Holding on to a passion

Donald Beckford is determined to find success in creating works of art. It hasn't been easy for him, but he's not giving up hope of someday becoming known as one of Jamaica's great painters.

Beckford, a polite, soft-spoken resident of downtown, Kingston is now 52 years old but his love for painting started many, many years ago.

"I can remember in primary school, the teacher gave me a proper lashing because she caught me drawing in class," said Beckford.

"I had seen two teachers kissing and I drew a picture of it, and they were not pleased."

Years later, Beckford was running a small restaurant downtown. His patrons would often find him writing poems or painting behind the counter.

"One day, a Rastaman who used to always come there to eat, called me outside. He started cursing me loud. He said I shouldn't be sitting on my talent like this and making it go to waste," said Beckford. "People started to gather because he was talking so loud."

That confrontation took place on a Friday, sometime in 1983. By the following Monday, Beckford had decided that he would commit himself fully to art.

Travelling the world

The ensuing years would find Beckford travelling the world as a bartender on a cruise ship (he's HEART-trained). Everywhere he went, though, he would take all his painting tools with him.

"I used to sell the paintings to passengers on the ship. Because of that, I have paintings all over the world. I travel to Spain, parts of the Caribbean and so on," he said.

Beckford's days at sea have now ended. Bartending work has dried up. He's back home in Kingston now and is doing everything he can to become an established figure in the art community.

"I go to the TV stations and sit down and just wait until somebody come to see me. I don't get on the air yet, but this is what you have to do when you trying to make it," said Beckford.

"Even though I don't have a name, I get joy from art. I wish I could find the Rastaman who curse me off and tell him thanks. Art make me happier than anything else in the world. I just going to push on until my name up there with the big ones."