Drawing better than liming

In primary school Teddy Joseph used to draw “Street Fighter” video game characters Ken and Riu on sketch pad pages, take them to his father’s office, make copies of each and distribute them to his classmates for a cost of $1 a piece, sometimes 25 cents depending on the size of the drawing. “One time I did like four separate drawings and did like 20 copies each and they all sold out,” said the 21-year-old artist and early businessman. This was during his five years at La Horquetta North Government Primary School. Art always fascinated him. Maybe it’s true about what is said of people with long slender fingers, he thought — they’re “artsy”.

Years later, after pursuing Art and Craft in secondary school and Graphic Design at YTEPP (Youth Training and Employment Partnership Programme), Teddy is convinced that drawing is his strong point. His family and neighbours are the judges. He brought out from his bedroom, a picture portrait of his grandmother when in her youth and an exact representation of it, which he drew. It was done in dotted form, and detailed from her protruding collar bone to her ruffled strands of hair. The portrait was lightly sketched in pencil first, and then took form with ink dots. “At YTEPP I learned different techniques like dots, shading in one direction, doing the curly effect, the normal view, the bird’s eye and worm view... It made my drawing look more realistic,” Teddy said. “But you have to have a li’l skill... You have to have the eyes, how yuh picture things.”

So, he’s not spurred on by what money he could attain, since he’s never really sold any of his art, but he is encouraged by commendatory words. “When somebody watches my work and say it’s good, I’m encouraged to draw more.” The time spent perfecting portraits and landscapes equates to less time spent liming on the block. “Drawing keeps me busy. My grandmother’s portrait took about three weeks, because I was working at the time and every evening when I came home I would drop a few dots. Sometimes I am inside the whole day drawing and I might come out and play a li’l football with the fellas on my street. Once or twice you might see me on the block,” he said. Teddy said that it was so easy to fall into vices, since the youth in his hometown of La Horquetta in recent times, has been known to carry on negative activity. “Sometimes when I say where I’m from people look at you funny. But is up to you, who you liming with, once you know how to move. It always have the good group, the bad group and the Okay group.”

He added: “The place where you live has a little bit to do with shaping who you are because of your friends, but you must know what you want.” Teddy lives with his father and brother. His mother passed away some years ago. His life was never one of extravagance and many of his wants were never forthcoming but, “I always had my parents backing”, he said. His goal is to be “my own boss. I want to be able to say I could rest now and go at my own pace. Drawing was the only thing I knew and it’s something I don’t want to stop.” Currently, he’s employed at a craft shop in Barataria. He assists in making “outfits” for souvenir dolls. “I saw the ad in the classifieds for an assistant. I called, carried down some of my drawings and I got the job... I mind doing that and selling some pictures and having like a second salary.”