Kibwe Brathwaite | Photographer

Early last year while I was properly broke and unemployed, sustained by hops bread and avocados, waking up at 11am, rolling over to my macbook to forage the internet for music, software, movies, ideas, and… um… job openings, I came across a post on one of my favorite blogs, Hypebeast.com. It was about Mexican based Trinidadian born artist, Wendell McShine.

At the time he was featured for his exhibition, “BHIND THE BLUE DOOR” and the post included a video clip of Wendell explaining the artwork. I remember talking on Skype with Imran, having a brief discussion about the video clip, and concluding that we both had no idea what the hell this dude was talking about. Before this, I only knew of Wendell from the work he did on the music video for 12TheBand’s “Prosper”. The video included animation of Wendell’s signature styled characters. Fast forward to just a year later, and I end up meeting Wendell in the flesh, for the latest leg of his Art Connect project co-ordinated by Abovegroup Ogilvy.

Art Connect is an urban art project, where the students of Success Laventille Secondary School, together with McShine embark on a series of dynamic highly creative community murals in an on going visual dialogue on the walls of Laventille donated by Coconut Growers Association (CGA).

Last week, Mc Shine was a guest presenter at our Show & Tell 15 at the Callaloo Company’s building in Chaguaramas. His presentation incorporated the construction of a mural before a live audience. Through interacting with him I was brought to a better understanding of his abstract work. Each piece included characters presented in multiple layers, embellished with symbols, each telling a unique narrative. It’s either you get it… or you don’t get it, either way, it’s some very impressive work from a very consistant artist.

Check out Wendell Mc Shine’s blog for more of his travels, past works and his upcoming projects.