Kristie Stephenson, the chalk-drawing storyteller
AS A child, Kristie Stephenson would be captivated by her grandfather’s ability to tell stories that brought people together. Today, Stephenson attracts audiences near and far through her own style of storytelling – chalk drawings.
The artist, who is also behind the protection jewellery brand Story & Myth, started doing chalk drawings on her apartment walls at the onset of the pandemic.
“I would always tell stories around the jewellery, but I didn’t feel comfortable posting something like that for somebody to go on the website and buy, as it was around the time of ‘Black Lives Matter’ and George Floyd,” Stephenson told The Gleaner. “I still wanted to tell stories, and I had the chalk, so I took whatever paintings on my wall down, put my phone on the camera and started to tell a story with drawing and, I guess, performance art – ‘cause I was in there – and that’s how it started.”
But Stephenson is not merely drawing in the videos. She often morphs into story elements, like her wearing feathered wings in telling the story of Greek figure Icarus, a lesson on balancing ambition and self. In the story of Ramsey Lewis’ Wade in the Water, she emerges dripping wet mid-drawing, symbolising the spiritual’s secret meaning of enslaved runaways immersing themselves in a body of water to hide their scent from bloodhounds. The performance art unfolds with her narrating as she draws, and her pieces have so far covered different elements of African and Caribbean culture, Greek mythology and topical issues. Stephenson revealed that she was apprehensive about posting her first video, out of fear that she’d be deemed crazy, but the venture has since provided work opportunities from restaurants Marianna’s Kitchen and Stush in the Bush to cannabis brand JACANA.
A STORY OF HOPE
“The underlying theme of my work is hope and that we are all connected,” she said. “Depending on what someone is going through, the story gives hope, and the story is a connection of our past. A lot of the stories we grew up hearing as children are connections to the past and Jamaica’s history and to our people that were repressed. Yet, in spite of all the things they went through, they found joy in these stories, and we still have them to this day, so I like tapping into that.”
Be it her drawings of the 1957 Kendal train crash or the story of Alexander ‘The Flying Pastor’ Bedward, Stephenson never feels too attached when it’s time to erase the blackboard and start anew. She shared that for many years she’d buy paint art supplies (she still does), but is too critical of her attempts.
“With the chalk, I can let that go because it’s chalk. It’s something you’d see in school, so I feel like it’s a lot less forgiving. Even if I’m having difficulty drawing something, I feel as if I say, ‘This is supposed to be that’, then that’s what it would be. It’s also the impermanence of something and not being attached, so I erase it. The only piece that remains is digital, as it’s being videoed.”
She hopes her chalk-drawing storytelling will capture the attention of international audiences, and recently started putting her drawings on fabric as a way to grow her brand.
HANDMADE PROTECTION JEWELLERY
While her chalk drawings were spawned out of the pandemic, Stephenson’s affinity for stories has also infiltrated in Story & Myth. The brand offers handmade protection jewellery made from indigenous Job’s tears seeds with symbols like gemstones and charms. The seeds are harvested by local farmers, and the jewellery is assembled by a small community of artisans, some of whom have a physical disability. As Stephenson puts it, each piece is made with “thought and intent” and is meant to bless, guide and protect the wearer.
She started the business after returning to Jamaica from the United States in 2011. Stephenson had spent most of her career in architecture but didn’t feel fulfilled. Her introduction to Job’s tears seeds came as a child, and she sought the seeds upon her return and started making prayer beads.
“It took a couple [of ] years to get to the point of doing it full-time and not doing architecture, and that’s when doors opened for me.”
Initially dismissed by some locals as “John Crow beads”, her pieces have been sported by big names like Madonna and, more recently, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, who wore her ‘blessing bead mask chain’ at the UN Climate Change Conference.