Dominique Roache — Following her Art

ABRA cried all the way to Belize in 2020. Having returned home to Jamaica a few weeks prior to bury her brother, she was absolutely devastated. And as she flew back to Belize it dawned on her that she had no idea what she was doing with her life.

“I had this burden on me that I needed to figure out my life,” Abra, now 27, recounts as she begins painting. “I didn’t know what I was going back there to do. I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I knew I had to figure something out.”

She was born Dominique Roache on a Tuesday in Kingston, Jamaica, and was given the middle name Abra by her Ghanian mother and Jamaican father. Day names — names given to children in some African cultures based on the day of the week they are born — are believed to hold meanings regarding the soul of the baby, and character traits.

True to her name, Abra always loved art and adventure, and constantly craved new experiences, even as a child. Encouraged by her neophile mother, who by this time had moved to the Cayman Islands then to Belize, Abra indulged in a colourful mix of all the academic disciplines at Tarrant High School.

Now she knits her brow in concentration as she blends shades of brown on the face of the woman on her canvas. “I was always so excited to try new things, that I couldn’t think of anything that I wanted to do more than everything else. I was just growing and living,” she recalls animatedly.

“After high school, I was accepted to study tourism and hospitality management at the University of Technology, but I still wasn’t really sure if that’s what I wanted to do,” Roache says as her nimble fingers apply bright acrylic colours to her painting.

She leans back briefly in her wooden chair at Trotters Bar and Café in New Kingston, takes a small sip of wine, then continues to apply masterful strokes to the painting. “Then my mom asked if I wanted to visit her in Belize that year.”

She relished the opportunity to be reunited with her mother, and quickly became enchanted with life in another country. Someone suggested that she become a doctor, and needing a reason to extend her stay in Belize, she reluctantly applied to study medicine, and was surprisingly accepted.

Her heart was never in it, but she pushed through. Two years into the programme, through scrolling on Pinterest to ease study fatigue, she realised that she could draw, and soon that she could paint.

“I bought some very basic supplies and when I felt stressed, I would paint, but I didn’t have much time to perfect the skills or anything,” Abra explains as she adds vibrant shades of blue into the African-print scarf on the woman she is painting.

Then the novel coronavirus pandemic hit. It was her final semester, and she had just completed her final exam online. The Belizean island on which she was staying had gone into a complete lockdown. She was uncertain whether she would be able to complete her clinicals, which had to be done in person, or how she would fund the rest of her programme with business drying up on the island.

“It was a very dark time for me, and it suddenly hit me that this is not where I should be or what I should be doing. The feeling was so strong,” she says, her voice sure and vehement.

Abra painted while she waited in limbo, and decided to sell some of her paintings to sustain herself and her hobby. When her brother died in Jamaica later that year as a casualty of gang violence, she sunk even deeper into depression, and became even more certain that she did not want to return to medical school. She let her grieving heart bleed silently on canvas.

“Then in January of 2021 I decided that I would come back to Jamaica for good,” she shares with her paintbrush paused mid-stroke.

Before she left the small island, though, Abra met and worked with an artist who did paint events. By that time tourism was beginning to show signs of recovery, and Abra could see a light at the end of the tunnel.

“I was having fun because it was something I genuinely wanted to do. I enjoyed it so much, and I thought ‘I can actually do this back home’ and that’s when the lightbulb went off in my head,” she says joyfully.

She returned home in June last year with a plan and a purpose, and she pursued them passionately. After landing a remote job as a customer service representative to sustain herself, she launched Paint and Sip With Abra on social media (@paintandsipwith_abra), and in the following months her clientèle steadily grew from a one-on-one painting session with a friend, to corporate paint parties with up to 100 participants. By the end of 2021 she had to leave the remote job to focus on her artwork.

“Roger Thompson, the owner of Trotters, was the first person to reach out to me to do paint events on a regular basis, so I host a paint and sip here on Monday evenings. I also have a few other locations where I do events regularly,” Roache says.

Being mobile is a blessing as much as it is a challenge, because as much as she enjoys the novelty of different spaces, it is a bit difficult for her to travel with her supplies on her own. She hopes to open a studio or two eventually, and is also considering enrolling into a local visual arts programme.

On the question of whether she will return to medicine, Abra gives a hard ‘No’.

“I am just on a mission right now for myself, and to help myself to get where I need to be, and focusing on where my heart is taking me,” she says thoughtfully.

“I think this is my purpose — to influence people positively and give them energy. What I have to give right now is fun, relaxation, and helping people to tap into their creativity. That is what feels right, right now, so I don’t think I’ll change course… at least not unless something else comes to me.”

Candiece Knight is a freelance feature writer and blogger. Send feedback to candieceknight7@gmail.com or @candieceknight on social media.