The Bible: The Complete Word of God (Abridged) Megan Kissinger

Spotlight on the January Estero Fine Art Show

The next edition of the Estero Fine Art Show takes place on the weekend of January 6 & 7, 2018 at the Miromar Design Center. On this page you will find articles announcing the festival, its related youth art competition, and the artists participating in both.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Hot Works announces professional winners of 21st Bi-Annual Estero Fine art Show (01-13-18)

Hot Works’ 21st bi-annual Estero Fine Art Show took place on January 6 and 7 at Gulf Coast Town Center. Juried by art professionals, this art show has been voted three years running as one of the top 100 art fairs in the country, a testament to the organizers’ efforts and attention to detail. Art in all disciplines — painting, sculpture, clay, glass, wood, fiber, jewelry, photography, and more — was commissioned and/or sold. There was something for everyone, and something in all price ranges.

“As part of our support for the professional artists, there were $1,500 in professional artist awards, supported by Institute for the Arts & Education, the 501(c )(3) non-profit organization which focuses on visual arts, ethnic diversity, community enrichment and fostering art education among youth,” commented Hot Works Executive Director Patty Narozny.

Marianne Megela judged the show. A resident of Naples, Megela has vast experience evaluating art and running top-notch outdoor art shows. She spent Saturday assessing the collected work of each professional artist in the show. Her awards were made on the basis of originality, technique/execution and booth appearance.

Two Best of Shows were awarded by Ms. Megela, with each receiving a $500 cash prize:

Kurt Ruby, Metal, Arcadia, FL
Sabra Richards, Sculpture, Worton, MD

Five $100 Awards of Excellence were also conferred, with the recipients being:

Mina Heuslin, Clay, Port Orange, FL
Lee Hill, Mixed Media, Lake Geneva, WI
Kevin Kichar, Fiber, Fort Lauderdale, FL
Jimmy & Connie Langford, Metal,
Elaine Rose Lanoue, Painting, Houston, TX

Ten artists received Awards of Distinction, vis:

Juliet Bacchas, Clay, Monson, MA
John Brady, Photography, Naples, FL
Diane Dean, Painting, Hendersonville, NC
Kathleen Green, Painting, Groveport, OH
Lynn Hardesty, Jewelry, Clearwater, FL
Raul Hernandez, Mixed Media, Hialeah, FL
Guiteau Lanoue, Mixed Media, Houston, TX
Peter Rujuwa, Sculpture, Greenwood, IN
Bonnie Shanas, Sculpture, Cherry Hill, NJ
Wendy Witchner, Jewelry, Ajo, AZ

_______________________________________________________________

Estero Fine Art Show juror Marianne Megela shares judging insights (01-13-18)

Hot Works’ 21st bi-annual Estero Fine Art Show took place on January 6 and 7 at Gulf Coast Town Center. Art in all disciplines — painting, sculpture, clay, glass, wood, fiber, jewelry, photography, and more — was commissioned and/or sold. There was something for everyone, and something in all price ranges.

Marianne Megela judged the show. With an Associates in Commercial Art from the University of Akron in Ohio, Megela served for six years (2009-2014) as the Arts Festival Director for the Naples Art Association at The von Liebig Art Center, where she administered all aspects of the NAA’s nationally-ranked outdoor art fairs and festivals, including the Downtown Naples New Year’s Art Fair, Naples National Art Festival and Downtown Naples Festival of the Arts, as well as Art in the Park, Naples’ longest-running one-day outdoor member art fair.

“During this time, I had the opportunity to work with artists in the logistical sense, but not so much on the personal side of their profession,” Megela says reflecting on her experiences as NAA Festival Director. “I have a great respect for artists. Artists make one of the most difficult career choices and are amazingly passionate about it. They create … then place themselves in the vulnerable position of getting approval from the masses for their creativity. That is difficult, and can at times be heartbreaking. But they are resilient and their passion for what they do is unending. I have found it refreshing to be associated with them.”

A few years ago, Megela took a right hand turn, opening a gallery in the Naples Art District. The shift in career path enabled Marianne to work with a coterie of artists on a more personal basis. “I learned what drives artists on their creative journey. I got a better understanding of their techniques and how their experiences shape their style.”

Today, she functions as an art consultant to The Sweet Art Gallery in north Naples.

All of these insights and other experiences came into play as Marianne went from booth to booth to evaluate the work on display at the show.

“I found that the art here is very high caliber and that the artists are very knowledgeable in their fields,” Marianne remarked after completing her inspection of the artists’ booths. “In addition to technique, craftsmanship and overall presentation, I was looking for the wow factor.”

The latter criteria encompassed color, medium and, most of all, originality. Megela was on alert for well-executed work that was novel, different and out of the ordinary, not only in the context of the work on display in the show but based on her years of evaluating art both within and outside of the context of art shows, festivals and gallery exhibition. In most cases, the work of the eventual award winners stood out even before she entered their booth.

Indeed, the work of each of the 17 artists who received awards is unique and exceedingly well executed. Several actually make significant contributions to their genres, which included metal work, sculpture, tapestry, clay, mixed media and, of course, painting and photography.

But in Megela’s estimation, you cannot discount the importance of presentation and appearance even if work is new, novel and important. “[Professional appearance and booth presentation is just so important,” Megela amplified. “It means that the artist has taken care in bringing their work to the public.”

Organizer Hot Works LLC couldn’t agree more. In fact, booth presentation and professional appearance is a criteria that its panel of jurors employ in deciding whether or not to admit an artist into the show in the first place. The jury process and its intractably high standards are two reasons why the Estero Fine Art Show has been voted three years running as one of the top 100 art fairs in the country.

___________________________________________________________________________

Spotlight on Estero Fine Art Best of Show co-winner, glass sculptor Sabra Richards (01-13-18)

The Estero Fine Art Show concluded on January 7. Kiln-formed glass artist Sabra Richards was one of two artists who received a Best of Show award from juror Marianne Megela.

After working in several media, Richards has settled on kiln-formed glass as her medium of choice. “I find the challenge of glass, and the combination of other materials to enhance the glass, very exciting and challenging,” Sabra states.

She starts with sheets of Bullseye Fusible Glass. Her method is very bold and direct.

“I choose the color, individual ones and others layered to achieve other colors,” she explains. “I create the design, adding and subtracting glass and, most importantly, adding cane and components made at the furnace, usually at the Corning Glass Museum. Sixteen pieces of glass, formed into a block, fired and then put into the furnace, turned and heated until malleable, and then pulled into the cane that you see in my work.”

Richards then combines the finished glass with previously welded steel, or layers of metal or constructions for wall pieces. The process is long and involved, but the results are wonderful to behold.

Her work includes glass wall sculpture, free-standing outdoor sculpture, designer tables, steel and glass fish and commissioned public art installations.

Richards has a BFA Cum Laude from Syracuse University, and had done graduate work at Parsons School of Design, SUNY Cortland, Syracuse and Bennington College. She is in the Who’s Who in American Art, Printworld Who’s Who, and American Art Collector (2005, 2006).

Her work can be found in private collections throughout the country as well as U.S. State Department (Collection of Heads of State), the Lipson Cancer Center at Rochester General Hospital, Northwest Airlines Terminal in Portland, Oregon, the Ann Arbor Public Library, Blue Cross & Blue Shield in Rochester and in Lansing, Michigan, the Eastman Kodak building in Rochester and IBM Atlanta.

__________________________________________________________________

Spotlight on Estero Fine Art Best of Show co-winner, sculptor Kurt Ruby (01-13-18)

The 21st Bi-Annual Estero Fine Art Show held January 6 & 7 at Gulf Coast Town Center was a positive experience for patrons, sponsors, artists, and community. With its new location at Gulf Coast Town Center, this year’s show featured 100 professional juried artists who were present and available to answer questions throughout the show. Juror Marianne Megela awarded two Best of Shows. Sculptor Kurt Ruby received one of them.

Kurt is a third generation coppersmith and is carrying on the family tradition using many of his father’s and grandfather’s original tools, including a hand-operated rolling mill to add texture to the metal and old-fashioned irons to solder all his work. He hand forms the copper over steel stakes to shape and add form. Patinas are applied and hand burnished, revealing the copper underneath to capture the reflected light and create a sense of movement within the copper.

“At times, I add unique stones and other organic materials that I have found in my travels to create a dynamic quality,” Ruby explains. “Each piece is sealed to protect the original work that ranges from fine functional art to large contemporary interior wall sculptures.”

As a travelling artist, Ruby’s mission is to bring unique quality craftsmanship to his customers across the nation.

_____________________________________________

Meet Award of Distinction winner Peter Rujuwa (01-13-18)

Sculptor Peter Rujuwa was one of ten artists receiving Awards of Distinction at the Estero Fine Art Show on January 6 & 7. Rujuwa comes from the Shona tribe in Zimbabwe, and his stone sculptures are influenced by the tribal art of the Shona tribe. (Zimbabwe, by the way, means “houses made of stone.”)

“At around age six,” Rujuwa confides, “my friends and I made our own carved toys using soapstone, which was abundant in the mountains.” Their improvised chisels were dry sticks split in half and their files were rough stone surfaces.

Today, serpentine stone is more suitable to Rujuwa’s sculpture because it is harder than alabaster, marble and soapstone. It’s hardness makes it easier to work with because it does not crumble under the chisel.

Rujuwa lives and maintains his studio in Greenwood, Indiana. For more information about him and his sculpture, please visit http://www.UniqueRockArt.com.

_____________________________________________

Meet Award of Distinction winner Diane Dean (01-13-18)

The Estero Fine Art Show was held on January 6 & 7. Diane Dean was one of five artists who received Awards of Excellence from juror Marianne Megela.

Dean works in acrylics, mixed media and collage. In most of her pieces, she sculpts an abstract design onto her support. Palette knife and brushwork in both heavy bodied and fluid acrylics are used to complete the composition. Playful designs under the surface add depth, dynamic shadows and movement to each piece.

Though she has been painting for more than twenty years, Dean has spent much of her professional life in the graphic arts technology field. Throughout her career, Diane has presented seminars and lectures in graphic design concepts, color theory and the use of technology in the development of visual communications. Her work was recently featured on HGTV’s That’s Clever series.

Diane maintains an extensive art show schedule, which includes numerous stops between the Carolinas and Florida. Show venues include Atlanta, Charlotte, and Southwest Florida, as well as Penn State in State College, Pennsylvania. But when she’s not traveling or exhibiting, chances are that you will find her painting in her studio in Hendersonville.

______________________________________________________

Hot Works announces winners of Youth Art Competition (01-13-18)

Organizer Hot Works LLC makes a commitment with every show it produces to bring art education into the community. For that reason, it integrates a youth art competition for grades K-8 or ages 5-13 into each art fair. Sponsored by the Institute for the Arts & Education (the non-profit arm of Hot Works which focuses on visual arts, ethnic diversity, community enrichment and fostering art education among young students), the youth art competition is a tradition in all five of Hot Works shows. To date more than 1,800 students have participated in this program nationwide.

The youth competition was judged by esteemed local mixed media artist Zaki Knapen. Born in Antwerp, Belgium and educated in Europe, Zaki spent many years living and traveling throughout the world. Among his many stops and stayovers were England, Spain, Morocco, St. Martin and other ports of call across the Caribbean. He eventually landed in Chicago, where he made an impact sharing his art and artistic sensibilities through membership in the Elmhurst Art Guild, Chicago Art Institute, Chicago Art Coalition, Planet Collage, Naperville Art League, Lombard Artist Coalition and DuPage Art League. He now resides in Lehigh Acres.

Knapen gave an inspirational presentation to the young artists, who were judged based on technique/execution and originality, criteria that are identical to those employed for judging the professional artists participating in the show. He went out of his way to explain why each student won.

Zachary Smith, age 14, received Best of Show and $100 in drawing. Smith is a student at North Fort Myers Academy of the Arts.

Three $50 Youth Art Awards of Excellence were also given:

Mikayla Kidder, Drawing, Age 6, Gulf Elementary
Cameron Leger, Drawing, Age 9, Gulf Elementary
Sophia Rice, Painting, Age 10, Rayma C. Paige Elementary

Each of these youth artists were also walked away with a colorful two-foot-long ribbon.

Sophia Rice’s parents sent an email to Narozny following the show “We greatly appreciate your hard work, countless hours, passion and love you put into these shows. I just can’t thank you enough! You became part of our family.”

At the awards ceremony, Narozny singled out Gulf Elementary Art Teacher Elizabeth Olancin for special thanks for involving so many of her students in the competition. Ms. Olancin could not have been more delighted herself. “You are amazing and your program brings to life our art community,” she beamed. “The children were so happy and surprised!”

_____________________________________________________________

Estero Fine Art Show good fit for evolving Gulf Coast Town Center (12-26-17)

The 21st Bi-Annual Estero Fine Art Show opens January 6 & 7 in a brand new location on the east side of Gulf Coast Town Center between Famous Dave’s Bar-B-Que and the Target Superstore. Because of its visibility along Ben Hill Griffin Road and proximity to the far-flung campus of Florida Gulf Coast University, it’s an ideal spot for a boutique two-day outdoor fine art and craft festival that showcases the work of more than 100 of the brightest up-and-coming artists from around the country, and even abroad.

The venue doesn’t just make sense in the short-term. It promises long-term potential. That’s because Gulf Coast Town Center’s new owners are planning to convert the ten-year-old outdoor mall from a mere shopping destination to a lifestyle complex that includes professional offices, residential suites and physical attractions. More than $5 million in renovations are planned just for 2018, with new landscaping and painting already under way.

Renowned South Florida landscape architects, WGI, have been hired to transform the mall’s central courtyard into an experiential, family-friendly space that includes modern and provocative features. When the make-over is completed in early 2018, the courtyard will boast a colorful art piece, a checkerboard green-and-white area comprised of grass and stone, a sparkling water fountain with misters, new street lights, coverings that look like sails and a play zone for both children and adults.

The new owners and their management team have redefined more than 200 shopping centers throughout North America. Their strategy here is simple and straightforward – help the facility realize the potential that its original developers foresaw when they built Gulf Coast Town Center between 2004 and 2007 but were prevented from realizing by the sub-prime housing crisis and great recession that followed.

They will be aided in this effort by the mall’s location on the busy I-75 corridor equidistant between Naples and Fort Myers, 19 anchors, 100 specialty shops and stores, Courtyard by Marriott hotel and the 130,000-square-foot Bass Pro Shop that overlooks a 24-acre lake which customers use to test-drive boats, fishing gear and outdoor recreational equipment. In addition, Gulf Coast Town Center’s “Main Street” layout offers shoppers casual and upscale dining experiences at such varied eateries as Aurelio’s Pizza, Bar Louie, Brahma Sushi, Carrabba’s Italian Grill, Connors, Famous Dave’s Bar-B-Que, Miller’s Ale House, P.F. Chang’s China Bistro, Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, Pincher’s Crab Shack and Outback Steak House.

But the new management team understands that more than shopping and dining are needed to attract Millennials and Gen-X patrons. With this in mind, Friday and Saturday night concerts and other events are planned to lure people who do not fashion themselves as brick-and-mortar shoppers to the redesigned 1.8 million square foot regional shopping, dining and entertainment center. And in this context, the Estero Fine Art Show is a natural choice and good fit.

The show has a reputation for including quality work in an array of artistic disciplines, including painting, drawing, pastels, photography, ceramics, clay, glass, sculpture, wood working, fiber art and art jewelry. Complementing the mall’s casual, upscale “Main Street” motif, the show’s layout similarly engenders a casual, relaxed atmosphere that is conducive to viewing and buying art and engaging the exhibiting artists in conversation about their inspiration, technique and process.

Like the mall’s management team, the show’s organizer knows what it’s doing. Hot Works, LLC has been producing quality, perennially top-100 art fairs and festivals since 2003. Not surprisingly, the Estero Fine Art Show has been a top-100 outdoor art festival three years in a row, as ranked by both Sunshine Artist Magazine and other trade journals.

The 100-or-so nucleus of artists participating in the January 6 & 7, 2018 show are poised to share in the growth and excitement that the Gulf Coast Town Center venue is inculcating in exhibitors, collectors and art lovers alike. The show will only get bigger and better from here.

The Estero Fine Art Show takes place from 10:00 a.m to 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, January 6 and Sunday, January 7, 2018. For more information, please visit http://www.hotworks.org or email info@hotworks.org.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Houston artist Elaine Rose Lanoue bringing ‘happy paintings’ to Estero Fine Art Show (12-26-17)

Some 100 acclaimed artists will be participating in the 21st bi-annual Estero Fine Art Show on January 6 & 7. Voted in the top 100 art shows in America three years running, the January edition takes place at an all new location between Famous Dave’s Bar-B-Que and the Target Superstore on the eastern side of Gulf Coast Town Center. And that’s where you’ll find artist Elaine Rose Lanoue.

Lanoue is a contemporary acrylic semi-representational and abstract painter. Her motifs range from landscapes, abstracts and florals to figurative and digital artworks. Her perspective is informed by her travels to Mexico, the Yucatan, the Caribbean and Europe; her renditions influenced by her concomitant appreciation of other people, countries and cultures.

Elaine calls her highly textural, colorful compositions “happy paintings” and it’s no accident that her landscapes and florals evoke a calm, serene sense of balance and tranquility. There is something of the simplicity and scale of Haitian masters like Abner Dubic in her work. But in the end, what’s important to Elaine is that her compositions bring joy and peace to those who view them.

It seems clear that Lanoue subscribes to Tolstoy’s view that “art is the transfer of emotions from one person to the other.” And in that endeavor, she wields color like Kandinsky to signal action, influence mood and cause physiological reactions. It’s why her paintings resonate so evocatively. Through this method and medium, she transfers her own positive thoughts and mental images to the people who see, are touched by and collect her artworks.

Since exhibiting in the International Art Expo in New York City at Jacob Javits from 1984 through 1992, Elaine has shown her work at art shows, festivals and exhibits across the country, winning numerous awards in the process. Today, her work can be found in private collections and the permanent collections of well-known corporations around the globe. She is so accomplished that she has been included in a number of important compilations of national and regional artists, including the 2008-09 edition of Who’s Who in America, the 1990’s Who’s Who of American Women and Who’s Who in Interior Design (under her previous painting name of Elaine Rose) and 1984 edition of Notable Women of Texas.

Elaine works together with her husband, Guiteau Lanoue, from their studio in Houston, Texas.

The Estero Fine Art Show is produced by Hot Works, LLC, which has been producing premiere boutique outdoor art shows since 2003. With venues in Boca Raton, Florida, West Bloomfield, Michigan and Asheville, North Carolina, Hot Works is associated with high-quality art fairs and festivals that are perennially included in the top 100 shows nationwide.

To ensure that its shows only attract the finest new and mid-career artists, Hot Works employs a jury of art professionals with more than 120 years of combined experience and awards ribbons and cash prizes to ensure that its artists bring only their finest works to the show.

Art show hours are from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, January 6 and Sunday, January 7. There is ample free parking and plenty of dining options throughout Gulf Coast Town Center. For more information, please visit http://www.hotworks.org or email patty@hotworks.org.

____________________________________________________________________

Lehigh Acres mixed media artist Zaki Knapen part of Estero Fine Art Show (11-26-17)

The 21st Bi-Annual Estero Fine Art Show comes to Gulf Coast Town Center on January 6 & 71. One of the artists taking part in the show is Zaki Knapen, an artist known to many River District residents and visitors.

Born in Antwerp, Belgium and educated in Europe, Zaki spent many years living and traveling throughout the world. Among his many stops and stayovers were England, Spain, Morocco, St. Martin and other ports of call across the Caribbean. He eventually landed in Chicago, where he made an impact sharing his art and artistic sensibilities through membership in the Elmhurst Art Guild, Chicago Art Institute, Chicago Art Coalition, Planet Collage, Naperville Art League, Lombard Artist Coalition and DuPage Art League. Chicago is where he also first heard about Estero Fine Art Show Executive Director Patty Narovny.

“When I lived in Chicago, I heard that if you ever do art shows in Michigan, you must participate in Patty Narozny’s art show because she pays personal attention to the artists, and makes us feel special,” Zaki recalls. Among the features exhibitors touted were Narozny’s attention to detail and support from set up to tear down, and all phases in between. But it was not until he relocated to Southwest Florida that Zaki actually applied for admission into one of Narozny’s shows.

That occurred in 2010, about a year after Zaki made the move to Lehigh Acres. He’s participated in the Estero Fine Art Show ever since, and recently, he’s served as a judge for the youth art competition and exhibition that Hot Works orchestrates in connection with each of its Estero Fine Art Shows.

“Everything you touch is art,” Zaki emphasizes to budding young artists. “A table, a chair — an artist had to come up with that design.” Like Narozny and Hot Works, his goal is to inject more art and art appreciation into the community. “We have talented artists in our own back yard,” he observes.

But Zaki’s encouragement is not restricted to pre-teens and adolescents. He is just as concerned with fostering the development and enthusiasm of neophyte, mid-career and longtime professional artists. Toward that end, he has been affiliated with the Art League of Fort Myers almost since the day he arrived in Southwest Florida, not only serving several terms as the League’s president, but contributing to the Art League’s newsletter, Brushnotes. As author and editor, Zaki shares his insights about the local, national and international art markets.

And through group shows and outdoor art festivals like the Estero Fine Art Show, he shares his insights into art and life in general with those who encounter his work. “In the melding and mixing of color, you ultimately present the viewer an experience of emotional revelation,” Zaki has found.

Although Zaki enjoys figurative work, he is best known as a mixed media abstract artist. His work reflects his European education, upbringing and a perspective forged through international travel and exposure to diverse cultures and philosophies.

“I like working in the abstract,” Zaki admits. “It allows me personal freedom to explore and viewers greater latitude to interpret and connect with the work based upon their own life experiences.”

In the latter regard, Zaki firmly believes that art should give the viewer permission to appreciate and interpret based on internal expectations in the realm of the abstract. But for that to occur, viewers first need to take the time, slow down and wait for the work to resonate with or speak to them. One of the reasons he enjoys exhibiting at venues like the Estero Fine Art Show is because of the opportunity they give art enthusiasts to experience and connect with a wide array of artists, genres, media and motifs.

Show hours for the 21st Bi-Annual Estero Fine Art Show are 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday, January 6 & 7.

_______________________________________

Spotlight on wood turner Ray Cannata (12-26-17)

The 21st Bi-Annual Estero Fine Art Show opens January 6 east of Famous Dave’s Bar-B-Que and Super Target at Gulf Coast Town Center. This boutique -style, two-day outdoor juried fine art and fine craft show attracts some of the country’s finest artists. Ray Cannata is among the artists participating in the show.

Cannata is a self-described wood turner. Like the potter’s wheel, the wood lathe is a simple mechanism that can generate a variety of forms limited only by the turner’s imagination. In Cannata’s case, his lathe turns out a variety of irregular abstract shapes as well as smooth, highly polished symmetrical open and closed bowls and platters.

Ray hollows out his closed bowls through the hole in the top. The degree of difficulty associated with the finished work is a function of the diameter of the hole in the top and the height of the piece.

Cannata is attracted to the grain and features of the wood he chooses for each artwork. While he has an innate affinity for wood of all kinds, including spalted or partially-rotten wood, he especially has developed a deep love of cherry wood from New England, which he turns into fantastic salad bowls of various sizes.

“I also find it very challenging to develop the inner beauty of burl and design asymmetrical artistic pieces,” Cannata adds.

Turning enables Cannata to indulge his passion for working with his hands. Cannata also relishes the tactile and visual qualities of the wood as well as the challenge of problem-solving associated with wood turning.

Cannata is a member of the American Association of Wood Turners, Spring Hill Art League, Hernando County Fine Arts Council, and Killington Vt. Art Guild. Ray moved to Spring Hill several years ago from Killington. Born in New York City, he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees before embarking on extensive travels throughout Europe to study ancient Greek and Roman art treasures and Renaissance works located in Italy, France and Spain.

You can meet Ray and view his unique pieces at the Estero Fine Art Show on January 6 & 7. You will find the show outdoors at the Gulf Coast Town Center next to Famous Dave’s Bar-B-Que and Target. The Estero Fine Art Show is produced by Hot Works, LLC, which has been producing quality, perennially top-100 art fairs and festivals since 2003.

For more information, please visit http://www.hotworks.org or email patty@hotworks.org.

______________________________________________________

Spotlight on November poster artist Gwendolyn Redfern (12-26-17)

Join Hot Works LLC for the 21st Bi-Annual Estero Fine Art Show on January 6 and 7. The boutique style, two-day outdoor art juried fine art and fine craft show attracts some of the country’s finest artists. Among them will be watercolor and mixed media artist Gwendolyn Redfern, whose original painting, “Color Girls,” served as the poster art for 20th Bi-Annual Estero Fine Art Show this past November.

Painting has always been part of Redfern’s life, but she also discovered pottery while completing her B.F.A. in painting at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. She inititally chose ceramic classes to fill in her schedule, but pottery quickly became another vehicles for her creative expression. Today, her pottery has become synonymous with sleek design, spectacular glazes and intricate carving.

However, it is through her oil and watercolor work that she challenges viewers to embark upon vivid journeys to other dimensions. Redfern has no interest in rendering representational portraits, preferring instead to craft psychological studies that focus on the emotions reflected in the faces of everyday people she encounters as she goes about her daily routine. “My art represents my life experiences –hidden secrets, experiences forgotten or wished forgotten – experiences that move the soul so hard that they entice a warm smile or bring on laughter,” Redfern confesses.

The disjointed forms, daubs and smears of pigment and excited coloring give her paintings a dynamically expressive quality. These and other artistic devices force her audiences to consider self and spirit, and to question the influences of powers greater than our own.

“My paintings are also packed with surprises and hidden content,” she reveals. “One of my early influences was John Biggers [an artist renowned for his meticulous humanistic depictions of African and African-American life]. Every time I looked at one of his murals, I saw something different. That’s what I strive for in my own oil and watercolor paintings as well.”

Redfern’s work defies categorization. However, he work expands upon the legacy created by van Gogh, Picasso and Chaim Soutine, including their impulsive, often turbulent brushstrokes and knack for creating highly-charged movement through form, color and shape. Her visual storytelling is also influenced by the Native American side of her lineage.

There’s a story behind “Color Girls,” as well. Although the painting now serves as the poster art for November’s Estero Fine Art Show, the composition was originally conceived for a local performance of “The Vagina Monologues” that a friend produced and directed. “She used it in the playbill for the show,” notes Redfern with a lilt in her voice.

You can meet Gwendolyn Redfern and view her art at the Estero Fine Art Show on January 6 and 7. You will find the show outdoors at the Gulf Coast Town Center between Super Target and Famous Dave’s Bar-B-Que.

The Estero Fine Art Show is produced by Hot Works, LLC, which has been producing quality, perennially top-100 art fairs and festivals since 2003. For more information, please visit http://www.hotworks.org or email patty@hotworks.org.

_____________________________________________________________

Paula Mae Green deco and Asian batiks display uncommon ability (12-19-17)

Some 100 acclaimed artists will be participating in the 21^st bi-annual Estero Fine Art Show – now at Gulf Coast Town Center – on January 6 & 7. This art show is special – and is voted in the top 100 art shows in America – three years in a row. Batik artist Paula Mae Green is included in this esteemed group.

If you’re not familiar with batik (also known as rozome), it is a wax-and-dye resist process that traces its origins back to 13^th century Java. Not many artists engage in the process because it is so exacting and time-consuming. But that’s part of its charm for Green, whose Swedish lineage includes several generations of crafts people who believed that “if you are going to do something, try to take it to its highest form.”

Green posits four steps in her process, vis:

Starting with the lightest color you plan to use in your composition – the fabric is dipped into a pan of fabric dye.
The fabric is dried.
The area to remain that color is waxed over.
The process is then repeated with each color until the batik is completed.

While this may be true, Paula has omitted a couple of crucial, preliminary steps. First, it is incumbent upon her to choose her motif. Green’s repertoire includes Deco, Asian and Cubist compositions. The images from her Deco and Asian series in particular are sinuous, elegant and dynamic in the finest tradition of Art Nouveau masters such as Klimt, Cheret and even the ineffable Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. But the parallels to the femme nouvelle subjects celebrated by Czech artist Alphonse Mucha in his widely-popular densely-patterned posters of the early 20^th century. Green’s batik renderings of Deco Dancers, At the Theater, Kiss and Evening are not just chic and sophisticated. They evoke a feel of bygone times and flappers and the Roaring ‘20s.

Paula uses small brushes in order to achieve impossibly fine detail in her meticulously handcrafted portraits, figurative scenes and floral designs. This level of rendition is almost unheard of in batik. Frankly, it is unattainable by artists possessing lesser talent, regardless of medium.

Once the composition has been transferred to fabric, Green is ready to begin the batik process, which starts with dipping the entire fabric into a pan of dye (see step 1, above).The color which is to be preserved is then waxed over and the process is repeated in successive layers as other colors are added to the drawing until the final composition emerges. After the last dye is applied, the cumulative layers of wax are stripped off revealing the finished work.

While it is clear from this simplified description, batik or rozome takes inordinate amounts of time and presupposes the patience of a saint, less apparent is the skill required during the waxing stage lest the detail incorporated into the underlying painting be blurred, smudged or compromised.

The spontaneous fire lines running throughout the fabric has been given the name of “crackle effect.” It is characteristic of the batik process and the difficulties associated with mastering the technique.

Paula has won numerous awards, and her work can be found in many private and corporate collections throughout the world. As a person’s surroundings are a mirror of themselves, she feels that the most important thing a person needs to know about art is how it makes them feel.

“If a person is doing something they truly love, it reflects in their life and work,” she comments.

Now a resident of Pompano Beach, Florida, her return to the Sunshine State was rather circuitous. After graduating from FSU and doing advanced studies at the University of Miami, Paula worked as a high school art teacher in the Dade County school system for several years before leaving for New York City and additional studies at Parson’s School of Design. From there, she did a five-year stint as a gallery owner in historic South Norwalk, Connecticut, where she specialized in vintage lighting portraying antiquity and old world charm.

Preferring a simpler lifestyle, she relocated Woodstock, New York, where she enjoyed a home on a mountain side in the Catskills. While living a life of enchantment and creativity, Paula became involved in developing and producing a series of fine art limited edition giclees of her batik work, which provides art lovers with a more affordable option for collecting her batiks.

Today, Paula’s summers are filled with art shows in Michigan and the Chicago, New York and other metropolitan areas. She also works closely with designers and architects and accepts challenging commissions.

You can meet Paula and sample her work on Saturday and Sunday, January 6 & 7. The show is open from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. both days. You will find the festival set up next to Target and Famous Dave’s on the eastern perimeter of Gulf Coast Town & Center. _____________________________________________________

Growth forces change of venue for Estero Fine Art Show (12-16-17)

The 21st Bi-Annual Estero Fine Art Show opens January 6 & 7 in a brand new location next to Bass Pro Shop at Gulf Coast Town Center. This is the second time in three years that the boutique -style, two-day outdoor juried fine art and fine craft show has changed its venue, and that is a reflection of its growing popularity with area art lovers, enthusiasts and folks on the look-out for fine arts and crafts.

In 2015, the Estero Fine Art Show moved from the south parking lot of the Miromar Outlet Mall across Corkscrew Road to the eastern lot at the Miromar Design Center. “Although we hate to change location again, we simply need more space,” concedes the festival’s director, Patty Narozny. Because of the show’s popularity among both artists and patrons, more room is needed for artists’ tents and display booths as well as patron parking. Gulf Coast Town Center can accommodate both of these needs.

According to Narozny, a number of the show’s unique features explain the growth of the festival over the last few years. First and foremost, the show attracts the brightest up-and-coming artists from around the country and even abroad.

To ensure that only the finest get to exhibit their work at each of her shows, Narozny uses a jury of art professionals with a combined 120 years of experience in fine art. As a result, the show has a reputation for including quality work in an array of artistic disciplines, including painting, drawing, pastels, photography, ceramics, clay, glass, sculpture, wood working, fiber art and art jewelry.

“I make it my business to meet and get to know all of my artists,” says Narozny, who visits as many as possible in their homes, studios and galleries across the nation. Many become personal friends that she’ll do anything for, as happened a couple of years ago when someone stole a 20-foot trailer containing all of the bronze sculptures that Wyoming sculptor Ben Foster expected to exhibit throughout Florida during the 2016 festival season. The trailer, which disappeared just before Christmas from a Naples storage facility, also contained Foster’s pop-up tent, pedestals, wall coverings, signs and sculpting tools.

As soon as she heard the news of the theft, Narozny leapt into action, putting out the word about Foster’s predicament on Facebook, via email and to her contacts in the media (such as Four in Your Corner’s Lisa Greenberg). Within hours, Foster’s collectors and fellow artists had made available enough sculpture, pedestals and displays that the artist and his wife were able exhibit not only at the Estero Fine Art Show, but the other festivals they were scheduled to attend over the ensuing twelve weeks.

Narozny displays the same level of loyalty and concern for the folks who frequent her shows.

“It’s important to the people who come to our shows to know that they will see original work from some of the best artists working in the country right now,” Narozny expounds. Knowing that Narozny and her jury have vetted each exhibitor frees enthusiasts and collectors to purchase with the knowledge that they are getting value – not to mention the strong possibility that their acquisition will appreciate in value as the artist’s reputation and stature continues to grow.

Still, there’s original art for every budget so everyone can find just the right piece for their home or office no matter their economic circumstances or art IQ.

And Narozny goes out of her way to keep the focus on art. While she does provide musical entertainment during the course of the show (popular group Patchouli often appears), Narozny declines requests by food vendors who ask to sell at her shows. That’s why it’s important for her to stage her shows in the parking lot of small malls and shopping centers that offer patrons diverse dining options both before and after they take in the art. With restaurants such as Carrabba’s, Conners, Famous Dave’s, Miller’s Ale House, Pinchers Crab Shack, P.F. Chang’s and Outback, the move from Miromar to the Town Center is sure to satisfy even the most discerning palette among Estero Fine Art Show attendees.

The absence of food vendors coupled with low-volume, easy-listening and semi-classical music goes a long way toward creating a casual, relaxed atmosphere that is conducive to viewing and buying art and engaging the exhibiting artists in conversation about their inspiration, technique and process.

Narozny employs yet another technique to ensure that her assemblage of elite artists brings their finest work to the Estero Fine Art Show. She engages an acclaimed artist or other art professional to judge the work at each show. Best of Show, Award of Excellence and merit award winners are announced on Sunday. It’s not just about ribbons and bragging rights. The winners get cash awards.

Some of the those who have judged past shows include Florida SouthWestern State College studio art professor and artist Dana Roes, popular abstract artist and former Art League of Fort Myers president Zaki Knapen, and author, film producer and co-founder of the Jewish Historical Society of Southwest Florida Marina Berkovich of Naples.

The formula has been working to perfection. Not only has Narozny had to find bigger and better quarters, the Estero Fine Art Show has been a top-100 outdoor art festival three years in a row (as ranked by both Sunshine Artist Magazine and other trade journals).

The Estero Fine Art Show takes place from 10:00 a.m to 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 18, and 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, November 19. You will find the show outdoors at the Gulf Coast Town Center next to Bass Pro Shops.

_______________________________________________________________

Sculptor Kevin Kichar exhibiting at Estero Fine Art Show in January (12-16-17)

The Estero Fine Art Show returns to its new home in the Gulf Coast Town Center on January 6 & 7, 2018. Kevin Kichar will be joining the select group of fine artists exhibiting at the show.

Kichar works in the ancient discipline of papermaking, an art form that was nearly lost in the miasma of modernization. Although it was still pursued by Chinese and other oriental artists, papermaking all but faded from the realm of Western art. And then along came Bob Rauschenberg, who revived the Western interest in handmade paper during his 1982 visit to Jing Xian, China to work at the secretive Huan Paper Mill.

Kichar does not trace his interest in paper to Rauschenberg, and his involvement is more direct. Rauschenberg merely wished to incorporate thousand-year-old Xuan paper in the collages he was constructing at the time. Kichar actually makes the paper he utilizes in his cotton-fiber tapestries.

“My media begins with the hydration of cotton and natural fibers,” Kevin divulges. “The pulp is heated to set color pigments creating vivid, permanent colors. Depending on the desired results the method then varies. The traditional method of screening the pulps produces flat, thin sheets. The more modern method of using a vacuum table, however, allows for greater control of sheet thickness and color pattern. Together these methods create the tapestries that form my works.”

In some of his more recent iterations, Kichar employs additional techniques to apply and seal layers of color and design into the dry cast cotton.

Whether consisting of sheets made by traditional or more modern methods of screening wood pulps, papermaking enables Kichar to create tapestries that combine delicate beauty and unlimited versatility.

There is also a public art component to Kichar’s artistic lexicon. For this work, handmade tile mosaics are his medium of choice. Among his commissions are four 9-by-12 foot murals in the City of Fort Lauderdale consisting of 2,500 tiles each, and six seven-foot-diameter mosaic mural medallions commissioned by the City of Plantation for a children’s water park.

You can meet Kevin and sample his work on Saturday and Sunday, January 6 & 7. The show is open from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. both days. You will find the festival set up next to Bass Pro Shop on the western perimeter of Gulf Coast Town & Center.

_________________________________________________________

Bonnie Shanas exhibiting at Estero Fine Art Show in January (12-14-17)

The Estero Fine Art Show returns to its new home at Gulf Coast Town Center on Saturday and Sunday, January 6 & 7, 2018. Organized by Hot Works, LLC and consistently voted a top 100 outdoor art festival, this show includes a select group of artists typically not featured anywhere else. Among this year’s exhibitors is metal screen sculptor Bonnie Shanas.

Shanas’ art was shaped by intensive study in the studio classes of Israeli artist No’am Douieb and through a mentorship by sculptor Shaulmit Hartal. From the former, Shanas developed a unerring eye for figurative studies. From Hartal, Bonnie acquired the skill to use mesh sculpting to capture the human form.

“As an artist, I find myself most intrigued by the study of the human form,” Shanas remarks. “I am as much inspired by dance and movement as I am by the subtleties and simplicity of unspoken gestures. Together these compose a universal language which I attempt to instill and imbue in my work.”

In fact, Shanas’ Dancers collection belies both a love of dance and fascination for bodies in movement. With titles such as The Dance Within, The Melody Within and Just a Small Dance Away, this body of Shanas’ work expresses not just dance steps or poses, but the inner emotion that gives impetus to the flow, harmonic interdependence and kinesthesia that characterizes dancers at the moment when legato supersedes cognition.

In her In Two’s series, Shanas finds ways to use metal and modeling to convey the subtle little ways that lovers connect, from the touch of their fingertips to the clench of their hands as their bodies align. The fact that these pieces are typically monotone adds to their focus and augments their mesmerizing allure.

For Shanas, wire mesh is an obvious choice of medium because its translucence and transparency infuse an air of simplicity and lightness to gestures and movement she strives to capture in her sculptural work. But the metal’s durability also ensures its longevity. “The hardness of the metal promises that the moment captured continues well beyond its fragment of time,” Bonnie observes.

Most artists shy away from unforgiving media like wire mesh. That quality is another feature that attracts Shanas to the medium. “While most forms of sculpture are additive or reductive, I enjoy the challenge of breathing life into a sheet of steel wire mesh, where no material can be added or removed, and no crease erased.”

Bonnie’s path to a career in art was rather circuitous. A New Jersey native, her family relocated to Israel when she was still very young. In school, her studies carried her into a life in the corporate world. But she closed her office doors in 2006 to answer the call of artistic creativity, and since returning to the United States in 2009, she has continued to develop her talents and establish a reputation as an accomplished metal sculptor.

Today, Bonnie exhibits in both juried and invitational exhibits and national shows. Not surprisingly, she has won numerous awards and honorable mentions. Over the past five years, she has also participated in a number of art residencies in France and Poland, collaborating with internationally-acclaimed artists on themed exhibits.

Shanas’ work can be found in public installations in France, Poland and the United States as well as private collections here and in England and Australia.

You can acquire one for your own collection at the 21^st Bi-Annual Estero Fine Art Show. You will find the show outdoors at the Gulf Coast Town Center next to Bass Pro Shops. The Estero Fine Art Show is produced by Hot Works, LLC, which has been producing quality, perennially top-100 art fairs and festivals since 2003. For more information, please visit http://www.hotworks.org or email patty@hotworks.org.

__________________________________________________________________

Hot Works announces Estero Fine Art Show youth competition winners (01-12-17)

The 19th bi-annual Estero Fine Art Show held January 7 and 8 at Miromar Design Center was a positive experience for the artists, its sponsors and patrons, and the many families who call Estero home – inclement weather on Saturday notwithstanding. The show featured 135 professional artists and work in multiple genres, media and motifs, all original and all handmade by the artists participating in the show which has been voted among the top 100 in all of America – a testament to the organizers’ efforts and dedication.

As part of Hot Works’ commitment to bring art education to each community in which it holds a show, a youth art competition for grades K-8 or ages 5-13 was integrated into the Estero Fine Art Show. Sponsored by the Hot Works’ non-profit arm, Institute for the Arts & Education (IA&E) focuses on visual arts, ethnic diversity, community enrichment and fostering art education among young students. The Youth Art Competition is a tradition in all five of Hot Works shows; to date more than 1,175 students have participated in this program nationwide.

The competition gives budding, young artists a golden opportunity to begin learning the rules of being part of a professional art show and exhibition. It exposed young artists to the possibility of creating art for a living – doing something he/she loves to do, and, most importantly, how to do it. The art show provided these students with an unmatched learning experience, and exposed families to artwork that they would not have otherwise seen. Young artists were encouraged to speak with the artists in the show – all professionals — and to ask them questions about participating in art shows as a career.

This year’s youth art contest included 78 student entries with 93 pieces of art from four area schools. All of the youth art entries were displayed in a special booth at the art fair. Art Teachers Elizabeth Olancin of Gulf Coast Elementary, Cindy Collins of Gateway Charter Middle School and Laura Campbell of Pinewoods Elementary were very supportive and involved many of their students in the competition.

Kurt Ruby, a professional artist in the show (metal), was the Youth Art judge. Criteria for judging the youth art were based on technique/execution and originality, which is similar to the criteria for judging the professional artist awards. A total of $250 in cash awards was divided among four young winners, who also received beautiful, colorful two-foot-long ribbons. In addition, five $20 Miromar Outlet Gift Certificates and beautiful two-foot-long ribbons were awarded to other recipients.

Many of the young artists and their families attended the 3:00 p.m. Sunday awards ceremony. “If you do not win, do not give up,” attendees were told. “Even the best artists do not get accepted into all the art shows that they want to do, nor do they win a prize in every show in which they participate. If you enjoy creating art, continue doing it. Art is subjective, and if one judge does not like your work, another one might. Also, please congratulate those who do win.”

As part of the presentation of awards, Mr. Ruby explained why he selected each of the winning pieces –another educational experience to the students.

Nine-year-old Nalin Isme of Pinewoods Elementary won the coveted $100 Best of Youth Art with his painting. Nalin has participated in the Youth Art competition since November, 2013, when he was age 5, and has won every time – an impressive eight times in a row – each time with a different youth art judge!

Nalin’s mother, Nancy, said “Nalin would love to be famous like Picasso. His Facebook page says ‘Art is a big part of my heart.’” (www.facebook.com/nalintheartist).

The three $50 Youth Art Awards of Excellence recipients were :

Kayley Collins, Mixed Media, Age 12, Gateway Charter Middle School
Sidney Ramsey, Sculpture, Age 12, Three Oaks Middle School
Ciarra Pelletier, Drawing, Age 13, Three Oaks Middle School

The five $20 Youth Art Awards of Distinction from Miromar Outlet Mall were:

Vanessa Schoof, Drawing, Age 12, Gateway Charter Middle School – 2nd time winner!
Taylor Rauh, Mixed Media, Age 7, Gulf Elementary
Sophia Santos, Painting, Age 7, Gulf Elementary
Reagan Moore, Painting, Age 13, Three Oaks Middle School
Thibault Arciere, Drawing, Age 8, Pinewoods Elementary

___________________________________________________

Hot Works announces Estero Fine Art award winners (01-09-17)

The 19th Bi-Annual Estero Fine Art Show is in the books now, and Hot Works LLC has announced the winners.

The Award of Mastery and one of two Best of Shows was awarded to clay artist William Kidd, who has worked as a ceramic artist for 25 years. He creates bowls, vessels, plates, jars and free form sculptures. Some of this work retains is original, symmetrical form – hand carved using simple wire loop tools. Others suggest “organic possibilities” – the shapes life might take in other atmospheres and places. These free-form sculptural pieces are wheel thrown and altered by paddling and hand building to create the organic form he desires. “My clay of choice is a low-fire red earthenware clay which is then finished using oxide stains, underglazes, and my signature crawl glaze to create a rich textural, colorful surface that is unique to my work,” Billy relates.

FSW Art Dean Dana Roes conferred the other Best of Show on Lakeland, Indiana mixed media artist Kate Tillman, who originally studied photography and obtained a BFA from Ball State University. Her color work consists of sandwiched, and hand cut/manipulated film. Her darkroom work deals with the same, along with using alternative processes such as liquid emulsion on metal, canvas and paper.

Roes and Hot Works chose five Award of Excellence winners:

Caleb Barnaby (Ormand Beach, FL ), jewelry;
Eddie Myers (Lake Mary, FL), digital ;
Harry Roa (Sarasota, FL), jewelry;
Greg Stones (Greenville, RI), painting;
Anthea Zito (Ridgewood, NJ), painting

There were also ten Award of Distinctions conferred on the adult exhibitors:

Larry Allen (Leeds, AL), clay;
Sally Bright (Fenton, MI), sculpture;
Robert Cordisco (Palm Beach Gardens, FL); sculpture;
Erin Kaleel (Weaverville, NC), fiber;
Brad Kelly (Winder, GA), photography;
Kue King (Blowing Rock, NC), sculpture;
Teresa Lind (Chilton, WI), sculpture;
Ronnie Phillips (Lithonia, GA), mixed media;
Kyra Strachov (Floral City, FL ), painting; and
Mary Taglieri (Punta Gorda, FL ), painting.

Continue reading for profiles of many of these artists, including Eddie Myers, Sally Bright, Robert Cordisco, Kue King and Kyra Strachov.

The Estero Fine Art Show comes to the Miromar Design Center in January and November of each year. The show returns November 18 & 19, 2017. For more information, please visit http://hotworks.org/esterofineartshow/.

_________________________________________________________________________

With ‘Patent Pending,’ digital artist Eddie Myers revisits history of the light bulb (01-09-17)

This past weekend, artists from around the country exhibited a medley of artworks in numerous genres, motifs and media at the 19^th Bi-Annual Estero Fine Art Show. Last year, digital artist Eddie Myers was chosen as the poster artist for the show. He was back this year with new work, and earned an Award of Excellence from Florida SouthWestern State College Dean of Art Dana Roes, who judged the show.

Myers creates art using computer software in much the same way as a painter uses brushes and palette knives and sculptors employ chisels or MIG welders. In fact, Photoshop and Paintbrush are tools of Myers’ trade.

Because of its dependency on computer technology and software, digital art has grown exponentially in use, popularity and acceptance over the past ten years alone. Myers likens to the strides made by digital art to what the world experienced in the years following the introduction of the typewriter. “The typewriter changed everything,” Myers notes. “It drastically improved communication, modernized cities and even opened doors to the pursuit of creating career equality. Women were entering the workforce at a perfect time, when our world faced rapid change.” And typewriter technology has paved the way for even more rapid and pervasive change in the form of word processing and personal computing.

Because of similarly life-changing advances in photography and computer technology, digital artists are able to produce truly world-class work that astonishes colleagues and collectors alike. But Myers goes a few steps further. His pieces incorporate layered planes and textural components that have a decidedly sculptural effect.

His newest composition is a case in point. Called Patent Pending, it is a well-conceived, sprawling artistic commentary on the role played by Thomas Alva Edison in the invention, perfection and commercialization of the electric lightbulb.

“Sometimes the history we’re taught is not totally accurate,” Myers asserts. “We’ve been taught that Edison invented the lightbulb. When you actually look into it, while he contributed greatly its development and commercial use, the lightbulb was invented 70 years before Edison began his own experiments with it.”

It is not Myers’ intention to denigrate Edison’s accomplishments, but to set the record straight. “So in Patent Pending, I’ve surrounded him by his sources of inspiration, some fictionalized and other real.” Among the names thrown out by Myers are inventors and researchers like Joseph Wilson Swan and Henry Woodward.

True enough, most historians agree that Humphry Davy invented the first electric light in 1802. He experimented with electricity and invented an electric battery. When he connected wires to his battery and a piece of carbon, the carbon glowed, producing light. His invention was known as the Electric Arc lamp, and while it produced light, it didn’t produce it for long and was much too bright for practical use.

Over the next seven decades, other inventors also created “light bulbs” but none of their designs proved to be commercially feasible. But a British scientist by the name of Warren de la Rue got closer in 1840. Dde la Rue enclosed a coiled platinum filament in a vacuum tube and passed an electric current through it. The design was based on the concept that the high melting point of platinum would allow it to operate at high temperatures and that the evacuated chamber would contain fewer gas molecules to react with the platinum, improving its longevity. Although efficient, his design was economically impractical because of the exorbitant cost of the platinum at that time.

English physicist Joseph Wilson Swan created a “light bulb” in 1850 by enclosing carbonized paper filaments in an evacuated glass bulb, but well into the 1870s he was unable to build a long-lasting bulb because of his inability to develop an effective vacuum. Meanwhile, a Toronto medical electrician named Henry Woodward and his colleague Mathew Evans embarked on research that led to the issuance of a Canadian patent in 1874 for a lamp with a carbon rod held between electrodes in glass cylinders filled with nitrogen.

It was this patent that Edison purchased in 1979, and a year later coupled with 10,000 unsuccessful tries, he and his team finally discovered that a carbonized bamboo filament could last over 1,200 hours. This discovery marked the beginning of commerically manufactured light bulbs and in 1880, Thomas Edison’s company, Edison Electric Light Company begain marketing its new product.

With this, then, as backdrop, Myers new digital piece is more than a mere homage to Edison. It is an opportunity to revisit and relive history.

“It’s about how we perceive things,” Eddie points out. “The bookshelf surrounding Edison contains books and blueprints from all of the previous scientists and inventors from whom Edison either borrowed ideas from or acquired patents. The Tesla picture to the side is somewhat of a tongue and cheek from his old buddy turned enemy. He’s surrounded by his inspiration.”

The books are all fictionalized. Myers designed each cover and title, custom assembling each one by hand. “They are fictional titles, but definitely have a place in history,” Eddie amplifies. “This is why I created this piece into a book shelf – it’s a bookshelf of forgotten history so to speak. As the books move closer to the center of the art where Edison is, they turn slightly more factual. Things that seem silly are actually true…such as ‘Patenting Newspapers and Candy.’ Edison sold these items on the trains, which likely formed him at an early age into the master business man he ultimately became.”

It’s a solid piece of art, not only in terms of concept, theme and Surrealist overtones, but workmanship as well. Made of solid oak, the installation weighs in the aggregate more than 200 pounds.

Myers loves exhibiting his creations at art fairs and festivals like the Estero Fine Art Show because it allows him to see the reaction on viewers’ faces when they ask him if he works in oils or acrylics and he tells them, no, they’re digital. “You can see the shock [and] confusion in their faces,” he chuckles. “That’s the fun part.”

His painting, The App-aratus, is another of those works. It depicts a girl who has dropped the telephone call and embraced a new device that can not only make phone calls, but can take photos, send messages and even find your way home if you get lost. “She is stepping off the cliff with her eyes shut, trusting where she is going but not fully understanding how this small communication device will transform mankind,” Myers tells.

By virtue of the research involved and painstaking, time-consuming sculptural elements of his pieces, his output is limited. “And some of them are mechanized, which takes even more time.”

But much like Swan, Woodward and Edison, Myers is a pioneer in his field as well. “Without the efforts of [digital artists] like Eddie Myers, applying a sharp instrument to the nearest cave wall might still be a more viable means of creating images than booting up a computer,” states Sunshine Artist Magazine, which featured Myers in its March, 2014 edition.

“When digital tools were first introduced, there were major differences between [them and their physical counterparts],” Myers told Sunshine Artist Managing Editor Nate Shelton. “Trying to create a painting in the first Photoshop with a mouse was like trying to paint with a rock. You could do it, but it would take you a really long time. Now, with the combined advancements in software and hardware, digital tools have come closer to a natural feel.”

Acceptance of digital by art professionals and collectors has not kept pace with the advancements in digital technology, however. “Being a digital artist in a fine-art market has been an uphill battle to say the least,” Myers told Shelton for the Sunshine Artist article. “Some get it and some don’t. Some think you are cheating, and some think you are brilliant. I think when you create something out of nothing, it doesn’t matter which tools you use.”

In 2010, Myers decided that more needed to be done to win acceptance of digital as a true fine art medium. So he began displaying his work at nationally-ranked outdoor art fairs and festivals around the country. Back then, digital was rarely recognized as a legitimate, stand-alone category. That has changed now, for the most part, and Myers has won a number of awards for his body of digital work in recent years, including Best of Show at the 2016 Estero Fine Art Show, Best of Category (Digital) at the 2013 Disney’s Festival of the Masters, the Judges Selection at the 2013 Winter Park Autumn Art Festival, and Best of Show at the 2014 St. Stephens Miami Art Show. His Award of Excellence at last weekend’s show is just the latest recognition not only of his talents, but the digital art category as well.

_____________________________________________________________

Meet Estero Fine Art award-winner, abstractionist Kyra Strachov (01-07-17)

One of the award winners from this weekend’s Estero Fine Art Show at the Miromar Design Center on Corkscrew Road is abstract artist Kyra Strachov.

Strachov is largely self-taught. “My grandfather was an artist, and I always visited his studio,” relates Kyra of her painterly beginnings. “I learned a lot from him and have loved art from childhood.” Because of his influence, she was already painting by the time she turned seven. [Her grandfather, Ivan Diky, was known as the Michelangelo of the Russian Orthodox Church as a result of all the religious icons he painted in its cathedrals.]

Kyra was born in Venezuela in 1959, where she lived until she turned 19. The widely varied flowers, grasslands, rock formations and mountain ranges of the large Equatorial country are reflected to this day in her palette of rich earth tones and sultry reds and oranges. But her travels throughout Europe and the United States, particularly in the Southwest, have expanded and refined her use and feel for color, and informed many of the motifs that crop up in her abstract compositions.

After leaving Venezuela, Strachov landed in Vienna, where she studied not art, but hotel management, tourism and language.

While she has always painted, her work changed drastically after she got and beat breast cancer. Realizing that life is fragile, uncertain and short, she abandoned convention and began exploring ways to express her love of color combined with her innermost thoughts and emotions. Abstract Expressionism provided the platform for which she was searching. But she also professes a deep and abiding affinity for shape and form, which are clearly representative of the geometry and topography of the places she has visited during her extensive travels.

The artist, however, finds similes between her work and musical compositions, equating the individual components of her pieces with notes and chords and the finished work to an aria, opera or orchestral symphony. In fact, you can almost envision sharps and flats echoing through her works.

Because of these parameters, Strachov works on a single composition at a time. In this, she is aided by working in acrylics, which have a notoriously quick drying time in comparison to oils. As thoughts and emotions change daily, if not even more frequently, it would be difficult, even impossible, to replicate the emotion underlying a given work if she tried to come back to it days or weeks later. On occasion, she may complete a given painting the following day, but she finishes most of her works in a single cathartic sitting.

Noting that viewers frequently have difficulty understanding and appreciating abstract works, she is careful to provide a portal into each of her compositions. She does this through the title she gives to each of her paintings. “Then they say, ‘Oh, now I understand it,’” Kyra observes.

“The title is like the key that unlocks the door,” her husband, Greg, chimes in.

Even armed with this point of access into the mindset of the artist during the creative process associated with each painting, there is so much going on inside the four corners of her canvas that it is possible to find some new insight, perspective or psychological truth with each viewing. And that is one of the reasons many art lovers gravitate to abstract compositions. Unlike a still life, landscape or even a portrait, there is always something new and unexpected to discover in an abstract like the ones that Strachov renders.

“The art is like the artist,” Greg summarizes. “We’ve been married 25 years and it’s never boring.”

Although Strachov does render large-scale works, the paintings on display at the Estero Fine Art Show are smaller due to the logistics of transporting them from venue to venue and the necessity of displaying them in a cozy nine-foot-square tented white canvas booth. But for all the rigors associated with life on the art festival circuit (Kyra does roughly half a dozen shows each year), she relishes each show because of the opportunity to interact with viewers and collectors and feed off of their interest, enthusiasm and passion for her work.

__________________________________________________________

Meet Estero Fine Art award-winner, sculptor Robert Cordisco (01-07-17)

One of the award winners from this weekend’s Estero Fine Art Show is Palm Beach Gardens sculptor Robert Cordisco, an accomplished, self-taught, contemporary artist with an extensive background in the construction field. All of his work is personally conceived, designed, fabricated and finished. Over the course of his 26 year career, Cordisco has completed and installed numerous works for private and public commissions. Robert has an inherent eye for balance and structure. His finished pieces dance their own dance, moving and flowing within their own rhythm.

“I utilize aluminum, steel, or stainless steel and some touches of bronze,” states Robert. “Each piece begins with a working drawing that is transferred to the metal. The material is laid out and cut either by a saw or a plasma torch. The individual pieces of the puzzle are then assembled by arc welding. Next the piece is ground and sanded to a fine finish with power and hand tools. Finally the piece is sprayed with an automotive clear coat for a natural finish, automotive acrylic enamels for color, or a brushed patina0”

The materials and finishes Robert employs have proven their longevity over the years, requiring little to no maintenance. Interior pieces require a light dusting. Just like an automobile, exterior pieces may need to be washed and waxed once or twice a year.

Cordisco feels his work reflects the inherent diversity of the human spirit and incites this spirit to another level. “Each piece begins with an innate thought, emotion or experience, allowing for visual expression of individual insight that elicits ones perception,” Cordisco expounds, noting titles such as Elusive, Enigma, Jubilant and Mixed Emotions. “As a third dimension, sculpture takes one to another level of cognition through form, space, movement, light and shadow creating a parallax through various points of view.”

Robert has executed pieces for both public and private art collections. Although his stainless steel works are somewhat heavier, the aluminum fabrications average on fifty or so pounds, making them easier to transport and move around – an advantage both to him and his collectors.

Visit Robert at the Estero Art Show on Sunday (January 8). The festival opens at 10:00 and continues through 5:00 p.m. For more information about Robert and his art, please visit http://www.robertcordisco.com, email info@robertcordisco.com or telephone 561-744-3611.

Featuring original work by some 175 nationally and internationally-acclaimed juried fine art and fine craft artists, the Estero Fine Art Show has been voted in the top 100 art fairs in the nation by Sunshine Artist Magazine. For more information, please contact Hot Works LLC Executive Director Patty Narozny at 941-755-3088 or by email at patty@hotworks.org.

__________________________________________________________________

Hot Works taps FSW Art Dean Dana Roes to judge Estero Fine Art Show (01-07-17)

Judging took place today at the Estero Fine Art Show. Artist and FSW Art Professor Dana Roes did the honors.

Dana Roes received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Moore College of Art and her MFA in Painting from the University of Pennsylvania. During her studies, she was invited to Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture where she had the opportunity to discuss her work with Gregory Amenoff, Per Kirby, Brice Marden, Ann Hamilton and Joan Semmel. She spent a year in Iceland on a Fulbright scholarship which culminated in an exhibition of her series, The Red Body, at the Gallery Listamidstodim. She has since received several other notable awards, including an American Cultural Center Grant and Staumar Artist Residency Grant.

Her work has been included in numerous exhibitions throughout the United States, as well as in Sweden, Australia, and China and she has been featured in solo exhibitions at the Fay Gold Gallery in Atlanta and the Larry Siroli Gallery in Chelsea. Her solo show, Threshold, at the Bob Rauschenberg Gallery in Ft. Myers, Florida was heavily attended and critically acclaimed.

“My time spent making paintings has been about exploring psychological and material space and my place within it,” states Roes. “I continually revisit the notion of voids; missing pieces, inaccessible or unknowable spaces. Whether it is the psychological space of a lie, the mysterious space of multiple realities, or the indescribable space I feel when I close my eyes and face the sun, it is resistance to containment and the urge towards expansion that drives my work.”

Threshold speaks of the liminal state in between definition – neither coming nor going, neither material nor immaterial. “In these works it is the negative space that interests me the most,” Dana explains. “I wish to have the viewer’s eyes rest in the areas that have no marks or forms in them; to find them satisfied in transit; comfortable with the ambiguity before arrival. Over the past two decades, I have used different vocabularies to express the same experience: the squirming discomfort of movement and the relief found in being released. At the same time, I keep returning to the feeling of entanglement and all that binds us to material reality.”

One of her most personal works in this series is TH1, a painting of her mother’s last breath. “Why I painted it? I couldn’t tell you,” Roes admits. “I think I was wrestling with the image and I was trying to understand it, trying to figure it out through my work. And I think I was somewhat haunted by that image and I just wanted to materialize it and understand it a little. Of course I don’t understand it any more than when I was experiencing it but I got to be a little more intimate with it. And strangely although it’s a literal image I think conceptually it had to do with everything that I paint about. It’s always that space in between…”

After being exclusively an abstract painter for 25 years, Roes now finds the idea of solid material that existed long before life as we know both alluring and subversive. “While the representational paintings in Marking Time evoke the concrete and familiar, I still understand them as abstractions. The elusive presence of a powerful force that is both very real and intrinsically resistant to representation is still at the heart of my work.”

Her current series, Holding Fast, returns to abstraction to investigate the coexistence of various modes of experience. Rather than being preoccupied with transitional states and the indecipherable, these paintings resonate with the acceptance of radical difference. The muscle in this work resides in its formal challenges of balancing chroma, hue, and composition in a way that elicits acceptance and neutrality rather than the pull of emotion.

A trip to the Philadelphia Museum of Art when she was young moved her to think about becoming an artist. She remembers being impressed by Wassily Kandinsky’s Composition VII. “Which is funny because I don’t even care for his work but as a 15-year-old it just spoke to me in ways I didn’t even understand,” she concedes. “And I spent the next 10 years trying to understand it.”

She came to Edison State in 2009 after teaching at Savannah College of Art and Design and Carnegie-Mellon. At FSW, she devoted considerable time developing its fine art program, over which she now serves as Dean. In March of 2014, she accompanied three FSW students (Josue’ Charles, Christopher Lacoste and Leila Mesdaghi) to Reykjavik, Iceland for purposes of delivering wishes collected during the Yoko Ono Imagine Peace exhibition to the Imagine Peace Tower. Located on Videy Island in Kollafjörður Bay near Reykjavík, the Imagine Peace Tower was erected by Yoko Ono in 2006-7 to commemorate the life and perpetuate the memory of Ono’s late husband, John Lennon. It is conjured by 15 searchlights with prisms that act as mirrors, reflecting a column of light vertically into the sky from a 30-foot wide wishing well base that contains time capsules that hold more than a million wishes harvested from Ono’s Wish Trees since she first introduced the latter installation in the early 1990s.

_________________________________________

Spotlight on ceramic artist William Kidd (01-02-17)

This Saturday and Sunday, the Estero Fine Art Show returns to the Miromar Design Center. One of the exhibitors who has been juried into the show is ceramic artist William Kidd.

Kidd has worked as a ceramic artist for 25 years. He creates bowls, vessels, plates, jars and free form sculptures. Some of this work retains is original, symmetrical form – hand carved using simple wire loop tools. Others are altered and given texture which infuses them with the illusion of being formed by nature, whether here or in some otherworldly place.

“In my early years as a potter, I threw many different types of forms- both traditional as well as experimental,” Kidd relates. “My recent work is becoming much more sculptural and has a very organic quality to it.”

While Billy obviously finds inspiration in the natural world, his work is not a rote imitation of the living creatures he encounters during his detailed and careful observations of fungi, cacti, seeds, sea life and microorganism. Instead, he uses this data to suggest “organic possibilities” – the shapes life might take in other atmospheres and places.

These free-form sculptural pieces are wheel thrown and altered by paddling and hand building to create the organic form he desires. “My clay of choice is a low-fire red earthenware clay which is then finished using oxide stains, underglazes, and my signature crawl glaze to create a rich textural, colorful surface that is unique to my work,” Billy relates.

You can see the result in the resulting work, which virtually radiates Kidd’s passion to create intriguing objects from clay.

The festival takes place between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. both days. Featuring original work by some 175 nationally and internationally-acclaimed juried fine art and fine craft artists, the Estero Fine Art Show has been voted in the top 100 art fairs in the nation by Sunshine Artist Magazine. For more information, please contact Hot Works LLC Executive Director Patty Narozny at 941-755-3088 or by email at patty@hotworks.org.

___________________________________________________________________

Estero Fine Art Show returns to Miromar Design Center on January 7 & 8 (12-19-16)

The 19th Bi-Annual Estero Fine Art Show takes place on Saturday, January 7, and Sunday, January 8, 2017 at the Miromar Design Center. As Southwest Florida’s premier destination for design professionals and the general public, the Miromar Design Center welcomes visitors to a world of luxury and elegance that is unparalleled in the design industry. Distinctive showrooms present a world-wide collection of the finest furniture and accessories, fabrics, wall coverings, lighting, kitchen and bath products, flooring, art and more. The new location gives art lovers an unparalleled opportunity to make January 7-8 a weekend of interior design and art shopping and buying that they will remember for years to come. This top-notch fine art & craft event features original paintings, drawings, pastels, photography, ceramics, clay, glass, sculpture, wood working and carvings, fiber art and art jewelry from the ateliers, studios and workshops of some 160 local and internationally-acclaimed artists. All are present throughout the two-day event and eager to answer questions about their work and inspiration. Live art demonstrations afford numerous opportunities for patrons to see the various processes that the artists’ go through and techniques they employ to create high-quality artworks in their chosen medium.

____________________________________________________________________

Lehigh Acres mixed media artist Zaki Knapen part of Estero Fine Art Show (12-19-16)

The 19th Bi-Annual Estero Fine Art Show returns to the Miromar Design Center on January 7 & 8. One of the artists taking part in the show is Zaki Knapen, an artist known to many River District residents and visitors.

Show hours for the 19^th Bi-Annual Estero Fine Art Show are 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, January 7 & 8. Featuring original work by some 175 nationally and internationally-acclaimed juried fine art and fine craft artists, the Estero Fine Art Show has been voted in the top 100 art fairs in the nation by Sunshine Artist Magazine. For more information, please contact Hot Works LLC Executive Director Patty Narozny at 941-755-3088 or by email at patty@hotworks.org.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

Estero Fine Art Show provides glimpse into awe-inspring creative journey of magical realist Marcus Thomas (12-19-16)

Marcus C. Thomas discovered the joy of painting after surviving a snow skiing accident in 1986 that left him paralyzed from the shoulders down. It would have been understandable if the young man had given in to self-pity. After all, at the time it happened he was an athletic and physically-active college grad with a brand new degree in commercial recreation who had just taken a job as the activities director at a vacation resort.

“That Christmas,” Marcus tells, “I received a set of Crayola watercolors.” Although he had no background in art, he launched himself into a new adventure. He became not just a painter, but an artist whose works are so realistic, you’d swear you were looking at a photograph rather than an oil on canvas or panel.

“I like realism and the edginess of surrealism,” Marcus notes, and toward that end, his paintings combine hyper-realistic technique with magical surrealism imagery.

Dating as far back as van Eyck and Vermeer, artists have used various techniques including camera obscura in order to achieve a photographic quality in their finished work. But not Marcus Thomas. He paints free hand, except in his case, he uses a brush rigged to a mouthpiece that he clenches between his teeth. But as a result, he’s required to make adaptations in the process to which classically-trained artists religiously adhere.

He cannot render a drawing of his motif or subject matter in pencil or charcoal. “I have to use a small, fine point brush instead.” And once he places the outline of his composition on canvas, he can’t hone the image with a Sharpie or magic marker. “I just start applying the paint,” he mentally shrugs.

His results are spectacular. His paintings regularly stop festival-goers dead in their tracks. Only then do they notice Marcus parked in his wheelchair, meticulously daubbing paint on a canvas and stroking it into place.

Not only are his works a true crowd pleaser, they have garnered him a number of Best of Shows. “I like art festivals,” says the artist. “They allow me to travel and be outdoors.”

Marcus is quick to give credit to the love of his life. “Without my wife, Anne, this wouldn’t be possible. In fact, a new pictorial biography titled Flight of the Mind: A Painter’s Journey through Paralysis gives a compelling glimpse into how Anne and Marcus have established daily rituals that sustain their creative journey. The book also treats readers to more than 200 color-plate photographs of Thomas’ work from his early watercolor wildlife renderings to his recent magical realism oil narratives, underscoring how the themes of flight, adventure and the natural world have remained constants in Marcus’ life since his childhood.

The 19th Bi-Annual Estero Fine Art Show opens at 10 a.m. and closes at 5 p.m. on Saturday, January 7, and Sunday, January 8, 2017 in the parking lot outside the Miromar Design Center.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Estero Fine Art Show gives students unmatched art festival experience through its Youth Art Competition (12-10-16)

Estero Fine Art Show organizer Hot Works LLC is committed to including art education in its fine art shows thereby enriching the Southwest Florida community as a whole, One mechanism by which it strives to accomplish these goals is its youth art competition for grades K-8 or ages 5-13. Sponsored by the Institute for the Arts & Education, Inc. (the 501(c)(3) non-profit organization which is part of the art fair), the competition gives budding, young artists a golden opportunity to begin learning the rules of being part of a professional art show and exhibition. As a bonus, competitors are provided with prime space within the show to display their entries, and $250 in cash awards for the winners.

Participating students are afforded the opportunity to speak with the professional artists in the show and ask them questions about their process, inspiration and what it is like to participate in art festivals and fairs as a career. “In these ways, our youth art competition provides students with an unmatched learning experience,” states Festival Director Patty Narozny.

Criteria for judging the youth competition is the same as that employed to judge the work of the show’s professional artists: technique/execution and originality. At the 18th Bi-Annual Estero Art Show in November, Hot Works LLC received 64 entries from 46 students enrolled in 14 area schools. Seven-year-old Leah Myers won her second Best of Youth Art award and $100 for the mixed media piece she submitted. Three other students won Awards of Excellence and $50 each – 13-year-old Canterbury School student Aurora Badia (a three-time youth award winner), 12-year-old Gateway Charter High student Mykayla Parker and 9-year-old Cumberland Elementary (West Lafayette, Indiana) student Michelle Xuan. There were five $20 Youth Art Award of Distinction recipients as well.

Youngsters wishing to participate in the Estero Fine Art Show’s January, 2017 Youth Art Competition have until December 15 to submit their applications. Applications are available on the web at www.HotWorks.org. For more information, please contact Show Director Patty Narozny at 941-755-3088 or by email at Patty@HotWorks.org.

The Estero Fine Art Show brings to Southwest Florida new original paintings, drawings, pastels, photography, ceramics, clay, glass, sculpture, wood working and carvings, fiber art and art jewelry from the ateliers, studios and workshops of some 120 local and internationally-acclaimed artists.

__________________________________________________________________

Hot Works announces Estero Fine Art Show youth competition winners (01-07-16)

As part of Hot Works LLC’s commitment to foster art education in Southwest Florida, it incorporates a youth art competition for grades K-8 or ages 5-12 into every Estero Fine Art Show it organizes. Sponsored by the Institute for the Arts & Education, Inc., a 501(c )(3) non-profit organization, and Monkey Bars Storage Solutions, the competition gives budding young artists a golden opportunity to begin learning the rules of being part of a professional art show and exhibition., and to meet and talk with professional artists who, in turn, expose them to the ins and outs of creating art for a living.

This year’s youth art contest included 36 entries from 8 area schools, with the youth art entries being displayed at the art fair. But in addition to enjoying the experience of having their art on display at the festival, organizer Hot Works LLC awarded $250 in cash prizes to four young winners, along with a beautiful, colorful two-foot-long ribbons. In addition, there were five bonus awards consisting of five $20 Miromar Outlet Gift Certificates. In addition, Art Teacher Elizabeth Olancin with Gulf Coast Elementary in Lee County received $500 towards her Art Department. Ms. Olancin has involved her students in this program for many years, and the money will be put towards future art programs and supplies.

Nalin Isme, age 7, of Pinewoods Elementary, received Best of Youth Art honors along with $100.

Three $50 Youth Art Awards of Excellence were conferred, with the recipients being:

Sabastian Canizares, Painting, Age 8, Three Oaks Elementary
Jessica Cathey, Drawing, Age 12, Gateway Charter
Josephine Hopper, Drawing, Age 10, Three Oaks Elementary

Five Youth Art Awards of Distinction from Miromar Outlet Mall – $20 Gift Certificates, were given to:

Aurora Badia, Drawing, Age 12, Canterbury School
Jack Calamela, Drawing, Age 7, Gulf Elementary
Karalena Canizares, Painting, Age 5, Three Oaks Elementary
Jessina Galvin, Mixed Media, Age 7, Gulf Elementary (not pictured)
Mallie Jacoby, Mixed Media, Age 7, Gulf Elementary

________________________________________________________

Hot Works announces Estero Fine Art Show adult winners (01-06-16)

The 17th bi-annual Estero Fine Art Show™ was held January 2 & 3, 2016 at Miromar Design Center. Juried by art professionals possessing a combined experience of 120+ years in art education and/or art shows, the show has been ranked by Sunshine Artist Magazine as one of the top art fairs in the nation. The show features original work in all disciplines, including painting, sculpture, clay, glass, wood, fiber, jewelry, photography and more.

To encourage participating artists to bring their finest work to the show, organizer Hot Works, LLC, provides $1,500 in Professional Artist Awards. For this show, Marina Berkovich of Naples, Florida served as juror. Berkovich is an author, film producer, and Co-founder of The Jewish Historical Society of Southwest Florida. She has won numerous international Telly Awards and has other film industry credits and accolades.

Judging for awards was based on three criteria, vis: technique/execution, originality, and booth appearance.

Two Best of Shows were awarded. The recipients were Eddie Myers, Digital Illustration, Lake Mary, FL and Bonnie Shanas, Sculpture, Cherry Hill, NJ. Each received a $500 cash prize. [Scroll down to read an article on Myers and his digital work.]

Five $100 Awards of Excellence were also conferred. The recipients were:

Obayana B. Ajanaku, Jewelry, Decatur, GA
Mina Heuslein, Clay, Port Orange, FL
Mauro Pozzobonelli, Sculpture, Loxahatchee, FL
Sabra Richards, Glass, Worton, MD
Carmen Zajicek, Sculpture, DeForest, WI

Ten other artists received Awards of Distinction:

Ben Foster, Sculpture, Lander, WY [article below]
Daniel & Frances Hedblom, Metal, Rochester, MN
Kristin Holeman, Jewelry, Fort Lauderdale, FL
Kevin Kichar, Mixed Media, Fort Lauderdale, FL
Ynon Mabat, Mixed Media, Longwood, FL
Kimberly Marshall, Painting, Bonita Springs, FL [article below]
Marius Moore, Photography, Gulfport, FL
Oscar Rivero, Jewelry, Port St. Lucie, FL
Patty Shepard & Mary Otieno, Fiber, Kingsport, TN
Charles Taube, Wood, Phoenix, AZ

Following the determination of the award recipients, a “Prize Patrol” team distributed the awards. Consisting of Marina Berkovich, Estero Fine Art Show™ Executive Producer Patty Narozny, Miromar Design Center Marketing Director & Business Development Manager Deborah Hamilton, and retired artist, art fair and artist advocate Les Slesnick, the prize patrol visited each winning artist at his or her booth and provided them with 2’ ribbons for display in their booth for the rest of the art fair. It was a positive experience for the local community and for the artists.

___________________________________________________________________________________________

With a little help from his friends, Wyoming sculptor Ben Foster makes impact at Estero Fine Art Show (01-03-16)

In the dark days preceding and following Christmas, it didn’t look like Wyoming sculptor Ben Foster was going to be able to exhibit his work at this weekend’s Estero Fine Art Show at the Miromar Design Center. It wasn’t due to ill health, a family emergency or scheduling conflict. Worse, all of the bronzes he’d brought to Southwest Florida for this weekend’s show were stolen three days before Christmas from a Naples storage facility off Collier Boulevard.

The sculptures were inside a 20-foot white trailer with Wyoming tags (the license number is 10-12049), along with everything Foster and his wife needed to set up their booth at the show, including his pop-up tent, pedestals, wall coverings and signs. It’s not clear whether the thief or thieves were after the trailer or the 45 bronze sculptures inside worth an estimated $230,000 that will take years to replace if they are not returned or recovered by the Collier County Sheriff’s Office, the FBI Art Crimes Team or some other stolen art agency, such as Interpol or the Art Loss Register.

As soon as she heard the news of the theft, Estero Fine Art Show Festival Director Patty Narozny leapt into action. She immediately put out the word about Foster’s predicament on Facebook, via email and to her contacts in the media (such as Four in Your Corner’s Lisa Greenberg, pictured with Foster in photos 4 & 5). Within hours, collectors from around the country began calling the artist with an offer he couldn’t refuse.

“Our collectors are like family,” said Ben. “They said I could borrow their pieces and display them at the show, so I spent the last ten days driving around Florida and up to Georgia picking up many of the bronzes that you see here in my booth.” A half a dozen others were inside the storage facility’s office. “They weren’t ready when I left Wyoming and the foundry shipped them to me. Since I wasn’t around, the storage facility kept them inside until I returned.”

So Foster was able to put together a collection of pieces for sale and to entice commissions, but now he needed a way to display them at the show. That’s when the other artists in the show stepped forward, providing Foster and his wife with pedestals, displays and everything else they needed to set up their booth on the grounds of the Miromar Design Center.

While every artist welcomes commissions, it will take years to replace the 45 artworks that were inside the stolen trailer. Some of Foster’s larger bronzes take more than nine months to complete from inception to cast to fabrication at the foundry. “There are a limited number of foundries, and they are all really busy. Most can only handle six to nine pieces a year, so there’s a limit to how many bronzes I can create each year,” Foster concedes.

And making the casts presents other complications. “The trailer also contained hundreds of the tools I use to make the casts I send to the foundries,” Foster noted.

“While I have a list of all the sculptures that were inside the trailer,” Foster’s wife, Andrea, said at yesterday’s show, “we have no inventory of the displays or the tools that were inside the trailer. I’m sure that for months we’ll be saying ‘Oh, that was in the trailer too’ every time Ben goes to get a tool he needs.”

Even if he sells every piece he has available for sale, Foster and his family are looking at a serious disruption of the income stream they count on to stay in business and pay all their bills, including the hefty travel expenses associated with spending months on the road to exhibit at outdoor art fairs and festivals like this weekend’s Estero Fine Art Show.

And so Ben, Andrea and the entire Foster clan hope that the artworks will be found or returned, and toward that end, he is offering a cash reward for information that leads to their recovery. The Collier County Sheriff’s Office is investigating, and anyone with information is asked to call the Collier County Sheriff’s Office at 239-775-8477 or 239-252-9300. You may also contact the FBI’s Art Crimes Team in Miramar, Florida by calling 754-703-2000 or you can submit a tip anonymously at https://tips.fbi.gov/. Since its inception, the Art Crimes Team has recovered more than 2,650 items valued at over $150 million, including approximately 100 paintings from a Florida family’s art collection that were stolen from a fine art storage facility. That collection included works by Picasso, Rothko, Matisse and others, and the FBI eventually recovered them from locations in Chicago, New York and Tokyo.

Foster’s bronze sculptures are collected internationally, and the artist has designed and installed monumental works at universities, schools, municipalities, parks and corporations throughout the United States. He has been featured in numerous one-man shows, group exhibitions, and select juried exhibitions across the nation, as well as magazines such as Southwest Art, Wildlife Art, Sporting Classics, Private Air, Fly Rod and Reel and The Dupont Registry.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Estero Fine Art Show features brighest up-and-coming artists in region and entire country (12-30-15)

The 17th Bi-Annual Estero Fine Art Show takes place on January 2 & 3, 2016 at the Miromar Design Center in Estero (located on Corkscrew Road off I-75 at exit 123).

This juried show is a world-class production that features the brightest up-and-coming artists, such as digital artist Eddie Myers. The addition of digital illustration to the Estero Fine Art Show not only reflects the growing popularity of this hi-tech art form, but recognizes its acceptance by both art professionals and the collecting community.

The show also features an exclusive slice of Southwest Florida’s most unique and elite artists, as well as some of the most established artists from over 30 U.S. states.

The “Artists Juror” for the show is author, film producer, and co-founder of The Jewish Historical Society of Southwest Florida, Mrs. Marina Berkovich of Naples, Florida. Marina is the winner of many international Telly Awards and has other film industry credits.

A total of 17 total professional artist awards will be announced at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, January 2. The largest and most beautiful award ribbons in the art fair industry will be presented to all winners at their booths. “It is a joyous and celebratory occasion for each artist, but especially the two Best of Show winners, whose identities are kept a secret until the very end,” remarks Festival Director Patty Narozny of organizer, Hot Works LLC. “It’s a huge surprise for them.”

Hot Works will also proudly continue its popular Youth Art Competition program at the show. Sponsored by Monkey Bars Storage Solutions of Fort Myers and Institute for the Arts & Education (Hot Works’ associated 501(c )(3) non-profit organization), the competition will also recognize nearly a dozen budding youth artists with cash awards, gift certificates and brightly-colored ribbons. The youth award ceremony takes place at 3:00 p.m. on Sunday.

“We look forward to continuing our great relationships with sponsors, artists, press, and all of our fans,” adds Narozny, who is known nationwide for her commitment to excellence. “Our staff has kicked into full gear.”

For more information, please visit www.hotworks.org or call Patty Narozny @ 941-755-3088.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Glass artists Paul Willsea and Carol O’Brien bringing blown works and cast base bowls and vases to Estero Fine Art Show (12-29-15)

Paul Willsea and Carol O’Brien have worked together since 1983. They combine blown and cast glass to create timeless contemporary works of art. “Our work is a response to what we love in our world: the bloom of a flower, the movement of water,” Paul and Carol note. “There is an element of mystery in the creative process. Working with glass, we always anticipate a satisfying discovery that we can share with others.”

Their output consists of two distinct lines or work. The one is made up of blown works for wall or tabletop. Made in cohesive groups, they are studies in color and how color affects form.

The other consists of bowls and vases which combine a blown vessel with a cast base. The base is cast in a mold to give the pieces a stable foundation while drawing references to architecture. The blown bowl is joined hot so that it appears to seamlessly emerge from the base and is a fluid and graceful counterpoint.

Both groups are elegant and refined, and make a stunning complement to a contemporary or traditional decor.

Willsea and O’Brien’s glass works have been shown and represented at galleries and juried exhibitions throughout the United States, including the California Crafts Museum in San Francisco, the store at the American Crafts Museum in New York City, and the store at the Corning Museum of Glass. Their work can be found in numerous private and corporate collections, including those of Corning, Inc., United Airlines, Kawasaki, Dean Witter Reynolds, Hyatt Regency Maui, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Nestle, Citibank San Francisco, Hartford Hospital Cancer Center, Coverys Insurance and the Saudi Royal Family. They live in the Finger Lakes Region of Western New York. Life partners, they have three children and enjoy a rural lifestyle while they work from their home studio on their wooded property.

The Estero Fine Art Show opens at 10 a.m. and closes at 5 p.m. on both Saturday, January 2, and Sunday, January 3.

________________________________________________________________________________________

Vibrant hues characterize contemporary and abstract paintings of Naples artist Belisario Manrique (12-28-15)

The Estero Fine Art Show returns to the Miromar Design Center on January 2 & 3. One of the artists taking part in the 2-day New Year’s weekend festival is Naples painter Belisario Manrique.

Vivid color is an unmistakable aspect of Manrique’s artistic style. He draws upon his Peruvian background to infuse his contemporary and abstract paintings with vivid and vibrant hues. Belisario utilizes various media to achieve his final works, including acrylic on wood panels applied using brushes, sponges, palette knives and other means finished with a clear resin coat. Manrique was one of ten artists receiving Awards of Distinction at this past November’s Estero Fine Art Show.

You can view Manrique’s latest offerings this weekend. You will find his work in Booth 55. The Estero Fine Art Show opens each day at 10 a.m. and closes at 5 p.m. For more information about the show and its participating artists, please continue reading.

_______________________________________________________________________

Eleven local artists taking part in juried Estero Fine Art Show on January 2 & 3 (12-27-15)

The two-day Estero Fine Art Show is juried, meaning that artists who wish to participate must submit an application that includes images of their work and booth presentation. Then a panel of jurors with 120 years of combining judging experience review each app and decide who to invite into the show. It’s an arduous process and no artist, despite his or her credentials, is guaranteed a spot. And so it’s an achievement that eleven area artists have gained admission into the New Year’s weekend outdoor festival.

The local artists participating in the tw0-day show at the Miromar Design Center are painter Julie Carlson of Bonita Springs, painter Dick Cunningham of Bonita Springs, Cape Coral fiber artist Svetlana Kuznets, fiber artist Julianna Lardas, Naples painter Belisario N. Manrique, Bonita Springs painter Kimberly Marshall, painter J.K. McGreens of Fort Myers, Fort Myers jeweler Anisa Stewart, Naples painter Andrew Taylor, glass artists Paul Willsea & Carol O’Brien and Fort Myers sculptors John & Donna Zidek.

The show opens at 10 a.m. and closes at 5 p.m. each day. In addition to fine art, there is great food and free live entertainment from world-class favorites. For more information, please click here.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Ohio glass artist Italian caning methods and modern color palette to create dramatic glass sculptures (12-27-15)

One of the artists traveling to Estero this week for New Year’s weekend’s Estero Fine Art Show is Ohio glass artist Brian Becher.

Becher has been working with glass for the last twelve years. In that time, he has explored many directions and methodologies, including Venetian and Italian cane working techniques. In his pieces, he tries to forge a synthesis between these age-old traditions and modern appeal. Using a color palette that is primarily modern, Becher creates forms that are classical in nature and achieve a balance between line, form, and color with an eye toward portraying a universal sense of beauty. One of Brian’s primary interests is the investigation of pattern, such as the patterns found on textiles or in baskets. In his Color Weave Series, Becher builds up the color layer by layer with the use of glass rods. Each layer is manipulated as it is built. Subsequent layers are added and treated in a similar way, thus creating an inner woven network of lines and color. This allows an infinite number of designs to be created and an extremely dramatic finished work.

Becher received a BFA from The Ohio State University. He has studied five times at the Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood, Washington, as well as Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina, and the Corning Museum of Glass. Brian has studied and worked with a multitude of artists, which has allowed him to cultivate and round out his personal aesthetic. He is a member of the Ohio State Glass Club, Glass Arts Society and The Ohio Art League

Becher’s work will be on display at the New Year’s weekend Estero Fine Art Show at the Miromar Design Center. The show opens at 10 a.m. and closes at 5 p.m. each day. In addition to fine art, there is great food and free live entertainment from world-class favorites. For more information, please click here.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Poster art for January Estero Fine Art Show signifies growing acceptance of digital as recognized art medium (12-26-15)

The Estero Fine Art Show invades the parking lots and grounds of the Miromar Design Center on New Year’s weekend. The January 2 & 3 show will feature work in numerous media, genres and motifs by some 175 artists who have been juried into the show from across the country, Canada and as far away as Belgium. And for this year’s edition of the festival, organizer Hot Works LLC has chosen The Writing Machine by digital artist Ed Myers as the poster art for the show.

“The typewriter changed everything,” Myers has mused about his inspiration for the work. “It drastically improved communication, modernized cities and even opened doors to the pursuit of creating career equality. Women were entering the workforce at a perfect time, when our world faced rapid change.” And typewriter technology has paved the way for even more rapid and pervasive change in the form of word processing and personal computing.

Advances in digital art have similarly progressed at an exponential rate, particularly in terms of ease of use and the ability to produce truly world-class work. “Without the efforts of early pioneers like Eddie Myers, though, applying a sharp instrument to the nearest cave wall might still be a more viable means of creating images than booting up a computer,” states Sunshine Artist Magazine, which featured Myers in its March, 2014 edition.

Acceptance of digital by art professionals and collectors has not kept pace with the advancements in digital technology, however. . “Being a digital artist in a fine-art market has been an uphill battle to say the least,” Myers told Shelton for the Sunshine Artist article. “Some get it and some don’t. Some think you are cheating, and some think you are brilliant. I think when you create something out of nothing, it doesn’t matter which tools you use.”

In 2010, Myers decided that more needed to be done to win acceptance of digital as a true fine art medium, so he began displaying his work at nationally-ranked outdoor art fairs and festivals around the country. Back then, digital was rarely recognized as a legitimate, stand-alone category. That has changed now, for the most part, and Myers has won a number of awards for his body of digital work in recent years, including Best of Category (Digital) at the 2013 Disney’s Festival of the Masters, the Judges Selection at the 2013 Winter Park Autumn Art Festival, and Best of Show at the 2014 St. Stephens Miami Art Show.

“[But] the best [experience] by far is seeing people’s reaction when they ask me if this is acrylic or oils. When I say, ‘It’s digital,’ you can see the shock [and] confusion in their faces. That’s the fun part.”

While The Writing Machine metaphorically represents the technological advances that are occurring at such a rapid pace, it’s selection as the poster art for this January’s Estero Fine Art Show signifies the growing acceptance of digital by the art community and collectors alike. You can find several examples of digital art in this year’s show, which takes place January 2 & 3, 2016 at the Miromar Design Center.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Sculptural paintings of Bonita artist Kimberly Marshall on display at Estero Fine Art Show (12-25-15)

The Estero Fine Art Show™ takes place at Miromar Design Center on January 2 & 3. Among the 19 local artists that this juried show will feature is Kimberly Marshall, an internationally-renowned Bonita Springs artist who has won several awards for her creative talents in painting and mixed medium. Though her subject matter is vast, some of Kimberly’s favorite motifs are flowers, seascapes and landscapes. Her paintings inspire simple beauty, serenity, and joy. Her motifs are inspired by nature, her travels and photography.

“I currently specialize in impasto painting with acrylics and oils painted with a palette knife on canvas,” says Kimberly, who graduated with a degree in Fine Arts in Toronto, Canada. “I refer to my style as sculpting in paint.” She painstakingly combines up to 50 layers of acrylics and oils in a single painting, emphasizing different impasto textures to produce a 3-dimensional, sculptural effect on canvas that makes her flowers, fields, landscapes and seascapes really come alive. In fact, if you’ve ever wondered what a van Gogh sunflower painting, floral composition or water lilies would look like with 3-D glasses, then you’ll revel in Marshall’s luminous homages.

“By combining several techniques together, I can expound on my creativity and allow my art to flow like the textures which surround our world,” Kimberly expounds. Of course, her approach comes at a cost. “I’ve had to drastically reduce the number of shows at which I can exhibit,” the artist points out. It takes an mindboggling amount of time to engraft layer upon layer of paint to build an impasto that juts as much as a half inch off the surface of the canvas. As a consequence, Kimberly finds it necessary to spend more time in the studio and less time on the festival circuit, appearing in only 14 or 15 each year instead of the nearly three dozen festivals that once monopolized her busy schedule.

The show opens at 10 a.m. and closes at 5 p.m. each day. In addition to fine art, there is great food and free live entertainment from world-class favorites. For more information, please click here.

____________________________________________________________

Truck load of bronze sculptures stolen from Naples storage unit (12-24-15)

When Wyoming bronze sculptor Ben Foster came to town in November for the start of art fair and festival season, he dropped off a 20-foot trailer at a storage facility in Naples. It contained bronze bears, herons and other wildlife pieces that Foster intended to show at local festivals beginning in January. But when he went to the storage facility two days ago, he discovered to his shock and dismay that the trailer was gone. “I really don’t know what we are going to do,” Foster told The Miami Herald. “It’s my entire livelihood.”

The Collier County Sheriff’s Office is investigating, and anyone with information is asked to call the Collier County Sheriff’s Office at 239-775-8477. You may also contact the FBI’s Art Crimes Team in Miramar, Florida by calling 754-703-2000 or you can submit a tip anonymously at https://tips.fbi.gov/. Since its inception, the Art Crimes Team has recovered more than 2,650 items valued at over $150 million, including approximately 100 paintings from a Florida family’s art collection that were stolen from a fine art storage facility. That collection included works by Picasso, Rothko, Matisse and others, and the FBI eventually recovered them from locations in Chicago, New York and Tokyo.

But time is of the essence, as many stolen artworks are removed to overseas markets for sale or barter.

____________________________________________________________________________________

Internationally-recognized sculptor John Zidek participating in January Estero Fine Art Show (12-24-15)

One of 19 area artists participating in the January 2 & 3 Estero Fine Art Show is John Zidek, an internationally-recognized sculptor who has worked over the years in numerous mediums, including bronze, wood, resin, ultra-violet minerals, and a line of gold and sterling silver jewelry.

John’s newest wall sculptures combine fabricated copper and hand-blown glass. “Blown glass is a process. It starts as clear crystal and frits are rolled into it for color and pattern. The frits come from two companies in Germany, which Chihuly claims are the best in the world,” says Zidek. “While the glass is still hot it is fumed with titanium, a Tiffany technique with a space age metal. It was chosen for its overall reflection and iridescence. The quality of the glass blowing is determined by not only the thickness but also its overall uniformity. In other words, it is thin and uniform from its center to the edge.”

Zidek enlisted his friend and fellow artist Ron Hinkle, owner of Dying Art Glass Works in West Virginia, to develop and refine his process. “I had the design and Ron had the expertise to help me put it together.”

“My copper designs are generally in my mind,” Zikek explains. “Occasionally I may make a basic sketch to retain an idea, but that is rare. I selected copper as my metal for several reasons. It is flexible enough to be worked by hand and then through heat treating it can be made rigid.”

Another reason that Zidek gravitates toward copper is its permanence. “Copper is found in sheet form in Michigan. It is layered between rocks and has been there for millions of years in its natural state. Copper was chosen for the Statue of Liberty for its resistance to salt air. The only issue with the Statue to date has been the ironwork that has rotted away in the arm. Depending on formulas, bronze is 94-97% copper; the inclusions are to give it hardness.”

Zidek brazes all of his pieces at approximately 1800 degrees with oxygen/acetylene. “The copper is at its melting point when I apply a copper rod to make the connection,” Zidek continues. “Even though I schooled in jewelry and am familiar with soldering, the process to connect copper is much more intense. I like to build up the shoulders of my joints. Consequently, the application of heat is very delicate. Too much and the entire joint dissolves and falls off. Of course, too little heat and nothing happens.”

Zidek’s pieces have no soft solder, plumbers solder, epoxies, glues or other materials that will fail over time. The work basically becomes one piece and is permanent. His pieces are made from hollow tubing, which makes them very lightweight and easy to install. He uses a museum brown bronze chemical patina for color. The metal is then clear coated with enamel and heat treated. A large piece may weigh as little as twenty pounds.

Zidek is also experimenting with floor, pedestal, lighting, water features and wind sculptures.

A Professional Level Member of the International Sculpture Center, Zidek periodically exhibits in International Art Expo New York. John was born and raised in Franklin, New Jersey. His father, John Zidek Sr., was first generation American, his family having come from Czechoslovakia. His mother, Edna, is a Daughter of the American Revolution. For more information about John Zidek and his art, please telephone The Artists’ Gallery at 239-596-5099 or visit http://www.theartistsgallery.us.

________________________________________________________________

Atlanta artist Cat Tesla returns to Estero Fine Art Show January 2 & 3 (12-24-15)

Atlanta abstract artist Cat Tesla was one of five artists earning Awards of Excellence at the Estero Fine Art Show this past November. The Atlanta artist is returning to Estero on New Year’s weekend for the January edition of the Estero Fine Art Show, which takes place at the Miromar Design Center on January 2 & 3, 2016.

Tesla describes her work as an ongoing exploration of abstract designs “executed in mixed media on canvas and birch supports.” She is intrigued by color, texture and the juxtaposition of shapes.

“The question I get most often at art festivals is ‘Where did you get your inspiration?’,” Cat shares. While the content of her paintings comes from nature, Cat begins her mornings with meditation to clear her mind so that she can focus on truth, flow and harmony. “I like to come to the canvas without any preconceived notions and see what happens. For me, this is the best way for the truth to reveal itself.”

As a result of the meditative process that gives rise to her compositions, Cat’s paintings convey a sense of calm and respite. “I strive to communicate what can only be felt, rather than seen,” Cat states. “The world around us provides a constant and unending display for our senses if we only slow down to take notice.” In this vein, she quotes the Persian mystic and poet Rumi, who once said, “Observe the wonders as they occur around you. Don’t claim them. Feel the artistry moving through and be silent.”

There is unquestionably an element of gratitude underlying Tesla’s work. In January of 2002, her husband was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 41, Although detected at an early stage, his treatment required surgery, chemotherapy and daily radiation treatments for six weeks. He’s fully recovered and travels with her to the 20 or so festivals at which she exhibits throughout the year.

Cat drew considerable strength from her husband’s battle with illness. He gave her another gift, as well. “One day he informed me that he had made some wood boxes for me to paint on instead of canvas. I resisted, but he told me to think outside the box. ‘Paint the outside of the box, Catherine,’ he prompted.” She finally did, and has painted more than 1,000 “Outside the Box” pieces, which are collected by people around the world.

“One of the hallmarks of my ‘Outside of the Box’ Series is to integrate clay tiles into their design,” Cat relates. “At the beginning of each year at a local ceramic studio, I make several hundred small clay tiles that I call cookies. They live together in my studio and eventually find a home on a painting. Once I have painted the textural domains, it is easy for me to see where the cookies belong.”

“Everyone has gifts from the Creator,” Cat professes. “I believe it is the duty of each of us to share our gifts with the planet. My paintings are a brave look inward – revealing what lies beneath both literally and spiritually. Yogis call it the ‘divine flame’ – the spark that motivates you in life. In Buddha’s words, ‘Look within, thou art the Buddha,’ while Jesus taught us that ‘the kingdom of heaven is within you.’ For me, painting is the most life affirming thing to do.”

Organized by Hot Works, LLC, the Estero Fine Art Show returns to the Miromar Design Center on January 2 and 3, 2016.

_________________________________________________________________________

Estero Fine Art Show returns to Miromar Design Center on New Year’s weekend (12-23-15)

The Estero Fine Art Show returns to the Miromar Design Center on New Year’s weekend, January 2 & 3, 2016. Fine art and crafts by some 175 artists has been juried into the show, including paintings, sculpture, clay, glass, fiber, wood, jewelry, photography and more. “We put in tireless, year-long efforts to bring artists with national and international reputations to Estero – artists whose work would not otherwise be seen in the area,” says Festival Director Patty Narozny of Hot Works, LLC, which organizes the show. “Our jurors have more than 120 years of combined experience in judging art.”

Artwork is judged on the basis of three criteria: technique/execution, originality, and booth appearance. And to ensure that the artists bring their finest work to the show, Hot Works pays out $1,500 in Professional Artist Awards – plus, each winning artist receives a beautiful, 2’ long ribbon.

A popular component of every Estero Fine Art Show is its youth competition. Sponsored by Monkey Bars Storage, the show features art created by local youth, grades K-8 or ages 5-12. With $250 in cash prizes up for grabs, the youth competition gives aspiring young artists a taste of the art fair and festival experience as well as unparalleled access to professional artists who make their living creating and displaying their art.

The show opens at 10 a.m. and closes at 5 p.m. both days. The Miromar Design Center is located at 10800 Corkscrew Road in Estero, just east of Exit 123 on I-75 and across Corkscrew and directly south of the Miromar Outlet Mall.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Vision guides Miami-based Patricia DeLeon Alfonso in conversion of Airstream into atelier (09-16-15)

Miami artist Patricia De Leon Alfonso works in encaustics. It’s a millennia-old medium in which pigments and resins are mixed into beeswax Dating back to 100 B.C. and the portraiture popular at that time in Greco-Roman Egypt, the word encaustic comes from the Greek word enkaustikos, which means “to heat” or “to burn.” Working methodically on wood panel or plaster, encaustic artists like DeLeon Alfonso build up hundreds of layers of color and texture using molten wax. In between each brush stroke, they use heat to bind each layer to the one set down before it. Patricia prefers the medium because “it coincides more closely with the vision and dreamlike sensibility I’m trying to convey.”

DeLeon Alfonso’s art and life are infused with vision. Last year, Patricia made a trade with her neighbor, John. In exchange for an old generator, John gave her a 1974 Airstream Land Yacht which served as a vacation home for him and his family for more than 30 years. It had survived all the family excursions, but was abruptly forced into retirement by Hurricane Wilma. Patricia towed the wreck to her art compound where she and her husband lovingly applied copious amounts of sweat, tears and hard work as they transformed “the trailer” into her studio, a creative sanctuary she has dubbed The Bubble (La Burbujita).

“We built a deck around it with a clear roof over it all to shelter The Bubble and me as we enjoy watching the morning ‘traffic’ of cardinals and doves fluttering from palm tree to oak tree and the inspiring afternoon rains,” Patricia recounts.

Only DeLeon Alphonso would have the vision to see an atelier in the bones of an old, dilapidated Airstream. But visions have always driven De Leon Alfonso’s life and art. It all started when she was but eight. She was out riding her bike by herself on an overcast day when a solitary shaft of sunlight pierced the cloud cover, illuminating the distant landscape stretching out in front of her. “At that moment, I felt purely connected to the world, and sitting on my bicycle at the age of eight, I embraced a life in which intuition leads and living symbols abound.”

Fast forward to present day, and that girl has morphed into an artist whose imagery finds its way to her wood and plaster panels through visions that pierce her everyday world much like the sun’s slanting rays cut through the cloudy skies some two and a half decades ago.

“In my work, the figure is at the center of a magical and symbolic universe,” says Patricia. “The medium of encaustic provides a place for this union of form and content: the wax surface is the skin, the skin bears the marks of a story. It is within this interplay of image, abrasion, luminosity and texture that I create an opportunity to find something, a space for things to fall into place.”

De Leon Alfonso almost bypassed a career as a painter.

“When I was an art student at Western Washington [University], the only rooms I never walked into were the painting studios,” Patricia laughs. After graduating with a BFA in Photography and Fiber, she spent more than five years grinding metal and welding. It seems that Patricia has always enjoyed been an intractable attraction to laborious processes and obsessive mark-making. Fortunately for us all, she discovered the discipline of encaustic painting, a medium rife with possibilities for a visionary like her.

And now she has a serene, bucolic setting in which to commune with nature and express her vision in encaustic form. As two recent works, Botanica (sixth photo) and Abundancia (seventh photo), illustrate, her new creative environment is already having a salutary effect on her artistic production. Both paintings evince a softer, more pastel palette and evolving maturity in the best traditions of masters such as Matisse, Gauguin and Mary Cassatt.

Patricia DeLeon Alfonso was awarded Best of Show 2D at the 10th Bi-Annual Estero Fine Art Show at the Miromar Outlet Mall.

_______________________________________________________________________

Hot Works issues call for budding artists for November youth art competition (08-24-15)

HotWorks.org presents the 16th Bi-Annual Estero Fine Art Show™ on November 21 and 22, 2015 at the Miromar Design Center and is calling for budding artists in grades K-8 (ages 5-12) to apply for inclusion in its associated Youth Art Competition. All categories of discipline are open, including sculpture, painting, clay, glass, drawing, fiber, jewelry, wood, photography, digital, and mixed media.

All entries will be displayed during the art fair, and there will $250 in cash awards. “Be imaginative and creative as you begin to learn the rules of being part of a professional art fair,” encourages Festival Director Patty Narozny. “Be inspired by the more than 150 professional artists who will be participating in the show.”

The deadline to apply for admission into the competition is October 15, 2015. Youth Art Awards will be presented on Sunday, November 22 at 3 p.m. The competition is sponsored by Monkey Bars Storage Solutions of Southwest Florida and the Institute for the Arts & Education, a 501( c)(3) organization committed to bringing art education into the community.

For more information, please visit http://www.HotWorks.org.

_______________________________________________________________________

Hot Works now accepting applications for next season’s Estero Fine Art Shows (06-04-15)

Hot Works is now accepting professional artist applications via Zapplication.org or by hard copy for the 16th & 17th Bi-Annual Estero Fine Art Shows™ at the Miromar Design Center, Southwest Florida’s premier destination for design professionals and the general public across the street from its original location at the Miromar Mall. The 16th Bi-Annual Estero Fine Art Show will be held on November 21 & 22, 2015, with the 17th Bi-Annual Estero Fine Art Show taking place January 2 & 3, 2016.

If your first priority is sales, then Hot Works™ shows are for you. “We do have cash awards, but we spend proportionately much more money to get the people to the show than we do to award money,” states Executive Director Patty Narozny. “So, if you buy into the philosophy that awards are great, but sales are greater yet, then please join us at Hot Works, where your art is indeed our passion. Our brand promise is true to the core: Your art. Our passion. And we go the extra mile to make that happen.”

Each show is limited to 175 artists. All categories are presently open for both events, but booth space goes quickly. Applications for the 16th Bi-Annual show can be found at https://www.zapplication.org/event-info.php?ID=4102. Applications for the 17th B-Annual show are at https://www.zapplication.org/event-info.php?ID=4104.

Upon Acceptance, artist booth prices are as follows:

10’ x 10’, $395
Booth and a half (10’ x 15’), $545
Double booth (10’ x 20’), $670
Corner, +$75
Electric, +$75 (must request in advance)

Here’s what interested artists need to know:

Estero, Florida is, by far, one of Florida’s most affluent and sophisticated art-buying and art-loving audiences;
Hertz Corporation recently relocated its international headquarters to Estero, Florida in part because of the community’s reputation as an arts destination;
Hertz Rental Car is bringing 800 new jobs to area this coming year;
Miromar Lakes has been designated #1 community in which to live, with numerous residents who enjoy extremely high average household disposable incomes;
These shows attract large sophisticated art-buying and art-loving audiences;
Estero is located about half-way between Fort Myers and Naples on Florida’s southwest coast; and
Naples has been identified in the past as the #1 small art market in the nation.

Hot Works™ Executive Director Patty Narozny boasts a tremendously loyal artist following because:

she works hard to keep out the buy/sell – and does the research to keep it out;
she knows how to work the media, and brings in the patrons with money to purchase high-end art;
Patty’s unique brand of marketing via Hot Works has consistent, proven success;
Patty respects and always does her best to do what’s right for the artists and for the art fair industry;
Patty has over 30 years’ experience as a successful event and media producer and the know-how to connect artists with art-buying audiences; and
Each artist’s booth sign states emphatically, “All work in this booth is personally handmade by…”

NEW & IMPROVED HOME FOR ESTERO FINE ART SHOW™:

The move to the Miromar Design Center this past January 3 & 4 brings patrons who come specifically to purchase art, not because they stumble upon the art fair by shopping at the mall.
The grand sculpture, museum-like entrance and well-landscaped grounds convey prestige and quality.
The new location provides plenty of parking, trees for shade, and association with very prestigious retail design and furniture stores.
HotWorks™ Estero Fine Art Show™ continues to have media and advertising support from both Miromar Design Center and Miromar Outlet Mall, which are under the same ownership.
Overnight RV parking is available.
High visibility from the main road.
No stages or pulsating music! Music is low key so you don’t have to shout to sell your high-end art.

Deadlines:

June 23 for Estero Fall Show on November 21 & 22, 2015
August 23 for Estero Winter Show on January 2 & 3, 2016

For more information, please telephone Executive Director Patty Narozny at 941-755-3088 or email patty@hotworks.org.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Hot Work’s Executive Director Patty Narozny lists reasons artists love to exhibit at Estero Fine Art Shows (05-24-15)

HotWorks.org presents the 16th & 17th bi-annual Estero Fine Art Shows™ in Estero, Florida (between Naples & Fort Myers) during the 2015-2016 art fair and festival season. Both shows will be located at the Miromar Design Center, Southwest Florida’s premier destination for design professionals and the general public. The dates are November 21 & 22, 2015 and January 2 & 3, 2016.

If you are an artist thinking of applying for admission into these juried shows, then you will be interested to learn that Hot Works™ Executive Director Patty Narozny boasts a tremendously loyal artist following. Here why:

The focus is quality of art: the jurors are art professionals with more than 120 years combined experience.
All artwork is original and personally handmade by the artist.
She brings in patrons with money to purchase high-end art.
Patty’s unique brand of marketing via Hot Works has consistent, proven success.
Patty respects and always does her best to do what’s right for the artists and for the art fair industry.
Patty has over 30 years’ experience as a successful event and media producer and the know-how to connect artists and sponsors with art-buying audiences.

What you need to know:

Estero, Florida is home to one of Florida’s most affluent and sophisticated art-buying and art-loving audiences;
Estero, FL is located about half-way between Naples and Ft. Myers on Florida’s southwest coast.

NEW & IMPROVED HOME FOR ESTERO FINE ART SHOW™:

The move to the Miromar Design Center this past January 3 & 4 brings patrons who come specifically to purchase art, not because they stumble upon the art fair by shopping at the mall.
The grand sculpture, museum-like entrance and well-landscaped grounds convey prestige and quality.
The new location provides plenty of parking, trees for shade, and association with very prestigious retail design and furniture stores.
HotWorks™ Estero Fine Art Show™ continues to have media and advertising support from both Miromar Design Center and Miromar Outlet Mall, which are under same ownership.
High visibility from the main road.
Miromar Lakes, also under same ownership, has been designated #1 community in which to live; extremely high average household disposable income.
Institute for the Arts & Education, Inc., Hot Works’ 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, focuses on visual arts, diversity and community enrichment.
Hot Works reaches out to cultivated art fair patrons.
Media partnership opportunities available.
Youth Art Competition for grades K-8 or ages 5-12 (sponsored by Monkey Bars Storage Solutions and Institute for the Arts & Education, a 501(c)(3) non-profit dedicated to the visual arts) fosters art in young children, diversity, and community enrichment).
No stages or pulsating music! Music is low key so you don’t have to shout to talk with anyone.

If your first priority is community enrichment and/or sales, then Hot Works™ shows are for you. Interested? Please contact Executive Director Patty Narozny at patty@hotworks.org or 941-755-3088, and she would be happy to set up an appointment to meet with you personally.

See Art, Love Art, Buy Art! For more information, please visit www.hotworks.org.

__________________________________________________________________

Hot Works announces Estero Fine Art Show youth competition winners (01-13-15)

The 15th bi-annual Estero Fine Art Show™ held January 3 &4, 2015 kicked off the Florida art show season last weekend at its new winter location at Miromar Design Center. This fine art and fine craft fair is juried by art professionals with a combined experience of more than 140 years in art education and/or art fairs. All forms of discipline were showcased and for sale including paintings, sculpture, clay, glass, wood, fiber, jewelry, photography, and more. Produced by Hot Works, LLC, the focus of the two-day event is on visual arts, diversity, fostering art education among young students and community enrichment.

“As part of our commitment to bring art education into southwest Florida, a youth art competition for grades K-8 or ages 5-12 was integrated into the art fair,” notes Hot Works and Festival Director Patty Narozny. “Sponsored by the Institute for the Arts & Education, Inc., a 501( c)(3) non-profit organization, and Monkey Bars Storage Solutions, young artists were invited to apply with their original and personally handmade art.”

The competition gives budding, young artists a golden opportunity to begin learning the rules of being part of a professional art show and exhibition. It exposes young artists to the opportunity of creating art for a living –doing something he/she loves to do, and, most importantly, how to do it. The art show provided these students with an unmatched learning experience, and exposed families to artwork that they would not have otherwise seen. Young artists were encouraged to speak with the artists in the show – all professionals – and to ask them questions about participating in art shows as a career.

This year’s youth art contest included 45 entries from 9 schools, with youth art entries being displayed in the art fair. The young artists and their families attended the event on Sunday afternoon, when the winners were announced. There were $250 in cash awards provided to four young winners, along with a colorful two-foot-long ribbon. In addition, there were eight bonus awards: five $20 Miromar Outlet Gift Certificates and three art pieces by Artist Lisa Davin. Criteria for judging the youth art were based on technique/execution and originality, which is similar to the criteria for the judging of the professional artist awards.

Aurora Badia (top photo), Drawing, Age 11, Canterbury School received a $100 cash award for Best of Show in the youth category.

Three $50 Youth Art Awards of Excellence:

Grace Ireland (second photo), Drawing, Age 12, Sanibel School
Nalin Isme (third photo), Painting, Age 6, Pinewoods Elementary
Natalie Kelly (fourth photo), Mixed Media, Age 11, Home Schooled

Five $20 Youth Art Awards of Distinction from Miromar Outlet Mall (Gift Certificates)

Alexus Lawler, Photography, Age 13, Three Oaks Middle School
Marina Lombardo, Painting, Age 13, St. Francis Xavier School
Emma O’Brien, Painting, Age 7, Gulf Elementary
Giuliano Possobon, Sculpture, Age 9, Loxahatchee Groves Elementary
Nyeema Saint-Preux (fifth photo), Painting, Age 6, Home Schooled

Three Youth Art Awards of Distinction (from Artist Lisa Davin)

Isabella Burham, Drawing, Age 14, First Baptist Academy
Carly M. Cecil, Clay, Age 10, Pinewoods Elementary
Clair Woolam, Jewelry, Age 13, St. Francis Xavier School

Save the date for the 16th bi-annual HotWorks.org Estero Fine Art Show™, which will be held on November 14 & 15, 2015 at Miromar Outlet Mall (fall location) at 10801 Corkscrew Road, Estero. The deadline for the Youth Art Competition is October 1, 2014. Grades K-8 or Ages 5-12 are eligible to apply.

Please scroll down to see all the news and highlights of the 15th Bi-Annual Estero Fine Art Show.

_____________________________________________________________________

Hot Works announces 15th Bi-Annual Estero Fine Art Show award winners (01-09-15)

The 15th Bi-Annual Estero Fine Art Show™ was held on January 3 & 4, 2015 at its beautiful, new winter location in the east parking lot of the Miromar Design Center. The art professionals who jury this fine art and craft show possess a combined experience of more than 140 years in art education and/or art fair experience to ensure festival-goers a truly exceptional viewing and buying experience. All artwork is original and personally made by the artists who participate in the show, and all forms of discipline are showcased and for sale including paintings, sculpture, clay, glass, wood, fiber, jewelry, photography, and more.

To even further ensure that participating artists bring their finest work to the show, sponsors Hot Works, LLC (which boasts a national standing and reputation) and the Institute for the Arts & Education, Inc. (the associated 501( c)(3) non-profit organization that focuses on visual arts, diversity, fostering art education among young students, and community enrichment) provided $1,500 in professional artist awards. Industry advocate Sally Bright of Brighton, Michigan (fourth photo) was the Artist Juror. Ms. Bright is an artist herself and has great experience with juried art fairs and artists. She has more than 35 years of participating in art shows. Ms. Bright is an award-winning artist from the top juried fine art shows in the country. Criteria for judging were based on technique/execution, originality, and booth appearance.

Following selection of awards, a “Prize Patrol” team which included Ms. Bright, Hot Works Executive Director Patty Narozny, Miromar Design Center Director Deborah Hamilton, Federation Star and L’Chayim Editor Ted Epstein and Jewish Historical Society of Southwest Florida Executive Director Marina Berkovich visited each winning artist at his or her booth to give them their cash prize and a large 2’ ribbon that they proudly displayed in their booth the rest of the art fair.

Two $500 Purchase Awards/Juror’s Award of Excellence were issued to M. Webb (first two photos), Sculpture and Wendy & Marc Zoschke, Jewelry (third photo).

Five $100 Awards of Excellence:

Billie Barthelemy, Fiber
Joseph Cyberski, Jewelry
Marian Howard, Painting (fifth photo)
Gilles Peltier, Sculpture
Alice Pickett Lewis, Fiber

In addition, ten Awards of Distinction were given out to:

Steve Carney, Painting
Jim Copeland, Photography
Don & Serena David, Jewelry
Svetlana Kuznets, Fiber
Belisario Manrique, Painting
Kathleen Mrachek, Mixed Media
Benjamin & Sarah Peterson, Sculpture
Kurt Ruby, Metal (sixth photo)
Cat Tesla, Painting (seventh photo)
Zhiyong Ye, Painting

All winners are juried in and accepted to participate in the 17th Bi-Annual HotWorks.org Estero Fine Art Show™ in January, 2016 at Miromar Design Center. And join the fun on Saturday and Sunday, November 14 & 15, 2015 at the 16th Bi-Annual HotWorks.org Estero Fine Art Show™ at the Miromar Outlet Mall at 10801 Corkscrew Road in Estero.

Please click here for more information about the Estero Fine Art Show. And to read more about abstract artist Cat Tesla, continue reading, below.

_____________________________________________________________

Estero Fine Art Show features abstracts by Atlanta artist Cat Tesla (01-04-15)

This weekend, Atlanta abstract artist Cat Tesla is exhibiting her art at the Estero Fine Art Show at the Miromar Design Center. Tesla describes her work as an ongoing exploration of abstract designs “executed in mixed media on canvas and birch supports.” She is intrigued by color, texture and the juxtaposition of shapes.

Cat drew considerable strength from her husband’s battle with illness. He gave her another gift, as well. “One day he informed me that he had made some wood boxes for me to paint on instead of canvas. I resisted, but he told me to think outside the box. ‘Paint the outside of the box, Catherine,’ he prompted.” She finally did, and has painted more than 1,000 “Outside the Box” boxes, which are collected by people around the world.

“Everyone has gifts from the Creator,” Cat professes. “I believe it is the duty of each of us to share our gifts with the planet. My paintings are a brave look inward – revealing what lies beneath both literally and spiritually. Yogi’s call it the ‘divine flame’ – the spark that motivates you in life. In Buddha’s words, ‘Look within, thou art the Buddha,’ while Jesus taught us that ‘the kingdom of heaven is within you.’ For me, painting is the most life affirming thing to do.”

If you miss Tesla at the Estero Fine Art Show this weekend, you will have three more chances here in Southwest Florida to see and collect her work. Tesla and her husband attend more than two dozen art fairs and festivals each year. Their ambitious schedule for the first quarter of 2015 follows:

January 10-11, 2015, Bonita Springs National Art Show, Bonita Springs, FL
January 24-25, 2015, St Armands Art Festival, St Armands Circle, FL
January 31-February 1, 2015, Bonita Springs National Art Show, Bonita Springs, FL
February 7-8, 2015, Coconut Point Art Show, Estero, FL
February 14-15, 2015, Downtown Sarasota Fine Arts, Sarasota, FL
March 14-15, 2015, Marco Island Festival of the Arts, Marco Island, FL
March 27-29, 2015, Bayou City Art Show, Houston, TX

But there’s still time to catch Cat at today’s show. Show hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free, although a $5 donation is requested, with the proceeds being used to support The Institute for the Arts & Education, Inc., which focuses on visual arts, diversity, and art education benefiting young students. The Institute for the Arts & Education is a 501(c)(3) organization for federal income tax purposes. See Art. Love Art. Buy Art! See You There!

For more information, please telephone 248-762-2462, email Patty@HotWorks.org or visit www.HotWorks.org.

_____________________________________________________________

Miromar Design Center welcomes inaugural Estero Fine Art Show (01-03-15)

The Miromar Design Center welcomed the Estero Fine Art Show™ today. The high-quality juried art show will spend the weekend nestled among the trees that shade its east parking lot.

The previous 14 Estero Fine Art Shows were staged on the southeast side of Miromar Outlet Mall, near the intersection of Corkscrew and Ben Hill Griffin Roads. But the show’s popularity among artists and the public demanded more space than the outlet mall could provide, forcing event organizer Hot Works LLC to move the sprawling festival across the street – at least for January fair. “Our show next November will return to the Miromar Outlet Mall,” Executive Director Patty Narozny hastens to note.

More than 125 local and internationally-acclaimed artists are participating in the show, which runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday. The two-day event is characterized by fine art, one-of-a-kind crafts, and live art demonstrations that afford patrons with numerous opportunities to witness first-hand the various processes that the artists go through and the techniques they employ in order to create high-quality artworks in their chosen medium.

“This event brings a great buying audience,” notes Narozny. The show draws heavily from nearby Miromar Lakes Beach & Golf Club, the #1 residential community in the United States. It is the only Florida community ever to win the National Association of Home Builders’ Gold Award for Community of the Year. The 1,800 acre residential community features a 700 acre freshwater lake, three miles of private white sandy beach, and signature championship golf all within one luxurious setting, which played an instrumental role in enabling Miromar Lakes to garner a National Gold Award for its excellence and superiority.

In addition to free live entertainment, there is free parking and free admission. But the focus at this New Year’s weekend Estero mainstay is clearly on the art, with many Day 1 visitors in evidence in the parking lot tucking sculpture and canvases into the back seats and trunks of their cars and SUVs. With temperatures in the 80s and slightly overcast skies, Day 2 promises to provide equally attractive art viewing and purchasing opportunities. For more information, please telephone 248-762-2462, email Patty@HotWorks.org or visit www.HotWorks.org.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Sculptural paintings of Bonita artist Kimberly Marshall on display at Estero Fine Art Show (12-31-14)

The Estero Fine Art Show™ takes place at Miromar Design Center on January 3 & 4. Among the artists that this juried show will feature is Kimberly Marshall, an internationally-renowned Bonita Springs artist who has won several awards for her creative talents in painting and mixed media.

Though her subject matter is vast, some of Kimberly’s favorite subjects are flowers, seascapes and landscapes. Her paintings inspire simple beauty, serenity, and joy. Her motifs are inspired by nature, her travels and photography. “I currently specialize in impasto painting with acrylics and oils painted with a palette knife on canvas,” says Kimberly, who graduated with a degree in Fine Arts in Toronto, Canada. She painstakingly combines up to 50 layers of acrylics and oils in a single painting, emphasizing different impasto textures to produce a 3-dimensional, sculptural effect on canvas that makes her flowers, fields, landscapes and seascapes really come alive. “I refer to my style as sculpting in paint.” In fact, if you’ve ever wondered what a van Gogh sunflower painting, floral composition or water lilies would look like with 3-D glasses, then you’ll revel in Marshall’s luminous homages.

“By combining several techniques together, I can expound on my creativity and allow my art to flow like the textures which surround our world,” Kimberly expounds. Of course, her approach comes at a cost. “I’ve had to drastically reduce the number of shows at which I can exhibit,” the artist points out. It takes a mindboggling amount of time to engraft layer upon layer of paint to build an impasto that juts as much as a half inch off the surface of the canvas. As a consequence, Kimberly finds it necessary to spend more time in the studio and less time on the festival circuit, appearing in only 14 or 15 each year instead of the nearly three dozen festivals that once comprised her busy schedule.

But that’s fine with the artist, who feels a consuming need to create. “My art is an expression of my passion and love for life and all its gifts and amazing beauty,” she acknowledges. Kimberly Marshall is located in Bonita Springs, Florida, and sells her original paintings at juried fine art shows and exhibitions nationwide. The show opens at 10 a.m. and closes at 5 p.m. each day. In addition to fine art, there is great food and free live entertainment from world-class favorites. For more information, please click here.

________________________________________________________________________

Artists prepare for 15th Bi-Annual Estero Fine Art Show at Miromar Outlet Mall (12-30-14)

A panel of art professionals has selected more than 125 artists for this weekend’s 15th Bi-Annual Fine Art Show at the Miromar Design Center. As many of the artists participating in the show hail from frigid, northern climes, they are busily heading south for the show ahead of the menacing winds of white-out conditions associated with a rare winter storm bringing snow to the normally-arid Southwest and heavy rain to Texas and Alabama.mp as much as 18 inches of snow across Michigan and the northeast.

Among the local artists taking part in the festival are (alphabetically)

Julio Blanco, Cape Coral, mixed media
Julie Carson, Bonita Springs, painting
Josephine Espinosa, Port Charlotte, glass
Yongqun Guo, Cape Coral, painting
Marian Howard, Naples, painting
Svetlana Kuznets, Cape Coral, fiber
Julianne Lardas, Naples, fiber
Belisario N. Manrique, Naples, painting
Kimberly Marshall, Bonita Springs, painting
Kathleen Mrachek, Naples, mixed media
Jerry Ozboyaci, Fort Myers, mixed media
Gilles Peltier, Naples, digital photography and sculpture
Lawrence Phillips, Fort Myers, photography
Kurt Ruby, Port Charlotte, metal sculpture
Anisa Stewart, Fort Myers, jewelry
Andrew Taylor, Naples, painting
John & Donna Zidek, Fort Myers, sculpture

The bi-annual Estero Fine Art Show™ takes place twice a year. The 16th Bi-Annual Estero Fine Art Show will take place in next November. The shows are sponsored by Hot Works Fine Art & Fine Craft Shows, which has an outstanding national reputation. This art fair is a high quality, juried fine art and fine craft show with top-notch world-renowned and local artists. The jurors, who each possess more than 30 years’ experience, focus on technique/execution, originality and booth appearance during the selection process. All forms of disciplines are for sale including paintings, sculpture, clay, glass, fiber, wood, photography, jewelry and more. All work is original and personally handmade by each artist in the show. The event is open Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. There is free admission and free parking.

____________________________________________________________________________________

Estero Fine Art Show’s G.M. Webb defines himself as enthusiastically committed festival artist (12-29-14)

As a self-taught artist, Webb has been creating wire sculptures for the last 15 years. “You have to define who you are as an artist,” says Webb. “Either you are a festival artist, a gallery artist or someone who just sells arts to individuals.” Currently on the festival fast track, Webb will be one of 120 artists who will be exhibiting original new work at the Estero Fine Art Show at the Miromar Design Center on January 3 and 4.

“I have learned it’s about keeping expenses low and the quality of the art very high,” Webb expounds.” If your art has value, people will buy it.”

Webb employs a labor intensive, hands-on process he’s dubbed “Webbing.” He opts for a trusty pair of needle nose pliers in lieu of welding and soldering to bend and twist strands of aluminum, copper and color-coated wire into masks and intricately-patterned wall hangings that evoke the essence of humanity. “I choose to use mainly small to medium gauges,” Webb explains. “As the sculpture begins to take shape, many layers of wire are then applied in this lengthy process.” A completed work typically contains between 400 to 800 wire strands of varying lengths, gauges and colors.

“My subject matter originates from my memory and imagination,” Webb divulges. “As the process begins, I visualize the subject, colors to be used, and the sculpture size. I allow what I have visualized to direct the process and I only sketch if it becomes unclear. Most of the time the sculpture presents and develops itself as I work.”

Although his work admittedly exudes a cultural character, Webb has an exceptional ability to transcend all attempts to limit its relevance and universal appeal by relying on a thematic and symbolic construct, establishing an intimate relationship between work and collector often absent in works of its kind. As a result, Webb’s work has been featured in galleries and exhibitions from California to Pennsylvania and Texas to Ohio, including the Olivia Bennett Gallery, the Blue Moon Gallery, the National Cowboys of Color Museum, the City of Lancaster Museum Art Gallery, the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, the Three Rivers Arts Festival, the Association Arts, ArtWalk and the Texas Sculpture Association Presents Urban Renewal, a Themed Juried Exhibition. Featured in The New Pittsburgh Courier and both The Arlington and Ft. Worth Star-Telegrams as well as The Soul-Pitt and KDKA (CBS-affiliate) websites, his work has benefited such charities as the Boys & Girls Club of Greater-Ft. Worth, the Great Lakes Theater Festival in Ohio, the Holy Nativity Episcopalian School in Florida and the Literacy Council of Prince George’s County, MD.

A former Pittsburgh native, Webb lives in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Estero Fine Art Show committed to creating relaxed atmosphere that promotes sale of original art (12-28-14)

The 15^th Bi-Annual Estero Fine Art Show™ takes place January 3 & 4, 2015 at Miromar Design Center, which is located at 10800 Corkscrew Road, Estero, FL 33928 near the intersection of I-75 & Exit 123.

“Miromar Design Center is an exciting new location, directly across the street from our former location of Miromar Outlets,” notes Hot Works Executive Director Patty Narozny, who hastens to point out that only the January show is moving. The November show remains in its original location at the mall.

The Estero Fine Art Show™ is juried by a group of art professionals with over 120 years total combined experience. Both nationally and internationally acclaimed artists are invited to display exclusive one-of-a-kind hand-made creations representing all disciplines. Organizer Hot Works makes every effort to ensure there is original artwork for every budget and pays out more than $1,500 in artist awards to encourage participating artists to craft and display their best work.

Hot Works’ overarching goal is to create a relaxed atmosphere that promotes the sale of original art, with low volume, easy-listening, and semi-classical music provided during the show. Hot Works Executive Director Patty Narozny attends to every detail of the show to ensure the art is authentic and of the highest quality. Hot Works reviews all applicants to assure originality and will reject fraudulent, imitated or imported entries.

As part of its commitment to include art education in the Estero Fine Art Show™ and the southwest Florida community as a whole, Hot Works integrates a youth art competition for grades K-8 or ages 5-12 into the art fair. Sponsored by Monkey Bars Storage Solutions and the Institute for the Arts & Education, Inc., young artists are invited to submit original handmade art and display these entries in a prime location. There will be a $100 Best of Youth Art Award and three $50 Youth Art Awards of Excellence. “The success of our program comes from teaching young artists how to excel and become part of a professional art show and Exhibition,” Narozny states. “The show provides an unparalleled learning experience to students, by encouraging them to explore career opportunities in art, while providing a forum for questions and answers with professional artists.”

Show hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday. Admission is free, although a $5 donation is requested, with the proceeds being used to support The Institute for the Arts & Education, Inc., which focuses on visual arts, diversity, and art education benefiting young students. The Institute for the Arts & Education is a 501(c)(3) organization for federal income tax purposes.

See Art. Love Art. Buy Art! See You There!

______________________________________________________________________________

15th Bi-Annual Estero Fine Art Show takes place January 3-4 at Miromar Design Center (12-27-14)

The 15th Bi-Annual Estero Fine Art Show takes place on Saturday, January 3, and Sunday, January 4, 2015 not at the Miromar Outlet Mall, but across the street at the Miromar Design Center. As Southwest Florida’s premier destination for design professionals and the general public, the Miromar Design Center welcomes visitors to a world of luxury and elegance that is unparalleled in the design industry. Distinctive showrooms present a world-wide collection of the finest furniture and accessories, fabrics, wall coverings, lighting, kitchen and bath products, flooring, art and more. The new location gives art lovers an unparalleled opportunity to make January 3-4 a weekend of interior design and art shopping and buying that they will remember for years to come as this top-notch fine art & craft event, which features original paintings, drawings, pastels, photography, ceramics, clay, glass, sculpture, wood working and carvings, fiber art and art jewelry from the ateliers, studios and workshops of some 120 local and internationally-acclaimed artists, sets up in the parking lot outside the design center.

_____________________________________________________________________

Important information for artists participating in the Estero Fine Art Show (12-26-14)

Artists participating in the Estero Fine Art Show on January 3 and 4 should be aware of the following:

Contact Information

Hot Works, LLC is the show’s organizer
Patty Narozny is Executive Director
Hot Works’ winter address is P.O. Box 1425, Sarasota, FL 34230
Hot Works’ summer address is P.O. Box 79, Milford, MI 48381-0079
The office telephone #s are 941-755-3088 (FL) or #248-684-2613 (MI) or Cell #248-762-2462
Email: Patty@HotWorks.org Website: www.HotWorks.org

Event Address

Miromar Design Center, 10800 Corkscrew Road, Estero, FL 33928
Event location is in the parking lot to the east of the design center on Corkscrew Road

Event Dates & Times

Saturday, January 3, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Sunday, January 4, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Set Up & Tear Down

Friday, January 2
- check in begins at 8:30 a.m.
- all set up must be complete by 6 p.m. unless other arrangements have been made for after-hours set up
- there is event security on Friday & Saturday evenings
Saturday, January 3, final set up 8:00 – 9:30 a.m. (please, all vehicles must be out by 9 a.m.)
Sunday, January 4
- tear down begins at 5 p.m.
- vehicles permitted only patrons have left the show
- tear down must be completed and everything moved out by 9 p.m.

Directions

From North or South: Take I-75 to Exit #123, Corkscrew Road. Head east on Corkscrew Road; Miromar Design Center is on the south side of Corkscrew Road, just past the I-75 viaduct.

Parking

There is plenty of parking during the event and for overnight parking on site at the design center. Artist parking is located to the west of the design center and can accommodate any size vehicle. However, please bring a bicycle, a scooter, skateboard, or other form of transportation, otherwise it is a good morning walk from parking to the artists’ booths. The exception is artists with a handicap sticker may park closer to event site, as long as the handicap sticker is displayed in the front window.

Flooring

The flooring is pavement; it is recommended that you bring flooring for your booth. Flooring provides a nicer booth presentation, and sometimes offers relief to customers’ feet who may linger in your booth longer because of the comfort of flooring.

Sales Tax

Estero sales tax is 6%. Forms are available online at www.MyFlorida.com/dor/forms. Sales and Use Tax Return information can be found at http://dor.myflorida.com/dor/taxes/sales_tax.html. Please call Florida Dept of Revenue at 239-338-2400 in Fort Myers or 800-352-3671 in the State of Florida for more info.

Security

Security will be on site during overnight hours of the event, which includes overnight security for Friday and Saturday evening. Security is licensed, bonded and insured. During the daytime, there is roaming mall security. Please report any security issues to event management.

Event Badges

It is recommended that event badges are worn only at the event during event hours. Do not publicize that you are working an event; please remove badges upon departure of show.

Tents

All tents must be properly weighted or barreled down, with a minimum of 60 pounds of weight on each corner. The event is on pavement, therefore no stakes are permitted! Please be prepared to handle any bad weather that may occur, whether it be rain, high winds, etc. You may use the parking block behind your tent as additional weight for your tent. If you do, you will need to bring heavy straps. The parking block can be lifted with two people, but please if you use it, return it in the same place that you found it. Event cannot be responsible for tents blown away and any damage that it causes to your own booth, or anyone else’s booth. Hot Works™ will inspect booths on site to ensure rules and standards are adhered. The umbrella-type, pop-up canopy by any manufacturer or distributor are not recommended, as they are the first to come down on a windy day. If you must use the umbrella-type expandable pop up tent, as with all tents, a minimum of 60 pounds of weight on each corner is required. In addition, if there is rain, sometimes the rain can collapse a canopy tent. Rain is heavy, and if there is enough puddling on the roof, the rain collapses the canopy. Bolstering the inside corners will make the canvas tighter and avoids ponding on top on the tent. It is the weight of the ponding of the water that collapses the tent frame. Swim noodles or hula hoops (you can purchase these from the $1 store) placed in corners between the frame and canvas top can avoid ponding. At night, canopy tents must be lowered to withstand bad weather that may occur unexpectedly overnight. Please advise if you use an umbrella-type pop-up canopy. If you prefer to rent a commercial tent with side flaps, please check with event for tent rental.

Hotel

Hampton Inn & Suites
10611 Chevrolet Way, Estero, FL 33928
Click to reserve: http://hamptoninn.hilton.com/en/hp/groups/personalized/F/FMYETHX-MAS-20141112/index.jhtml?WT.mc_id=POG
All rooms include continental breakfast, wireless internet service, outside heated pool, fitness center, free parking & can accommodate large vehicles.
Includes shuttle to/from Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers.
You may find better hotel rates by going through an online service such as priceline.com or kayak.com.

RV Camp

Koreshan State Historic Site – Reserve Early!
3800 Corkscrew Road, Estero, FL 33928
Reservations: 800-326-3521 or www.ReserveAmerica.com Telephone: 239-992-0311

Banners

For sponsors, arrangements will be made to get banners in advance. Unless indicated in the contract, banners are to be provided by sponsor/vendor/artist and returned to your company following the event. Estero Fine Art Show cannot be responsible for sign damage as a result of “Mother Nature”.

Emergency

In case of emergency due to weather conditions, please take building cover.

About the Author

Tom Hall is both an amateur artist and aspiring novelist who writes art quest thrillers. He is in the final stages of completing his debut novel titled "Art Detective," a story that fictionalizes the discovery of the fabled billion-dollar Impressionist collection of Parisian art dealer Josse Bernheim-Jeune, thought by many to have perished during World War II when the collection's hiding place, Castle de Rastignac in southern France, was destroyed by the Wehrmacht in reprisal for attacks made by members of the Resistance operating in the area. A former tax attorney, Tom holds a bachelor's degree as well as both a juris doctorate and masters of laws in taxation from the University of Florida. Tom lives in Estero, Florida with his fiancee, Connie, and their four cats.

search the site

Spotlight on the January Estero Fine Art Show

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

About the Author