Well-known singer and fine artist, Catriona Tamara Lake, who has been teaching at the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School, for a number of years, has graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree in Studio Art. She has been a student at Linden wood University in Missouri since 2008, on an Anguilla Government scholarship.
Before furthering her studies, she taught Visual Arts at theComprehensiveSchool. “I was always a very creative person and I feel I owed it to myself to obtain a greater knowledge in the field,” she said, following her return to Anguilla after four years of study.
Ms. Lake is hoping to resume of her teaching, but now that she has successfully reduced her weight, she is desirous of returning to the stage to develop and showcase her singing talent. “I want to sing so much,” she continued. “Now that I have lost all this weight, I feel so much more confident. I think I would be more accepted by the public. I just feel I have ‘the-it-factor’. I just want to return to the studio to record some songs and may be, one day, I will be famous either in the Caribbean or further a field. You got to aim big. I want to be versatile. I want to hit everybody, whether it is a song for worship, soca or something else. It is not going to be any specific genre I will be focused on. I want my music to have ties with the Caribbean, but I would like to sound different as well.
“I have always been passionate about my singing. Sometimes you lose faith in yourself and think you can’t do it, but it takes a milestone in your life – whether for me it was to lose all this weight I had – to realise my potential. If I can do that, I can do anything.”
In 2003 Ms. Lake, then about 18, won the Cable and Wireless singing competition. “I had a CD entitled Memories but I always felt it could have been better,” she said.
She is overly happy about having been able to lose a considerable amount of weight. “I am going to let it out there, because I am not going back,” Ms. Lake, who admits that she had a large appetite, went on. “I have never told anybody, but I have been slowly letting it go. It’s been hard and very embarrassing to admit it, but I was over 300 pounds. It was on July 1st, 2010, that I decided to make a change and to lose weight. I lost 135 pounds so you do the math. I did a lot of research…and made a list of foods that help you to lose weight and I would eat those mostly. I would put my protein in there, and I would still get some carbs [carbohydrates], but the slower ones, and sometimes I have fast carbs to give me quick energy. I eat every two hours and exercise everyday. It is still a struggle, but I am here still doing it.”
Besides being extremely delighted over her greatly reduced weight, and all excited about returning to the stage with her singing, Ms. Lake is also looking forward to resuming her teaching career as well.
