Cayman.9--The National Gallery

Diana and Fred lent me their car a couple of days and I DROVE ON THE LEFT SIDE OF THE ROAD. This may not seem like a lot to you, but I'll tell you what--it was scary and I felt it was a great accomplishment. I mean, I was driving in a new place, with signs that said things like "Give Way" (yield??). Plus, the first day that I drove on the left side, the gas light was on. I stopped to fill the tank, but it was locked, and I didn't have the key! So I drove around for the rest of the day, holding my breath, hoping that I didn't run out of gas (since my cell phone didn't work to call for help, should I have needed to).

The island is small, but it's relatively trafficky, and the speed limit is sometimes 25 and sometimes 40, so it takes longer than you'd think to get from one place to another.

Every time I prepared to turn, I rehearsed to myself, "stay on the left," and then I accidentally turned my windshield wipers on, rather than my turn signal.

Plus, I wasn't insured to drive in Cayman; however, this wasn't illegal. It was just a risk. (As far as I understand it, there are a lot of things that aren't illegal in Cayman--there are very loose copyright laws. So Fred said that the Blockbuster there isn't really a Blockbuster even thought it's called a Blockbuster, but that isn't a problem. If you ask for a film that they don't have, they just ask you to wait for five minutes and proceed to burn it for you. [As an aside within an aside: there are also plenty of things within Cayman that are illegal--Cayman is a traditionally Christian place, so porn is illegal and the shops are closed on Sundays and the gentleman's clubs are underground.)

Back to the main point: One day I drove to the National Gallery. It was free to go in, and I was the only person there the whole time I was there.

I like the building--the front columns remind me of the legs of a pier in the water.

There was a sculpture garden outside. The sculptures were primarily either a) playing with classical sculpture or b) of flowers (to be honest, the orchid looked suspiciously like the rose).



The gallery's permanent exhibition had a nice mix of folk art and more contemporary abstract pieces.

Much of the art was inspired by the location--below, there are paintings on sail cloth. There was also art dealing with hurricanes and referencing the Christian faith of the island, as well as paintings and watercolors of parts of the island.

This must've been a real tree--in fact, I think I saw it in front of the governour's mansion.



While there were some real examples of good technical work, I liked the folk art much better: