By Celia Coates
As a child Jr. Howell had dreams of becoming an athlete, dreams that were ended by a car accident that left him wheelchair-bound. He turned instead to art. This print, “Time and Its Value to Life’s Changes,” is about his struggle to find his way in the difficult years after he was injured.
He has this to say about the image:
“As kids we all have big dreams of how life is going to turn out for us but life does not turn out the way we may have dreamt it. All the turmoil and pressures of life change our ideals, but if we are fortunate like the guy in the picture, we will set for ourselves a foundation – something to rely and fall back on. The swirling motion represents time and the redness in the background represents all the turmoil and pressures of life.”
Junior Howell lives on the Caribbean island of Barbados and in addition to creating and selling his own art, he teaches art to children. He was honored for his contribution to the community by the Rotary Club of Barbados in 2013.
Over time he faced many challenges – all those figures painfully caught in the swirl – and Junior refused to be beaten. He found he could “fall back on” a life lived with creativity and generosity.
What he learned to value can teach all of us – creativity and generosity are often What Is Needed Now.