Mexico-based Trinidadian artist Wendell McShine has created a wonderful new video. Co-directed by McShine and Yadira Albarran, this video constitutes a dazzling feat of visual narrative. With his spectacularly bold animation style, McShine illustrates “Prosper,” a song written by Sheldon Holder and performed by the Caribbean group 12 The Band, from their recent album Streets and Avenues. 12 the Band is a musical collaboration founded in 1999 by singer and song writer Sheldon Holder.  Its permanent members are Sheldon Holder, Brendon Moore, Nigel Irish, and John Hussain.

Self-described as an “underground fine artist,” Mc Shine has been “captivating hearts and minds on the international art scene.” His work has circulated widely in the urban art market in venues such as Harper’s Bazaar, Juxtapose, Canvas Magazine, INDI Rocks Magazine, Elaboratorio Urban Art Gallery in Mexico City, International Design Networks, Televisa, London Print Studios, FICCO or Festival Internacional de Cine Contemporáneo [Mexico City International Contemporary Film Festival], and the contemporary art magazine Fahrenheit. Through his studies in Information Graphics, Reuters News Foundation-London, and the University of Navarra-Pamplona, Spain, “he incorporated elements of graphic design into his fine art array of unique paintings and animations that blur the line of visual communication and moving images.”

In terms of his Caribbean upbringing and influences, McShine explains that he worked for some time in Trinidad as an editorial illustrator/graphic designer and that he has always found the “islands esthetics” to be intriguing. “Old bottle cap designs, crude sing-age typography, and carnival costumes,” among other elements, all played a part in the ways in which he uses color and texture in his work.  However, he describes his work as “more global in approach and interpretation.”

For more information on 12, see 12theband.com

For interview and more information on Wendell McShine, see the artist’s blog at http://72ironmen.blogspot.com/2007/05/self-image.html

See “Prosper” here: