| ATLANTIS CAYMAN BRAC TRADEMARK 2009-2010, CAYMAN BRAC, CAYMAN ISLANDS, B.W.I. ALL PHOTOGRAPHY COPYRIGHT 2009-2010, J. FOOTS UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED |
Heeding the call of Atlantis
By Deborah J. Botti
For the Times Herald-Record
Gotta hand it to the Internet – I get a fair amount of response from readers, but I was stunned to hear from Foots. Foots is the artist re-creating the Lost City of
Atlantis that I wrote about a few weeks ago. I followed up on a press release and learned that an artist was sinking hundreds of thousands of pounds of
sculptures into the waters off Cayman Brac – very cool, even to a nondiver. But what was even cooler was getting a complimentary e-mail the next day from
Cayman Brac after a Google search turned up my column. Foots has e-mailed me so many photos since then that I've already received two warning notices
this month from Time Warner Cable that I'm maxing out on server space. Last week, he asked for my phone number because questions were furiously flowing
from my fingers. It was clearly time to talk.
First and foremost, why Foots?
"I've been called Foots all my life," he says. "I'm 6-foot-8 and wear a size 16 shoe. … The year I was 9, I grew 16 inches, like Silly Putty." Of course, he played
basketball, but he's always been drawn to the water. "Because of problems with my sinuses, diving was natural for me because I breathe through my mouth. I
started diving at age 17," says 52-year-old Foots, who's made at least 200 dives in the past year. Intellectually, he's always been captivated by architectural
ruins and the myths that surround them. "I could be watching a movie, and there will be a building, an architectural ruin. A woman could run across the screen
stark naked, but, pardon me, ma'am, I would yell, 'Get out of the way so I can see that doorway.' "
THIS SELF-DESCRIBED military brat, the son of an Air Force man, has lived all over the world – from Casablanca to Germany to the Midwest and South in the
United States. A slight Southern twang coats his words, and his sentences are punctuated with lots of "No, ma'ams" and "Yes, ma'ams." And he's always been
captivated by art. "My parents lost me in a museum in Oklahoma once … there I was, standing before a painting with a big crowd around me. … "I also have a
photographic memory. I can recall every detail, including the color shoes someone wore, at a particular time. I used to think this was a curse, but now I think of
it as a blessing." Along with the isolation that frequent moves can bring, this big guy with long blond hair, sophisticated interests and active imagination found
himself becoming more of a loner. It also forced him to become a self-taught man.
"I've been called crazy and eccentric," he says. "I like to think of myself as colorful." He started making molds in the late '60s, which evolved into a retail ceramic
business. It was when he was invited by a friend to Cayman Brac 20 years ago that he found a home.
"I WALKED DOWN TO THE BLUFF, looked at the water and knew this was what I wanted," he says. "You either love Cayman Brac or not. It's about 40 years
behind the times. They still paint the lines on the highway with a four-inch brush and a stick." The simplicity suits Foots just fine. His mother always said he was
born 100 years too late. Thanks to good decisions and smart investments, he was able to retire at age 49 and begin to live his dream. "I started talking about
building a city under water since I was 6," he says. His studio is the south side of his front yard, which overlooks the Caribbean. His tools are a small cement
mixer, a sturdy shovel and a wheelbarrow – and, of course, a forklift to move the finished product. He uses sand, crushed coral and limestone. "What comes
from the sea, I put back into the sea," he says.
THE FIRST PHASE OF ATLANTIS – about 175,000 pounds of sculptures to the tune of $40,000 of Foots' money – is underwater. The centerpiece – and
Foots' favorite – is the sundial, which he says told time within minutes. A flatbed trailer takes the sculptures to the dock, where they're loaded onto a special
barge that Foots constructed. The pieces are lowered between the cross members of the barge and released. Then Foots dives down and positions them.
"There are at least 50 pieces, if not more," he says. Phase 2 involves the Scriptures of Atlantis. Foots has created a language, and $1,000 will be given to
anyone who can solve, or translate, the Scriptures. Clues are released weekly, and there is an entry fee of $5, which is generating funds for the Cayman Brac
Athletic Fund. Another component of Phase 2 is more figures. Like all citizens of Atlantis, they are being modeled after people connected to the island. The
youngest is 12-year old Annamay Bodden, Keeper of the Light, who was selected from schoolchildren on Cayman Brac. The Medicine Man of Atlantis is based
on a British doctor who treated Foots for a black widow spider bite. And some day, there will be a king and queen, he promises, presiding over an underwater
city spanning at least 100,000 square feet and costing at least $1 million.
"Atlantis will be a never-ending story," Foots says. "It will come to an end when I come to an end." He works seven days a week, rain or shine, eight to 10 hours
a day. He didn't even take time off to attend a trade show in Las Vegas last week at which Scuba Diving Magazine gave its Editors Choice award for the Best
New Artificial Reef to Foots' project. "This is the first time this has ever been done in the world. For generations to come, when they say 'Atlantis,' they'll think of
Foots. This is my legacy," he says.
Deborah J. Botti is travel editor for the Times Herald-Record. She can be reached at anybotti@hvc.rr.com or via the Times Herald-Record, 40 Mulberry St.,
Middletown 10940.
Foots has been living his dream of creating the Lost City of Atlantis, one sculpture at a time. “You won’t find a statue of me in the city but every
sculpture I make has a little piece of me in it; my heart, my thoughts and my ideas” said Foots referring to his underwater creation of the legendary
Atlantis...To read more about Foots and Atlantis Cayman Brac in this new article by Lorna Bush and Shariffa Chantilope from Cayman NetNews.
Just CLICK HERE
More articles are available by clicking on the logo's below this article. REPORTERS CLICK HERE
By Deborah J. Botti
For the Times Herald-Record
Gotta hand it to the Internet – I get a fair amount of response from readers, but I was stunned to hear from Foots. Foots is the artist re-creating the Lost City of
Atlantis that I wrote about a few weeks ago. I followed up on a press release and learned that an artist was sinking hundreds of thousands of pounds of
sculptures into the waters off Cayman Brac – very cool, even to a nondiver. But what was even cooler was getting a complimentary e-mail the next day from
Cayman Brac after a Google search turned up my column. Foots has e-mailed me so many photos since then that I've already received two warning notices
this month from Time Warner Cable that I'm maxing out on server space. Last week, he asked for my phone number because questions were furiously flowing
from my fingers. It was clearly time to talk.
First and foremost, why Foots?
"I've been called Foots all my life," he says. "I'm 6-foot-8 and wear a size 16 shoe. … The year I was 9, I grew 16 inches, like Silly Putty." Of course, he played
basketball, but he's always been drawn to the water. "Because of problems with my sinuses, diving was natural for me because I breathe through my mouth. I
started diving at age 17," says 52-year-old Foots, who's made at least 200 dives in the past year. Intellectually, he's always been captivated by architectural
ruins and the myths that surround them. "I could be watching a movie, and there will be a building, an architectural ruin. A woman could run across the screen
stark naked, but, pardon me, ma'am, I would yell, 'Get out of the way so I can see that doorway.' "
THIS SELF-DESCRIBED military brat, the son of an Air Force man, has lived all over the world – from Casablanca to Germany to the Midwest and South in the
United States. A slight Southern twang coats his words, and his sentences are punctuated with lots of "No, ma'ams" and "Yes, ma'ams." And he's always been
captivated by art. "My parents lost me in a museum in Oklahoma once … there I was, standing before a painting with a big crowd around me. … "I also have a
photographic memory. I can recall every detail, including the color shoes someone wore, at a particular time. I used to think this was a curse, but now I think of
it as a blessing." Along with the isolation that frequent moves can bring, this big guy with long blond hair, sophisticated interests and active imagination found
himself becoming more of a loner. It also forced him to become a self-taught man.
"I've been called crazy and eccentric," he says. "I like to think of myself as colorful." He started making molds in the late '60s, which evolved into a retail ceramic
business. It was when he was invited by a friend to Cayman Brac 20 years ago that he found a home.
"I WALKED DOWN TO THE BLUFF, looked at the water and knew this was what I wanted," he says. "You either love Cayman Brac or not. It's about 40 years
behind the times. They still paint the lines on the highway with a four-inch brush and a stick." The simplicity suits Foots just fine. His mother always said he was
born 100 years too late. Thanks to good decisions and smart investments, he was able to retire at age 49 and begin to live his dream. "I started talking about
building a city under water since I was 6," he says. His studio is the south side of his front yard, which overlooks the Caribbean. His tools are a small cement
mixer, a sturdy shovel and a wheelbarrow – and, of course, a forklift to move the finished product. He uses sand, crushed coral and limestone. "What comes
from the sea, I put back into the sea," he says.
THE FIRST PHASE OF ATLANTIS – about 175,000 pounds of sculptures to the tune of $40,000 of Foots' money – is underwater. The centerpiece – and
Foots' favorite – is the sundial, which he says told time within minutes. A flatbed trailer takes the sculptures to the dock, where they're loaded onto a special
barge that Foots constructed. The pieces are lowered between the cross members of the barge and released. Then Foots dives down and positions them.
"There are at least 50 pieces, if not more," he says. Phase 2 involves the Scriptures of Atlantis. Foots has created a language, and $1,000 will be given to
anyone who can solve, or translate, the Scriptures. Clues are released weekly, and there is an entry fee of $5, which is generating funds for the Cayman Brac
Athletic Fund. Another component of Phase 2 is more figures. Like all citizens of Atlantis, they are being modeled after people connected to the island. The
youngest is 12-year old Annamay Bodden, Keeper of the Light, who was selected from schoolchildren on Cayman Brac. The Medicine Man of Atlantis is based
on a British doctor who treated Foots for a black widow spider bite. And some day, there will be a king and queen, he promises, presiding over an underwater
city spanning at least 100,000 square feet and costing at least $1 million.
"Atlantis will be a never-ending story," Foots says. "It will come to an end when I come to an end." He works seven days a week, rain or shine, eight to 10 hours
a day. He didn't even take time off to attend a trade show in Las Vegas last week at which Scuba Diving Magazine gave its Editors Choice award for the Best
New Artificial Reef to Foots' project. "This is the first time this has ever been done in the world. For generations to come, when they say 'Atlantis,' they'll think of
Foots. This is my legacy," he says.
Deborah J. Botti is travel editor for the Times Herald-Record. She can be reached at anybotti@hvc.rr.com or via the Times Herald-Record, 40 Mulberry St.,
Middletown 10940.
Foots has been living his dream of creating the Lost City of Atlantis, one sculpture at a time. “You won’t find a statue of me in the city but every
sculpture I make has a little piece of me in it; my heart, my thoughts and my ideas” said Foots referring to his underwater creation of the legendary
Atlantis...To read more about Foots and Atlantis Cayman Brac in this new article by Lorna Bush and Shariffa Chantilope from Cayman NetNews.
Just CLICK HERE
More articles are available by clicking on the logo's below this article. REPORTERS CLICK HERE
New York's Hudson Valley and the Catskills
| COPYRIGHT CAYMAN NETNEWS 2007 |
| AUGUST 03, 2007 |
| MARCH 20, 2007 |
