Jean-Claude Garoute, aka "Tiga"
Part 3
The teacher who had the most impact on my art practice was Jean Claude Garoute, or “Tiga’, as he preferred to be called. I met Tiga in 1993, when I was in Haiti, teaching at a small American school in Port Au Prince. Tiga was a highly influential artist, musician, and teacher. He had co-founded the <Saint Soleil> School of painting in Haiti in the early 1970s, which provided art supplies and inspiration to a generation of important Haitian artists, such as Prosper Pierre-Louis, Levoy Exil, and Denis Smith to name a few. I was fortunate to be able to attend “Kay Tiga," Tiga’s school in Port Au Prince.
Tiga’s approach to painting was different from any I had been taught before. In the past, I had been taught how to work from life, Tiga showed me how to work from my imagination. He called his teaching technique “Rotation Artistique'' and the method involved letting students roam freely, interacting with offerings in different areas of the school from musical instruments, to a clay area, to a table with ink and plenty of paper, to a space with colored paints and masonite boards. He would put out food and drinks in different flavor profiles, sweet, salty, bitter, and sour, as he felt that flavors, sounds, and colors were all related, and would influence one another.
For my painting class, he had me start with ten blank sheets of masonite panels and instructed me to paint each one white, taking time to really notice the pleasure of applying the white, to pay attention to the texture, and to consider leaving some parts unpainted. Once that was done, he had me paint clouds of translucent primary colors on the panels, allowing some of the clouds of color to overlap, making secondary colors. This technique was a genius way of teaching color mixing without any need for color theory. The color was happening on the panels almost magically. When the yellow cloud crosses the blue, green appears. No wonder the work of so many of his students showed such joy. In his teaching, painting became an exciting experience of discovery.
When the clouds of colors were painted on all ten panels, he said, “Now you line up the ten paintings and look at the clouds of color the way you look at the clouds in the sky. Let your mind relax, and be free of judgement. What do you see? Sometimes the cloud might look like a dog, or a man, or an elephant. When you see something in a panel, take it and emphasize it a little. Then put it back and look some more.”
When I was done, the ten masonite panels were filled with strange and fanciful creatures who appeared of their own volition from deep within my imagination. To this day I always work on multiple panels at a time. Tiga taught me that no single work is precious, but that many pieces can come to fruition together when you let inspiration be your guide. Thanks to Tiga, I always have a path out of a creative rut. I remember to let go and allow the painting to speak to me.
Click <here> to go to my art collections and see how Tiga's emphasis on the imagination plays out in my work.
Tiga’s work within his community also inspired me to start an organization for artists in my community, the < Cayuga Arts Collective >
This group, founded with Marina Delaney, and sponsored by the Trumansburg Conservatory of Fine Arts, offers classes, art exhibitions, grants, and other opportunities for artists of all ages, with the goal of building a community that fosters creativity in the visual arts.
