Chalk Art

Always fun.

Empty Bowls

For months, potters, teachers, students and other volunteers make bowls.  Last Saturday the bowls were available in Naples' Cambier Park for purchase.  More than fifty restaurants donated soups.

 The whole event is designed to raise money to combat hunger.  

And the event raises LOTS of money.

Erica is a Bowl Sponsor.  That means she contributed in advance of the event to fund the purchase of clay for the bowls and other needed materials. 

Megan is a 100 Bowler, meaning she made at least 100 bowls.

Representatives of the restaurants stand in a very long line doling out the soup.

The park is always packed.

 A row of potters demonstrates bowl-making, to get a start on the bowls for next year.

There is a silent auction for fancier bowls and other contributed items.

Sun Bather

A big alligator found a good place to sun bathe near the 18th tee box.

I came back with a camera and a long lens.

More Artists

Today I will finish up with the artists I met at last Saturday's open studio day.

Diane and her husband work together.  She does the painting, he works with metal. 

Joel is a retired dentist who has also made carved stone sculptures for more than 50 years. 

Libbie makes gorgeous beaded jewelry.

Holly has graphics design training.  Today she does pop art.

Christine is a writer, editor and painter of abstracts.  She also makes bulbs painted from the inside.

Laurel moved recently to Naples after several years in the Caribbean.

Michaela paints and teaches.  We saw her two years ago after a previous open studio day.

And Michaela's studio mate Leigh does rozome paintings.  

Rozome is a Japanese batik technique that accommodates shading.

Arts on Fire Studio & Gallery

Arts on Fire has a half dozen artists.

Lynn Miller works in pastel.

She is President of the Southwest Florida Pastel Society.

Donna Hope paints big and colorful flowers.

Andre Spatz is a professional photographer who likes Photoshop manipulation of his images.

Reba George and her ever-present little dog took a break from painting.

And Jane Huggins is a watercolor artist.

Tammra

Tammra Sigler is an artist, printmaker, teacher and mentor.  I walked into her studio on an open studios day.  She saw my camera and invited me out back where she teaches and paints.

Tammra thought -- correctly -- that the tubes of paints, brushes and palettes 

might make for interesting photographs.

Tammra does good work and has a lively personality.  A very cool woman.

Stacy Jo

Most of the artists spent their time talking with prospective buyers during the open studio day.

Stacy Jo greeted folks as they walked in, but she kept on painting.

Until I coaxed her into posing.

Dennis, Dennis . . . and Victoria

I visited artists' studios last Saturday.

Dennis's art teacher said he should become an artist and his math teacher said engineer.

He chose engineering and became CEO of a Fortune 500 company.  

A decade ago someone asked Dennis what he did when not working.  He answered, "I like to draw" though he had not drawn in decades.  Dennis picked up a pen and started drawing.  He hasn't stopped.

This Dennis was three years ahead of me in college.  (Small world.)  He started at IBM, heard that bond traders were making good money, so he moved to New York and became a junk bond trader.

These days Dennis travels and takes photographs.  Sounds familiar to me.

Victoria had a long and successful career as an interior designer but she wanted to paint.

So, now she does.  And loves it.

Want to See a Fortune in Naples?

This large empty lot on Fifth Avenue South is not for sale.  Whoever owns it
is sitting on multiples of millions of dollars for the land alone.

 
It is one house from Naples Beach, at the west end of Naples' best street for restaurants, shops, parades, festivals and some upscale residences, yet far enough away from the parts of Fifth Avenue that are jammed with tourists and people watchers.  

Cattle Drive

Punta Gorda has many wonderful murals.  

My favorite is this mural of a cattle drive on the side of a law office.  Florida has always had lots of cattle.  In the 19th century, the cattle were driven from inland to the Gulf of Mexico coast,
places like Punta Gorda, from which they were shipped to Cuba and on to Europe. 

Monday Mural.