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September 2020
– Mind’s Eye, the historic home of Caymanian visionary artist
Gladwyn “Miss Lassie” Bush, is currently undergoing some
maintenance, the Cayman National Cultural Foundation (CNCF) has
advised. Specifically, the wooden windows and doors of the main
house have been temporarily removed for re-colouring and are expected
to be back in place later this month where they will once again
showcase the brilliance of Miss Lassie’s work, or ‘markings’,
as she called them.

Miss
Lassie’s House is an authentic turn of the century Caymanian wattle
and daub structure located at the intersection of Walkers and South
Sound Roads. It was built by her father and grandfather, who started
to work on it in 1878. During the artist’s lifetime, because of the
seaside location of the property and the vagaries of weather, her
“markings” on the wooden windows would fade after a time and she
would often touch them up or repaint them as inspiration stirred her.
When CNCF took possession of the property a few years after her
death, the original windows were stored away for conservation and
safekeeping, but the Foundation had Ms. Lassie’s creations on the
windows and doors reproduced by local artist Sue Howe in 2013. Ms.
Howe has once again been commissioned and is in the process of
recolouring those reproductions so that they retain their uniquely
striking appearance. The openings have been shuttered in the
meantime for protection in the event of a storm.

“As
Miss Lassie said many years before her passing, “The weather plays
havoc with my markings””, explained Henry Muttoo, CNCF Artistic
Director. “When she was alive, she was able, when the necessity
arose or her vision changed, to repaint or alter the images on her
windows. This added new lustre and longer life to her paintings and
also helped preserve the wood. Now that Miss Lassie is no longer with
us in the flesh, the images she left must be preserved as faithfully
as possible. That is why CNCF has engaged Sue to copy Miss Lassie’s
original window and door images onto the newly built ones, before the
weather takes further toll and flaking begins. Sue did a terrific job
on the replacement windows when the house was first conserved and
opened to the public and, because she is so familiar with the
construction of the images, she has been invited to repaint the
images a second time.”

“It
is a great honour to once again be working on Miss Lassie’s
historical house,” said Ms. Howe. “I’m very excited to able to
revisit the original pieces with new eyes and stay as close to her
work style and subtle colour variation as possible, and to capture
still more depth of colour and detail of the shaping of her markings.
I want to bring these replicas a further richness and detail, and
just really celebrate how much complexity even the most seemingly
simplest of designs holds.”

She
continued, “It’s amazing the number of new things that appeared
to me this time around. I do love how familiar the pieces feel to me,
like visiting a friend you haven’t seen for a long time. It is a
wonderful and magical location to be in, and I really appreciate the
opportunity to be able to work where she lived. That really adds
something for me.”

Ms.
Howe thanked Henry and Marcia Muttoo, and the CNCF Board, management
and staff for their support and confidence in her as well as Steve
Hawley and the Phoenix Group for their body of work over the years,
and for their continued support and interest in the project.

CNCF
offers guided tours of Mind’s Eye – The Visionary World of Miss
Lassie for the general public and for students by appointment only.
Although suspended due to COVID-19, tours are expected to resume
soon.

For
more information about Mind’s Eye – Miss Lassie’s House, visit
https://www.artscayman.org/minds-eye/,
email cncf@artscayman.org
or call 949.5477.

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The
Cayman National Cultural Foundation

For
more than 30 years, the non-profit Cayman National Cultural
Foundation has carried out its mission of stimulating, facilitating
and preserving Caymanian cultural and artistic expression. CNCF has
achieved this through the extensive development of wide-ranging
programmes. These programmes include stage productions, creative
education for young people, free workshops and financial support of
artists, as well as festivals, publications, national recognition of
artistic and cultural achievement and the preservation of Caymanian
heritage, and arts and culture for future generations.

About
Miss Lassie

A
4th-generation
Caymanian, Gladwyn K, “Lassie” Bush began painting at the age of
62, after what she describes as a visionary experience. Strong
Christian themes run through her work, which she painted not only on
canvas, but also on the walls, windows and furnishings of her home.
Mrs. Bush was awarded a national honour, Member of the British Empire
(MBE) in 1997 and received the award during the Queen’s Birthday
celebrations in Grand Cayman on 15 June 1998. She was also a
recipient of the Cayman National Cultural Foundation’s Heritage
Award. Her work is documented in the 156-page art book, My Markings –
the Art of Gladwyn K. Bush, published by the Cultural Foundation.

Her
work is in private collections in England, the United States,
Jamaica, South Africa, Germany and the Cayman Islands, and in the
collection of the American Visionary Arts Museum in Baltimore,
Maryland. Miss Lassie passed away on Monday, 24 November 2003 at the
age of 89.