{"id":59742,"date":"2015-02-02T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-02-02T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/haitian-born-artist-displays-plantain-inspired-art-on-uris-providence-campus\/"},"modified":"2015-02-02T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-02-02T00:00:00","slug":"haitian-born-artist-displays-plantain-inspired-art-on-uris-providence-campus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2015\/02\/haitian-born-artist-displays-plantain-inspired-art-on-uris-providence-campus\/","title":{"rendered":"Haitian-born artist displays plantain-inspired art on 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Providence campus"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tKINGSTON, R.I., Feb. 2, 2015 \u2013 Plantain leaves fascinated Nixon Leger as a young art student in Haiti, so he put them in his paintings. Sometimes he folded them into a cloudy sky; other times they won a bold spot on the canvas.<\/p>\n


\nLeger became known as the \u201cguy of banana leaves,\u201d a title that he not only cultivates but appreciates. Now Rhode Islanders will get a chance to see his powerful work at an exhibit at the 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Alan Shawn Feinstein College of Continuing Education in Providence, where he\u2019s a student.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cWhen I was an art student in Haiti I fell in love with the plantain leaf,\u201d says Leger, 37, who lives in Pawtucket with his wife and two young children. \u201cThe leaves have different shapes, different colors. I love when they grow very long, then break and go back to the main trunk, eventually starting over. It\u2019s the cycle of life.\u201d<\/p>\n

The exhibit, on display through Feb. 27, also includes 34 abstract paintings, titled \u201cSymbiosis Fragmentary,\u201d that at times look like rising smoke with tantalizing hidden images: a horse\u2019s head; a slender hand; a wisp of hair.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cThese abstracts represent solid pieces that break apart,\u201d he says. \u201cI invite people to search or discover the whole subject.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nSteven Pennell, coordinator of 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Urban Arts and Culture Program, says Leger\u2019s latest work is \u201cwonderfully\u201d evocative. \u201cIt causes you to think and explore,\u201d he says. \u201cHe\u2019s a very accomplished artist.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nLeger\u2019s life story is as equally compelling. And thanks to a special academic program on the Providence campus that helps older students, Leger is on his way to earning a bachelor\u2019s degree in art.<\/p>\n


\nBorn in Belle-Anse, a small village in Haiti, Leger discovered the joy of drawing as a boy. But it wasn\u2019t until he met acclaimed Haitian-artist Casmir Joseph that he decided to devote his life to art. A drawing session with Joseph also resulted in an obsession with plantains, a banana-like staple of the Latino cuisine.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was drawing a landscape of plantains,\u201d says Leger. \u201cBut I saw more than leaves. I connected with them and started putting them in my paintings. It\u2019s something that says, \u2018This is mine.\u2019 People will always be able to recognize my work.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nHe attended Haiti\u2019s Ecole Nationale des Arts and started teaching art in high schools. He soon made a name for himself, exhibiting his work in dozens of galleries across the country.<\/p>\n


\nBut he was restless. He thought there would be better opportunities to market his paintings in the United States, so he moved to Rhode Island in 2008 to live with relatives. Although he had a college degree from Haiti, he discovered that it was mostly useless in America.<\/p>\n


\nHe decided to pursue a bachelor\u2019s degree at 溏心vlog免费B站, but realized that he needed to polish his reading and writing skills. A friend suggested he enroll in a program on the Providence campus that helps students like Leger.<\/p>\n


\nLaunched in 1986, the semester-long LEAP, or Learning Enhancement for Adults Program, is targeted at older students who want to hone their learning skills before starting 溏心vlog免费B站. <\/p>\n


\nIn addition to helping with reading and writing, the program teaches students how to use the library and computers, read and study textbooks, take notes and manage their time.<\/p>\n


\nStudents meet two days or evenings a week for a full semester. To qualify, students must have a high school diploma or general equivalency degree, and the desire to earn a college degree at 溏心vlog免费B站.<\/p>\n

Leger completed the program in December 2013 and is now taking philosophy and sociology classes. His plan is to eventually transfer to the Kingston campus to pursue a bachelor\u2019s degree in art. One day, he\u2019d like to teach again.<\/p>\n


\n\u201c溏心vlog免费B站 has been a great help,\u201d says Leger, who speaks French and Creole. \u201cThe (LEAP) program was so important to me. If I didn\u2019t have these skills, it would be hard to continue with college. I appreciate everything.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nBesides, he says, he enjoyed his time in the program, taking classes with students from all over the world, including Liberia and Spain. Class discussions, he says, were riveting. \u201cThe diversity was great,\u201d he says. \u201cAll of us had different experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nHe\u2019s working part-time for a transportation service and hopes to get his college diploma in two years. Mary Stanley, coordinator of LEAP, has no doubt he\u2019ll achieve his goal: \u201cHe\u2019s a very determined young man. His art is magnificent. When I first saw his work, I thought: Well, he\u2019s truly an artist.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nHis paintings have been exhibited at galleries throughout Rhode Island, including AS220 and the Chabot Fine Art Gallery, both in Providence. In his paintings, all done with acrylic, plantain leaves represent the human body. His themes are sometimes haunting. In \u201cNo Way,\u201d for instance, a mother and her child are lost on the horizon, with nowhere to go. \u201cChoir Rehearsal\u201d depicts plantain-inspired sailors on a ship in choppy seas, with the captain playing a saxophone.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cAs an artist, I\u2019m always in movement,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m always looking for new ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nA reception for Leger will be held Thursday, Feb. 5 at 5:30 p.m. on the Providence campus, 80 Washington St., a few blocks from City Hall. The reception is free and open to the public. For details, call Pennell at 401-277-5206.<\/p>\n


\nPictured Above: Artist Nixon Leger, and photos of his paintings on display through Feb. 27 at 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Feinstein campus in Providence.

\nPhotos by Nixon Leger.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I., Feb. 2, 2015 \u2013 Plantain leaves fascinated Nixon Leger as a young art student in Haiti, so he put them in his paintings. Sometimes he folded them into a cloudy sky; other times they won a bold spot on the canvas. Leger became known as the \u201cguy of banana leaves,\u201d a title […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59747,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}