My name is Brandon Saunders and I had recently turned 17. This is a very recent project that had helped jump start my career in the Cayman Islands.
It first started as a school project where we were tasked to illustrate Cayman's connection to it's seas. I took a surreal approach to this and created three pieces that took the viewer from the shore (filled with shells) to the depths of the sea (Filled with strange creatures).
Piece 1: Vivien
Piece 2: Adva
Piece 3: Osiris
I don't have a lot of resources so I made the most of what I had. I used a black background and the art room lights for the portraits. In order to make the elements combine as well as they did I had a person always hold the shell to the persons face that way compositing was much easier. I took many photographs but these pictures were the ones that were used in the end.
Jacob Whuell
Jayda Rae - Smith
Angelica Dodds
I gave the pieces to my Country's National Gallery who at the time were having a similar exhibition that linked with Caymanian culture. They happily included it but I never expected them to put on almost all of the promos and even used one of them as picture on the invite. At the time I was 16 and officially became the youngest artist ever to be showcased in the gallery to this degree.
Link: https://www.nationalgallery.org.ky/whats-on/exhibitions/maritime-exhibition-series/
TV interview: http://cayman27.ky/2017/01/youngest-artist-at-exhibition-draws-from-caymanian-heritage/
The Award I received:
The piece gained so much popularity to the point where I was nominated for a Poinciana Award for digital art. The Poinciana Award is the highest honor an artist can receive. Not only did I get nominated amongst artists who had done art for decades but I received the award that year. This marked me as the youngest recipient ever from the Poinciana Foundation at the age of 16.
I can't thank my friends enough for this. They helped me so much in this journey. At the same time I'll never stop doing what I love especially when I'm this young.
