Charles Phillips interns with Fresh Milk residents Saada Branker & Powys Dewhurst

June 10, 2015June 10, 2015Leave a comment

Fresh Milk is happy to announce that recent graduate in the Barbados Community College (BCC) BFA programme Charles Phillips is interning with our resident artists, writer Saada Branker and filmmaker Powys Dewhurst, as their assistant director and 2^nd camera for their documentary project recording Barbadians’ experiences of Hurricane Janet, which struck the island 60 years ago. Charles will be assisting Saada and Powys between June 1 – 26, 2015. Read more about him below:

Charles Phillips. Photo by the artist, courtesy of Monochrome Media

About Charles Phillips:

Charles Phillips is a Barbadian digital artist. He acquired his Associate Degree in Visual Arts in 2012 and has recently completed his BFA in the same field at the Barbados Community College.

Charles has been part of various exhibitions at the Barbados Community College between 2010-2014 and has showcased his digital images at Barbados’ Animekon Expo between 2011-2013.

He employs the techniques of digital painting, photography and video. Most of his work investigates and includes elements from martial arts, psychology and mythology or fiction. Charles’s photography uses photo surrealism to create interesting pieces. His most current work explores fictional archetypes and the visual and thematic links between classical and modern fiction, looking at how these narratives repeat themselves.

Charles lives and works in Barbados where he co-founded Monochrome Media, a local company providing creative photography, videography, graphic design and other related services.

Fresh Milk welcomes Saada Branker and Powys Dewhurst to the platform

May 27, 2015August 5, 20151 Comment

Fresh Milk is pleased to welcome our next artists-in-residence Saada Branker and Powys Dewhurst who will be joining us from June 1 to June 26. The two will spend their time collecting sights of the island and stories from locals about Hurricane Janet which hit Barbados on September 22, 1955. What they gather will be part of a multi-media project and short film presenting an exchange of Bajan and Bajan-Canadian memories about Janet and recovery.

Saada and Powys at Centre island, Toronto. Photo Credit: Kara Springer

About Saada Branker

Saada Branker is a writer and copy editor born in Montreal. There she grew up hearing stories from her Barbadian parents about their childhood years in St. George. Now living in Toronto, she has worked on various media projects. Saada is a Ryerson University journalism graduate with a BA in Political Science from Concordia University. Her passion for writing and journalism led to opportunities in broadcast news (CBC Newsworld), newsprint (Globe and Mail, Eye Weekly, Toronto Sun), magazines (Sway Magazine, AMOI, Numb, Word). Through Saada STYLO, her home-based copyediting business, she works with emerging writers.

Her recent copyediting projects include, BYOB: The Unapologetic Guide to Being Your Own Boss by Gloria Roheim (2013) and Game Face: The Art of Giving Interviews by Bodine Williams (Fall 2015).

About Powys Dewhurst

Powys Dewhurst is a filmmaker and content producer based in Canada who also holds British and Caribbean citizenship. He was born in Dominica and grew up in Barbados from age 7 to 16 in Fontabelle, Clapham Heights and Chelsea Road. His passion for film and media began in Barbados as a preteen. As a child he spent inordinate amounts of time at Roodals Drive In and Accra Beach, and after hours would liberate old comic strips from the offices of both the Nation and The Advocate newspapers.

He has filmed in East Africa which took him beneath the plains of Mount Kilimanjaro and in 2010 he was chosen by the Canadian Government, Cirque du Soleil and Canadian Heritage to have his work as one to represent Canada at World Expo 2010 in China, which saw 73 million international visitors. His work has screened at film festivals in Chicago, Toronto, Durban South Africa, Trinidad, Texas, Kenya, Brazil, England and elsewhere. He is currently producing and developing several works including Storm, Crazy Dies and Larger Than Life.

Powys recently wrapped up as a content producer at a Bell Media presented media summit in Canada bringing in notable speakers and media companies like Vice Media, Chris Hadfield, Superchannel, CBC, TIFF, eONE, Globe and Mail, and the biggest hit Canadian TV shows.

Fresh Milk welcomes latest intern Dominique Hunter

May 26, 2015June 10, 2015Leave a comment

Fresh Milk is pleased to welcome our latest intern and recent graduate from the Barbados Community College, Dominique Hunter. During a two week course she will be assisting Director of Fresh Milk Annalee Davis and Assistant to Director Katherine Kennedy in an administrative capacity, as well as facilitating a smooth transition for current artist in residence Thais Francis.

Photo by Monochrome

About Dominique Hunter

Dominique Hunter was born in Georgetown, Guyana in 1987. She received a Diploma in Fine Art from the E.R. Burrowes School of Art in 2007 and was awarded Best Graduating Student and Best Painter. Later that year she was invited to join the Guyana Women Artists’ Association. Her work has subsequently been exhibited at a number of exhibitions hosted by the association.

Hunter won the silver and bronze medals in Castellani House’s 7th and 8th Biennial National Drawing Competition (2008 and 2010 respectively). In 2010 two of her drawings were also featured as part of the National Gallery’s Republic Anniversary exhibition. Her first solo exhibition titled Introspection was also held at the National Gallery of Art, Castellani House in 2010. She has worked as a layout artist and Arts columnist at the Guyana Times Inc. newspaper and a graphic artist at Xclaim Media Inc. In December of 2014 she was awarded second place with a silver medal at the Guyana Visual Arts Competition.

Hunter recently graduated from the Barbados Community College with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and was presented with the Lesley’s Legacy Foundation Award for most outstanding work in the portfolio exhibition.

Fresh Stops: Matthew Clarke up next!

May 22, 2015May 22, 2015Leave a comment

Fresh Milk and Adopt A Stop conclude the first edition of the Fresh Stops collaborative project with Matthew Clarke‘s piece ‘Hardears Universe’. In an attempt to bring art into the public space, six artists were commissioned to produce original artwork for benches that have been appearing at varied locations around the island. ‘Hardears Universe’ will soon be revealed at a location near you.

The other participating artists included Evan Avery, Versia Harris, Mark King, Simone Padmore and Ronald Williams. This project creates visibility for the work of emerging creatives, allowing the public to encounter and interact with their pieces in everyday life, generating interest and inviting dialogue about their practices.

About ‘Hardears Universe’:

Hardears Universe showcases a collection of characters from the ‘Hardears World’ featured in my graphic novels. It is a place of fantasy populated by characters from Caribbean folklore.

About Matthew Clarke:

Matthew Clarke‘s passion for art started at a young age, and he began participating in the National Independence Festival of Creative Arts (NIFCA) while attending St. Michael’s School. Through the Festival, he achieved bronze, silver, gold and incentive awards, and went on to be the recipient of the Prime Minster’s Scholarship for Visual Art in 2003. Clarke completed his Associate Degree in Visual Art at the Barbados Community College (BCC) which earned him a Barbados Exhibition for tertiary studies, and in 2009 he obtained a Bachelor Degree with honours in Graphic Design at the same institution. He has freelanced for various design agencies (Virgo, 809, RED Advertising, G and A Communication, RCA) and worked at the Nation Publishing Company on the Attitude Magazine, creating its logo and design. He has also worked at Banks Holdings Limited (BHL), where he was appointed Internal Web Designer in charge of the Banks Beer website.

In addition to working on independent projects, he has been working as a graphic designer at RED Advertising and PR Agency as of 2011, where he is currently Deputy Creative Director. He is the co-owner and principle of a Caribbean comic company called Beyond Publishing, which has published over 22 books sold digitally and in print, both locally and internationally.

Versia Harris travels to Casa Tomada, Sao Paulo

May 20, 2015May 21, 2015Leave a comment

We are excited to announce that Barbadian artist Versia Harris will be going to Sao Paulo, Brazil for seven weeks on Sunday, May 24, 2015 for a residency with Casa Tomada.

This collaborative programme organized between Fresh Milk and Casa Tomada will see Versia working alongside Brazilian artist Janaina Wagner, interacting with arts professionals, producing and showcasing her work, exploring the Brazilian art scene and looking into the possibility of furthering her studies in Sao Paulo.

Congratulations, Versia! We look forward to keeping up with your residency as it progresses!

About Versia Harris:

Versia Harris is a Barbadian artist living and working in Weston, St, James, Barbados. She received her BFA in Studio Art in 2012 and was awarded The Lesley’s Legacy Foundation Award, an annual prize given to the top graduate. She participated in her first residency with Projects and Space in 2011 and has since completed a residency with another local organization called Fresh Milk, followed by a residency at the Vermont Studio Center, and residencies at the Instituto Buena Bista, Curacao and Alice Yard, Trinidad in late 2013. In 2014, Versia’s work was featured in the IV Moscow International Biennial for Young Art themed ‘A Time for Dreams’. She was also apart of the follow up exhibition ‘MOMENTUM_InsideOut screening of ‘A Time For Dreams’, Berlin. Her animation ‘They Say You Can Dream a Thing More Than Once’ was awarded ‘Best New Media Film’ at the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival, 2014. Versia tackles perceptions of fantasy in contrast to the reality of her invented characters.

Work by Evan Avery in Casa Tomada's 'A Casa Recebe' project

About Casa Tomada:

Founded in 2009, Casa Tomada is an independent space for practice, research and reflections of artistic nature. Concerned with the entire process, instead of focusing exclusively on the final work of art, Casa Tomada encourages discussion about emerging contemporary art, not only stimulating the development of artistic and theoretical practices motivated by shared experience, but acting as a catalyst for experiences and connections between artists, researchers, and other independent artistic initiatives. During these years, Casa Tomada organized 8 residences, 2 in partnership with Videobrasil, and one international exchange between São Paulo and London with the Delfina Foundation. Casa Tomada has also run other kinds of programs, all based on young artistic production, connections between different spaces and interdisciplinarity.