24845: Morris (reply) re: 24841 on Andre Pierre

[sak-pase@bimini.ws]

Randall Morris <mysteries@aol.com>


Andre Pierre is another library burning down.  His paintings from the 
very beginning have been teaching devices about the Vodou pantheon.  He 
is the master trickster, the cultural gatekeeper, the bridge between the 
world of art and the world of spirit.  He is a Hungan (priest) and there 
are few priest/painters around right now.  Who better on this earth to 
translate for us.

There was a time when if you went to Haiti and didnt visit Andre Pierre 
then there was a gash in your itinerary.  Always seeing him you were 
impressed to the bone with the stark courage and deep intelligence it 
takes to balance family, artmaking, religion, politics in order to stay 
on your feet in the dangerous wonder that is Haiti.  Andre Pierre is one 
of the reasons, along with Liautaud and Hyppolite, that I was pulled 
into the world of cultural art.  I never bought anything from him, he 
rarely had something when I visited, and most of the time I couldnt 
afford it in those days, but he was a touchstone who gave me guidance, 
who looked into my past and present and in his major gaptoothed grinning 
wisdom spent hours on the cards with me.

Everald Brown in Jamaica died a short time ago.  Leonard Daley and Doc 
Williamson are the two old masters still living on that island.  We have 
allowed so many of these gatekeepers of culture to disappear 
undocumented, underrated, not only in the market sense but also and 
mostly as the carriers of integrity and wisdom, as thinkers and 
reasoners from within their cultures who came to messages of peace and 
survival through choice and soul.  There are few films about Haiti that 
didnt have Pierre in a cameo because nearly everything he said was a 
chant, a song, a projection of wisdom from a hard life in the spirit.

Thanks, Don for calling this out.

Randall