Lutia ‘Tai’ Durante has been featured in several art exhibitions in the Virgin Islands. He often paints historical scenes from around the territory.
How did art all begin for you?
Art for me started when I was just a kid enjoying life. I grew up in St. Thomas, but I started art here before we moved. I and my brother Henry Durante started when we just young. We used to draw in the dirt with sticks. Mom took us to St. Thomas when I was about 8 and he was 14.
When I went to high school, I had a teacher named Ms. Sheila Rose. She said, “You have a talent.” She gave me a scholarship to college in 1977. I even have the envelope with the letter at home. She drew a conch shell on the envelope. But I refused the scholarship and I just went to New York and worked at One Battery Park Plaza. She saw the art in me and I didn’t event bother with it.
Tell me about life after high school.
I moved to New York because there were more opportunities, and I really just wanted to see some part of the world before I got a permanent job or anything of that nature. I was a mail clerk with [One Battery Park Plaza], which was right next to the Trade Centre. I got caught up doing the New York thing, but it got too cold. I didn’t want to come back here, so I left for California and I got into the Army.
What was it like being in the Army?
I got in the Army in 1978. I joined because there was nothing else to do and I thought I could see the world more. And that was how I got to see the world. I was fortunate. They’ll say, “Hey Lutia, you’re going East Asia side: Stay out there for as long as you want to.” I’d stay there for about a year and a half, visit Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore, China, Philippines, but I never went to Australia. When I left, I went back to New York to do my former job. I got bored and cold again, so I came back to St. Thomas, where I met my wife and we joined the police force in St. Thomas. I did close to 10 years there. I spent four years in the United States Army.
From a military officer to a police officer — what was that like for you?
I loved it. I did about eight years and the wife decided she didn’t like it. In 1991, it was hot then. It is not hot now compared to that year. In that year, we had a homicide at least once a week, and it was mainly people 18 years and younger. I had to do so much overtime then, and it was getting to be a burden for my wife Carol. She decided we should pack up and leave for Tortola.
How did your service as a military officer and then a police officer help your art?
Once you love something, you always go back to it. Art is relaxing for me. I could take up a pen and just sketch and that was what I did. During those times, I didn’t have much time to do artwork, but it was still in me. When I came back, after all that running around, I came back to this laidback place and wondered what I was going to do. My wife gave me 40 canvases and said, “Here: Paint yourself to death.” That was when I got back to my painting.
So are you a full-time artist now?
I don’t consider myself, because whatever I need to do or whatever happens I just stop and go attend to that. You need help? I just stop whatever I am doing to give you some help. My daughter Alex has [Pearls VI], so I’ve stopped everything now I’m helping her out. I’m not into art full-time now, I am into pearls — cleaning up the floors and making her business look good. My son just got some boats out there for rent, and I am helping out there. Once all that clears up, I go out back to my paintings. I like to call myself a full-time artist, but I also like to help people. Right now, my studio is a mess.
What inspires your art?
Look out there [Main Street]. Do you see that building there? I could see it in 1924, with a lady, a basket on her head coming down with some herbs and spices, cows passing. That inspires me. Culture and history inspire me. Even words inspire me. I like bringing the past into the future so at least the kids won’t think we didn’t use telephones. We had to use cans and ropes to play as telephones. If you paint something like that, it sparks the interest of the kids and they would want to know what that is. Painting sometimes starts a story.
How important is art in cultural preservation?
Art is history. Art builds us a people.
Interview conducted, condensed and edited by Ngovou Gyang.