Director's Wave | Volume 5 Edition 24

Something to Ponder
“The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.” - Pablo Picasso

This weekend is a long weekend as the Cayman Islands celebrates Discovery Day. Discovery Day pays homage to the “discovery” of the Cayman Islands in 1503. At this time the islands were described as Las Tortugas because of the volume of turtles found around the islands. Certainly the islands were seen by other people sailing and fishing long before the voyages of Columbus. Nonetheless, he decided to name and write about the islands, or perhaps more accurately, his son Ferninad wrote about the islands of turtles - thus from a European perspective he is credited as the “discoverer.” A clear example of those who write history tend to get the credit.

The power of art is also a key aspect of discovery, and documentation. The art shared with this text was created by our young students in Early Childhood. They decided on their plans of creation, how it links to art, and how it links to the Cayman Islands. As I learned from them - The Cayman Islands coat of arms includes three green stars representing the three inhabited islands. The blue wavy bands represent the sea. The lion on a red background is for Britain. The turtle and rope represent the seafaring history and the traditional thatch rope industry respectively. The pineapple depicts the Cayman Islands links with Jamaica. The motto of, “He hath founded it upon the seas,” is a line from Psalm 24 which refers to the islands’ Christian heritage and the importance of the sea.

Another group of young Early Childhood artists created a video with their Cayman Islands interpretation of Eric Carle’s book Today is Monday. The link - Here - takes you to their rendition of Today is Monday - using Mangoes, Turtles, Waves, Coconuts, Fish, Stingrays, and Seahorses. For frequent readers of Eric Carle’s book you may appreciate the creative license the young writers and artists took with Thursday being coconuts.

One of the ways our young artists reflected on their art was by responding to questions. The three responses below from three different people struck me as amusing, insightful, and perhaps eerily accurate.

• Question: What is your favourite thing to do in the Cayman Islands? Play.
• Question: Would you rather be a shark or a turtle? A mermaid!.
• Question: Who is your favourite artist? No idea.

May your long weekend present the opportunity to discover, or perhaps play, or perhaps swim like a mermaid or have the freedom of having no idea what your plans might be.

Wishing you a pleasant weekend - sincerely,
Jim Urquhart
Director - Cayman International School