Start Spreading the News, I'm Leaving... Tomorrow!

YES! I want to be a part of it--- NY, NY! And with the help of the wonderful Pinellas County Cultural Affairs Department, I am leaving tomorrow for a week of studying and creating art in New York City.

For those of you who did not already know, I was awarded an Individual Artist's Development Grant through the Cultural Affairs Department of Pinellas County, Florida for Cycle 2, 2008.

What this means to me is that for a whole week I will be able to fully devote myself to taking classes, attending life drawing sessions, making art in the city, and viewing and studying Public Art there- a big interest of mine.

I feel so fortunate to live in a county and state where the arts and artists are valued and supported.

Did you know that whenever one of the Florida- State of the Arts license tags are sold in Pinellas, $20.00 comes back to Pinellas County to help promote the Arts locally? Some of the funds are then allocated for grant monies to help artists further enhance or advance professional development here in Pinellas County. This is what is making it possible for me to take this trip. I know that I will reap many professional benefits for years to come by being able to have this week to enhance my skills as an artist, as well as learn more about how my own talents could be used to create public art in the future.

I have a jam-packed agenda for the week, visiting several different areas in Manhattan as well as the boroughs to view public art. I am also taking several days of painting sessions with artist, David Pena, life drawing sessions at Spring Studio in Soho and at the Society of Illustrators, keeping a sketchbook of my New York art week that I can use as a tool in the drawing classes I teach, and visiting museums and galleries, some where I will also sketch what I see.

If you e-mail me this week or comment on my blog, I won't be able to respond, but it is for very good reason. I am purposefully not bringing a computer to New York because I am wanting to soak up the experience and get the most possible from it. I don't want to distract myself with e-mailing, blog posts or uploading photos. Just know that I will have lots of great stuff to share when I return.

So until then-
Ciao for now!

The St. Pete Crawl

YAY! The St. Pete Crawl was a success, and a lot of fun for the folks that made it out for the evening. A big thanks goes out to both Chris Jenkins, St. Pete artist and resident whose blog is here, and the lovely Jo Ellen Schilke at the funkadelic Globe Coffee Lounge for making the arrangements and setting it all up for us to enjoy.

I headed down to downtown St. Pete with my 11-year-old daughter, Kayli, and we had a nice time catching up with the other folks who came out for the crawl, as well as -of course- drawing!

A good friend of mine, artist Brian Young-who co-created the Peace Be Still mural with me at Unity Church of Palm Harbor- came down with his daughter Kelly, who is an amazing talent, and Kayli and I had fun sketching in fairly close proximity to them all evening.

Kelly and Kayli persuaded us to try out the somewhat locally famous "red chairs" for size. Artist Douglas Kornfeld created these whimsical interactive sculptures which are located in the lawn of the St Petersburg Judicial center at 545 First Avenue North. The piece is titled Face the Jury. Here are some pics of Brian and the girls in the red chairs.... Kayli mentioned that she had always wanted to climb up on them, so I am glad we had some part in helping her achieve one of her stepping-stone goals in life. Just one more fun "to do" we could help her check off her quite-long list.

I seemed to be more into chatting with the other artists and dreaming about my upcoming trip to New York then drawing, but I managed to squeak these two spreads out during the crawl.

I know that I will drawing and painting my brains out for one glorious week beginning tomorrow, so I didn't worry that I lacked focus. More on my NY trip in the next post...

I tried to manage a few quick sketches while in the Globe, but I was distracted and my subjects were moving, of course. I just didn't feel up to the challenge of working too hard on them, so we moved on down the street after Kelly finished her coffee.

I settled in at the old Post Office, an open-air portico surrounding the post office building. This building has a lot of architectural detail- some tiling and ornate columns. I worked on capturing a bit of the detail, but again, being distracted by my thoughts, I didn't get into it too heartily.

We then moved on to the Mirror Lake area, where I settled down on the lawn in front of the Library. I worked a little on the building and also the statue that was out in front.

The sun was starting to go down and our stomachs were starting to grumble, so we got up and headed back to the Globe for a bite to eat. I had the Eggplant Parmesan wrap and Kayli had the Veggie Quiche- both good and affordable too. With our drinks, we spent only about $13 bucks total for dinner. Hooray for the Globe, still offering eats that don't break the bank.

With our sketchbooks in hand, we left the Globe to head back up to north Pinellas. The crawl was good, and we look forward to the next one! Y'all should think about coming on out for the next one we do. Keep posted, we'll announce something soon for September.