NIM Things at the Heritage House

Simone Scott demonstrates art in progress at the
Heritage House 

Starrie Scott with some of her work 

Thatch work, craft and paintings are exhibited from
NIM Things

Friday,  September 30, 2005

When Simone Scott talks about her art, she often ends up talking about the natural environment that features prominently in most of her work. Her love of nature and passion for art are intertwined in her work and in her life, to where they appear to blend in her mind.

“I just like to lose myself into a painting,” she said. “I like to be inside the scene. The best way to escape without leaving home is to paint. I can stay on Cayman Brac and escape into the nature that I love. It’s a way of traveling, as sort of mental voyage.

“I can go to the Lighthouse and look down at the waves crashing and the birds flying, while some people prefer to sit down in front of their television sets and watch the Discovery Channel,” added Ms Scott.

“We have places on the Island - treasures on the Bluff - that many locals and government officials don’t care about, such as The Splits. We see the same frogs, amazing sunsets – you can hike up to a cave and see it for yourself, instead of watching it on TV.”

Ms Scott believes that at least some of the Bluff should be preserved as it is.

“When you go up there, you get a whole different feel,” she said. “We should look at what we have and preserve what it is and not just look at what you can make out of it. The Booby Birds fly onto the Cliff face of the Bluff every night. Why not have that a preserve?”

Simone Scott and her parents, Tenson and Starrie Scott of NIM Things, were this week’s featured artists at the Heritage House in a series of exhibitions of local artwork.

NIM (Nature Island Made) Things is a souvenir shop with a difference. Located in Spot Bay, it is stocked completely with craft items made right here on Cayman Brac, most of it by the Scott family.

Starrie makes items from the thatch palm and shell art. She said her grandmother Lydia Christian taught her to plait with thatch and to use sisal for plaiting.

This involves pounding the sisal leaves, then taking a spoon and scraping all the green off. When washed off in the sea, it looks like thread and was used in the past for sewing. It makes you itch if you get it on your skin, though, she noted.

Tenson is famous for his beautiful jewelry, which he makes not only from Caymanite, but from whelk and conch shells, Chiton (also known locally as seabeef or suck-on), horse-eye seeds and horse-conch.

In fact, it sometimes appears as if Tenson can create beauty from almost anything. The Scotts opened NIM things in 1987, and its unique stock has been featured in numerous newspaper and magazine articles since. With two such artistic parents, Simone showed early talent in art and excelled at school, bringing home prizes for art competitions. She uses acrylics mostly because they are easy to clean and because it’s a versatile medium.

Nature is featured in almost all her paintings, while familiar scenes and people she knows also appear.

Ms Scott sometimes blends different scenes together. For example a man she sketched sleeping in Fort Lauderdale appeared snoozing in a Brac scene. Or a favourite fig tree from the Brac popped up in a scene she painted in Honduras.

Ms Scott works full time at Kirk Freeport in Stake Bay, and works her art in around that. This means she must paint mostly from photographs, because, though she loves to immerse herself in a scene, she could do so all day.

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