Top Photo: Bruce chatting with a writer from All At Sea magazine at the Designworks art opening.
Bottom Photo: Judith King in the Yellow House Studio.
St. Croix just might be the Cinderella sister of the three U.S. Virgin Islands. Lying 35 miles south of neighbors St. John and St. Thomas, it’s bigger than both of them put together. All three islands are an odd mix of America bred with the West Indies, but St. Croix alone boasts a generations-old Crucian influence, and signs all over the island tell you, “Crucian spoken here.” That language is melodious English with a calypso accent and a distinct twist of island pride.

History doesn’t hide on this island. The remains of sugar mills, plantation houses and boiler chimneys stand everywhere as testimony to the tumultuous years of sugar trade and slavery. The charming mid-island town of Christiansted is a living museum, with its gold-hued Fort Christiansvaern, now a National Historic Site; Alexander Hamilton’s house; Apothecary Hall; and a collection of stunning, centuries old churches. The entire town is linked together with a pastel rainbow of walkways, paved with Danish bricks brought over as ballast in the ships that ran rum and molasses back to their mother country. Walking on the old cobbles is like stepping on the pages of a long forgotten book. For sure, they each tell a rich story.

Frederiksted, the second largest town, sleeps on the western shore. Wooden buildings laced with fretwork and stone remnants of a rich past line up before a first-world cruise ship pier that has hosted only one visitor in the past two years. (St. Thomas receives three to five each day.) The nearly deserted streets give off the eerie feeling of a ghost town, despite the fact the nearest village is called Wheel of Fortune.

In the half hour it took us to drive between the two towns we passed vast open spaces of land, marveling at the lack of development. After visiting St. Marten, St. Barts and Tortola, coming to St. Croix was a slide back in time. Reading the map and trying to follow it was a trip, too, with places like Jealousy, Hope, Little Profit, Adventure, Solitude, Rust Up Twist and Slob. Part of the island’s past obviously included a plethora of poets!

The island’s financial backbone is a world-class oil refinery on the south side, the biggest in the Western hemisphere. Tourism dollars come from visitors to the 300-year-old Cruzan Rum Factory, the historic Whim Plantation, a few elegant hotels and a handful of fine restaurants.

We made the 35-mile sail to St. Croix from Virgin Gorda to help kick off the first of Christiansted’s eight monthly art walks. Bruce was the featured artist for Designworks, an extraordinary two-story gallery filled with West Indian-style furniture and furnishings, maps, prints and original works of art by Don Dahlke, Caroline Duprey, Trudi Gilliam and others. The store is owned by talented designer Richard Harris and occupies the portion of Apothecary Hall that was once a home for the pharmacist, his wife and their 13 children.

The 1827 building is a series of odd rooms built with stone and heavy beams. Richard’s flair for color and style has created an intriguing and inviting St. Croix shopping experience, bringing together the past and present. His work was featured in two recent issues of Architectural Digest as part of new masterpiece homes, one in St. John the other in St. Croix.

Our first day ashore we walked into Christiansted from our anchorage in Gallows Bay. Past the fort, the covered walkways led us up and down a series of steps until we found Designworks. We met with Richard, worked out the details of the opening night event, then, on his advice, went on to explore the town. Less than a quarter-block away, Bruce went up to a window of the Yellow House Gallery and peered in. “I thought I saw someone who looks like Judith King go in here,” he explained to me.

Just then, the door swung back away from his face and a tall, beaming woman greeted us. “Well, hello! Come on in.” It was indeed our longtime friend, Judith King, and as we entered the tiny spice-colored room, the walls filled with inviting, light-hearted paintings, we could see it was her gallery.

Our last time together, some 13 years ago, was in Antigua for an art show shared by Judith and Bruce. Last we’d heard she was living in North Carolina, but that stateside attempt, she explained, didn’t last long. The lure of St. Croix had quickly pulled her back to her home of 40 years, where she masterfully captures the architectural charm of the island in her paintings … that is, when she’s not painting Mocko Jumbies or making beautiful jewelry. Her palette includes the colors left behind by the Danes, earthy hues of reds and oranges, calming splashes of turquoise and lime green.

Exploring the island and visiting with Judith kept us busy until Thursday arrived. The art walk began at five and ran for four entertaining hours. The covered walkways filled with a mix of tropically clad tourists, Crucians and ex-pats all out for the opening cultural event of the season. They flowed from one of 11 galleries to the next, sipping wine, champagne or, for Bruce’s show, Cruzan rum. The art walk is a “must do” event for anyone visiting St. Croix, but beware: walking on the irregularly paved sidewalks is a trick even when sober and in full sunlight! A cocktail in hand and dim evening light makes strolling the streets downright dangerous, especially for those who brave the crazy crooked stairs of the Watch Your Step Gallery.

Not wanting to miss out, I followed the map, taking in the works of jewelers, painters, sculptors and glass artists before joining Bruce on the top floor of the Designworks gallery. There, we chatted and laughed with a milling crowd, gleaning bits and pieces of island lore and lunacy. Everyone had a St. Croix story to tell. As on all West Indian islands, the people here consider the government inefficient if not corrupt, there are always planned mega-million dollar developments just around the corner, and getting anything done in a timely fashion is near impossible.

In that respect, life on the biggest Virgin is as normal as it gets in the Eastern Caribbean. Wise visitors, though, will look beyond opinion and into the past to find that St. Croix holds a hidden charm all her own. For the moment, she’s the virgin in the pumpkin coach and we can’t wait to get back there.

For information about the Art Thursday events, go to www.artthursday.com. To learn more about Judith King’s artistry, go to www.judithkingart.com.

Jan