Cosmata Lindie is a ‘Special Person’

Oct 09, 2022 News

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A self-taught artist telling stories through paintings…

“Since I know myself, I was drawing and painting, it was something that came naturally but it took some practice to be where I am today.”

By Shervin Belgrave

Kaieteur News – Truly outstanding creatives are sometimes hard to find. As such, it was nothing but a blessing to bump into a young woman who though exceptional at what she does, is probably one of the most down-to-earth human beings around.

Her name is Cosmata Lindie and she hails from the ancient county of Berbice. Lindie describes herself as a self-taught artist and writer who prefers to tell stories about life especially through her paintings.

Lindie was among the talented creatives who were invited to showcase their talent at the recent Cricket Carnival event, called ‘A Night of Jazz, Art and Fashion Show’, which was held on September 18, last, at Castellani House. She stood gracefully at the entrance of the venue where a wide range of exquisite paintings, sculptures and other pieces of art were on display.

With pride, she showcased some of her captivating paintings that easily caught the attention of many who attended the event. When asked where she learnt the intricate techniques evident in her paintings, Lindie with a girlish smile intimated that “I am self-taught.”

She said that she has been painting for 30 years now. In fact, she revealed that she was drawing and painting since she was a child and was never fortunate to be taught by anyone. But somehow, she developed a natural talent to create captivating pieces.  “Since I know myself, I was drawing and painting, it was something that came naturally but it took some practice to be where I am today,” Lindie asserted.

Of course, her childhood pieces were not impressive as those she created as a teen or since becoming an adult, but developing the skills without the help of a tutor or attending an art school, she related, was not an especially difficult task.

Her work has been catching the eyes of quite a few people across the country. The self-taught artist recently joined the Guyana Women Artists’ Association and has since been given the opportunity to exhibit her pieces at several mini art shows.  However, she admitted, the Carnival Cricket event has thus far been the first major she has been privileged to showcase her work.

For Lindie, painting and creating art is not just a hobby or a means to gain an income, rather through art shows and exhibitions, she said that she is able to relate meaningful stories, which she first imagines in her mind before capturing them in her artwork.

“It’s kinda difficult to describe the feeling when I paint but I go into a zone where you don’t focus on anything else, it does just be blank and all I would see is these images in my head,” a passionate Lindie related.

In fact, she excitedly pointed to some her pieces that she created while in her “blank zone” and, indeed, they are captivating and interesting even to those who are clueless about art.

Especially captivating is a piece she calls ‘Ghetto King’. The painting is one of a cat that looks battered but his eyes are scary but yet very captivating. Persons were scarcely able to pass by the exhibit without staring back.

Amidst a chuckle, she explained that the Ghetto King is premised on a true story. A stray cat, she narrated, used to visit her home in search of scraps. According to Lindie, who loves animals, she took a special liking to the tom cat. He had no owner and would prowl around the neighbourhood looking for food, especially raiding the garbage bins for scraps.

One of his favourite liming spots was at her home and this was because she would always feed him. As he ate, Lindie said that she would observe him and notice his dirty fur coat marred with a few scars from street fights with other stray cats. Many times she imagined what his life was like as a cat in the streets and the images started appearing of him being a survivor, a ‘Ghetto King’ fighting for survival in the cruel streets.

One day his image popped into her head so vividly as she entered her painting zone, and as they say, the rest is history.

Two other meaningful paintings with positive stories were exhibited by Lindie at the Cricket Carnival event. These were captioned ‘Disintegration’ and ‘Emergence’.

Lindie explained that the two paintings are related to each other. The first she painted was Disintegration. It depicts the face of a woman that was connected to the earth. Two birds were picking away at the head while part of the woman’s face looks as though it is being blown away by a strong wind.

For the self-taught artist, it’s a story of things being slowly destroyed into pieces and can represent many things, “our lives, the earth and nature.” Lindie recalled that as she looked at the painting, she realised that another had to be painted, ‘Emergence’. The message behind that painting is to emphasise that sometimes “disintegration is needed for the emergence of a new world or in other words, destruction is not the end; sometimes it is necessary for us to emerge into something beautiful.”

‘Emergence’, is a painting of a beautiful woman holding the earth in her hands and indeed it lived up to the story of emerging brand new after a previous image was slowly destroyed.

Apart from telling stories via meaningful paintings, Lindie is also a writer. She writes short stories for children and some of them include: “The birds” and “Crossroads”. Crossroads is a tale of hope and redemption, and having the courage to start again when it feels like everything is falling apart.

One of her more recent writings is a short story titled “Star Child”. It’s a literary piece that earned her a place on the 2022 longlist for the Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival (BCLF) Elizabeth Nunez Award for writers in the Caribbean.

For being blessed with a gift to captivate many people through her paintings and writing too, today we at this publication recognise Cosmata Lindie as our ‘Special Person’ of the week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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