted to do something on the wall of the school It was really amazing The call went out and a couple of artists went. And basically when we told we're going to duplicate these children's art, and I thought, “how clever is this?” So, they were lined up on the ground and we could pick which one we wanted. And I don't know why, but I'm thinking, okay, as kids, you know, we all draw Stickman, but we get older, you get your own style. And it's amazing because children do have that kind of freedom So I was blessed to be a part of that project. But yeah, it reminded me that I was born left-handed as a child but in Jamaica, we have so many old wives’ tale; I grew up with my dad and his mother, and she was a retired school teacher.

So, it's the old wive’s tale that if you're left-handed, you're wicked. So, I got slapped out of it, but I found when I was trying with my right hand, it was a little bit too controlled. And I said, okay, let's see if I can paint with my left hand So, I'm back to using the left hand, and I got a better quality that I like To me it was more free and looser to emulate the child's work. So there have been times when I, I still do use my left hand or just for sheer physicality, you're tired of painting or rolling, then I'll switch to my left. And there was another time too where uh, I think when I turned 40, I had tripped on a music video for The Jolly Boys and I actually jacked my right hand and use the left hand cause I couldn't even use my toothbrush or brush my hair but you gotta do the work And at first, the first week or so, it was very awkward, but sooner, like within a couple days, I was able to function quite well using my left hand again The brain's amazing

NeFesha: So are you planning on staying in Jamaica for your career for now at least.

Charl: Pretty much This is home, I actually moved my mom back home about a year and a half ago, who lives with me now. She's 81 and has dementia I think it's better for her here, weather, everything But yeah, Jamaica is home. I go to Toronto at least once a year If I need a break, I just jump off and take a vacation, but I can’t imagine living anywhere else again right now, you know? I would love to do murals elsewhere in the world. Maybe apply for residencies or, you know, some exchange program It would be great to, to do work all over the world, you know?

NeFesha: Well, I wish you well with everything. I hope that I can come visit. I would love to get a tour by you and experience Jamaica! Thank you!

Charl Baker @charlb_art