Debbie Chase van der Bol is a woman of faith.
‘I give thanks every single day,’ she said.
Ms Chase van der Bol has been managing Pure Art Gallery and Gifts for more than 18 years.
She and the gallery survived Sept. 11’s impact on tourism when few visitors were coming to the Cayman Islands.
She’s survived a divorce and her son Peter’s car accident. She’s made it through break-ins at the gallery, thefts, artists moving and the daily challenges of running a business.
If her faith wasn’t strong enough before Ivan, it was sure made stronger after.
She knew the storm was coming.
She knew it was going to be bad.
She also knew that the majority of the contents of Pure Art Gallery and Gifts belonged to other people – artists who had entrusted their works with her for show and sale.
‘I did everything to secure the outside,’ she said. Shutters went up and she had an emergency plan.
‘If something did happen I was completely prepared to follow up,’ she said.
‘But the good Lord doesn’t give you more than you can handle and he didn’t make me do it.’
Pure Art is in a Cayman style house that is more than 100 years old. It belongs to Chas van der Bol’s former mother-in-law and was moved from downtown to the South Church Street site at the corner of Denham Thompson Way 35-plus years ago by her son’s great grandmother, Erma Eldemire.
The house was cut in two, moved on a lowboy and reassembled. Not too long after Ivan, one of the men who helped move the house came in and showed her where the cut was made. She’s proud to show it off now.
The old house – as many of the older homes in Grand Cayman did – made it through the hurricane without a crack.
‘It was a miracle,’ she said. ‘The wind kept the sea from coming across the road.’
Before turning the key to lock the door on Ivan, Ms Chase van der Bol had a strong premonition to go back into the building to its very back and move the works of art into the main part of the house.
‘I just couldn’t leave without doing it.
She left two old rugs on the floor in the back. They were her only loss to Ivan. Rainwater leaked in to the only part she had cleared and soaked the rugs.
‘It was totally incredible,’ she said.
Her faith was proven when she returned to find a tiny thatch basket she had hung on nail in the back of the house still there.
She’s still got faith, but she’s taking a new leap.
Ms Chase van der Bol is selling Pure Art and turning her attention to painting full time. She’ll also be splitting her time between the Cayman Islands and Pennsylvania to spend more time with her brother and other family members.
‘I miss seasons,’ she said.
Her roots are also deep in Erie, Pennsylvania.
She graduated 22 in a class of 750 after a sterling high school career of being awarded the top female student artist part scholarship and being named in Who’s Who in American High Schools 1974.
She graduated Edinborough State College in Pennsylvania with a BA, magna cum laude with a double major.
Following graduation she worked in an art supply store, which inadvertently prepared her for all aspects of running a retail art gallery and gift shop.
Instead of taking graduate painting courses, she decided to move to Cayman and paint.
She’s an assistant Scuba diver instructor, without the card.
She has served as a visual arts society officer and has taught art classes. Those familiar with the yearly National Trust Christmas card will recognize her work.
She’s also a recipient of the Cultural Foundation’s Radley Gourzong award.
Ms Chase van der Bol is also an avid cricket fan, so much so that she’s a scorer for Cayman games.
Her favourite mediums are ink and water colours together, but she plans to extend to pastels and oils.
She’ll paint anything that strikes or moves her, but she particularly looks for colour and shadows.
Ms Chase van der Bol knows she’ll miss the fast pace of managing Pure Art, but she’s ready for a break.
‘It has been an honour and a privilege to sell local art,’ she said.
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