Mitch Miller and His ‘Ting’
The famed American musician Mitch Miller, who visited the Island regularly from 1964 onward, is depicted here driving his yellow Volkswagen, known locally as a “Ting”. The backdrop is a typical Caymanian street of the early 1970s, when reliance on the maritime industry (symbolised by the vessel in the background) was dwindling, and the financial and tourism sectors were on the rise, bringing with them a rapid influx of foreign nationals and cultural influences. The flat, decorative style is typical of the artist’s work.
About the Artist
Charles Long
b. 1948
Born in West Africa, Charles Long grew up in Swaziland and England, where he attended Farnham School of Art. He settled in the Cayman Islands in the late 1960s and became a founding member and first secretary of the Visual Art Society. Long has been dubbed a “chronicler of our times”, a phrase that became the title of a 2002 retrospective of his work at NGCI. Other key exhibitions include the Santo Domingo Biennale (2003) and Carifesta X in Guyana (2008). Long’s highly collectable work forms part of the permanent collections of NGCI and the Cayman Islands National Museum. NGCI exhibitions include the solo show Charles Long – Chronicler of Our Time (2002), Portrait of an Artist (2003), All Access (2015), Mediating Self (2017), Tropical Visions (2019), and Island of Women: Life at Home During our Maritime Years (2020).
