Côté ci Côté la
September 16 - 25, 2008
Illustrations from the book Côté ci Côté la by John Mendes.

John Mendes

John Mendes was born into and marinated in the cultural seasonings that exuded from the earth in the rich valley of Greenhill Village, formally a cocoa estate of Don Diego Martin, from whom the area got its name.

Patois floated across streets along with the scent of roasting Breadfruit and steel drums for 'Pan'. Inhalation also included Calypso airs from 'Spoiler' and guitar jams from Clive Bradley, two household names in Caiso music.

Fast forward to Creative Advertising art, then zoom in on Print production, cut and paste to Business exec, then wrap to freelance display production, and Carnival costuming with Wayne Berkeley. The call finally came to document the fascinating language of the 'Trinbagonian', starting with Côté ci Côté la- the Trinidad & Tobago Dictionary, and eventually give birth to visual interpretations of our sayings, using acrylics on canvas.

Trinidad Time!

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