AROUND TOWN

COURTESY OF TYLER MAC

Artistically in Tune

CONTINUED

NI: How did you know art was your calling?

MacDonald: I’ve always liked to explore different creative mediums. I taught myself photography when I was 8 and started selling my photographs at art festivals when I was 13. I’ve never had a real job. I’m lucky in that way and grateful I’ve been able to sustain myself since. I wouldn’t fit into a normal job. I didn’t partake in high school things because I was working art festivals all over the state of Florida. I was focused on building my life as an artist.

Traditionally, guitar luthiers served apprenticeships to master their skills. How did you learn?

YouTube. I’ve had no professional training. It took six months of trial and error before I had a guitar I could play. Now I build seven days a week, two or three guitars a month.

Describe your creative process.

Different types of wood have a different feel and visual design. Some are exotic and wild looking. My favorite is cocobolo because it’s an extremely dense wood with nice tonal properties and reds and purples. I import exotic wood from around the world and use as many as 10 different species that complement each other on some of my guitars. I also source wood locally, using trees downed by hurricanes. People don’t realize there’s a lot of mahogany in Florida. I just got back from a little town in Colorado where I sourced a 200-year-old elm tree.

What kind of feedback do you receive?

People are impressed. I get great response because guitars are an unusual thing to see at an art show. Buyers are players and collectors who hang the guitars on the wall. I’ve won quite a few awards for photography and won my first in October for guitars: best in show at the St. James Court Art Show in Louisville, Kentucky.

As an artist, is it difficult to part with your art?

I do get attached to some guitars and have my own private collection. It’s a personal thing. Because they’re handmade, there are slight variations between them.

What’s next?

I recently started a band, the Groovy Gypsies. It just fell in my lap like a lot of things I do. I have a spiritual outlook on life. I’m also working on two guitars—a double-neck guitar and an acoustic guitar, which is new for me. The wood really shines in acoustic. (tylermac.com) —N.T.

Vineyards Country Club South Course

GOLF COMMUNITY Kipp Schulties @ the Vineyards

Kipp Schulties Golf Design is leading major renovations for both of Vineyards Country Club’s 18-hole championship golf courses—the first since opening 30 years ago. Revitalization at the South Course, which has hosted PGA Tour Champions events, will begin in April 2023, with the North Course following in 2024. The yardage of both courses will be expanded from the professional tees, greens will be rebuilt and enlarged, and fairways will be recontoured to enhance playability and pace of play, according to Vineyards Co-owner Michael Procacci Jr. These renovations are the latest in a series of extensive structural and aesthetic upgrades at the 1,600-member club. The 2,700-home community in North Naples opened in 1988. —Cathy Chestnut

HISTORIC PRESERVATION Smith Exhibit Hall

Mary S. Smith and Elaine Reed Clockwise from above: Carved tortoise shell net gauge; pelican and alligator fi gureheads; the Key Marco Cat. The wooden human fi gure (below) and pelican fi gurehead will be added to the exhibit in June.

© CAITLYN JORDAN – USA TODAY NETWORK

The future is bright for the Naples Historical Society’s Historic Palm Cottage since the next-door property was purchased to protect the street’s character and expand historical exhibits.

The society purchased the 1,530-square-foot, ranchstyle home at 163 Twelfth Avenue South and its 1935 guest cottage after owner Bill Darragh off ered the nonprofi t a right of fi rst refusal to purchase the spread for $4.2 million in March 2021. Since then, the society has raised more than $3.7 million toward the project. Supporters Stephen B. and Mary S. Smith—chair emeritus of the society’s board of directors—provided a $1 million matching grant. The society has raised more than $3.7 million during the past year and is selling inscribed brick pavers ($300) to extinguish the mortgage and fund $300,000 in redevelopment costs. The plan is to create 1,000-square-feet of new exhibits in the new house—Smith Exhibit Hall—and an exterior pathway (made with the bricks) featuring “history stations” chronicling Naples’ history and the decades-old fruit trees gracing the property.

Society Chief Executive Offi cer Elaine Reed is thrilled that residents have come together to prevent the development of a dominating mansion on the adjacent property. “It is rare for a homeowner to buy an expensive parcel of land and not want to have their dream house built on it. That’s the challenge of historic rehabilitation in Naples,” she says. “This project is a true community opportunity, a life-time legacy.” The project is expected to be completed by fall 2023. —C.C.

COURTESY OF PENN MUSEUM COURTESY OF PENN MUSEUM

COURTESY OF PENN MUSEUM

BACK IN TIME

ON DISP Y

Starting on June 21, a pelican fi gurehead and human statue created by native people will go on display for the fi rst time in Southwest Florida at the Marco Island Historical Museum. They join 16 other pre-Columbian Native American artifacts, dating from 500 to 1200 A.D., unearthed on Marco Island during an 1896 Smithsonian archaeological expedition. The exhibit’s wolf, pelican, and deer fi gureheads are being loaned on a rotating basis due to their fragility. The wooden fi gureheads are believed to be ceremonial objects used by the island’s early Calusa or Muspa peoples. They are on loan from the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology for display through April 30, 2024. The world-famous Key Marco Cat—a 6-inch statue on loan from the Smithsonian Institution—will remain at the museum through 2026. (themihs.org) —C.C.