Loic Bryan’s St. Martin “Unity”

The above digital art by Loic Bryan is entitled “Unity” (2006) and was featured in Fête – Celebrating St. Martin’s Traditional Festive Music (2008). The content and media of the artwork is a modern representation of the historic striving for a unity in St. Martin* that overcomes the French/Dutch colonial division between the North and South of the island. The Unity Flag (wrapped around standing figure), is also known as the cultural flag or “National Flag” of St. Martin. (The other two figures in the artwork are wrapped respectively in the French flag (L) and the flag to date of the “Territory of St. Maarten.”) The unity banner represents the people, land, and culture of the whole island, North and South. (see the book National Symbols of St. Martin) Loic Bryan is a multimedia artist who has been steadily building his portfolio of illustrations, photographs, digital art, and graphic design. The St. Martin artist belongs to a new generation of artists who design publications and whose works appear regularly on book and magazine covers and in exhibitions.

* “St. Martin” is the traditional spelling for the entire island.
© 2011 House of Nehesi Publishers.

St. Martin sculptor Theodore Bonev

“Lady Liberty” at the Agrement roundabout, St. Martin

MARIGOT/GREAT BAY—The “Lady Liberty” statue at the Agrément roundabout is probably the best-known public sculpture by Theodore Bonev in St. Martin.

“The stunning beauty and elegance of Lady Liberty” was unveiled in 2007 to mark the 159th anniversary of the 1848 Emancipation from slavery. www.thedailyherald.com/news/daily/k015/statu015.html

Sculptor Benev’s work can be found at other locations, at the West Indies Mall in Marigot and on tombstones.

The St. Martin sculptor has also exhibited abroad. His “Caribbean Woman,” another elegant statue with sensuous curves, is on permanent display at the Changchun World Sculpture Park in China.

Bonev was awarded the bronze medal for the statue, which was sculpted in China as a feature of the 9th annual China Changchun International Sculpture Symposium (CCISS) in 2008. Over 40 countries participated in the CCISS.

“The piece I created for the CCISS was a representative of the Caribbean woman with all her beauty and style,” said Bonev in an interview in October 2008, with Shujah Reiph, producer of the Conscious Lyrics radio magazine.