Avia Collinder, Outlook Writer
Mark Cameron relates the reasons why he has returned to Jamaica to live, leaving behind a restaurant and condiment business in California. - Photo by Avia Collinder
This is another in our series of interesting features which came in response to our invitation to Outlook readers to call us with their story ideas. Mark Cameron's life on canvas is fascinating.
Mark Cameron at 46 has lived a full life and is prepared to live another which is just as rewarding - this time in the country of his birth.
At age 18, his parents took him from Jamaica to the United States, and for decades he battled a deep desire to be home.
In 2005, Mark finally succumbed, leaving behind good friends, a thriving condiment business and a restaurant, to come home.
The return for him is a chance to record fresh images on the canvas of life and find new ways of doing things. Cameron is a do-it-yourselfer who designed and assisted in the construction of his new home in Ingleside, Mandeville, and is also building, in the vicinity, a cluster of town house dwellings made of elegant cut stone.
Returning home has also given him the opportunity to dedicate more time to his art, which is principally images of Jamaican people, landscapes, flora and fauna. He will also be sharing his culinary creations as he recently opened his new restaurant - River Enz - in Alligator Pond, St Elizabeth.
Community activism
The art of Mark Cameron. – Contributed
The artist, with seamless effort, has continued his community activism as well. In early March, he went to the Jamaican Parliament on Duke Street to present the views of Mandeville citizenry on the bauxite company in the parish of Manchester, and the failure to reclaim and restore lands excavated for the mineral.
In San Diego, California, Cameron took pleasure in helping to close down several entities which were in violation of environmental regulations.
Born in Kingston to Harold and Miranda Cameron, Mark left Jamaica in 1979 with his parents after completing fifth form at Jamaica College, and after starting lower sixth at Calabar.
"I did track and field under coach Herb McKenley and migrated right after the Gibson relays," he reflects.
In New York, his parents wanted him to attend college and he enrolled at the School of Visual Arts in the city. "I actually wanted to be a pilot, but somehow the art got a hold of me. Whatever I did, I kept going back to art."
Still, Cameron, who would always refuse to be 'boxed in', was to drop out of art school.
"I am a renaissance type of guy," he claims in explanation.
"I believe in self-reliance. If I have to do some welding, I do it myself. I have painted my car myself and restored old motorcycles." His zeal for life makes him multidimensional - and not afraid to embrace the sides of himself which others might have shrunk away from expressing.
Mark loves to cook. And so, after leaving art school, he hooked up with his high school love Margaret Wilkinson, and went to San Diego, California, to be with her. He would call on this talent in the kitchen as one way of making a living.
But in California, he first started Classic Screen Printing and, along with his business partners, did signs for the Los Angeles airport and other local entities.
Cameron collected music as well, and this hobby led to his meeting the promoters of Reggae Sunsplash in California.
He designed the logo and backstage passes for the Sunsplash promotion, and when he saw that there was a serious activity in the food court, decided to provide Jamaican jerk and Louisiana jambalaya (a creole one-pot dish of meats, vegetables, stock and rice) as his offering.
At every stop people began asking where they could get his culinary creations, and Cameron soon switched gears from graphic design to food, opening his first restaurant in Oceanside, California - The Caribbean Grill.
Challenge
The launch of the Grill was not an easy venture, as the restaurant was located in a 90 per cent white area, one block from the beach and one block from City Hall. Downtown Oceanside was not the best environment for new business as well.
But, ever ready to accept a challenge, Mark persevered and soon the traffic heading for Caribbean Grill was the catalyst which assisted in the transformation of Downtown area.
Cameron appeared on cooking hours on NBC, FOX and CBS, and also organised the Taste of Oceanside Exposition in which restaurants in that area of San Diego invited everyone in to sample their food.
The restaurant owner also started Spice Right Inc to market his Jamaican jerk sauce and all-purpose Casian seasoning, as well as a hot sauce made with Scotch bonnet pepper - personal creations which now enjoy mainstream display in stores such as Albertson's, Ralph's and Bristol Farms.
"I went to the buyers of the stores and did a cooking demonstration in their office. When the smell started going out, co-workers came in and said, 'You better sell that sauce!'!" Cameron recalls.
The success of the Taste of Oceanside drew the attention of city administrators, who asked the Jamaican national to chair the Days of Art - what Cameron describes as the biggest art fair in San Diego county.
He was happy to do it, although his detractors, he said, "expected a festival of reggae and calypso music".
Cameron pulled together what was described by the local papers as the most successful event to date, including in the attractions a 40-piece orchestra with a grand piano out front.
"They got a good idea of how well rounded we Jamaicans were. They were pleasantly surprised," he preens in recall.
The city decided that was the most successful event in the 15-year history of the art fair and awarded him a certificate of merit in a commemorative gesture.
Meanwhile, Cameron's artwork went on display in his restaurant.
"I started taking painting seriously in California, mostly out of my nostalgia for Jamaica and the memories of the island," he explains. Today he sells art online. His next local show will be at Villa Ronai in St Andrew in April.
Mark Cameron came home for good in 2005, he said, because, "I have always wanted to. No matter what I achieved in the United States, it was not home.
"A quality life cannot be measured in dollars. I yearned for connection with my own land." He sold the restaurant in that year and came home.
The construction of his own home in Ingleside triggered his interest in the building field and, noting that using indigenous materials is cheaper than block and steel construction, he turned to constructing town houses out of cut stone.
Yet to find a partner
"If there is a downside to anything, I need to let go and stop micro-managing," says the man of diverse interests.
Cameron admits that he is yet to find a manager or partner for Spice Right Inc, which is still operating out of San Diego.
But he is working on finding a life partner. Cameron, divorced at 46, is father of three children - 14-month-old Jonathan, 18-year-old Natasha - a student, and 23-year-old Felicia, a mechanical engineer who is currently doing a second degree in nursing.
Noting that his younger daughter also wants to be a nurse practitioner, he states, "Like their dad, they follow their heart."
For more on Mark on his art, email markcamart@aol.com. Do you think that you have a story worth telling? Call Phyllis Thomas at 932-6235 or email phyllis.thomas@gleanerjm.com
