Judy Pickett is an Orlando based artist who often shows her work at Soft Water Gallery in St. Pete, Florida. Her beautiful cyanotypes are painted with encaustic to give them added texture.
Jun 292023
Jun 212023
These days it’s hard not to think sometimes about the end of the world. But have you started putting together a plan? Thought about who would be good in a crisis? Put together a pros and cons list of your friends, family and acquaintances? Wondered if things would actually be better?
Finn Schult’s current exhibition Everything You’ve Ever Wanted at Gallery 114 at Hillsborough Community College’s Ybor City location, presents an interesting take on the current state of things for those with the end on their minds. It includes paintings, animal traps, an ipod and walkie talkie, as well as a book containing photos, prepper information, journal entries, drawings, and some pros and cons for the people in his life, including his mom. The paintings are titled “L’appel Du Vide” a French phrase meaning “the call of the void” or the urge to jump when you are standing in a high place.
From the gallery’s website-
Everything You’ve Ever Wanted is a solo exhibition of new work by Finn Schult (b. 1993, Naples, FL) reflecting on the inevitability of the end of the world and the fantasy of apocalypse as catalyst for utopia. Schult’s multimedia series exists as fragments, sketches and interludes distilled from an otherwise deranged web of theories. At times, the artworks presented in Gallery114@HCC feel terroristic, violent and unbearably bleak–at other times, they remind us of the beauty inherent in loss, longing and love. Schult’s work yearns for a world that doesn’t yet exist and mourns for a world that isn’t yet gone, answering the cry, “How will I ever get out of this labyrinth?” with “The only way out is through.”
There is also a video in the exhibition, Where r u rn? which mixes a variety of imagery with a bit of author and mystic Terence McKenna’s 1999 final interview where he discusses “the fire in the madhouse at the end of time”- the possibility of the craziness in the world being a sign of the dying of our species.
This exhibition closes on 6/22/23.
Jun 212023
Center work by Laura De Valencia
Morean Arts Center in St. Pete, Florida, is currently showing Fresh Squeezed 7, their annual exhibition of emerging artists in Florida. It’s a great opportunity to see some of the best artwork being done by local artists. The exhibition closes 6/22/23.
From the the Morean Arts Center’s press release-
As always, our selection panel culled over 120 applications from across the state, narrowing the exhibition down to the six artists featured here. It’s always a joyful and heartbreaking process, seeing so much inspiring good work and only having a limited amount of space in which to show it all.We were looking for diversity in medium, in ideas, and in geographical location, all of which somehow comes together to form a delightful, cohesive whole.
While we don’t necessarily plan it that way, themes and commonalities do emerge among the artists selected for the exhibition. We’re happy to announce this is the first year that we have an ALL FEMALE line up. And due to the inclusive interpretation we use to define an emerging artist (no previous solo shows in Florida), you’ll find artists here who are still pursuing their MFAs (KJ Skidmore and Leeann Rae) AND artists who are returning to their first love of art after finding fulfillment in decades of other related careers (Latonya Hicks and Deborah W. Perlman).
Other themes you may notice as you peruse the galleries are the inventive (and exuberant!) use of materials. Denise Treizman and Latonya Hicks both incorporate cast off, recycled and vintage materials in their dimensional wall work. While Denise’s process is more spontaneous and Latonya’s is deliberate and measured, they both create joyful works of art that invite contemplation and perhaps a spark of recognition from the viewer.
KJ Skidmore and Laura De Valencia both deal with contemporary issues and pop culture in their work, though to wildly different effect. KJ’s humorous mixed media paintings address the notion of the male gaze, and the women who must endure it. Laura’s installations use fashion culture as a jumping off point to raise questions about international stereotypes and the borders (both visible and not) that immigrants have to experience on a daily basis.
Both Leeann Rae and Deborah W. Perlman create work that challenge the viewer to look longer, and to think deeper. With their disparate materials (Leeann with soft pastel and Deborah with cut paper), they raise notions of space, whether physical or mental, real or imagined, in the present or a memory from the past.
KJ Skidmore “Squeeze ‘n’ Block”, Acrylic and coffee
KJ Skidmore
KJ Skidmore “Angel’s Bar”, Acrylic, fabric, trim, paste and wood paper
The work above is by Tampa based artist KJ Skidmore.
Morean Arts Center’s information about the artist-
KJ’s current work is based in painting/drawing that extends into3-D space through multimedia installation. Her immersive spaces are chaotic and aggressive, but at the same time alluring. She works within her own bizarre and disjointed narratives and themes containing warped textual elements, strange cartoon characters, and color palettes that are both grimy and fluorescent. Her material use is variable and may include masses of hair clumped together with canned beets, pink stained carpet, fabrics, wood, plaster, teeth, rain jackets, and Smurf-themed objects.
KJ’s painted series Burger Time caricatures leering male clientele as flat, monster-like cartoons that interact with a staring waitress to explore gendered tropes and forms of voyeurism. This series reconstructs reality in relation to being female by presenting experiences like getting stared at or groped within a hokey themed attraction called “Burger Time” restaurant. Her series is meant to revolt the viewer through acknowledging the male gaze, while also celebrating its trashiness and the culture surrounding it. She uses humor to poke fun at this harmful and uneven power dynamic. The series presents this sickening concept through more palatable presentation such as expressive cartoon figures and bright colors.
KJ is from Gainesville, FL, but was living on the West Coast until recently. She is back in Florida pursuing an MFA at USF in Tampa.
For more of the artists in the show, continue to the next page.
Jun 102023
Ketsy Ruiz, “El Yunque in my Corazón I and II”, acrylic on canvas
Work by (L to R)- Chloe Lewis, Kyra Connolly, Ketsy Ruiz. and Joerod Collier
Photos by Joerod Collier, Ceramics by Babette Herschberger
Currently on view at Parachute Gallery in Ybor City, Tampa, is the group exhibition Buy Me Flowers & Call Me Pretty. The show celebrates the beauty of nature and features seven artists with Florida roots.
The artists included are-
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Joerod Collier aka Surreal Styles (Tampa, FL)
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Kyra Connolly (St. Petersburg, FL)
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Babette Herschberger (St. Petersburg, FL)
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Chloe Lewis (Brooklyn, NY)
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Jenn Ryann Miller (Tampa, FL)
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Ivan Riascos (Apopka, FL)
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Ketsy Ruiz aka Sketzii (Largo, FL)
This show is on view until 6/25/23.
Feb 252023
Christopher Skura, “Keep the Dream from Ending”, 2022
Christopher Skura, “Keep the Dream from Ending”, 2022 (detail)
Christopher Skura “Sketchbook Drawings”
Christopher Skura, “The Turnaround”, 2021; “Sketchbook Drawings”; “Head Cult”, 2022
Christopher Skura, “Story Bored (Cast of Characters)”, 2021
Christopher Skura, “Gob Stopper”, 2018
Christopher Skura’s exhibition The Beginner’s Mind (starting over after Covid) at Dunedin Fine Art Center is an interesting selection of his drawings, paintings and sculpture.
The artist’s statement on his work from the gallery wall-
Working in my Woodstock, NY studio during the 2020 Covid pandemic influenced my creative process by making my working method more direct and immediate. I have begun a routine of drawing everyday in sketchbooks. Out of these small drawings have come many sculptural ideas. Each imagined form serves as a kind of placeholder and represents someone we have lost. Drawing quickly with paint marker, my natural, hardwired shapes have become more pronounced. The goal is to work with a “beginner’s mind” and utilize the flow-state to achieve a direct expression.
All of my work comes out of extensive sketching and drawing. Very rarely do I recreate exact drawings as sculpture but I use them as a spring board to begin experimenting. Most of these drawings are small and done very quickly. By hesitating less, I have focused on completing an artwork in one or two sessions as opposed to laboring over it. The surfaces on the new works have become less concerned with refinement and I feel this has created a warmer and more active surface.
The style of my most recent artworks is influenced by the “street” art that blanketed my New York City neighborhood during lockdown. The images reference psychology, structural systems, emergence theory and the architecture of the human body. Improvisation and freehand drawing are emphasized for phenomenological effect and I try to capture the speed of living in Lower Manhattan. Some of my forms are organic and plant-like but others suggest the machinery of a man-made environment. This duality reflects my visual experiences growing up in the lush Florida landscape and my current life living in New York City.
The forms speak to the effects of time on the human body and the natural world. Each work imagined is a small psychological portrait of something struggling to survive or already gone.
Jan 312023
Emily Stehle’s studio
John Gascot’s studio
Tricia Lynn’s studio
Pictured above are three of the artists who have studios at The Studios @5663 in Pinellas Park, Florida. Emily Stehle and John Gascot were part of the recent Arts Annual 2022 exhibition at Creative Pinellas. Tricia Lynn is a wildlife oil painter and teacher.
On the fourth Saturday of the month Pinellas Arts Village hosts a block party with vendors, open galleries and studios, crafts, live music, and food. It’s a fun event that offers the opportunity to check out the neighborhood and see what local artists are working on.
Jan 312023
Pictured at the top is local artist Van Der Luc’s mural for the 2022 edition of SHINE Mural Festival in St. Pete.
He is one of the artists at The Studios @5663 in Pinellas Park. It’s a great place to see what local artists are making and working on.
On the fourth Saturday of the month Pinellas Arts Village hosts a block party with vendors, open galleries and studios, crafts, live music, and food. It’s a fun event that offers the opportunity to check out what local artists are working on.
Dec 302022
Xenobia Bailey’s mosaic tile work Morning Stars, 2018, in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida. The work was commissioned by the St. Petersburg Arts Commission.
From the information plaque-
Bailey primarily works in fiber arts, creating crocheted mandalas which consist of colorful concentric circles and repeating patterns. For Morning Stars, Bailey crocheted several mandalas of brightly-colored fiber medium and worked with her fabricators to create the design digitally to be applied as a mosaic design.
Dec 222022
Floating Candy Canes, 2021, from Nancy Cohen’s 2021 exhibition at Morean Arts Center, This Is How I Got So Fat.
From the Morean Arts Center website about the artist and exhibition-
Nancy Cohen is a classical oil painter in the chiaroscuro style of the Old Masters, but with a contemporary twist. She paints the things that inspire her: light filled florals, still life, and landscapes. At the top of the list recently is food, especially desserts: cakes, cupcakes, ice cream cones, and candy. She likes juxtaposing her serious masterly painting technique against such a frivolous and fun subject.
Her current series, entitled “This is How I Got So Fat,” although whimsical, underlines a serious message. Nancy believes that celebrating something that many people find shameful makes a powerful statement about acceptance of differences and the ability to be confident without having to be perfect.
About this body of work, Nancy says: “I think ‘art’ can seem serious and intimidating for many people. I hope that my work brings humor and humanity that can make art more approachable and accessible. What could be more fun than seriously executed paintings of fluffy desserts and juicy fruits with maybe even some gum balls thrown in? One thing I’ve learned as an artist – everyone loves a painting of a giant donut!”
Dec 202022
“Call Me Mrs. Mary E. Pleasant: The Midas Touch” by L’Merchie Frazier
Pictured above is a portrait of entrepreneur, civil rights activist and benefactor, Mary Ellen Pleasant who made a name and a fortune for herself in Gold Rush era San Francisco. Her timeline from 1814 to 1904 begins in racial slavery as an indentured servant girl with no formal education. She ascended to a self-made millionaire, amassing a fortune in her lifetime of over $30 million, ($900 million today).
Organized by historian, artist, and curator Dr. Carolyn Mazloomi, “Black Pioneers: Legacy in the American West” at The James Museum of Western and Wildlife Art, consists of 50 pictorial quilts created by members of Women of Color Quilters Network, a group founded by Mazloomi in 1985.
Mazloomi’s statement at the exhibition entrance-
American history is incomplete without the stories of African American men and women, from our enslaved ancestors to our societal challenges. The role of African Americans in the movement toward westward expansion has been largely overlooked. This exhibition of original pictorial quilts brings into focus the rich and diverse stories and achievements of Blacks in American western history. The timeline begins with Esteban’s 1528 arrival in the West and continues through the Civil Rights Movement.
At the end of Reconstruction in the South, discrimination and segregation caused African Americans to seek opportunities where there was less prejudice. In the 1800s, they moved by the thousands to the American West. Some went West as slaves, while free African American men joined the United States Army or became ranch hands, fur traders, cowboys, or miners.
Why quilts? Quilts and quilt making are important to American, and Black culture in particular. The art form was historically one of the few mediums accessible to marginalized groups to tell their own story, to provide warmth for their families, and to empower them with a voice through cloth. Using quilts to tell these stories accentuates the intersections of African Americans in the Western frontier while at once informing about the art form and its role in Black history. It is this often unknown and underappreciated shared reality that must be voiced if we are ever to truly value the unique contributions diverse groups make to the fabric of our nation.
Two more selections from the exhibition are below, although it was very hard to choose which quilts to highlight- there are so many great ones to choose from.
“A Good Soldier: Thomas C. Fleming, America’s Longest Serving Black Journalist” by Rosy Petri
At the time of his retirement in 1997, California journalist Thomas C. Fleming was the nation’s oldest Black journalist with the longest consecutive period of publication.
Information from the Museum’s wall plaque on Stagecoach Mary–
Mary Fields- also known as Stagecoach Mary, Black Mary and White Crow-became a Wild West legend because she was the second woman and the first African American woman star route mail carrier in the United States.
Born into slavery and freed after the Civil War, she worked as a servant and laundress for families on riverboats before moving to Montana in 1885. A decade later she became a star route carrier, delivering mail using a stagecoach. She drove the 15-mile route from Cascade to Saint Peter’s Mission, Montana, from 1895 to 1903. Nicknamed Stagecoach Mary, she was known for her reliability and speed.
The six-foot-tall Fields was a quick-shooting and hard drinking mail carrier who wore men’s clothing and flaunted a revolver and a rifle. Locals praised her kindness and generosity, and schools in the town of Cascade were closed each year to celebrate her birthday. Cascade’s mayor granted her an exemption to enter saloons after Montana passed a law forbidding women from entering these establishments.
The impressive quilts on view educate viewers with stories of individuals and events in African American history that may not have previously been familiar, and present new perspectives on those that are. It’s a wonderful way to utilize a visual medium to captivate, inform, and often inspire.
This exhibition closes on 1/8/2023.