Berlin Cassamajor
LIFE-SIZED ART-Winter Haven Mural Artist Pursues Expression Full-TIme
IF YOU GO
WHAT: Paintings by Berlin Cassamajor on display in solo art exhibit
WHEN: July 14 to Aug. 5. Reception 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. July 23
WHERE: Ridge Art Association, Chain O'Lakes Complex, 210 Cypress Gardens Boulevard, Winter Haven
COST: Free
CONTACT: 291-5661
Published Sunday, July 3, 2005
By Shelley Preston
The Ledger
McGordon's Learning Center is a burst of sunshine on the corner of 5th Street and Kettles Avenue in Lakeland.
Large swaths of primary colors circle the entire building, imploring eyes of both young and old in the neighborhood to take notice. The happy scene on the mural would be at home on a child's piece of construction paper.
A red school house set against a blue sky covers the front door. To the viewer's left, a smiling mother and her child greet patrons as they bring their children inside. Farther down, a family of birds dressed in hats and neckties under a pair of fluffy painted clouds hurry in from around the corner to deposit their chick at school.
The west side of the facade features children of different colors with wide grins holding their arms up in greeting as they stand along a bouncing road headed for a lemon-yellow sun.
"I wanted the outside to reflect the inside," says Cynthia Orduna, part owner of the day care. Two months ago, Orduna commissioned the mural from Berlin Cassamajor, a young artist from Winter Haven, to execute her vision.
"I didn't know him before he came to show me a sketch," Orduna says, "but we all fell in love with him."
Stopping by the day care recently, an affable Cassamajor, sharply dressed in black business pants and a light-blue pin-striped shirt, explains how 11/2 years ago, he put aside a job with the City of Winter Haven to pursue a career in art.
"My biggest goal is to support my family doing what I want to do. I want to look back 20 years from now and say I've done something satisfying with my life and enjoyed my work."
So far, he is succeeding. Besides the day care, other murals by Cassamajor in Polk County include a pair of faces rendered as flowing lines reminiscent of Japanese sumie painting against a pumpkin-colored wall at De Lashon's Fashions beauty shop in Winter Haven and rows of painted oak tress along a long path that disappears into the horizon at a residence in Fort Meade. He also paints on canvas and dabbles in commercial design.
Cassamajor's talent was recognized early on by his elementary school teachers in Miami, where he grew up as the son of first-generation Haitian immigrants. He was placed in advanced art classes where he explored a number of different mediums.
As adult life called, bringing the responsibility that goes with it, Cassamajor put down the paints and got an associate's degree in drafting from ATI Career Training Center in Miami. He married his wife, Natacha, in 1998 and soon moved to Winter Haven to get away from the scramble of the big city.
"We wanted to be in a place where we could grow as a couple. Winter Haven is very family-oriented," says Cassamajor, who has relatives in the area. "I decided it was a good place to start."
After five years with the city of Winter Haven, Cassamajor longed to return to his art. His wife and his cousin, Ruth Fairweather -- also artistically inclined -- implored him to release his creativity.
"I took a leap of faith," he says.
Cassamajor began with black-and-white portraits of friends and family and worked on new paintings. In 2003, he entered artwork to the Ridge Art Association. A year later, he was teaching art classes there.
Not long after he got his first mural gig at the beauty salon, Katherine Branch, a former colleague, asked him a favor. Hurricane Charley wiped out a grove of oak trees at the Fort Meade home of her grandparents, James and Leona Curry. Branch and other members of her family wanted to restore the patch of shade that the elderly couple once enjoyed from the trees.
"We wanted to recreate what they had," Branch says. "We wanted to give them a place where they could sit and eat their crackers, drink their Cokes and watch the birds."
Besides helping to build a new trellis for the couple, Branch had the idea of painting a mural on a nearby masonry building to add to the effect. She called Cassamajor.
Using Branch's loose vision as a guide, Cassamajor painted a string of leafy oaks along a foot path, and it delighted the Currys with its symbolic rendition of their beloved trees.
The most recent accomplishment for the artist is his first solo show at the Ridge Art Association in Winter Haven. Cassamajor said he hopes the show will further his quest to become a permanent fixture on the Central Florida art scene.
Back at McGordon's, Cassamajor brings out some of his latest paintings from the interior of his spotless white truck. In one, spindly legs and long arms tangle in a dynamic dance. Another canvas exemplifies a saxophonist brought to his knees by the euphoria of his music.
Busy inside the day care getting the children ready to go home, Orduna says, "We get a lot of compliments on our building. I feel like it has really elevated the neighborhood."
Cassamajor says in his artist's statement for his coming show that when he can spark creativity in others, "only then I feel that my work is complete."