For more info and to donate: dsartlibrary@gmail.com Erline Andrews
He was a fine artist with promise, graduating with first class honours from UWI's visual arts degree programme. One of his paintings—a meditation on slavery called Merchandise—was presented to Raul Castro by the T&T Government in 2011.
“Art is the major driving force of my life and has been so from an early age,” he wrote in an online bio.
Small died earlier this year at the young age of 36. But his influence will continue through the two things that were most important to him while he was alive.
His art lecturer and friend, Marsha Pearce, has set up a mobile art library in Small's honour. It's called D Small Art Library, a play on Small's name and the library's size. More than 40 titles have been donated so far from a cross-section of people in the art and academic worlds.
“I've been sitting on this idea for a long time. I always wanted to have a library that was dedicated to art books, but I felt I needed a fixed place for the library,” said Pearce, seated on a chair at Medulla Art Gallery, where the library launched on December 10.
The white walls of the gallery were bare for the time being. The books were arranged on the box-shaped stands normally used for sculptures. A two-layer cake, made to look like circular shelves packed with books, had been donated by specialty cake company Simply Delicious.
“Darron Small's passing this year hit me really hard,” said Pearce. “During the funeral I said, 'I have to do something to keep his memory alive. I'm starting a library.' I just decided I'm not going to sit around anymore. His passing was a wake-up call for me.”
Pearce discussed possibilities with a colleague and came up with the idea of a pop-up library.
“The pop-up phenomenon is a global one. A library can be one shelf. People are putting shelves by a bus stop. And so while people are waiting for transport they can pick up a book,” said Pearce.
“There are people in neighborhoods that are putting a few books outside of their homes and they're doing little book exchanges: I take a book and I put one there for you,” she continued. “I thought about how can I do this here.”
D Small Art Library—one day a month at different venues
D Small Art Library will run one day a month at different venues.
“It's about giving exposure to the arts,” Pearce said. “The vision of the library is to see a society that is educated and is really appreciative of the arts.”
The curators of Medulla donated the space and books, including co-curator Geoffrey MacLean's book Cazabon: An Illustrated Biography of Trinidad's Nineteenth Century Painter Michel Jean Cazabon.
“This is a space for growth, development and conversation,” said co-curator Martin Mouttet. “And there's always an educational component to what we do here. So when Marsha approached us, we were happy to facilitate in letting her have the space to do this.”
Jackie Hinkson donated his What Things Are True: A Memoir of Becoming An Artist, Drawing for Days: 40 Years of Drawings by Jackie Hinkson, and And so we Continue: Christ in Trinidad Series.
“I thought it was a wonderful and creative idea-and always a worthy one,” said Hinkson at the library. “Apart from the fact that it would contribute to the memory of the person, it also has a value to the general public.”
On the importance of art education, he said: “I see art as making people aware more deeply of their world and that awareness brings to a person a greater sensitivity.”
Guests flipped through books, chatted, sipped hot cocoa from Cocobel Chocolate, located upstairs of Medulla, and ate cake.
It was a lime with a difference.
“You get to be in a relaxed setting where you actually get to interact with the books,” said attendee Jeanette Awai.
“You're not pressured to buy the book, but you get to see them and experience them at your own pace,” Awai continued. “And you get to interact with everybody from artists like Jackie Hinkson to art students. You get to see other people's responses to the same art.”
Vibert Medford, Small's classmate and friend, also in attendance, remembered him as someone who loved music, food and travel and who had a sometimes off key sense of humor.
He recalled a Facebook post from Small during the funeral of former prime minister Patrick Manning in July. On a day that turned out to be two weeks before his own death, Small wrote: “At my funeral please do not sing the Lord is My Shepherd song, because if nobody was bawling before, dat song does start it.”
Other friends went along, posting songs they didn't want at their funeral. For Medford it was Abide with Me.
"That too. None of those,” Small replied. Small's older sister, Joanne, was not amused. She wrote: “You not gonna die, Darron, at least not before me, buddy. Get outta here with that.”
“When and wherever... I'm just saying,” Small replied with a winking emoticon. Joanne responded: “LOL”.
Medford said it's hard coming to terms with Small's death and it's not only because he was a friend.
“It hurt a lot,” said Medford. “He had all this potential to really make a difference in the world of art.”