Those who have eaten in one of Hotel Indigo Grand Cayman’s main indoor restaurants – Catalina, RASA or Milkberry – will have probably noticed the large portrait paintings on the wall in the Catalina lounge.
The lounge and the adjoining restaurant take their name from the amphibious PBY Catalina airplane, the first commercial aircraft to fly into the Cayman Islands, initially landing at sea from 1947 and then at Owen Roberts Field – as the airport was known then – from 1952.
In keeping with the restaurant’s name theme, Hotel Indigo commissioned artist Cera-Tan Kennaird, who is better known in the art world simply as Cera-Tan, to paint two trailblazing Caymanian female Cayman Airways pilots, Captain Crystal Godet and First Officer Giselah Ebanks.
As part of Cayman Art Week, Hotel Indigo invited guests to attend an artist talk featuring Cera-Tan and Ebanks – Godet couldn’t attend because she was flying – that explained how the portrait paintings came about.
While sampling a section of delectable sweets prepared by Hotel Indigo’s pastry chef, Alisa Ali, guests heard about how Ebanks was initially sceptical about the request.
“I thought it was spam at first,” Ebanks said of the email she received from Cera-Tan asking for her to be the subject of one of her paintings.
Once Ebanks realised Cera-Tan’s offer was legitimate, the two arranged a meeting so that the artist could get to know her subject from both a personality and physical standpoint.
Part of the process, which took about a year from start to finish, involved Cera-Tan taking hundreds of photographs of her two subjects. When it came to Ebanks, Cera-Tan said that one thing that stood out in the photos was her smile.
“I absolutely loved her smile and I loved her teeth,” Cera-Tan said.
It is, therefore, unsurprising that Ebanks’ smile is prominent in the painting.
For Ebanks, her smile represents more than just a mood.
Her career path hasn’t been easy. She said she originally wanted to be a doctor but was turned down for a scholarship. She then turned to piloting and found that forging the path as a woman in the career has had its challenges, including dealing with those who told her the cockpit was no place for a woman.
Despite those challenges, Ebanks joined Cayman Airways at the age of 20, becoming the youngest pilot for the airline, and its first female first officer.
Cera-Tan understood the challenges Ebanks faced when she painted her portrait and when they were both asked to describe the painting that ended up on the wall in the Catalina lounge with one word, they both said the same thing: resilience.
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