The air is still while the birds provide additional music to the soundtrack.
An early morning breathtaking view of Port-of-Spain sets the scene for the start of The Solitary Alchemist.
Enter Barbara Jardine, an alchemist who has created beautiful, powerful work from the tragic things in her life. The jewelry she creates can be called no less than works of art, at times provoking tears from Jardine in her effort to explain her plans. On screen, Jardine's life is laid bare in its most intimate parts, sucking the onlookers into this artist's life. Jardine tells the audience about her love for a young man, who was a "wild child". She speaks about putting all her effort into raising her son. She had also condensed her course of study at the Royal College of Art to return to T&T to be with the love of her life. "It was daft," she said. "You always think you're going to live happily ever after." There was no fairy tale ending for Jardine and her love, which in turn put a dent in her self-esteem. At a private screening, at Script J on the Fernandes Compound, last Wednesday, producer Mariel Brown and her all-Trini film team captured the beauty of this emotional artist. In the film, it's common knowledge that Jardine feels she has not received the recognition she deserves.
Though she simply speaks about her life and the audience sees her work, it proves almost difficult to look away. Filmed on location in Trinidad, Scotland and England, the documentary features insightful interviews with personalities such as Peter Minshall and Judy Raymond. Jardine is not the artist to which T&T is accustomed. Rather, her work is different and has an unusual beauty. Her pieces tell a story and it was while in the process of creating Heigh Ho, My Heart that she broke down in tears. In a crouched position, the finished piece of a human being seemed to hold pent up emotion and sadness. Indeed Jardine has lived through immense sadness. Upon returning to school, she was told her father had died.
But it was Jardine's recounting of the death of her mom which enveloped the onlooker with sadness. Her mom, she said, lost the ability to speak and eventually the ability to move. "The tragedy of this incredible communicator was that she was trapped in her body," Jardine said. But Jardine also loves animals, even those deemed unlovable and she has a pet corbeau. Why? Jardine saw the sick bird and nursed it back to health. Now, the vulture visits her often and she continues to feed it. It goes with her on walks and sits on her shoulder, like a parrot. "It is almost embarrassing," she said with a laugh. "Sometimes I get people making the sign of the cross when they see us," she laughed.
?The second feature length documentary by Mariel Brown, of Savant Ltd, will premiere at the T&T Film Festival in September.
Who is Barbara Jardine
?Barbara Jardine trained as a jeweler at the Central School of Art(BA) and did her MA at the Royal College of Art. In 1981, the Victoria & Albert Museum purchased her bracelet, "The Warrior", which forms part of the museum's permanent collection of contemporary jewels. Along with jeweler Rachel Ross, Jardine formed Alchemy Goldsmiths in 1997.