July 7, 2005 Channel 5 Belize

Caye Caulker Artist Combines Photography and Painting

Anyone looking for a little bit of serenity and artistic inspiration will enjoy a new exhibition at the House of Culture. Artist Lee Vanderwalker who lives on Caye Caulker, is sharing a collection of images that blurs the boundaries between photography and painting, not to mention reality and fantasy. Vanderwalker, who normally paints on cloth and silk, says this show is her first foray into photography and sprang from her attempts to share her life on the caye with friends and family abroad.

Lee Vanderwalker, Artist
I took a look at where I was at with the photos last year and they seemed to be really forming up into a collection. I came up with this technique of painting right on top of the photograph that really brought out the paint aspect of what I was doing.

I just love mermaids. I just think they are so mystical and beautiful and exotic. I would have to think, what colour is a mermaid? If the mermaid is under the sea it?s blue and purple and green, what colour are fish? So in my mind?s eye, these are the colours that I see my mermaids in. They are not flesh and bones, they are women as fish.

Just kind of a glance in what I see in my life and more of a fanciful show, and mystical, kind of taking your mind to another place.

Lee Vanderwalker says her next project will involve using large silk wall hangings and be part of a joint exhibition with an artist from Trinidad. The show at the House of Culture runs through July twenty-ninth and the gallery is open daily from eight-thirty to four.