Gladwyn Bush, otherwise known as Miss Lassie, is of the Cayman Islands’ visionary artists and she will always be known for her mark on the cultural history of the western Caribbean territory.
On Friday, a number of people interested in preserving the historic treasure of Miss Lassie’s legacy visited her home in South Sound in Grand Cayman to observe firsthand how the restoration process was coming along.
Cayman National Cultural Foundation Director Henry Muttoo took visitors on a tour of the house, while explaining how Miss Lassie‘s creative paintings were depictions of her dreams.
This goes hand in hand with an initiative of saving Miss Lassie’s house with a fund raising campaign.
Most of the original Miss Lassie drawings are in storage for safe keeping and a reconstruction artist is copying the drawings on boards to be placed back in the house, which is also being restored.
Born in Grand Cayman, Miss Lassie worked as a nurse and shopkeeper, and was 62 when she began to create art inspired by Christian visions and Caymanian seafaring culture.
She adorned the windows and interior of her house, as well as the outdoor kitchen, with vivid colourful Biblical abstracts. The house has been declared a site of National historic interest, one of only six in the Cayman Islands.
Her work is in private collection in England, the United States, South Africa, Germany, the Cayman Islands and in the collection of the American Visionary Arts in Baltimore, Maryland.
The Mind’s Eye Watch Day open house on Friday showcased the 19th century traditional wattle-and-daub house, built by Miss Bush’s father and grandfather.
World Monuments Watch calls attention to heritage sites around the globe in need of help. Such sites are important buildings, archaeological sites, ancient structures, modern architecture, cemeteries, historic cities and cultural landscapes.
Students from Sir John A. Cumber Primary School in West Bay and George Town Primary School attending the open house where given a tour of the building and encouraged to work from their imagination to create their own artwork.
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