Synthia Saint James
The Museum of African American Art, Los Angeles
Until April 30, 2016.
Sisters in Spirit.
About:
Self-taught artist Synthia Saint James (1949, Los Angeles) can not be mistaken for anyone else’s. Every painting she creates carries her unmistakeable trademark of brilliant color and lithe body language, and each one spotlights a happy moment captured for her viewers to enjoy. Because she follows her own technical rules she feels free to set her own worthy goal: Synthia Saint James likes to make her viewers feel good.
Le Carnaval.
Ville Bonheur.
Saint James chooses to celebrate life—a personal philosophy that could make her art seem superficial if we viewed it on only one level. But gives us many levels to enjoy. Some are the cultural gift of her rich African-American-Cherokee-Haitian heritage. Others come from the different corners of the world to which Saint James has traveled. Yet even this is not all she has to say. She also wants to gather all of us together into one big bouquet of humanity, which she ties together with a vital message: our ancestry may differ but we are all equally valuable.
Butterfly’s Dream: To Soar.
Haitian Goddess of Love.
Despite her intense focus on art there is nothing of the disorderly, otherworldly painter about Synthia Saint James. An eminently practical woman, she is wise enough to protect her own financial security. While learning her craft, she supported herself with all kinds of work, and while she was at it, took care to learn something from everything she undertook. These days, though, no such distractions are necessary, thanks to commissions from such clients as the House of Seagram, Maybelline-Kayser, and Essencemagazine. Add the beautiful children’s books she has written and illustrated, the cards she has created for UNICEF, and the selection of prints that are both sold by her own company and licensed for reproduction on items of clothing, gift bags and decorative items, and it’s obvious that she has a comfortable income. Saint James’s assorted ventures have made her an international celebrity with little spare time, but thanks to experience in both the legal and the tax fields, she finds time to write all her own contracts. In her own way, she’s a living example—the epitome of the American dream.