Island Art From Island Life

Paul Borghi first visited the Virgin Islands on a charter yacht vacation in 1974, fell in love with the islands, and was determined to return. He finally moved to the Virgin Islands in 1990. Since then, Paul’s island art comes directly from his island life experiences.

Shark!

The “Bite Me” Shark design T shirt came from an adventure he had while hunting for appetizers, and almost became one himself. Paul was invited to a friend’s house for dinner, and volunteered to bring appetizers. Fresh Caribbean lobster would be perfect for the occasion, so Paul grabbed his lobster snare and snorkel gear and headed for a spot off of the south side of Water Island. It required climbing down a cliff and jumping from large boulders at the bottom into a fairly narrow underwater gully where he knew lobsters tended to hide under the rocks. There was a lot of ocean surge in the gully as waves washed back and forth, but Paul plunged in anyhow in search of succulent lobster treats.

The first thing he saw under the water was the face of a huge bull shark. Paul was being pulled back and forth by the water’s surges, but the shark was absolutely still, unaffected by the movement of the waves. “It was scary, seeing that the shark was in complete control, and I was totally out of control. I was in his world, his element, and he was in charge” said Paul. Paul scrambled out of the water onto the rocks, and there he noticed that a bite had been taken out of his swim fin. He went back to his studio and created the “Bite Me” T shirt commemorating the experience, including the shark, his lobster snare, and the bitten swim fin.

The Inquisitive Iguana

The Iguana shirt is also a story of a close encounter with an island creature, but a little more friendly than the shark. Paul had been wanting to paint an iguana for some time, but needed a model to pose for him so that he could capture the details and get the facial expressions right. The perfect model appeared one day when his son was fishing on a pier near the house, and an iguana crawled out onto the pier and sat there watching him fish. He slowly lowered the fishing pole, put it down on the pier, and managed to catch the curious iguana.

Paul and his son built a terrarium for their iguana guest, fed him well during his two week stay, and the iguana modeled by mostly watching Paul as he was being painted. If you’ve ever stopped to commune with the iguanas when you’ve been here in the islands, you know how inquisitive they can be. That certain tilt of the head and look in the eye as they’re watching you, while you are watching them. Paul captured that special "inquisitive iguana" look perfectly, as you can see on the Iguana Shirt.

Each Borghi Designs T shirt is its own island story. Pick your favorite from the designs below!