Contributed photos
LEFT: Artist Albert Artwell. RIGHT: Artwell's entry in the National biennial exhibition, '33-Year Story of Christ'.

Albert Artwell is an artist living and working in Catadupa, St. James. His entry in the National Biennial 2006, titled 33-Year Story of Christ, is composed of oil on board. Here, he discusses his work with Dr. Jonathan Greenland, executive director of the National Gallery of Jamaica.

Please describe your piece in the Biennial.

The beginning of it is when Joseph find Mary pregnant. Mary pregnant and she don't lie with him. So, Joseph don't know what to believe so an angel come unto him, and after the angel come onto him, he believe.

Mary now have a baby in Bethlehem of Judah. And the five wise men now saw the star and start to travel and travel and travel and they end up as three. And they go to the east and then they find the baby. And after they find the baby and bless the baby.

When He reached the age of 12 years old He asked the doctors and lawyers: "Can you save a soul from death and Hell?" And none of them can answer.

Later, when he was 31, he went to Jerusalem to preach and He hear from Mary and Martha that Lazarus was dead. So He rise back Lazarus now from death and hell. So the question he asked when he was 12 years old, he worked out at the age of 31!

At that time now, He began to heal people who were born and never see; and born and never walk. He saw a man beside the roadside and he said: "Man, take up your bed and walk." And the man take up his bed and walk.

He went down to preach at the Sea of Galilee, and He put his footstep upon the sea, and He calmed the storm. All of those things are in the work.

So, the work contains all the important events in Jesus' life?

Yeah man, it contains the whole 33-year story. The greater part of it is as if you have a book and this work tells you what is in the book.

It is the whole story: He healed the blind and the deaf, He raised the baby to life, the Last Supper, the baptism, and Him going to the hills and speaking with Satan. And Satan asked Him to bow down and worship him and he would give him the whole city, and He said: "Get you from me!"

The Garden of Gethsemane. After them bury Christ, the Father Word come forth in lightning and move away the stone and Him come forth from the grave. And when Mary went there, she saw an angel, and him say: "Who are you looking for?" Him tell Mary to tell the disciples them who were meeting in the Upper Room. She goes back to them and most people say: "We not going to look on no duppy." So they don't want to come. All of the stories them are upon it.

What inspired this piece?

The example of the painting is to remember the sufferation and the agony that Christ go through. If people don't bow down to God, then they will be cast into flames of fire, and from the fire to darkness to the End of the World. Fire and darkness forever. You see, the value of a man's life is that.

When God was preaching down by the Sea of Galilee, Him said: "The Kingdom of God is at hand." And a man he said: "Where it is?" And Him say: "The Kingdom is within man."

So, God now work through me to do this work. Him do it, but me a move the hand. Out of all the man that God created in the world He chose me and work through me to this work.

When did you start to paint?

In 1971, I saw a vision of Christ in the sky, and that is how I came to paint. I lie down on my bed down by a place near Whitfield town, by the Chinese Cemetery, Waltham Park Road.

Christ Himself come down on a ladder. Him stand upon the ladder and question me. Then Him hand me a rag, a golden rag, a long pretty rag. He say go take this and go into the world and use this material to make a living.

That is how I come to paint.

Now this painting is a history, a mystery of the whole world. Everything is there. Some people come and see it and don't basically know what is what. But all the minute, all the hour Christ is upon my heart and mind, all the while I can't escape.

When I talk, people ask: "Where does the art come from?" And when I look, it is everyting: me heart, me mind, me heart, me kidney, me soul, some of myself is nothing without Christ.

So Christ is the only value that a man can gain in life: You can gain a car -- you're dead an left it. But if you gain Christ, the only thing dead is your flesh, your mind never dead. To have the full understanding and power of God you have to see He was here before the heaven and earth and the star and the moon. Christ was before all these things.

It is a very large painting - about four feet by eight feet How long did it take to complete the work?

Seventeen years. But I never work on it straight. Some of the parts of it I had to go over two or three times. Because during the painting, I never really know where it will reach or what it will look like.

So sometimes I leave it and play my guitar and things like that. The last thing I did on the work was the fishes - three small fishes - coming from Jordan River to the sea.

I see a strong similarity with traditional Ethiopian painting. Are you influenced by any other artists?

Well, you see most of this work feel African. These things are an inborn thing. So, when you say Ethiopia you is right. But I've not really looked at Ethiopian art.

You paint many different subjects, so which are your favourites?

Noah and the Ark and Adam and Eve, because those are the beginning subjects. I also find those paintings sell very much. Also Nebuchadnezzar and Jonah. But my most favourite is Adam and Eve. A landscape is very nice but history is my map. My power is from God the Father. The Father want to work through we.

What is the best thing that has happened to you as an artist?

The best thing is my music. I have my music on a cd you know. That day I start to paint, I bought a guitar the same day too. I can paint a piece of work, I take up my guitar, and then I paint some more. Sometimes the hand moves and you don't know what's done. That's how I work.

What is the best work you have ever done?

I guess it is this one. Usually, I draw the head them and then put on the clothes, but this piece now I draw the people, I make them and make them - one after the other. I get the natural shape. It manifests the right and proper way. As a matter of fact, anyone who owns this piece of work, will not know the value until after.

Remember, a woman is nice to a man, you know. But after a time, whatever carry on between you and her it wear out. But God cannot wear out. If you do right, and you're dead, your spirit go back to heaven.

This kingdom is a Satan kingdom. This world is a spoiled world. Christ said: "I be in this world but not of this world, but the one to come."

After God gwan to take over this world: and this piece of artwork is a 'seeking soul to Christ'.

The National Biennial 2006 runs through to March 12, 2007. Please call the National Gallery at 922 1561 for more details or email us at natgalja@cwjamaica.com.