First published:Spring 2006
Homeless, prolific and unpredictable, Ras Dizzy occupies a special place among his island’s legendary Intuitive artists.
With no home or studio of his own, Ras Dizzy – ‘Dizzy’ to those who know him; ‘Ras’ is a Rastafarian honorific title – gets by with a little help from his friends and lives from sale to sale of his brightly coloured paintings. Carrying little more than a portfolio of his work, his art supplies and a small bag of clothes, he regularly shuttles by bus between Kingston (Jamaica’s capital, on thesouthern side of the island) and small towns on the island’s north side. In Kingston and in Ocho Ríos, a north-coast resort, a few galleries sell his work, providing a vital if uncertain income.
Ras Dizzy is one of the legendary Jamaican artists who came to prominence in the 1970s. Their paintings, sculptures and carvings helped shape a sense of national, cultural identity in Jamaica in the decades before and after its independence from Britain in 1962.
This is an article extract; read the full article in Raw Vision #54
