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Labour Day Monday under a threatening sky. Two artist, half a generation apart, sit on the steps of the Castries Library talking message and music. Walcott Square fans in front of us, fluttering its banners and flags. Luther Francois is due on stage. The old cathedral will be his backdrop. Above the PA system and the chatter of the crowd, well it’s sort of .... poetic. Born in Grenada to media mother Margaret Roberts Steele and part -time pianist John Steele. Tyrone is now thirty something: artist, idealist, commercial painter, child of the seventies. He came into his own at the height of the Marley era, and it shows. The influences are rife. The vocab, the vibe, the deep draw on the cigarette. They all fit. Steele started painting at the age of six. From Aunty Yvonne, his mothers sister, he remembers the smell of artist’s oil paint and turpentine As he raises his chin, smiles and breathes deeply, you can tell he still has it in his nostrils. Later, in St.Lucia, his childhood home was filled with music and conviviality. Funny how that always works: celebration, in a spiritual sense, becomes a recurring theme. Indeed, there is this inherent “joie” that radiates from John’s work and it is,, quite possibly, the essential element running through the diversity of canvasses bearing his signature. Whether portrait or seascape, Steele’s work has a celebratory feeling, bordering on indulgence: a sense that he has thoroughly enjoyed the exploration, the medium, and the expression of each stroke, each line each completed piece. So that a peaceful blue Dolphin can have that same unspoken awe as the powerful four-footed “Tigres” that I have often admired in the studio of fellow artist and sometime sister, Barbara Cadet. When I ask about his links to wider arts community he waxes philosophical:” My life has been all about music and art with a spiritual backbone. artists need to find a spiritual truth which is universal. Caribbean art can kick down so many doors... ” Learning about his early life and resent liaisons it is easy to believe that Tyrone has evolved from a multidimensional past. He cites Bob Marley, Luther Francois and Sammy Dvis Jr. in the same sentence, alongside early art teacher Lugi St.Omer at St.Mary’s College. Today he is a trained award - winning visual artist competent in graphic design and commercial art, he understands the need to be practical. Once, he wanted to be a dancer.... But, pointalism was my favourite... it took me months to complete one piece. I had to let go... to become more practical. less radical Money was an issue In the battle between the commercial and the creative, Tyrone has managed to find equilibrium.In his commercial work he understands that client needs come first. But, in his creative pieces where his heart sings, he has achieved that unpretentious faithfulness, a reverance for the original which allows him to paint without having to impose a didactic opinion on the subject. That reverence is his message. And strangely, his eye for detail does not translate into detached photorealism. In all his compositions, there is still the hand of the artist saying “... this is how I see it”. At his complex best Steele’s work can be seen in his “Jazz Murals” at the Jazz Lounge in Rodney Bay, St.Lucia. Regrettably, his Marley master-piece, about six-foot square disappeared from the Back Door Night Club in one St.Lucia’s rare art heists. However, at last inventory, his Jimmy Hendrixs equally inspiring, was still there. Tyrone’s desire to be seen as a serious artist is connected to his larger ambition for artist to be seen as a movement. .."The arts are the saving grace of the Caribbean, but we need to build a community to demonstrate the viability of the sector instead of trying to do everything alone. We need to use each others strengths”. And that’s why John Steele lives and works in the Caribbean....because the kids need to know that we can be the best ... and because there are still a few doors to kick down.Adrian Augier