Simon Morris, the Canadian sculptor who created two of the best-known underwater statues in Grand Cayman, has been nominated to be inducted in the prestigious Royal Canadian Geographical Society’s College of Fellows.
Amphitrite, the mermaid statue at the Sunset House dive site in George Town, and the Guardian of the Reef at Divetech’s Lighthouse Point in West Bay, are popular landmarks among the dive community in the Cayman Islands. Morris created the statues in 2000 and 2014, respectively. He also created ‘Tradition’, a statue featuring seafarers that stands in Heroes Square in George Town, in 2003.
Remarking on his upcoming induction into the RCGS College of Fellows, Morris told the Compass, “It’s quite an honour and quite humbling to be in such well known and accomplished company. I was nominated by Jett Britnell earlier this year and just learned of it on Friday.”
Morris is among three people nominated as RCGS Fellows by photographer and author Britnell, who also nominated artist Roy Henry Vickers and photographer Stuart Seldon.
The College of Fellows includes many of Canada’s foremost geographers, scientists, artists, anthropologists, soldiers, business leaders, historians, philanthropists and educators.
John Geiger, the chief executive officer of the RCGS, said Morris “is an outstanding addition to the College of Fellows and joins a distinguished list of visual artists from AY Jackson, and Sir Frederick Banting, to Robert Bateman, Charles Pachter and Chris Cran”.
This year’s Fellow-elects will be formally admitted into the fellowship at the RCGS annual general meeting which will be held virtually on 16 Nov.
Morris’s Amphitrite in George Town is the second casting of a nine-foot-tall mermaid called ‘The Emerald Princess’ which was placed underwater in Powell River, British Columbia in 1989.
“This first mermaid was the brainchild of Jim Willoughby, my diving instructor in 1973 and an iconic figure in the BC diving industry for decades, and the project was organised by the Diving Industry Association of British Columbia,” Morris told the Compass in an email, as he explained how his work came to be such a familiar sight in Cayman.
“My good friends Reg Creighton and Erika-Leigh Haley, who had been running IANTD (International Association of Nitrox Divers) Canada, moved to Grand Cayman and worked at Sunset House. I contacted them about placing the second casting in Grand Cayman, they discussed it with Keith Sahm, long-time GM at Sunset, and things progressed very quickly after that, with her placement ceremony in October 2000.”
As for the Guardian of the Reef, Morris said he had started that project in 2004 but was not able to complete it due to a lack of funds.
“I met Jay and Nancy Easterbrook, owners of Divetech at the time (2013), quite by accident on LinkedIn, and they quickly decided to purchase the sculpture for Divetech. He was installed on April 12th, 2014.”
Despite a common misconception that the Guardian’s face is based on Morris’s own bearded features, he says, “Any resemblance there is purely coincidental.”
He pointed out that the 13-feet-tall statue of a Neptune-type figure with a seahorse’s tail, was inspired by Michelangelo’s statue of Moses, also featuring a long flowing beard.
“The concept of the Guardian is that he has been standing, forgotten, at his post to protect the oceans for millennia, and it’s time we step up to do our part,” Morris said.
He said he was last in Cayman in 2015, “but have plans to return as soon as COVID allows”, adding that he misses his two Cayman statues.
He added, “I’m looking forward to seeing all my wonderful friends there. Grand Cayman has been very kind to me.”
Another of his statues, ‘Tradition’, was unveiled on land, in Heroes Square, by Prince Edward in May 2003 during Cayman’s Quincentennial anniversary celebrations.
Morris said the seafaring statue came about “thanks primarily to the efforts of Bob and Suzy Soto”.
Morris said being accepted as a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society “is truly one of the greatest honours of my life”.
“To have had the opportunity to do the things I love most and be recognised in this way is beyond my wildest dreams. The Members are an incredible group of accomplished explorers, scientists, authors, and artists, and I am humbled to be accepted in their midst,” he added.
Morris said he has spent his life juggling two careers – one as a sculptor, the other in the diving industry.
In 2020, he was inducted as a Signature Member of the Artists for Conservation Society.
“COVID gave me the opportunity to lock myself in my studio and take the time to create some pieces I have thought about for years, but never had the time to work on. One of them, ‘Nowhere to Go’, a commentary on habitat loss and climate change in the Canadian Arctic, won a juried competition to display at the AFC Exhibition in Vancouver in October of 2020,” he said.
He added that, once he had completed the work in his studio, he realised he was missing the diving industry, and recently accepted the position of sales manager for dive computer company Shearwater Research Inc.
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