The Duppy & The Choice: Honoring Women’s History Through Caribbean Lore

By Douglas Cameron Jr

This March, as the world celebrates International Women’s Day, a new artistic movement is emerging from the Cayman Islands to uplift the internal strength of women through the lens of heritage. In honor of Women’s History Month, local artist collective Open Canvas is unveiling “Duppy on Her Shoulder,” a project that transforms the Duppy from a figure of ancestral shadow into a sophisticated symbol of the modern woman’s journey.

A Fourteen-Year Vision

This series is the culmination of a mission that began in May 2012. “I started Open Canvas almost 14 years ago with a question: how could I inspire creatives to bring light to our mysterious lore?” says Cameron Douglas Jr., the founder of Open Canvas and Cayman’s first locally owned eyewear brand, Peripheral Life and Style. “It took over a decade to develop a set of stories that glorify Caribbean heritage while introducing the concept of ‘good’ Duppies.”

The Weight of Responsibility

The portraits featured today offer a profound look at the diverse women who call these shores home. Whether Caymanian by descent or a new resident, every woman carries a silent weight—the responsibility of family, culture, and the eternal internal tug-of-war between the choices that define us. In these works, the traditional “angel and devil” cliché is replaced by the Duppy. These abstract portraits capture anonymous symbols of beauty, with spirits of light and shadow resting upon their shoulders. Every subject is intentionally facing the light, representing a conscious turn toward empowerment despite the struggle.

Where Ancestral Soul Meets Future Tech

The process behind these works is as innovative as the message itself. Each piece begins as a digital photograph, using AI as a “digital sketchpad” to visualize the spiritual aura before a single brushstroke is made. The final works are a tactile mix of oil on canvas and newsprint, with actual clippings from the local newspaper peeking through the background. These layers remind us that while our stories are told through the media, our true heritage is etched in something much deeper.

The Foundry & The Future

This series serves as the flagship for The Duppy Project, a creative franchise dedicated to reintroducing the Caribbean as a place of profound history and culture. As the project scales, the Duppy Foundry will serve as the physical heart of this vision, producing high-end Afro-Caribbean tribal masks, paintings, and intricate figurines that bridge the gap between ancestral craft and modern design. This ecosystem—moving from physical artifacts to fine art and ultimately into a high-fidelity animated series currently in development—is designed to export the beauty of Caribbean storytelling to global platforms like Netflix and Disney. This is more than an art display; it is a timestamp for a local vision ready for the world stage, ensuring that our ancestral soul remains at the heart of future technology.