Artist Saegel honours Yung Bredda

Artist Saegel “Saegel” Bascombe rallied her community to help her create a life-sized piece of artiste, Akhenaton “Yung Bredda” Lewis which she presented to him October 30 at Arazzi restaurant, Maraval Road, Port of Spain.

She was asked to create the piece having been a participant in Becoming II, a social networking gala which celebrates creativity and success.

Her sponsor Kirt Hill asked her to get it done in less than the usual month and a half it would usually take. But that spurred the artist, with the help of her wide network, to get it done.

Her boyfriend, Joshua Riley, helped her stretch the big canvas.

“That took us a full day as I decided to go with a ribboned effect, because I wanted it to depict the fabric of time. I wanted each panel to have a phrase Yung Bredda says or a phrase having to do with the event.”

Arlette Saint Ville, Kieron Blaize, Elijah Riley, Cianna Riley, Jacqualine Riley, Renee Bascombe, Lisa Phillips-Bascombe, Nigel Bascombe, Nia Bascombe and Perissos Ian Riley formed the team who helped her work tirelessly until completion.

She created a make-shift studio in her boyfriend’s mother’s living room and she’d work for six hours and sleep for six hours just to complete the piece.

The team listened to Yung Bredda’s gospel mix for inspiration while working.

“It was an enjoyable experience,” she said.

Documenting lived experiences

But at the core of Saegal’s art is a desire to create art that documents her lived experiences while also blending her love for scientific inquiry.

She knew that art was something in which she had a keen interest from as early as five.

In primary school, she created a piece of rainbow art at primary school. Her teachers were impressed and had her show her classmates how to create one as well.

She also recalled while being treated for type one diabetes she’d often ask for paper, colouring pencils or a colouring book.

“I’ve always had an attachment to the creative, even though I probably did not understand that was art,” she said.

Saegel's painted vase of flowers at a talent show led her Sunday school teacher to suggest her parents get her into art class.

When she joined an art class while in standard four at Bishop Anstey Junior School and that solidified for her that art had to be a part of her future.

Art was one of the subjects she chose at Bishop Anstey High School while in form three but had to do it as an extra subject.

Even while she took art at the CSEC level, she did not know that art could be pursued as a full-time career.

“So I was just doing it as this thing I loved. I am very much into the sciences, I love physics. At that point in time I felt like I was going to be a bunch of things: a theoretical physicist, a geophysicist at another point, a civil engineer at another.

“But when I was in form five, after CXC (CSEC), I came first in the Caribbean for 2D art and then I was like, ‘Wait a minute, maybe, I can actually do this thing?’”

She also pursued art at an advanced level and was placed on the merit list.

However, she was still undecided about a career path and kept going back and forth between art and physics.

But she quickly realised that art was her true passion and pursued that.

She did a bachelors in art at the UWI, St Augustine campus and after that, opened a studio but that soon proved to be difficult.

“All of the money I made, I had to put it back into the rent,” she said.

Bascombe ended up in a cycle where she needed to do things to make money and so could not give painting the required attention.

“At that point in time, my parents were encouraging me to try to do engineering because I was really into sciences before.

“I did not really want to do engineering but I gave in to the advice.”

That took up most of her time and left little room for art.

“I said, ‘This path that I am on now, if I continue with engineering, I’d have to go and get my masters and then I’d have to get an engineering job.’”

Time for painting would have been non-existent and she stopped pursuing engineering.

However, her parents asked her to have a backup plan and she decided to begin a masters in cultural studies.

“But it felt off, it did not feel like this is where I am supposed to be.”

In February, she stopped reading for the masters in cultural studies because she knew she was meant to be an artist. At that time she also became a full-time artist.

Since then it's been uphill with her art career.

Creating murals

In May, she was one of four chosen artists to create murals for Royal Caribbean’s Artist Discovery programme.

A release about the programme said, “As part of the programme, the selected artists will put their work on display for families and vacationers who will set sail on the ultimate family vacation, Star of the Seas.

“Representing countries across the Eastern and Western Caribbean, artists from the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, TT and Haiti were selected during the second round of the programme.

“Each artist will receive a grant amount between $20,000 and $100,000 to conceptualise and create a custom, large-scale mural that represents the local culture, experience and spirit of their home country.”

Bascombe was one of four chosen from a pool of 280 artists across the region.

Since then she has also hosted a solo exhibition at the Art Society of Trinidad and Tobago as well as at Loftt Gallery.

These successes are compass needles in the right direction.

“I can see his (God) hand working in my life and I can see art taking me to far places and it is a beautiful thing.”

Bascombe is not among some artists who might fear the rise of digital technologies, automation and AI.

“I don’t feel afraid because I really lean on God a lot and I feel like he is the one opening the doors for me. I have a bit of comfort in that area.

“I feel the role of an artist is to observe and call attention to what they have observed. A statement that is made about my work – which is my favourite statement to hear – is that it is very unique.”

Her work is developed from her curiosities and she leans on her scientific background for its development.

“I use art to prove or disprove my various hypotheses.”

She believes that with this perspective any artist would still be relevant because the enquiry comes from a genuine space and that always brings information to the fore.

While she is a mixed media artist, she loves acrylic paint because it allows her to layer quickly, has a quick dry time and produces vibrant colours.

She hopes to have her own studio again and also to restart her art classes.

Since her work with Royal Caribbean, she is more interested in doing murals and has added muralist to her resume.

“I think art really makes a space come alive and transforms the people who are in that space as well,” she said.