With a strong desire for hope and harmony, I embarked eighteen months ago on a journey that would take me from luminous energy to darkness.

In a world where anger, political turmoil, and natural disasters are prevalent, my thought was that human beings crave authentic interconnections to one another, to beauty and tenderness, to justice and peace, and to sustainable hopes for humanity. So I began works inspired by Feng Shui intending to convey a positive and peaceful experience of love.

As I floated through hope's inspirations, the January 2010 earthquake came and left Haiti totally destroyed.

Like many others, I was totally devastated by the earthquake. As I watched the photos on television and saw the Cathedral totally destroyed, it was like my whole childhood was being erased in front of me. I felt compelled to make art.

All seemed to be lost for Haiti. My first artistic response to this disaster came in the form of a painting entitled "Requiem." The installation, Poto-mitan, was born through this larger body of work out of the need to pray for the healing of Haiti's people.

The word "Poto-mitan" refers to the center pole in a Vodou temple, and it is considered to be the place where Heaven meets Earth - a healing place. I am a Christian, raised in the Roman Catholic Church, but in exploring the Vodou temple, I give respect to this religion of African origin that has affected Haitian culture and has left us with such an interesting mythology.

Almost all religions incorporate the Tree of Life as a conduit between the physical plane of existence and the source of all life. Poto-mitan, which can also refer to a pillar in Haitian Society, continues the tradition.

I have had many conversations with award-winning Bahamian author Patricia Glinton Meicholas, and the result of these interviews is an essay entitled, "Cry the Beloved Country Sing its Resilient Soul," which is being published in a journal by the Bahamas Association for Cultural Studies, Yinna 3. As she has so beautifully conveyed my thoughts, I wish to share the following passage from the book:

To create the matrix for the much-desired healing, the artist had recourse to religion, privileging both aspects of the Haitian spiritual universe - the Catholic and the Vodou, the latter born of the African heritage of Haiti, its pantheon cleverly merged with Christian saints for safekeeping from the native-identity-erasing laws and practices of slavery in the Americas. In so doing, she launched into that which would be primordial for this people of majority African descent. Bethel sought for herself and the skeptical world the valorization of Vodou, which the West and her own childhood catechism had long dismissed or actively waged campaigns against, condemning its beliefs and practices as harmful superstition. Bethel thus juxtaposes the iconography of the two religions in her evocation of the sacred space. Port-au-Prince's shattered Cathedral appears on two sides of the square base of the pole. On one side, a skeleton, Haiti stripped to the lowest, visible element of identity, is shown kneeling in prayer with a rosary as an adjunct. On the other side is a grand vision of Erzulie, in her incarnation as "La Sirène" the mermaid, her ropes of golden hair swirling up to form a kind of root system for the remnants of the Cathedral. It is to her (Erzulie) the skeleton kneels and prays.

Poto-mitan is an appeal for prayer for the Healing of Haiti. It is also an invitation, regardless of our faith or the lack thereof, to celebrate all spiritual paths as we appreciate the differences between us human beings and focuses on the similarities amongst ourselves.

                                 
Caribbean Art World Magazine