Artist maintains Miss Lassie’s visions
(CNS): Local artist Sue Howe is touching up images at the historic home of Caymanian visionary artist Gladwyn Bush, aka Miss Lassie, to help protect the paintings from the weather. In 2013 Howe made copies of the paintings on the doors and windows on the house after Miss Lassie’s originals were placed in storage to preserve them. But just like the images Bush created, which she would repaint when the weather dulled them, the copies also need a touch-up.
Mind’s Eye, Miss Lassie’s South Sound home, is now a museum maintained by the National Cultural Foundation (CNCF) and is a significant piece of Caymanian heritage as well as an important work of art in its own right. The vivid paintings, or “markings” as Bush called them, were reflections of visions she had, which she was inspired to reproduce all over the windows and doors of the small, authentic turn of the century, wattle and daub home.
The reproductions have been temporarily removed for a few weeks to allow Howe to work on recoloring them and once again showcase the brilliance of Miss Lassie’s work, the CNCF said in a releases.
Over the years that Bush painted on the house, the weather took its toll on her “markings”, which would fade after a time and she would often touch them up or repaint them as inspiration stirred her. CNCF Artistic Director Henry Muttoo said that 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.”
When the CNCF took possession of the property a few years after her death, the original windows were stored away for conservation and safekeeping. CNCF engaged Howe to copy Miss Lassie’s original window and door images onto the newly built ones and now they are asking her to recolour them before they begin to flake.
“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,” Muttoo said.
“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,” Howe said. “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 added that it was “amazing the number of new things that appeared to me this time around”, describing the work as 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.”
CNCF has suspended its guided tours of ‘Mind’s Eye – The Visionary World of Miss Lassie’ due to the COVID-19 pandemic but expects to resume the tours soon.
Category: Art & Entertainment, Local News
Hmmmm. To the Nabobs of Negativity please to show me: 1. The MBE or other royal gong recognizing your work product, 2. The New York Times or other international press article about your work work product, 3.The purchase receipt from a US museum of art for a portfolio of your work product.
I don’t much like Picasso. But that doesn’t mean it’s not art to others. One person’s artistic fixture is another’s decomposing shark. In the final analysis it matters only to the creator and the buyer/beholder.
I think the story was more important than the art.
Miss Lassie got the MBE…?
There was a brief Empreror’s New Clothes moment when those without appreciation jumped on the tail-end of the primitive naive movement. No-one would seriously consider these works a being of any real artistic merit today.
She was a complete nut job and never very nice. I grew up down the street from her. Sad she is a national treasure now.
Quite right. Abusive, mad old woman.
It must be fifteen years since some one? Was paid for CI$1 million for this very small cottage. It hasn’t been moved to a safer, protected location nor has it been restored for preservation.Miss Lassies work should be classified as naive at best, but if is a religious shrine, it should be preserved elsewhere and CIG, could sell the property and recoup the people’s money
a Canadian touching up a “Caymanian Visionary’s” artwork! WTF?
Even at the height of the naive movement these works would not have been considered of artistic merit.
Nice spot for the next NCB development.
I appreciate art, our culture, and like the idea of Miss Lassie’s home being part of the NCF, etc. However, I’m not “seeing” how she became such a visionary. On what basis?
She had visions
Visions of delirium.
Have you seen her work?
Mediocre at best.
5 year old could do better
Mediocre is an upgrade .
Her art is not to my taste, but her proliferation and prominence especially among those interested in Caribbean folk art and intuitive art mean that she does hold an important role in our cultural heritage.
There was a brief Empreror’s New Clothes moment when those without appreciation jumped on the tail-end of the primitive naive movement. No-one would seriously consider these works a being of any real artistic merit today.
Open your eyes mate.
Light strokes. Light strokes. Don’t want it to become like the Ship of Theseus.