The Artisan Magazine - Tampa Bay - May/June 2024 Edition

LET’S PICTURE THE PERFECT GETAWAY.

Catch captivating collections at over 30 museums. Discover surreal works of art at The Dalí Museum and American classics at The James Museum of Western & Wildlife Art. Come for America’s Best Beaches and stay for the inspiring Arts Coast. Make every moment a masterpiece in St. Pete/Clearwater. Let’s shine.

Scan to explore the Arts Coast.

The James Museum

The Dalí Museum

ELEVATE YOUR INTERIOR SPACE, ACCESSORIZE YOUR LIFESTYLE.

LORI CHILDERS

48" x 60" Oil on Canvas

COBIE CRUZ

40" x 36" Acrylic on Canvas

KATHLEEN HOPE

48" x 36" Cement on Wood Panel

RECENT OPENINGS E.Chambliss Gallery & Studios

Studio Space and Art Galore is available for Art related events in a vintage space. Members and non-members, Original art, prints and tee-shirts are available for sale. Exhibit space is available and a space for workshops and children's literacy program event and book reading.

1326 Dr. M.L.K. Jr St S Upper Level /2nd Floor St. Petersburg, FL 33701 Phone: (727) 828-9599

4746 22nd Ave S. Saint Petersburg, FL 33711 727-420-7438

Artists of Elements

Artists of Elements is the seed of an idea planted and nurtured by artisan Ellen Newbauer and CPA Kathy Cregan. this space is dedicated to establishing an open community that fosters art, education, collaboration, and inspiration for all. The collaborative space provides opportunities for conversation, engaging the community through classes, a music on the lawn series, community networking events, a gallery space for a featured monthly artist, and much more.

Six Star Studios

Contemporary art studios in Saint Petersburg FL for professional artists pushing the limits of their creativity and what the world can handle.

2430 Terminal Dr S Unit B St. Petersburg, FL 33712

Artmosphere

Artmosphere is a combination of gallery, artist studios, offices and event space. Designed especially for the world of art, Artmosphere was created from the start to be a versatile and welcoming new addition to St. Pete's vibrant art environment.

2 MINUTES FROM DOWNTOWN ST. PETERSBURG, FL 327 14th Ave S 727-313-7439

Photo: Dane Wetton

Wild Space Gallery is founded by the Florida Wildlife Corridor Foundation and located in the Warehouse Arts District of St. Petersburg, Florida. As an extension of the Foundation’s mission, Wild Space Gallery advances awareness of conservation issues within the state of Florida. Exhibits rotate regularly and are presented in an open showcase setting. The gallery features the works of locally and nationally renowned artists whose varied stories display an appreciation of nature and its transformative power to connect, heal, and endure.

2606 Fairfield Ave S., BLDG #7 St Petersburg, Florida 3371

HEIRESS is a contemporary gallery and art advisory in St. Petersburg focused on curating innovative emerging and mid-career artists. Their mission is centered around creating a program that promotes artist equity and contributes to the larger community of artists and collectors.

Director: Finn Schult finn@heiressgallery.com

2622 Fairfield Ave S. Bldg 7, Studio A St. Petersburg, FL 33712

Drew Marc Gallery

Opening late last year in St. Pete, Drew Marc Gallery is a vibrant hub for contemporary art enthusiasts and creators alike. Established with a passion for supporting emerging and established artists, the gallery strives to showcase diverse perspectives and innovative artistic expressions.

Gallery Owner: Andrew Trujillo

2606 Fairfield Ave S, Bldg 8 Unit 4 Saint Petersburg, FL 33712

SATURDAY , MAY 25

Presenting Sponsor:

Fall down the rabbit hole into a world of whimsy and wonder at this year’s Pride & Passion: Wonderland. Celebrate eighteen years of Pride & Passion by immersing yourself in a realm of imaginative delight and celebrate the vibrant LGBTQ+ culture of Tampa Bay.

All funds raised by Pride & Passion directly support Tampa Museum of Art programs that reduce barriers to admission, create welcoming places for people to experience the arts, and celebrate local talent.

Founder: Carlton Ward Jr.

From Spanish Conquistadors to Sunshine Sips:

A Brief History of Wine in Florida

In the world of American winemaking, Napa Valley, and Oregon reign supreme, thanks in part to cultural touchstones like the film "Sideways." However, mention Florida wine, and you might encounter a quizzical look. Yet, the Sunshine State holds a rich history in winemaking dating back to the mid1500s when Spanish missionaries first fermented sacramental wine on our shores.

Over the centuries, our Florida climate, characterized by prolonged tropical heat and high humidity, posed challenges for cultivating European grape varieties. However, local ingenuity led to the cultivation of native Muscadine grapes, renowned for their resilience. Today, a medley of Muscadine varieties and indigenous fruits (mangoes, strawberries, blueberries, citrus, guava, starfruit and avocado,) form the backbone of Florida winemaking.

Over the centuries, hurdles such as disease, prohibition, and shifting consumer tastes posed challenges, but Florida's wine industry persisted. Legislative milestones, such as the establishment of the Florida Grape Growers Association in 1923 and the passage of the Florida Viticulture Policy Act in 1978, marked crucial points in its development.

Although Florida lacks an officially recognized viticultural region like Bordeaux and Napa Valley, the state's wine industry is thriving. Florida ranks third in the nation in terms of the economic impact of wine, generating $15.2 billion in total economic activity according to the National Economic Impact Study commissioned by Wine America.

2012 hailed the inception of the Florida Farm Winery Program (establishing a Florida Farm Winery as having 60% of their wines made from agricul-

Credit: Lakeridge Winery & Vineyards by Lakeridge Winery & Vineyards

Certified Cicerone at level 1, owner of Curated Craft Experiences, LLC.

Carol Dekkers

Legal large format wines in Florida (up to 15 liters) bear unusual names derived from Latin or biblical characters:

- Magnum: 1.5 liters or two bottles of 750 m. - the name derives from the Latin word magnum, meaning “great”, and it has been known as such since the end of 18th century.

- Jeroboam: three liters or four bottles - the Bordelaise call it “double magnum,” According to the bible, Jeroboam I (931 – 909 BC) was the first king of the northern part of Israel.

- Rehoboam: 4.5 liters or six bottles -named after the Son of King Solomon, of Israel (this size is seldom produced)

- Methuselah: six liters or eight bottles – sometimes called “Imperial” in the Bordeaux region. The name of the patriarch Methuselah – the oldest person mentioned in the Old Testament, synonymous with longevity.

- Salmanazar: nine liters or twelve bottles - this was the surname of five Assyrian kings spanning the years from 727 BC to 1275 AD

- Balthazar: twelve liters or sixteen bottles – named for either one of the three wise men who came to pay homage to the infant Jesus, or the last king of Babylon, killed during the seizure of the city by Cyrus in 539 BC.

- Nebuchadnezzar: fifteen liters or twenty bottles – named after the king of Babylon who ruled between 605 and 562 BC.

tural products grown in the state); and just last month (March 2024), Newsweek reported that “Ron DeSantis Just Changed Wine in Florida” by expanding the maximum allowable wine bottle size to 15 liters (20 x 750 ml bottles) aligning it with other states and opening new avenues for winemakers. This is good news if you want to serve one hundred of your closest friends from a single vintage Nebuchadnezzar (see sidebar.)

Today, Florida boasts a burgeoning wine industry, with over 100 wineries dotting the landscape from the Panhandle to the Florida Keys, with most doubling as a tourist attraction. Visitors can explore an array of flavors, from classic grape wines to innovative fruit blends, reflecting our state's diverse agricultural bounty. Given that there are over two hundred types of wine, Florida winemakers have plenty of experimentation options.

As our population evolves, with a mix of discerning wine enthusiasts and trend-setting millennials, Florida’s winemaking industry is ready to delight. The allure of innovative flavors combined with our rich history ensures that Florida wine will continue to surprise and captivate us for years to come. •

Fred Johnson

Leslie Ferrell has more than 30 years’ experience in journalism and media relations, and as a book editor and public relations specialist. She has a degree in Journalism from the University of New Mexico, and currently owns Farrell Communications, Inc., She recently was awarded the Excellence in Writing award from Religion Communicators’ Council.

"The world needs artists now more than ever.”

By Leslie Ferrell

If you are interested in the jazz scene, you’re surely familiar with the renowned singer and musician Fred Johnson. What you may not know, even if you live in the Tampa Bay area, is that Johnson lives in St. Petersburg, and is involved these days in much more than performing jazz music. He is, in fact, committed to changing the world for the better, with help from all of us, by utilizing art in all its forms.

“What I’m interested in musically now is taking all of what I’ve had the opportunity to do in my life as a jazz artist and jazz improvisationalist, as a student of the African oral traditions, and the interfaith work I’ve been able to do through my journeys around the world, is to use my artistry to create spaces where we can see and hear and feel the joy of our humanity together,” Johnson explains. “I still do concerts from time to time, but more now I’m writing original music around that concept. I want to use music with understanding; we can create amazing things together if we give each other a chance.”

Johnson says that for decades, he’s been a part of a national conversation about the need and ways to use the arts to create bridges, and he feels that lately, that conversation has been expanding and is more needed than ever. From 2005 to 2017, he traveled the world visiting places where people were in conflict and by using music and other art forms, created bridges of opportunity. “There’s a great need in our country for this now.”

Says the jazz man who has shared stages with Aretha Franklin, Dizzy Gillespie and Patti LaBelle to name a few, one of his most memorable career experiences was bringing together people in conflict – such as Israelis and Palestinians for life-affirming experiences that lifted hearts. Johnson at times performed on stage for 100,000 people and knew at the end that “people had been rejuvenated, that people sang together, danced together – where I

was able to help create creative spaces where people could come together and share their stories – and feel the texture of their shared humanity. Amazing things happened; amaz-

ing things can happen. Now is the time for us to heal.”

Johnson has released a dozen recordings, has performed all over the globe and delights in sharing his experiences as an educator and collaborator, and artist-in-residence/community engagement specialist at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts. As part of that role,

Johnson – a former Marine, is bringing together veterans, active-duty military personnel and civilians for healing and bonding through multiple artistic outlets. Along with dance legend USF teacher John Parks, Johnson leads the Straz Center’s Veteran Civilian Arts Ensemble. He also heads up Your VetChat, a monthly gathering of veterans and their supporters. And he’s involved with healing through the arts with VetArtSpan, in cooperation with the National Endowment for the Arts and Creative Forces. He hosts podcasts that are posted at www.vetartspan.org.

Johnson also helps lead the Arts Legacy REMIX committee at the Straz Center, where he sometimes performs, much to the thrill of audiences. Arts Legacy REMIX shows free, usually outdoor, performances at the Straz that showcase local talent and bring various cultures to the forefront.

In addition to his musical talents, Johnson has expanded into the realm of visual art. He loves painting and creating on the canvas, which he feels is a natural extension of his music. “I just want to create beauty and remind folk that that’s an important thing that we can do,” he says.

What does Johnson want us to know about him? “I’m a guy who has committed my life to hopefully bringing joy and possibility to the world through creative expression – through dance and music and painting.”

Johnson is emphatic that the answer to achieving peace, to eliminating the dissonance that appears to exist now, is to gather and come to know each other, to celebrate the gift of life.

When asked how the rest of us can help support his efforts of creating positive change, he says that we all possess creativity and that we need to slow down and experience beauty around us. “Beauty is all around if we allow it to guide us, to remember that life can be beautiful. It’s not metaphysical; it’s real. The things that are ugly are ugly because of what

VlastaSmola InBeauty’sThrall

VlastaSmolahasmadeartthefabricofherlife.Aftermovingtothe UnitedStatestoreceiveherMAinCommunicationArts,shehada briefcorporatecareerinmarketingandgraphicdesign.Hertrue passionwasrootedinthefinearts,however,andbeforelongshe foundherpaintingaspirationsreignited.

Throughherartworksheseekstocreateexamplesofmodern mythology,exploringthedualitiesoftheconsciousandunconscious states.Butalways,thereisbeauty.Itspower,itsmystery,itscomplete denialofcommonsensecaptivatesSmola,andshe,inturnmust captureitonhercanvas.

Thoughshestudiedfiguredrawing,characterillustration,andfashion illustrationattheArtInstituteofChicago,Vlasta’sremarkable paintingskillsarealmostentirelyself-taught.Shedevelopedher techniquesthroughtrialanderror,andthoughSmolaworksmainlyin acrylic,theskillsshetaughtherselfareonesgenerallyemployedby oilpainters.Meticulouslybuildinghercolorsinloosewashesusing hair-thinbrushes,shespendshoursuponhoursweavingvisual narrativesintheminutestdetail.Wesetouttolearnmoreaboutthis talented,compellingartist.

Whatdoesmagicalrealismmeantoyou,andwhatisitabout thatstyleofpaintingthatresonateswithyou?

Despiteincludingcertainmagicelements,magicalrealismis generallydifferentfromfantasybecauseitusesasubstantialamount ofrealisticdetailandemploysmagicalordreamlikeelementsto makeapointaboutreality.Iemploymagicalrealismtotransform realityeversosubtly,inawaythatblursthelinebetweenrealityand imagination.Manyofmypaintingsoftenexploreadream-conscious state–designedtoincreaseadepthofperceptionanddevelopa poeticworldview.

Youhavetraveledextensively…Dotheseexperiencesinfluence yourwork,andifso,inwhatways?

IgrewupinSovietcontrolledUkraine,soIhadlittlefirst-hand experiencewithfreeexpressionandthewiderartworld.Myinitial journeyacrossEuropeaftergraduatingfromuniversityinUkraine gavemethechancetodirectlyexperiencetheworldmasterpieces thatshapedmoderncultureandcivilization.Inparticular,thebeauty ofSpanishnatureanditsimmeasurableculturalheritagehavehadan

undeniableimpactonmychoicesforyearstocome.Duringmytime inSpain,IdecidedtolearnSpanishasmythirdforeignlanguage-whichbroughtmeto“ComoAguaParaChocolate"(LikeWaterFor Chocolate)byLauraEsquivel.Thisinturnledmetodiscoveringand joiningtheworldofmagicalrealism–fromLatin-America’sGabriel GarcíaMárquezandIsabelAllendetoJapan'sHarukiMurakami...to myartwork.

Howdoesitfeeltofinishapainting?Areyouimmediatelyready todiveintothenextone,ordoyouneedalittletimetoreflect andregroupafterwards?

Thetruthis,normally,Idon'tfeelthatIhavefinishedmypainting. There'salwayssomethingthatcanbedevelopedorimproved,Ijust knowthatImuststop,eventually.Thenextpaintingstartslong beforeIputtheblankcanvasontheeasel.Ialwayshaveconcepts developing–intentionallyorinthebackofmymind–forafew paintingsatthesametime.Somanyideas–solittletime!

Arethereautobiographicalelementsinyourpaintings,andifso, areyouwillingtosharehowyourevealyourselfinthem?

Yes,everypaintingisaself-portraitonewayoranother.It'saboutmy aspirations,sentiments,hopes,desires–somesecret.IguessIeven choosemymodelssomewhatlikemyphysicaltype.IpaintwhatI knowandwhatIlove–dance,swim,fashion–andwithabitof magic,thefamiliarelementshelpmecreatenewallegoriesand stories.

Birdsarearecurringthemeinmanyofyourpaintings.Dothey holdparticularsignificanceforyou,andifso,whatdothey symbolize?

Throughouthistory,birdshavebeenviewedasanimalsofspecial valueandhavebeenendowedwithmeaningsoftendrawnfrom legendsandstoriesthathaveenduredovermanygenerations.They havebeenusedinfolkloreandpoetrytoallegoricallyportrayhuman flawsandvirtues.Birdslendthemselveseasilytotheideaofmagical realism,theyareconsideredomensbothforgoodandill,andare sometimesthoughttobethemessengersofthegods.Tomethey symbolizeunbridledfreedom,harmony,nobility,bravery,hope, wisdom,andevenmystery.Whohasn’tdreamedofflying?

Whichartist(s)mostinspireyou,andwhatisitspecificallyabout theirworkthatyouadmire?

IwouldsayPre-Raphaelites–particularlyJohnEverettMillais.Their loveofnature,theirmasterfulrenderingofprofoundhuman emotions,andtheirsharp-focustechniqueofshowingeverytiny

detailinspireme.OneofthetechniquesthatIoftenusewas developedbyMillais–paintinginthinglazesofpigmentoverawet whitegroundinthehopethatthecolorswouldretainjewel-like transparencyandclarity.Additionally–throughtheworksofthePreRaphaeliteBrotherhoodandtheirreferences–onecanlearnalot aboutliteratureandhistory.

Arethereanysubjectsorstylesofpaintingthatyouhavenotyet exploredandwouldliketo?

Mostofmypaintingsaredoneinacryliconcanvas,Ihavealso workedextensivelywithwatercolors.ThemediumthatIhaveshied awayfromuntilrecentlyisoils,mostlyduetothelongtimetheytake todry.Water,waves,andtheunderwaterworldfascinateanddaunt measapainter.Itismygoaltolearnto"gowiththeflow"andget moreconfidentpaintingtheshape-shiftingfluidityofwater.

Born in Ukraine, Vlasta Smola has made art the fabric of her life. After moving to the United States to receive her MA in Communication Arts, she had a brief corporate career in mar keting and graphic design. Longing to rekindle her passion for art, she returned to her painting aspira tions.

Beyondcreatingabeautifulimage,whatdrivesthenarrativesof yourpaintings?Doallofyourpaintingscontainabackstory?

TheideasformypaintingscomefromtheexperiencesthatIhave lived,fromthebooksthatIhaveread,evenfromthedreamsthatI havehad.Sometimes,theykindofbreakfreefrommeanddevelopby themselvesasIstartpainting.So,yes,mypaintingsallcontainastory.

This reunion brought a new direction for her life’s work: To create inspired imaginative art. A frequent subject of Vlasta's narrative are birds and their real or mythological interaction with the human universe. She strives to depict the dualistic nature of reality and conscious / subconscious states of mind. She creates examples of modern mythology, and her paintings often explore a dream-conscious state designed increase a depth of perception and develop a poetic world view.

Beauty is the main reason and purpose for Vlasta's art. Beauty is power. Beauty is mystery. It denies com mon sense. Vlasta spares no obstacle to both chal lenge and express the power and mystery of beauty.

EDUCATION

The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, Figure Drawing, Character Illustration, Fashion Illustration The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, MA in Commu nication Arts with Honors. Chernovtsy National Uni versity, Ukraine, BA in English with Honors

Vlasta Smola's original art may be viewed at Soft Water Gallery 515 22nd Street S., Unit F St Petersburg, FL 33712

VlastaSmola’sartworkisrepresentedlocallyby SoftWaterGallery 51522nd StreetSouth,UnitF StPetersburg,FL33712 14 May/June 2024

Florida's West Coast Museum Collaboration

By Robin O'Dell

Tampa Bay area museums are once again joining resources to present concurrent exhibitions featuring the regional creativity of local artists. “Skyway 2024” will be the third iteration and this time five museums will participate: the Museum of Fine Arts St. Petersburg, The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, the Tampa Museum of Art, the Sarasota Art Museum of Ringling College of Art and Design, and the USF Contemporary Art Museum.

The first Skyway collaboration took place in 2017. It featured 57 local artists spread between three museums and was titled, “Skyway, A Contemporary Collaboration.” Skyway 20/21 was presented during the Covid pandemic spanning four

museums showcasing 49 artists. This latest exhibition project celebrates the contemporary art practices of artists working in Hillsborough, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas, and Sarasota counties.

Almost 300 artists responded to the open call and curators from each of the five museums as well as a single independent curator culled them down to sixty-six artists using varied processes and then distributed them between institutions. The diverse artwork covers nearly every media including works on paper, paintings, sculpture, photography, performance and video. Only original works completed after December 2022 were considered.

Anticipated Impact and Legacy

Skyway 2024: A Contemporary Collaboration is more than an exhibition; it is a celebration of artistic innovation and a testament to the collaborative spirit of the Tampa Bay art community. This project promises to leave a lasting impact on the region by shining a spotlight on the artistic voices of the central gulf-coast Florida region, inspiring future generations of artists and art enthusiasts alike.

This exhibition is supported by the Gobioff Foundation and the Stanton Storer Embrace the Arts Foundation.

Curator, writer, and scholar, Evan Garza, is the guest juror. He is currently a Curatorial Fellow at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. A recent Fulbright Scholar at The Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin, Ireland, Garza has also served as co-curator and artistic director of the 2021 Texas Biennial and co-founded the Fire Island Artist Residency (FIAR), a New York nonprofit and the first residency program in the world exclusively for LGBTQ+ artists.

While we live in a digital age where we can access art from every part of the world, there is still a relationship between an artist and the environment they occupy. What is presented in “Skyway 2024” is both

a celebration of local talent as well as an informative sampling of the current art community. There was no theme to the call, so each museum was responsible for drawing their own aesthetic and conceptual connections. Seeing these regionally-based artists can be a thrilling and informative experience. A catalogue will be published featuring essays by the curators and the work of each exhibiting artist.

While the dates overlap, each museum has its own independent opening and closing dates, so be sure to check the dates of each institution before you go.

About Guest Juror Evan Garza

Evan Garza (they/them) is a Curatorial Fellow at MASS MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts and an MA student in the Williams Graduate Program in the History of Art at The Clark Art Institute (‘24). Garza was the 2021–2022 Fulbright U.S. Scholar at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA), and simultaneously served as Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of History of Art and Architecture at Trinity College Dublin. Garza and Ryan N. Dennis were artistic directors and co-curators of the 2021 Texas Biennial: A New Landscape, A Possible Horizon on view across five Texas museums (Artpace, FotoFest, Ruby City, The McNay, and San Antonio Museum of Art) from August 2021–January 2022.

Garza was Director of Rice Public Art at Rice University in Houston from 2016–2019, and was previously Assistant Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Blanton Museum of Art at The University of Texas at Austin, 2014–2016. In 2011, Garza was cofounder of Fire Island Artist Residency (FIAR), a New York nonprofit and the first residency program in the world exclusively for LGBTQ+ artists. They have held visiting graduate faculty positions at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA, and the Lesley Art + Design Program in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Their writing on the work of contemporary artists has been published in several books and monographs and by IMMA, The Drawing Center, deCordova Sculpture Park + Museum, Flash Art, ART PAPERS, Hyperallergic, and Artforum.

Photo credit: Emil Cohen

SARASOTA ART MUSEUM

Sarasota Art Museum of Ringling College of Art and Design

1001 S Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, FL 34236

Sarasotaartmuseum.org

Exhibition dates: July 28 through October 27, 2024

Sarasota Art Museum is Ringling College of Art and Design’s laboratory for the exploration and advancement of contemporary art. This will be the first time for this museum to participate in “Skyway.” It is located in the historic Sarasota High School building and features 15,000 square feet of exhibition space dedicated to modern art, as well as education classrooms and studio arts programs.

Sarasota Art Museum will feature 15 artists from varied media: Kim Anderson, Ryan Day, Sue Havens, Dominique Labauvie, Tatiana Mesa Paján, Samantha Modder, Roger

Clay Palmer, Herion Park, Gabriel Ramos, Eszter Sziksz, Jill Taffet, Rob Tarbell, Kirk Ke Wang, Willow Wells, and Corinne Zepeda.

“Although these artists’ works differ greatly in style, media, process, and concept, viewers will find many connecting threads: pensive and poetic ruminations on the human connection with nature; deep rootedness in their unique identity; or probing investigations into their cultural heritage and immigrant experiences. These artists explore individual lived experiences that are simultaneously collective, and they critically examine our surroundings. Several engage with ever-changing digital technology. Throughout it all, they reveal their existence not merely as isolated individuals but also as parents, children, life partners, and citizens who are reflecting on this moment in historical time.”

- Rangsook Yoon, Senior Curator, SAM

Kirk Ke Wang (Chinese American, b. 1961) “GimGong Road, “ 2024, Mixed media on canvas, 102 x 156 in.

USF CONTEMPORARY ART MUSEUM

USF Contemporary Art Museum

3821 USF Holly Drive, Tampa, FL cam.usf.edu/CAM/cam_about.html

Exhibition dates: July 19 through November 23, 2024

Situated on the vast Tampa campus of USF, CAM serves as a teaching laboratory, exposing students, faculty, and community with current issues of contemporary art practice. It organizes and presents significant and investigative exhibitions of contemporary art.

Artists: Elisabeth Condon, Keith Crowley, John Gurbacs, Karen Tucker Kuykendall, Caui Lofgren, Bruce Marsh, Eric Ondina, Sebastian Ore Blas, Andrés Ramirez, Bradford Robotham, Erin Titus, and Susanna Wallin.

“Subtitled ‘12 Ways of Looking at a Landscape,’ after Wallace Stevens’ 1917 poem ‘13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird,’ our twelve-artist exhibition is designed as a conceptual entry point into different artworks in various media that delight in and expand original thinking about their environs, whether these be ideational or physical. Not your run-of-the-mill collection of pictures of sand dunes or beaches, streetscapes or urban sprawl, mountains or forests, the landscapes imagined for USFCAM’s galleries run the gamut. Their geographies are realistic, social, emotional, internal, political, mental, domestic, natural and much more.”

- Christian Viveros-Fauné, Curator-at-Large, USF CAM

TAMPA MUSEUM OF ART

Tampa Museum of Art 120 W. Gasparilla Plaza, Tampa, Fl TampaMuseum.org

Exhibition dates: August 28, 2024 through January 5, 2025

Situated in the heart of downtown Tampa, the Tampa Museum of Art was founded in 1920 and presents exhibitions and educational programming focusing on ancient, modern, and contemporary art. The Museum boasts one of the most significant Greek and Roman antiquities collections in the southeastern United States. Having just completed a large renovation, they are embarking on an ambitious expansion project.

Artists: Marc Brechwald, Samo Davis, Aesopbookofrot (Danielle Dragani), Joe Fig, Adrian Gomez, JD Hardy, Sami Harthoorn, Cort Hartle, Latonya Hicks, Dallas Jackson,

Aimee Jones, Candace Knapp, David Mack, David McCauley, Marina Shalthout, David Sibbitt, Yajaira Urzua-Reyes, and Corinne Zepeda.

“I always look forward to Skyway and meeting the incredible artists living in our community. This year’s presentation of Skyway at the Tampa Museum of Art features artists new to the Skyway exhibition series. They represent a breadth of media, processes, and ideas yet are united by their dedication and passion for art.

TMA’s Skyway roster ranges from recent graduates to retired military veterans, and self-trained to established artists. Skyway 2024, presented across five extraordinary institutions, demonstrates the vitality and strength of the region’s arts community.”

- Joanna Robotham, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, TMA

Corinne Zepeda (Seminole, born 1997), “Greetings from Florida,” 2024, Digital print, Dimensions variable, Courtesy of the artist

Andres Ramirez, “Controlled Burn - Sugar Cane Field,” 2023, archival inkjet print, 30 x 40 inches / Variable, Courtesy of the artist (c) Andres Ramirez.

THE RINGLING MUSEUM OF ART

The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art

5401 Bay Shore Rd, Sarasota, FL 34243 Ringling.org

Exhibition dates: May 25 through January 26, 2025

The Ringling’s pictureque campus in Sarasota, Florida –which includes the Museum of Art, the Circus Museum, an historic mansion, an 18th century theater and Bayfront Gardens – is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places. The Ringling is the State Art Museum of Florida and part of Florida State University.

MUSEUM OF FINE ART- ST. PETE

Museum of Fine Arts St. Petersburg 255 Beach Dr NE, St. Petersburg, FL 33701

Mfastpete.org

Artists: Caitlin Albritton, Ainaz Alipour, Mohsen Azar, Saumitra Chandratreya, Elisabeth Condon, Robyn “Avalon” Crosa, Rachel de Cuba, Jake Fernandez, Akiko Kotani, Carol Mickett and Robert Stackhouse, Libbi Ponce, Michael Vasquez, and Joo Woo.

Curators: Christopher Jones, Stanton B. and Nancy W. Kaplan Curator of Photography and Media Arts and Ola Wlusek, Keith D. and Linda L. Monda Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art

Exhibition dates: July 13 through November 3, 2024

Located on the waterfront of downtown Saint Petersburg, the Museum of Fine Arts has an encyclopedic collection of art from around the globe and across the centuries, with almost 5,000 years of civilization represented in thousands of objects extending from antiquity to the present. The Museum’s photographic collection is one of the largest and most well-respected in the Southeast.

“For the third iteration of Skyway at the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, we have invited seven artists to engage with the permanent collection galleries and the very infrastructure of our institution.

Will Douglas, Kendra Frorup, Emily Martinez, Cynthia Mason, Carola Miles, Anat Pollack, and Emiliano Settecasi will be taking over the MFA from the front façade to the Baroque Gallery. We welcome their interventions as we find new ways to engage with our encyclopedic permanent collection and the Museum’s history while celebrating singular artistic perspectives from the Tampa Bay area.”

- Katherine Pill, Senior Curator of Contemporary Art, MFA

Jake Fernandez (American, born Cuba, 1951) “Myakka Fork 2,” 2024, Oil on sixty-four wood panels, 88 x 154 in. The John And Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, FL, Florida State University. Courtesy of the artist © Jake Fernandez.

Emily Martinez, “27 DIC. 1974 (Mother’s Embrace) (detail)”, 2024, Acrylic on canvas and wood, 109 1/4 x 96 in.

BEAC º N '24

The critically acclaimed platform for producing dance and multidisciplinary collaborations – returned to the Palladium for its 9th season, bringing another evening of movement and expression!

By Keith Matter

Artistic human expression through dance fills me up. Unexpectedly. While there is planned intention of meaning behind each performance, for me dance is an abstract-reality art form that generates feelings and emotions that often go beyond or askew from the intended. I often find myself interpreting the work from a perspective of my own personal experiences. Remembering how I felt. Reliving it.

Beacon '24 performances also provided me with an escape. A mental and visual derailment of my current state of mind.

While at the same time exposing talent and professionalism in an artform that is free from constraints and strict convention. When one opens themselves to the freedom of expression in dance. One becomes free.

From light and loving, to serious and contemplative, Beacon '24 offered a superabundance of physically and mentally poignant, stirring performances. All now engrained into my psyche forever.

Thank you, Beacon. ....Adieu, 'til next year!

Photos by Keith Matter

Show Review by Jason Hackenwerth

Matthew Drennen Wicks’ Punch Palace was more than an art exhibition. It was a journey into history. A distant memory. A peek into your grandmother’s junk drawer. It was a present-day visit to William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience.

The show reconciled a nostalgic misconception of our childhoods past as a simpler and safer time to the reality of adult preoccupations with security, power, and luck.

The exhibit consisted of a collection of familiar objects interestingly arranged by the artist. The relationships created by the proximity and placement of the works added new layers of context to the already weighty subject matter contained within. An example of this was a piece called Horseshoes. Each of the shoes was fancifully engraved. One with the word Light, the other, Weight. The two were intertwined and closely placed near a gold bunny. The first impression of this was a story of lucky objects and my grandfather tossing them around a steel peg on a late summer afternoon. But before the conclusion was set, the rabbit told a different tale. Shining gold with only one ear, this hare was shot through, bearing entry and exit wounds, hinting equally at fairy tale legend and melancholy loss of innocence. For me, the bunny represented each of our own broken hearts.

Aside from the two earthenware owl sentries perched on the title wall keeping an eye on all who enter, the works in the show were expertly hand-built or slip-cast porcelain. Looking closely at the objects one could feel the artists reverence for the history of the medium. While the collection commented clearly on colonialism and class, industrialist honor culture bubbles just beneath the narrative.

The origin of porcelain begins

in China. For centuries, the Chinese were the only people who possessed the knowledge or skill to make it.

Porcelain dishes from China have long been a status symbol for the wealthy elites of the British Empire and later, Colonial America. And for us, everyone’s grandparents had a set of “Fine China.”

In a smart if not cynical marriage of cultures, Wicks created a suite of Porcelain Clay Pigeons as ornate and deliciously opulent as they were playfully collectible. The shooting range “skeets” are vestiges of our own ties to country and empire as well as the history of the medium itself.

Every piece of Wicks’ show gave evidence of his romanticism for the medium and a deep love for the beauty in mark-making. The closer one looks at each object the more ornamental detail can be discovered. For me this transcended fussiness and revealed a connection to the artists dialog with the post-contemporary conversation in art.

The show’s title, Punch Palace, was a reference to grand palatial estates and the privileged lives led by those inside the ornate wrought irons encircling them. Instead of a literal fence, Wicks gave us a chinheight row of only the lovely and dangerous pointed finials, leaving us to create the barrier in our minds, which worked beautifully, and was perhaps the strongest and most complex metaphor in the show.

Overall Punch Palace read like a 20th Century American poem. Stoic, yet sentimental. The longer one would linger and look, the more layers of clever contradictions lay bare. Everything about it felt classical while remaining relatable. •

Matthew Drennen Wicks is a full-time faculty member at University of Tampa College of Art and Design.

Five Years of Artistry at Brenda McMahon Gallery

By James Briggs

In just five years, Brenda McMahon Gallery has evolved from a local art gallery into a prominent regional destination for art enthusiasts. Through monthly First Friday Art Walk events and its accompanying Artist of the Month program, emerging and professional artists have been introduced to the St. Petersburg arts scene, and the gallery’s diverse roster of artists continues to flourish. Owner and ceramic artist Brenda McMahon’s leadership and mentorship of emerging artists have opened new avenues for artists of all ages and skill levels.

“My initial vision was that of a juried art show representing various artistic mediums in a gallery setting. We’ve accomplished that and our vision is expanding,” says McMahon.

The gallery recently announced its expansion into the adjoining commercial space on Gulfport’s Beach Boulevard previously occupied by Custom House Décor, and visitors to the gallery’s fifth anniversary celebration on May 3rd will get a look inside during a soft launch of the new space. The expansion doubles the amount of space the gallery will have to showcase the works of its artists, and exclusive series by some of its prominent artists are in progress for the new space.

The additional space also allows McMahon to showcase larger commissioned works and welcome custom clients into the gallery. McMahon’s custom work remains a driving force of her business.

“My local custom ceramic projects have been growing exponentially in both volume and size since I opened the gallery in 2019. This is probably my greatest joy and surprise,” she says. “A larger space will allow me to create larger works and welcome more custom clients into the gallery where we can take the time to review needs and plan for artwork in area homes. Right now, my personal work is booked out for four to five months and several of my artists are also busy creating custom pieces for collectors near and far."

While McMahon creates in the quiet of her beachside studio in Gulfport, she often recalls time spent in her native home, Rockaway Beach, as an ongoing inspiration for her creativity.

“My earliest memories are of earth, water, and salt air; at night, as I gazed out from the front porch, I saw a shimmering black skyline, not that of Man-

James is the founder of Carroway + Rose, a creative arts agency representing artists, galleries, museums, and creative small businesses throughout the Southeast.

hattan, but the vast expanse of the moonlit ocean. Now I use those same elements of earth, water, and salt air to express my life and experience through art.”

McMahon forms soft earth into subtle polished vessels and sculptural wall murals. Instead of using glazes on her vessels, she uses a Raku-alternative firing process and experiments with natural materials, polished porcelain, and the random markings of fire upon earth in a technique known as saggar firing. Like the unpredictability of waves chasing the shoreline, each saggar firing yields surprising results upon the surface of her vessels, meaning no two are ever alike.

Her sculptural wall murals have won awards and been commissioned by collectors from across the country for over 25 years and now adorn the walls of private and public collections throughout St. Petersburg. Before discovering Gulfport in 2008, McMahon built a rising career as an artist by showing her work at art shows across the country, consistently winning awards and building her client roster. The experience and skillful means developed during her art show career serve her well as a gallery owner.

After the opening of Brenda McMahon Gallery in 2019, McMahon began to focus on the opportuni-

ties she had available to help other artists advance in their own careers.

“As a gallerist, my vision of helping others make a living by sharing the essence of their art became something I could apply to my work,” says McMahon. “I’ve spent a great deal of time supporting and promoting emerging artists in a fine art environment, believing and showing them that their art can sustain them. Having a gallery has allowed me to help artists experience genuine growth in their careers.”

A series of Creative Pinellas Emerging Artists have had their public profile raised by invitations to show at Brenda McMahon Gallery, including Patricia Kluwe Derderian, Anna Ayres, Zoe Pappas, and Kimberly Engel. McMahon has also mentored multiple winners of Gulfport’s Rise & Shine Emerging Artist Grant program.

“Art is an expression of trust, love, and community,” continues McMahon. “My role as a gallery owner is to create a space that welcomes others to see that creativity is as important as food, air, and water. Our souls need nourishment, just as our bodies do, and art can be that nourishment. It’s important for emerging artists to know that it’s appropriate to feel this way.”

After celebrating five years of fine art and showcasing an expanded art space at the anniversary event, McMahon will spend much of her summer teaching in France. For several years, she’s taught in Italy, and her international workshops serve to renew her own artistic vision.

“Receiving a monthlong residency in France is a way to replenish my spirit of creativity. I will take a month and tap into my deep inner exploration, unencumbered by the marketplace or the demands of another. It is a gift of time and attention,” she says.

Teaching and showing abroad is a trait she shares with many of the gallery’s artists, including renowned Tampa glass artist Susan Gott and painters Christine Di Staola and Patricia Kluwe Derderian.

“One of the most profound parts of teaching abroad is the ability to teach people of all cultures and languages a common love of soft earth and the joys of ceramics. The language of creativity is a universal one unlimited by national borders. Gesture, laughter, and eyes are our guide.”

As Brenda McMahon Gallery celebrates its expansion and its five years as a centerpiece of the St. Petersburg Arts Scene, visitors can expect more award-winning artists, emerging artist showcases, gallery workshops, and themed events. They can also count on the consistency, creativity, and diversity of talent to continue to emanate from the gallery under McMahon’s leadership.

“This I know,” says McMahon in closing. “I love earth, nature, clay, and art, and I have created a life that supports all of that while growing my heart and expanding my circle around the world. And for that and more, I am eternally grateful.” •

Brenda McMahon Gallery is located at 2901 Beach Boulevard S. in Gulfport, FL. Interested parties are invited to visit BrendaMcMahonGallery.com and follow the gallery on social media @brendamcmahongallery for gallery news and events.

Ceramic Vessel by Brenda McMahon

Brenda McMahon

PLAN NOW Season Schedule

Fable

August 9 - September 8, 2024

By Doug DeVita

Who has the right to tell your story?

Fable explores the nature of memory through the eyes of two very different show business siblings. When one sister wants her version of events made legendary on the Broadway stage, the other is pulled into a tug-of-war over the truth of things long past. A fable about the making of a Broadway fable – the hit musical Gypsy. Sisters June Havoc and Gypsy Rose Lee’s loyalty to each other is tested in a mounting battle between fiction and truth. Fable marks the freeFall return of Emilee Dupré (Cabaret, The Turn of the Screw) as June Havoc.

Ken Ludwig’s Moriarty: A New Sherlock

Holmes Adventure

November 8 - December 15, 2024

By Ken Ludwig

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are back on the case! An investigation into the Bohemian king’s stolen letters cascades into an international mystery filled with spies, blackmail and intrigue. With world peace at stake, Holmes and Watson join forces with American actress Irene Adler to take down cunning criminal mastermind Professor Moriarty and his network of devious henchmen. Five actors play over 40 roles in this adventure that has more danger, more

laughter, more romance, and more mystery than our smash hit production of Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville. Eric Davis and Matthew McGee return to the freeFall stage as Holmes and Watson for a 6 week run!

Road Show

February 14 - March 16, 2025

Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim Book by John Weidman

Based on the story of Wilson and Addison Mizner

From the writing team that brought us Assassins and Pacific Overtures – Road Show is based on the true story of the Mizner Brothers. From the Alaskan Gold Rush in the 1890s to the Florida real estate boom in the 1920s, Road Show is the story of men and women in late nineteenth century America, willing to take risks to grab their piece of the American Dream. Spanning 40 years, Addison and Wilson Mizner are constantly looking for the next way to strike it rich. This quest turns into a test of morality and judgment for the two brothers that will change their lives in unexpected ways.

For Closure

April 11 - May 11, 2025

By Hannah Benitez

In this farce set in a small Florida seaside town, Raven and Amanda are trying to keep the family real estate agency afloat in trying times. When a

Subscriptions and single tickets are now on sale for freeFall’s 2024/2025 season. A world-premiere farce by Hannah Benitez, the return of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, a rarely produced musical gem from Stephen Sondheim, a new play about the epic feud between two showbiz sisters, and an exciting theatrical experience from the mind of Eric Davis makes up just some of the exciting programming Tampa Bay audiences can experience for as low as $29 a month. In addition to our season of shows, we have the return of freeFall’s popular Tandem Series of cabarets, concerts and special events.

nefarious local politician threatens to bring even more disruption to their lives, they must join forces with the enigmatic psychic, Camille Chevalier Milk to expose the true nature of this threat to the town before it’s too late. This over-the-top, tongue-in-cheek romp is a hilarious and satirical look at the foibles and hypocrisies of modern life, set on Florida’s Gulf Coast.

The House of Future Memory

June 13 - July 13, 2025

Devised by Eric Davis, the ensemble, and you

This surprising and innovative performance will bring together the talents and imagination of the performers with the dreams, fears and desires of the audience to create a unique evening of storytelling and theatre that can only happen once. Through improvisation, traditional storytelling, and innovative effects, the audience will be transported to an uncanny place where anything is possible – where dreams become real and the future looms like a memory waiting to take shape.

freeFall’s Tandem Series

Our Tandem Series keeps it fresh with an eclectic variety of experiences. From cabarets to film screenings, our special events mean there’s always something new to do at freeFall and it’s all included with your subscription. Audiences can look forward to the best

singers and musicians from Broadway and beyond. Drag superstar Varla Jean Merman also returns next season with her brand new show, The Errors Tour. Playwright Natalie Symons says “freeFall’s Tandem Series has quickly become the Joe’s Pub of Tampa Bay.”

Our NEW subscriptions are the best way to experience freeFall... One monthly price of $29 gains admission to all of our ticketed events from mainstage shows to Tandem Series cabarets to a multitude of fun community events and limited engagements. Return to mainstage shows multiple times with same-day rush privileges. (See website for full details.)

With at least 3 unique events per month, there's plenty to choose from to get the most out of your subscription.

We also offer a flexPass punchard subscription for those seeking a flexible way to use 6 admissions however they choose.

freeFall Theatre is located at 6099 Central Avenue in St. Petersburg. Subscriptions and single tickets are now on sale and can be purchased at freefalltheatre.com or by calling 727498-5205. All matinees at freeFall are at 2pm and all evening performances are at 7pm. Tickets $45 - $55 ($25 for youth under 18 and for all seats to previews) or included with your $29/ month subscription.

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THE APPRENTICE

EXCERPT FOR THE ARTISAN MAGAZINE

BY

PAUL WILBORN

Looking down at the chicken boiling in the stock pot, Katrina thought it could be Brian - if she had tweezed out all his hair and let his severed head soak overnight. The violet Rorschach splotch visible just below the bird’s waxy-white skin was where she cracked his brittle skull with the hardcover edition of The Collected Poems of William Butler Yeats, ending his shallow, privileged life.

I didn’t smack him. I smote him. I visited him disastrously. I struck him with passion and emotion. Smite. Smote. Smitten. It was Biblical!

After four years of poetry workshops Katrina couldn’t help herself. And almost eight months after picking up her BFA, definitions and synonyms still ticked through her brain like playing cards snapping against the spokes of a bike tire.

And she could turn almost anything into a symbol or a metaphor.

The boiling bird represented the death of her love affair but the diced tomatoes, celery and bell peppers floating alongside, their Crayola colors vivid, were the new life she was cooking up from the old.

“Ola, Katrina! Despierta mi pequeña soñadora! Wake up! Time to skim. Skim!”

Katrina snapped back from her revenge reverie and saw Maria miming a skimming motion with her cupped hand, the tips of her stubby fingers golden from dredging trout filets through flour, egg and spices.

Trout a la Rusa was the day’s special at La Septima Café.

Maria enjoyed it when she caught Katrina disappearing inside her head. After the first few times, she had dubbed her kitchen apprentice Mi Pequeña Soñadora, “my little dreamer.“

Katrina picked up the big spoon and began to skim off the mucus-colored bubbles of fat rising to the surface of the pot.

So much for poetic justice, Katrina thought, as she skimmed.

Brian was alive and probably driving a new girlfriend around the Detroit sub-

urbs in his black BMW while the chicken boiling in Ybor City would soon be deboned and spooned into a pan of rice yellowed with saffron and turmeric. Deboned.

There was a word waiting for a poem.

Brian, I de-bone you. I de-lete you. I de-stroy you

But there were no new poems.

Since the day she had awakened and found Brian’s goodbye note on her

From: Cigar City: Tales From a 1980s Creative Ghetto

Fiction Gold Medal, Florida Book Awards

writerly Southern towns of Oxford and New Orleans. As August gave way to September, they found themselves in a rent-by-the-week apartment in Ybor City.

Katrina imagined them as the Hemingways slumming in Paris. She loved the aging authenticity of the historic district, the poetry scene around the Three Birds Bookstore, and the exotic food, a mix of Spanish, Cuban and Italian dishes that had arrived with the

writing desk, along with a small stack of twenty-dollar bills, Katrina believed her muse had left town with him. She refused to write any sad love poems. She’d heard too many delivered by sensitive sophomores who turned a breakup with a horny frat boy into some very painful poetry:

Porcelain pillow blue veins drain love’s red remains going south down a corrugated river

Not that Brian was a college fling or horny frat boy.

Together most of their senior year at the University of Michigan, they had taken a post-graduate road trip to the

immigrants who built Ybor at the turn of the 20th century.

Part of her had always known Brian wasn’t a forever thing, no matter how many promises he whispered while they made love. He talked about becoming a writer, but the only thing he wrote were random entries in a journal he left open on the kitchen table:

October 12, 1985: Warm and windy today. Washed the car. Out of dental floss.

A finance major, he confessed he had come to her weekly poetry group thinking it would be a good place to meet girls.

“Will you dump me if I admit I didn’t get that poem you read?” he asked her, on the first night they spent at his off-campus apartment, a luxury

two-bedroom he had all to himself.

“Will you dump me if I admit I don’t really understand men?”

“Don’t worry. I’m not that complicated,” Brian replied.

She should have taken that as a warning. Instead, Katrina snuggled into him on sheets as crisp as fine parchment. He was tall and funny, and he smelled like a walk in the morning through an evergreen forest.

Katrina realized now that she was his gap year. His artsy experiment. He was always headed back to Bloomfield Hills where his father was a battery magnate. Or was it solenoids?

And Katrina was always going to be the daughter of a union carpenter and a high school guidance counselor from Flint. The academic scholarships, the poems and short stories published in obscure literary magazines couldn’t change those facts.

Brian had said as much in a note that was barely longer than his journal entries:

It’s not you. It’s not me. It’s the “us” that’s broken.

He added a shaky metaphor about two planets with briefly overlapping orbits or some crap like that.

After she tore Brian’s note into tiny pieces and flushed them down the toilet, Katrina let the shower pound her until the hot water ran out. Then she stood naked in front a mirror, noticing a thickness in her hips, a heaviness in her breasts she had never seen before.

If she had written about herself before the breakup, Katrina would have used a word like “willowy”: tall, slim, slender, svelte, lissome, long-limbed, graceful.

She wouldn’t use the word “beautiful”: attractive, pretty, alluring.

Her features were too sharp, her lips too thin for that. But she was longlegged and lean with a high-wattage smile and dark Joan Baez hair she let fall below her shoulders or wrapped in a loose knot around a single chopstick. She looked like a girl you might spot across the room at a smoky party in an artist’s loft.

Katrina still fit into her college uniform - vintage cotton dresses with flowing skirts and a sexy scoop at the neck, but the clothes were tighter. The road

Paul Wilborn Author & Executive Director at the Palladium Theater

trip, the hours in bed, the long lunches and dinners, the sheer happiness she had felt with Brian had settled itself on her body.

What was added by love is now weighing me down.

There was a poem there somewhere.

Her college girlfriends swore by “The Heartbreak Diet,” that sick-toyour-stomach ache guaranteed to drop all the happiness weight you picked up during a love affair. But after tossing in bed each night, her thoughts shifting from revenge to remorse, Katrina woke up ravenous.

Instead of paying her rent or buying a ticket home with the money Brian had left, she used it to eat her way through Ybor: Boliche, from the Colombia Restaurant; Crab Chilau, at the Seabreeze; and Picadillo, a fragrant Cuban stew of ground beef and tomatoes, with raisins for sweetness and olives for salt, from La Septima Café.

Katrina was savoring that dish when she met Santiago.

“I like a woman with a good appetite.”

The man standing over her corner table was tall and swarthy, with the thick curly hair of a teenager, but the fleshy look of a middle-aged man who had never missed a meal. His girth was partly camouflaged by a white guayabera, the loose-fitting Cuban dress shirts, with four front pockets, favored by Ybor businessmen of a certain age.

Katrina could smell mint after-shave and thought she saw makeup covering the craggy remains of teen-age acne.

“I am Santiago,” he said, his manicured, feminine hand settling on her shoulder. “I like to make up stories about my customers. It passes the time. Want to hear what I came up with for you?”

“I like a good story,” Katrina said, shifting a little, hoping he would get the hint and remove his hand.

“You are a beautiful young heiress from Manhattan on the run from a domineering father. You are hiding out in Ybor City pretending to be an artist, but secretly hoping you’ll meet the love of your life. How’s that?”

“You could tell all that just by looking at me?”

“It’s a gift.”

Katrina smiled up at Santiago like a teenage girl who had just been asked to the prom by the best-looking guy at school.

“I’m not looking for love, but I am looking for a waitress job. Any chance I could work here…for you?”

“You’ve waited tables before?”

“All through school,” Katrina lied.

Aside from keeping the house and making dinners for her dad and her younger brother after her mom died, Katrina’s work experience was wrapping Christmas presents each December at J.C. Penney.

But she wasn’t ready to go home. She needed to eat and pay the rent on her apartment, a light-filled one-bedroom above an art gallery on Seventh Avenue. And these exotic Ybor dishes –so different from any of her Midwestern meals - gave her the only joy she’d felt since Brian left.

Santiago told her to come back the next morning and wear black.

“If I could, I’d really love to learn how you make this,” she said, lifting her half-empty plate.

“I can teach you many things,” he said, his hand sliding slowly down her arm.

***

Florida is normally dry in October but 1985 was different. To Katrina the

Just after eight, she pushed open the heavy wooden door of La Septima Café, which took its name from the Spanish translation of Seventh Avenue. The place had plenty of Belle Reve about it Katrina thought.

Silver shafts of light, slicing through floor-to-ceiling windows, made the room shimmer like the inside of an antique jewelry box. Katrina saw windows framed in carved wood; a fresco of a pastoral Spanish village on the plaster ceiling; and marble floors in a grey and black geometric pattern that could have been lifted from an Escher lithograph.

The morning light also revealed jagged craters in the window frames where termites had dined; the fresco was faded, like a tattoo on an aging sailor; the floor bore the scuffs of a hundred thousand footfalls.

The word that clicked into her mind was “evanescence”: to slowly fade out of sight, memory, or existence.

The restaurant was empty, wooden

“Este cebolla is like a man. Thin skin. He thinks he’s deep, but each layer is just like the one before. And he will make you cry –absolutamente!”

dense charcoal clouds and daylong downpours that arrived the same week Brian left were simply the world bending to her mood.

But as she walked to work her first day, the sky was crystal blue and cloudless, the air cool and lifted on a soft breeze.

Turning slowly in circles to take in the day, as words and images danced in her head, Katrina didn’t notice she had drifted off the sidewalk and into the still-quiet street.

If Ybor City hadn’t existed, she thought, Tennessee Williams might have conjured it. The old world downtown, barely a mile from Tampa’s “American” downtown, was a red brick and wrought iron Belle Reve, clinging desperately to a gilded past, while fraying at the edges.

She thought of Santiago, a man she didn’t know, offering her a job.

“I have always depended on the kindness…”

A lone car, cruising slowly up Seventh, honked and Katrina leapt quickly onto the hexagonal block sidewalk.

and stained apron could have been wrapping a block of wood.

She was quietly crying.

“Are you okay?” Katrina asked.

Startled, the woman turned suddenly, wiping away some tears with the back of her hand. She didn’t speak, only glared at Katrina, her hair hidden inside a black net, her narrow lips pressed together.

“I’m Katrina. The new waitress? Santiago told me to be here at 10 but I wanted to come early. He told me……”

“My husband says a lot of things,” she said, her words coming out cold and deliberate.

“Your husband?”

“He also doesn’t say a lot of things.”

The woman’s face didn’t soften. Instead, she turned back to her chopping, the flesh of the onion giving way to her silver blade with a moist “KA-CHUNK.”

“Are you the chef? Your food…I mean, I wanted to work here because I fell in love with your food. I’ve never tasted anything like it.”

The woman turned back, fresh onion tears ringing her eyes.

“I’m a cook. Not a chef.”

Katrina flashed her best Midwestern smile.

“I’d love to know how you do what you do. If you’d teach me.”

“So you can steal mi esposo and take over my job?”

Four years of high school Spanish had been helpful since Katrina had moved to this place.

“I wouldn’t do either of those things,” Katrina said. “Besides, I’ve sworn off men,”

café chairs stacked upside down on the tables, but a harsh fluorescent glare spilled from an open door in back.

The door led into a narrow galley kitchen where a middle-aged woman was working under the buzz of a fluorescent fixture. Metal countertops ran along both walls, and an old gas stove, heavy as a floor safe, sat at the end, its white porcelain exterior stained yellow. Burners were lit under a stockpot and a large frying pan filled the room with the nutty aroma of sautéed garlic and olive oil. A single strand of hot mist escaped from the corner of the oven, rising like campfire smoke toward the pressed tin ceiling.

Katrina’s mind clicked through adjectives to describe the room: steaming, stifling, suffocating.

Yes, suffocating: to feel or cause to feel trapped and oppressed.

The woman at the counter was muscling a carving knife through a fat onion, her simple cotton dress soaked in sweat. Like the stove behind her, the woman was squat and solid. Her dress

“Por que?”

“I don’t know…they are…beyond my control. I don’t like that.”

The woman stared for a long moment at Katrina. Her face slowly unclenched and she almost chuckled.

She picked up a large onion and held it out in her palm.

“Este cebolla is like a man. Thin skin. He thinks he’s deep, but each layer is just like the one before. And he will make you cry – absolutamente!”

She held up the big knife.

“Mi nombre es Maria. Y tu?

“Katrina.”

“So Katrina, want to chop up a few men?”

“Oh yes, please!” •

The celebration of Cigar City's fifth anniversary will include summer and fall appearances at Tempus Projects, and the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts, both in Ybor City, New Tampa Performing Arts Center, Tombolo Books, St. Petersburg, and more. For information on times and dates visit www.wilbornwrites.com

"Indigo" Jones

'There is a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, ’tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come. The readiness is all’

Shakespeare

Just 101 days into this New Year, I find myself in a moment of extreme, delicious gratitude. I'm in the last week of directing Hamlet. The entire splendid ensemble is a gift. This will be my final production at Studio 620 as Artistic Director/ Founder. Dave Ellis and I, along with a host of intrepid volunteers started the Studio just shy of twenty years ago. It has become the longest job I have ever held! There is of course an inherent reluctance of folks of my generation (Baby Boomers) to relinquish the microphone, to take the side car, to primarily “get off the Stage!” And become as James Baldwin observed “witness". So for a variety of compelling circumstances, not the least of which I will be turning seventy this August, I really just want to approach this next iteration of my life essentially as a writer, chronicler, a scribe... as a witness. The “Devin” that bifurcates the “Bob” and the “Jones” is Gallic and it means poet or scribe... I may have just enough time to become both, that is the intention at any rate and oh so "devoutly to be wished” I have spent over fifty

Devin Jones

years being a peripatetic theatre worker from Memphis TN, to Ireland to Seattle WA. I first worked as an actor, assistant director then as a writer and eventually as a director. And as I gradually came to understand most of the difficult circumstances we face on the daily good or bad are opportunities in life to just lean in. I’ve apprehended far more than I have comprehended. However in the quarter century I have resided in St Petersburg the comprehension has greatly increased as well as the listening. I suspect that is why the fall of the sparrow is not quite so alarming. I get to lean in. For all the oft quoted big stuff in Shakespeare’s Hamlet... “to be or not to be”, “to thy own self be true”, “beggar that I am, I’m even poor in thanks, but I thank you”. The entire text is a Britannia of ideas to aspire to and thoughts to live by. The line “the rest is silence” becomes the antithesis of how I am "persevering” to embrace the very next decades of my life... hopefully there will be little creative “rest” and next to zero silence. Somewhere I read, “Brevity is the soul of wit"

Bob

Rediscovering Joy: The Artistic Journey of Rick Yearick

“The world is but a canvas to our imagination”

– Henry David Thoreau

“The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives.”

– Albert Einstein

By Mary Khosh and John Curtis

At the age of 87, Rick Yearick is proving that retirement is not the end of creativity. It’s a new beginning. After a distinguished career which included being director of creative arts at Hallmark, where two of his paintings hung in the office of his boss and owner Don Hall, Yearick has now traded corporate boardrooms for the quiet solitude of his studio in the Art House at Westminster Shores. His passion for painting rekindled, he is now creating with unbridled joy what he loves and more importantly what he wants.

Yearick’s journey began with a scholarship to the Columbus College of Art and Design, then further study at Ohio State, Chicago Art Institute, and Kansas City Art Institute. Marriage and 3 children pushed him into taking the commercial path to provide security for his family. His impressive list of companies started with 3M, Helene Curtis, Crayola, leading to Hallmark where he managed a staff of 100 artists. He also started his own business, ArtMakers International! (AMI), which is an agency representing independent artists. He calls it “licensing for the little guy”.

“I lucked out by coming to St. Petersburg to be close to my daughter. I found lots of good artists in our community.” Yearick now spends his days surrounded by vibrant colors. “I paint more colorfully than things are,” his work eliciting our ‘child within’, the same playful fun one feels being with him. A sense of joyful exuberance. Faces are blue and mountains multicolored checks and squares.

The Thoreau quote above appears on his card and somewhat tells it all. His inspiration is “what I have seen and

where I have gone. The people I meet. I have travelled a lot.” His canvas is the world.

Rick’s painting style is interpretive and subjective. “I don’t stray too far away from a subject. I take a certain artistic license with color, but I leave it up to the viewer to interpret.”

He used to take commissions until a woman requested a painting with “a woman, a dog, and the Statue of Liberty.” At that very moment he decided “I am going to paint what I like.” “When you reach a certain age, you are not as hungry.” Now, it’s the sheer joy of putting brush to canvas, letting his imagination flow, 4-5 days a week. You will, however, meet him volunteering at the Dali on the third floor helping people understand what they are seeing. “And where the washrooms are,” he twinkles.

His talent has not gone unnoticed. He is currently participating in 2 art shows in St. Petersburg at Five Deuces Art Galleria and Suntan Art Center. Visitors to the shows can spot his work for his unique style of using vibrant geometric shapes as background for the subject. His paintings evoke a feeling of fun and playfulness.

His family plays an integral role in his artistic journey. His daughter is running AMI and his son manages his website: rickyearickfinearts.com where visitors can explore his portfolio and learn more about his creative process.

As Rick continues to paint, he leaves behind a legacy of color and expression. His art reminds us that retirement is not a time to slow down; it’s an opportunity to rediscover ourselves and our passions. •

John Curtis and Mary Khosh are supporting the St. Petersburg Art’s Alliance and promoting the benefits of arts for seniors in the community. They are working to encourage St. Pete’s artistic seniors to join the St. Pete Arts Alliance.

Rick Yearick

Fish Tale Landing

Miss Exotica

Prism

Three Sailboats

Double Winger

Q&A

Ralph Benton ART COLLECTOR

How long have you been collecting art and how big a part of your life is it?

I started buying the occasional print probably forty years ago. These days I like to connect with the artists, and commissioning pieces is a lot of fun. I’m always looking for new pieces, whether paintings, ceramics, or glassware. Diane and I go to a lot of art fairs and exhibitions, and several times a year we’ll take a weekend road-trip to an out-oftown art show.

How many pieces are in your collection? Are you always looking to add to your collection?

There are maybe thirty paintings and prints on the walls, and another fifty plates, glasses, bead art, and other random objects scattered around the house. I’m always looking! Good and fun art pops up in the most unexpected places. I have pieces from five-dollar art vending machines.

When your collection becomes “large enough” what do you do?

Start passing it along! Recently my youngest son was visiting, and I sent him home with several handmade plates and bowls that we hadn’t used in awhile. Sometimes a particular painting or print may go into “storage” in the garage.

What type of art do you like to collect?

My centerpieces are oil paintings. There are a half-dozen food still lifes in the kitchen, and assorted moody landscapes in different rooms. I have an “apocalypse corner,” with various grim and amusing imagery. I also pick up ceramics and glassware, which are an easy and inexpensive way to get into collecting original work. All of our bowls, plates, glassware, etc. are handmade.

Are you an artist yourself? Ever? Want to be?

I’d like to learn to draw. I think drawing is to the visual arts as the piano is to music. In the meantime I write genre short stories that have found the light of day in various online journals.

Do you have a favorite artist?

Diane creates wonderful abstract work. I’ve picked up several pieces from Robert Goodlett, who is based in Ocala. Another landscapist I like is Charles Gatewood, who lives in Georgia and unfortunately doesn’t make it down to central Florida often enough.

Could you define and elaborate on the reasons you collect?

I collect for a lot of reasons. Art is fundamental to the human experience (seeing the 13,000 year-old paintings in Niaux cave, France, was unforgettable), and collecting is a way of being a part of that incredible story. I enjoy meeting the artists, and learning something of the stories behind the paintings and objects. Lastly, a thing of beauty, as has been said, is a joy forever, and having beautiful things around you is enriching and uplifting.

How do you feel about new technologies like NFT’s and AI (artificial intelligence)?

Have you ever bought an NFT? Would you buy a piece of AI art?

NFTs are pretty dodgy, and there’s a legitimate concern that they are primarily used to launder money. In any case, I buy art to have something beautiful and fun in my everyday life, and NFTs are more like an investment you never see. I have bought an AI piece, from the Five Deuces Galleria, that hangs in the aforementioned apocalypse corner. AI is, to me, simply another tool that artists can use to create art. The big difference between AI and digital tools is that, for the first time, the artist doesn’t create the initial image. From Ansel Adams to anyone using Photoshop, the artist

creates (or finds) a first image that is then further manipulated. But an AI artist does not create that initial image, but only describes or requests it. It’s somewhat akin to being an art director. If you want to ponder something really disruptive, consider AI paintings made with a 3D printer!

What are the particular qualities, styles, etc. you look for when buying art?

While I do have favorite genres and styles, I’m open to anything that sparks and lodges in my brain. Often I’ll see a piece and walk away, then realize that I’m still thinking about it. That’s usually the sign that I should buy it.

From a buyer’s perspective would you have any advice for artists trying to sell their work?

When you jump into the marketplace, bring your very best stuff. Look at your work and ask, Would I want to buy this? Stand out with quality, not just innovation. Just because no one else is using chicken wire and dryer lint doesn’t make your work good. Finally, and this is just me, when I’m in your booth please let the art speak for itself. If I have a question about the art I will find you.

How do you feel art contributes to humanity?

Art takes us out of our daily concerns and expresses to us different ways of thinking and being. If nothing else, art gives us something to talk about.

Additional thoughts for collectors or artists?

For collectors, nothing sharpens your taste like spending your own money! Yes, you will make purchases that don’t work out. It’s part of being a collector.

For artists, don’t give up! Living the creative life requires the tenacity of a cockroach.

ARTIST REGISTRY

LOCAL PROFESSIONAL ARTISTS

Mahaffey