George Valris: Haitian bead and sequin artist
Port au Prince seems to improve a little bit with each visit I make since the January 2010 earthquake. On my fourth visit since October last year, I met with vodou flag maker George Valris. His rooftop apartment was not much affected by the quake, although his neighborhood did not escape unscathed. Nearby streets are now clear of rubble, and life seems to be doing its best to unfold with the mix of street haste and personal ease that characterizes Haiti’s capital.
George makes glittery, colorful, optimistic sequined textiles that sell locally as well as internationally. “It’s what gets my children to school,” he says, “so I work almost everyday, all day long.”
One of the talents George brings to flagmaking is his mastery of texture. The tails of mermaids and serpents glitter with sequins nested one against the other in a fish-like texture. Faux pearls often outline important parts of his compositions like tiny, glowing marquee bulbs. On one flag depicting the Virgin Mary, blue bugle and seed beads form a swirling, textured sky reminiscent of a Van Gogh painting. “Ah, my wife beaded that sky for me. She is very good.”
Mrs. Valris is one of 20 beaders working in Valris’s atelier, which means that all of his beaded loveliness helps to support a score of families. Valris himself knows what it means to need a job: He moved from rural Cavaillons to Port au Prince in the 1970s to find employment. After meager earnings as a weaver of banana leaf sleeping mats and palm leaf baskets, and better though short-lived wages as a stevedore on cruise ships in the Caribbean, Valris found his calling after watching beaders over a few afternoons at a workshop.
His first attempt was a large, simple heart. “When I sold that very first piece, I thought, ‘This is a job.’”
The next pieces did not sell, but he stuck with it. A foreigner visited Valris at home one day, and bought three flags. “After that, I was so busy for a whole year that I can’t even remember how many flags I made and sold. This has been my job ever since, and I still enjoy drawing the designs and choosing colors and patterns.”
Valris is unusual among vodou flag makers in that he does not practice vodou. “I am a Catholic franc,” he states, using the Creole phrase for a plain old Roman Catholic. “I like to make vodou motifs because they are part of our culture. And I make some political flags, too,” he says as he points out a flag of a chicken, symbol of one of Haiti’s several political parties. “But I also make angels and Christian saints and bible stories and animals. Not too many others do that.”
Most of his work is bought by visitors to Haiti, or by galleries in the US and Europe who resell to their clients. “I don’t know what my work means to them, but I see that it makes them happy. And I am happy about that.” ♥
For more information on Haiti’s art, craft and design, order HAND/EYE Magazine’s 04/Haiti issue at www.handeyemagazine.com/subscribe or upgrade as Premium Level Membership at Source4Style and get discounted copies of HAND/EYE.
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