Evolution Through Christa’s Art

by Monique Clendinen Watson

May 17, 2022

We enter the place of memory and look around to connect with the familiar. What is the same? What has changed? What does this mean to me?  We ask ourselves these questions as we journey through the touchstones of place and space and orient ourselves in worlds we know only through the words and recollections of others and the images their stories create in our minds.

This may be the experience that St. Croix artist Christa Ann Davis Molloy wants for her patrons as she unveils her new show, “Then & Now – The Fluidity of Evolution Through Art” that will run from Thursday, May 19^th through Tuesday, May 31^st at her gallery at 57 Company Street, St. Croix, Virgin Islands. Christa-Ann has taken historic photographs from around St. Croix, revisited the same spaces, taken new photographs, rendered new paintings of the old and the new and presented them for our review. “I want people to have an experience of the old and the new St. Croix,” she says, “a beautiful place. I asked myself, ‘How can I capture what our grandmothers would have wanted to show us?’”

 As we look at a painting we may recognize a face, or maybe it’s just the way the head is turned, or the body as it converses with another.  Maybe it’s the yellow of an arched building as it contrasts the cloudy sky, or a row of its pastel-colored brethren standing guard over streets that we roamed before, just as they did before our time, just as they will do long after we leave. There will be 20 different images in the show and the viewer will be invited to remember or experience each space and place for the first time. With the evolution of Virgin Islands art and culture at the center of her gallery space, Christa-Ann’s work explores the nuance of time and place. Her art has found a home in places near and far from local collectors to tourists to online purchasers. Christa Ann’s show runs from 5:00 pm to 9:00 pm on Opening Night, May 19^th and then from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm from Monday to Saturday until May 31^st.  It is funded in part by the VI Council of the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Christa’s Art Gallery at 57 Company Street, St. Croix is filled with the colors of the Caribbean and cultural iconography from roosters to windmills, to children at play. One gets a sense of St. Croix and the Caribbean when stepping inside.  Life-size dancers and masqueraders lurk in corners and collectibles from coloring books to shot glasses adorn the tables in the gallery space.

Christa Ann first came to St. Croix from her native Trinidad just before Hurricane Hugo ravaged the island in 1989. “I came here to teach math at a private school and a few weeks later, the Hugo came through.” She remembers the experience as “humbling.” “Hurricanes bring you to the ground, your humility has to kick in,” she says. She went back to Trinidad for a while before returning to fulfill her 30-year career as a teacher and administrator at St. Mary’s School, Central High, Woodson Jr. High, Elena Christian Jr. High, and Adult Education.

Her artistry began in her youth as she redesigned the sketches of clothes, that she saw in fashion catalogues. It became her passion as she created pen and ink drawings for relaxation. Around 2009, she added color to her creations by learning watercolor and oil techniques from artist Betsy Campen.  “I started with madras patterns and painted quadrille dancers, masqueraders and moko jumbies,” she explains. Her gallery attests to this as art lovers can acquire originals, prints, and collectibles of all kinds with the imprint of these cultural images. “Culture is important,” she adds. “It defines who we are, it defines our spaces, it helps us understand what is expected and what we are known for.”

For Christa Ann, art is a participatory experience, and she is known for her Sip and Paint events, where locals can come and try their hands at art in the fellowship of others who are also trying to express themselves with a canvas and brush. “Many people think they can’t paint, and then they relax and realize that it is not too hard, she says.” Her opening on Thursday, May 19 includes a block party from 5 to 9, with moko jumbies, quadrille dancers and culturally traditional children’s games.

Christa Ann credits her siblings Rick, Neva and Shivon who live in Trinidad and Texas, and her friends and loyal customers with supporting her efforts to expand the reach of her artistry which she says has resonance throughout the Caribbean and its diaspora. Her artistry includes portrayals of well-known women of Caribbean descent like Vice-President Kamala Harris and the late actress Cicely Tyson. Before the pandemic, she travelled to Denmark and the United States as part of Virgin Islands Economic Development Authority tradeshows. Christa Ann credits her children Tariq and Dante, who have started their own clothing brand, “Havitowah”, available at 57 Company and her husband, Gary as the source of her inspiration for her growing business.

If you are in the Virgin Islands, you can visit Christa’s Art Gallery at 57 Company Street, Christiansted.  If you are abroad, you can visit her online store at www.ChristaArt.com. To contact her you can send an email to info@ChristaArt.com. You can call her at (340) 713-9959 of (340) 513-8581.

As the world we live in is global and interactive, I would like to hear from you who know and love St. Croix who may have stories, pictures of memories to share about Company Street or any other aspect of Virgin Islands history and culture.  You can find this and other blogposts at www.companystreetchronicles.com or visit our Facebook page @companystreetchronicles or Twitter @companystreet59.  You can email me at mcw@bluegaulinmedia.com.

Monique Clendinen Watson is a writer and public relations specialist who is from the U.S. Virgin Islands and who lives in Virginia.  She owns BlueGaulin Media Strategies, LLC, a public relations firm and can be found at www.bluegaulinmedia.com.  Photos by Ciara Watson. Company Street Chronicles © and BlueGaulin Media © are copyright protected. May 2022.  All rights reserved.