Art Bits

By Lynn Taylor

Art is in bloom with the Food Forest Garden Art Exhibit on Saturday, March 6 in the Clymer Park Food Forest Garden. Nineteen local artists will show their work and participate in a mini-mural art benefit as one of 14 gardens in the Pink Flamingo Garden Tour.

Artists range from ages 7 to 75, in mediums that include paint, mosaic, wood, cloth and found materials. Many familiar names will contribute, and the fifth-grade Sunflower School students will show new paintings inspired by the theme “How does your garden grow?”

The event runs from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and will also feature a seed giveaway, tours of the Gulfport Food Forest at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m., and a plant sale where shoppers have the option to plant their purchase in the food forest.

On Friday night, March 5, from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., Artful Earthscapes/

Pitzen Studios, 1301 49th St. S, kicks off a preview of the featured art work. Shoppers can bid to purchase art in the silent auction and enjoy music, food and fellowship.

For more, check out fb.com/gulfportfoodforest or visit eatbegrow. com.

Gulfport’s Got Art in the Yard

Karen Behmke Love, Jill Rice and Margo Dalgetty, working with Gulfport Councilmember April Thanos, took an idea to help all Gulfport artists and made it into a reality with this month’s Art in the Yard.

The first of a series of quarterly events was approved by the City of Gulfport for March 27, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at various locations throughout Gulfport. Some locations also feature local musicians at their stops. Biking and walking is encouraged.

All Gulfport artists are invited to participate in this community art event, either in their own yards or in others. The only criteria is that each piece be an original work, not resale pieces.

“Artists can share yard space. When they fill out the application to be on the map showing all locations, they should put the exhibition address rather than their own. Groups of artists may appeal to shoppers for convenience,” says Dalgetty. “Sign up, save the date and start creating.”

Get the signup form, including a map of locations, at mygulfport.us/ Gulfport-art-in-the-yard. The city will provide a list of all the address, to be published in the Gabber on March 25.

For details and more information, check out the Art in the Yard on Facebook.

First Friday Art Walk

This month’s First Friday Art Walk, in Gulfport March 5 at 5 p.m., features 15 emerging and professional artists, including painters, jewelers and fiber artists, and numerous Art- Jones artists, including Diane Bragg, Berkeley Grimball and Elizabeth Neily.

The featured artist of the month at Brenda McMahon Gallery is Janet Ruppel whose figurative expressionism in modern vivid colors includes oil, charcoal and acrylics.

More at visitgulfportflorida.com/ first-friday-art-walk.

Mural artist Kiersty Long's rendering for her piece of the garden mural in the Food Forest Garden Art Exhibit at Clymer Park.

Kiersty Long