Cuban Sandwich Show, Part IV: Pressed Art @ Bamboozle Cafe

On Tuesday, June 7th, the walls of the Bamboozle Cafe hosted the Cuban Sandwich Pressed Art show.
 I got there very early. Here are a few highlights...
On the left is Tatyana Igumnova Hankinson's oil painting titled "Palms on Bayshore Boulevard".
[Link]



On the right is Ms. Hankinson's "Westshore Pizza Downtown". Her style is Impressionistic and very atmospheric, and all local landmarks, except for an aerial view of NYC.






"La France, 1984" is a hand-colored b&w photograph by David Audet, made back in the day. See the graffiti in the backwall? Somewhere I have a picture of it when it was new. The girls from La France  (which one is Jill Wax?) as Lucys...

Steven Gregory has said that he approaches his work more as a painter than photographer. They're real eye candy. Here, in "Back Porch", his strong American Luminist roots are exposed. This was one of several works by him at this show, dazzling in their intensity and chromatic coherence.


On the right is another Gregory work, titled "The Grand Ghost", depicting the partly demolished old GTE (I think?) building glowing at night.

 Elizabeth E. Mitchell's mixed media dye-on-silk "Ybor Cafe" is a strongly graphic work showing the socializing in an Ybor cafe. Beautifully composed  in an unusual way, like a coil.






The graphic work on the right was unlabeled, but it caught my attention.

 Another fine but untagged work that caught my eye...

Also untagged  (remember, I got there early, tags were still being readied) work on the right... but I recognize the surrealist digital collage style as Laszlo Horvath's. Loved the beetle climbing the silos...



 On the left, Carolyn Kossar's "Green Flash", a fiber and gold scultpture of considerable richness and sensuality.

The maker of the tags proudly displayed his work...

 Congratulations to all the artists, the Cuban Sandwich Show crew, David Audet, and the Bamboozle Restaurant for a wonderful show.








The Bamboozle Cafe is a Vietnamese Fusion restaurant located at 516 N. Tampa Street. It's been in operation since 2008, in the capable hands of Lynn Pham, whose passion takes her into every facet of the restaurant, including the kitchen. One of the innovative things the restaurant does is its "Fit Club", where they stage a free fitness class, which culminates in a take-out order from Bamboozle.

For more, see here [Link], & here [Link]. The only thing I've had there so far was the Exotic Sangria, and it was heavenly. My friend, David Audet, who staged the Cuban Sandwich show exhibit there, tells me it's great. I'll be going back to Bamboozle soon.

Bamboozle Café

516 North Tampa Street, Tampa, FL 33602 (map)
813-223-7320

This Hot and Busy Weekend, June 10th - 12th

Past, Present and Curtis (Sneary) @ Donna Gordon Gallery -  A one-man show of Sneary's paintings from past and present. To see some of his work, see here: [Link].  Donna Gordon Gallery and Studio, 625 Central Avenue, St. Pete. 727.827.2811 Opens 5:30-8:30 PM Saturday, June 11th, runs through July 28th. Free admission.
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Clay Pride Exhbit @ Craftsman House - Varied work by openly Clay Lifestyle artists on display at this beautiful gallery and cafe. Craftsman House, 2955 Central Ave., St Pete. Opens Saturday, June 11th, June 11th, 5-8:30 PM, runs through July 10th. [Link]
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You and Me Art Party @ Artpool - Come dressed as your favorite celeb and Vogue the night away at Matina Williams' Boutique/Co-op/Gallery. Opens Saturday, June 11th, at 8PM. Fashion Show at 10:30 PM. ARTpool gallery, 919 First Ave. North, St Pete.
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Splish Splash @ Artist's Studios  - A wide variety of media on display focused on water as a theme for the Gallery Walk. Opens Saturday, June 11th, 5-8:30 PM, Artist Studios, 10 Fifth St North, St Pete. Runs through June 30th.
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Child Support Art Show @ The Bricks - Nine USF students & alumni exhibit in a variety of media at this great cafe. Opens Saturday, June 11th, 9-11 PM. Free. 1327 E. Seventh Ave Ybor City.
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International Etsy Meet-Up Day - Many artists and food from The (excellent) Globe cafe. Friday, June 10th, 10 AM - 6 PM at the Crislip Arcade, 645 Central Ave. Free.
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Soul of Sand, Global Lens Series @ Tampa Museum of Art - A top-rated Indian film. $8 admission, or $5 for card-carrying students. Friday, June 10th, 7 OPM, 120 Gasparilla Plaza.
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A Taste of Summer @ Charlie Parker Studio - Hand-made pottery by Charlie and his studio members. Opens thursday, June 9th, at 5-8 PM.  Free.
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Find Art Magazine @ Pale Horse - A movable art feast comes to St Pete in the form of the moving van/gallery of Find Art Magazine. Live painting, T-shirts, and emerging artists. Friday, June tenth, 7-11 PM at Pale Horse, 611 Central Ave, St Pete.
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The least Expensive Photo Workshop in the US: Beyond the Art, @ Polk Museum of Art - Workshop is by Gregory Mills, Museum exhibit & tech manager. Polk Museum of Art 800 E. Palmetto St. Lakeland. $5 admission covers the workshop, which will be held from 1-2 PM Saturday, June 11th.
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Big Gay Art Show Opening & Reception @ Suntan Art Center - Suntan Art Center, 3300Pass-A-Grille Way, ST Pete Beach. 6-9 PM Friday. Free. Closes June 30th.
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From The Earth We Create @ Cakewalk Artists' Co-op - John Richardson will show his metal sculptures. Cakewalk Artists' Co-op, 1114 Central Ave., St Pete. Opening is Saturday, June 11th, from 5:30-8:30 PM. Free.
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The Cuban Sandwich Show @ HCC Ybor Art Gallery -  Artists reception for "The Cuban Sandwich Show", also, "Get Wired", a show-within-a-show. Thursday, June 9th.

Tampa Poet Laureate James Tokley Sr. will give a reading of his Epic of the Sandwiche Cubano.

(That alone is worth the time and travel. I've already heard him read it.)

Free.  Runs from June 8 through July 8, 2011.. Art Gallery in Performing Arts Building

Hillsborough Community College-Ybor City Campus
Corner of East Palm Ave. and North 14th St., Tampa, FL 33605 (map)
www.hccfl.edu/yc/art-gallery

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The Built, The Lost and The Dreams, M. Leo Elliot @ Old Hyde Park Center -  Exhibition and reception for "The Built, The Lost and The Dreams: The Architectural Drawings of M. Leo Elliott"  including the Cuban Club and Ritz Theater in Ybor City, the Masonic Temple and the Leimann House in Hyde Park, and the Seaborn School on Davis Islands.
Show runs Friday, June 10 through July 8, 2011. Facility open Noon to 3:00pm all days except Monday.
More...

Free

Tampa Regional Artists at Old Hyde Park Center
705 West Swann Avenue, Tampa, FL 33606 (map)
813-251-3780
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Ybor Art Series @ The Cuban Club -  An artistic evening at one of Ybor City's most beautiful and historic landmarks, the Cuban Club. Free Cuban Club
Corner of East Palm Ave. and North 14th Ave., Tampa, FL 33605 (map)
813-248-2954 ‎ 6-9 PM Friday, June 10th.

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Living in America Ybor Memories @ HCC Ybor / Screenings in Ybor room -

Director Gayla Jamison will screen and host a panel discussion of her film documentary "
More...Free. Ybor Room Hillsborough Community College-Ybor City Campus (map)
2001 N. 14th Street and Palm Avenue (directly across from the Cuban Club) 813-323-7830

 Saturday, June 11th, 10:30 AM to Noon.

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Art Show Opening and Reading Performance @ King Corona -

The first reading of "The Exquisite Corpse", a serial poem about Tampa by 16 poets/writers/artists. Artwork related to each stanza of the poem will be on display in the King Corona street window June 1-30.
Writers/artists include Kim Buchheit, Rachel Kapitan, Annette King, Dina Mack, Maisy May Marrs, Summer Rodman, David Audet, Melissa Fair, Frank Messina, Naomi Butterfield, Joe Howden, Vanessa Blakeslee, Ilyse Kusnetz, Silvia Curbelo, Mitzi Gordon, Nola Garrett, David Durney and James Tokley Sr.

FreeSaturday, June 11th, 2:00 - 2:30 PM  King Corona Cigar Bar

1523 East 7th Avenue, Ybor City, 33605 (map)
813-241-9109
www.kingcoronacigars.com

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Tampa: Art, Poems, Stories

Artists reception and readings. Saturday, June 11th. Writers include Kim Buchheit, Rachel Kapitan, Dina Mack, Summer Rodman, David Audet, Melissa Fair, Frank Messina, Naomi Butterfield, Joe Howden, Vanessa Blakeslee, Ilyse Kusnetz, Silvia Curbelo, Mitzi Gordon, Nola Garrett, David Durney, and James Tokley Sr. Artists to be announced.

Free

Tre Amici at the Bunker 3:00-5:00 PM
1907 N. 19th Street, Tampa, FL 33605 (map)
813-247-6964
www.yborbunker.com

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Cuban Sandwich Show, Part III: Essence of Ybor

"Essence of Ybor" was a juried art show presented on Saturday, June 4th, by the Ybor Art Association in Ybor Square, the space was made possible via the courtesy of The Church of Scientology.
Many artists showed, including Dominique Martinez, Marc De Waele, Rick Reeves, Paul Tabio, John Canning, Jason Shiver, Samantha Churchill, Donna Morrison, Greg Latch, Ray Paul, Bruce Ferguson, Terry Klaaren, Tatyana Igumnova Hankinson, Susan O'Hara, Nancy Baier, Melody Swindle, Bob Pomeroy, Clyde McLaughlin, Antony Capers, David Edmund, John Costin, Roberta Scholfield, Willie Emerson, Kellie Schultz, Paula Brett, Steven Palladino (who live-painted) and others.  YAA site can be accessed here: [Link]

Jason Shiver, "Las Cruces"

Jason Shiver's painting, "Las Cruces", reflects his interest in shipbuilding and the American Worker. The colors here are pungent, the perspective makes the workers in the foreground seem of giant stature. Jason's studio is in the Ybor Art Colony 1521 1/2 E 7th Avenue. Another theme which this artist continues to explore is that of nature.

Jason Shiver, "Low Country"

 In "Low Country", we see a bird fishing in the shallows. Note the way the highlights in the water were handled, in an almost pointillistic manner. [Link], [Link]

Tatyana Hankinson, "Kojak's Place"

 Tatyana Hankinson's paintings are painterly, by which I mean they do not look like filled-in drawings, but are at ease with the process. She paints local landmarks and storefronts beautifully.

[Link]

 Greg Latch is also an Ybor Art Colony artist. His art is, as he says, surreal, abstract and postmodern, and looks very colorful, graphic and busy to the point of horrovacuity.  A very distinct style.
[Link]

A new Ybor Arts Colonist, Stephen Palladino is seen here live painting a view of the Essence of Ybor Art Show.  His style is very graphic, reminiscent of street art, and at times, noir. [Link]

Bruce Ferguson, "Group Meeting"

Bruce Ferguson paints the boundary between water and land, mostly mangrove-lined shorelines and estuaries in a somewhat romanticized, gentle manner.

Samantha Churchill, "Frank"

I had the pleasure of talking for some time with the sculptor Samantha Churchill, whose work is on the right. She recycles aluminum wiring from major construction sites which would be discarded as waste into her art. These works, variants which I have seen at other venues,  have no inner skeletons to hold them up, they're all wound wire.

Melody Swindle, "The King"

On the left is another work by Ms. Churchill, this one incorporates a theme that she often explores in her painting, El Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead). Here a multimedia DOTD figure looks at itself like Narcissus, through blank eyes. Its face can only be seen as a reflection. See more of her work here [Link].



Below right is Melody Swindle's "The King", decked out in velvet, sporting a golden halo with Elvis-Angels fluttering overhead and much more.[Link]

Nancy Baier, "Snow Falls"

On the left is "Snow Falls" by Nancy Baier. A combination of text (poetry) and painted forms. Nancy is a Wisconsin transplant to the area, and apparently remembers her memories of snow
vividly.  Caution, possibly NSFW [Link]

Nicholae, "Christ will come again"

On the right is Nicholae, with his painting, "Christ Shall Rise again", a complex allegory about the dangers of cloning, bellicosity in the Middle East, and more. [Link]





On the left, Cheetah Chad Ruis, who paints the things he loves, like an ideal wave to surf. [Link]

Last, but far from least, I ran into these three characters, who called themselves "The Three D's"....


Congratulations to all the artists in the show, to the Ybor Artists Association, to Moira Shiver, Samantha Churchill, Ybor Art Colony, David Audet, HCC Ybor, and the Church of Scientology for a beautiful show and a great afternoon.


--- Luis

Cuban Sandwich Show, Part II: Tampa Pix-Cuban Sandwich @ FMOPA Gallery D

The Tampa Pix Show @ FMOPA's Gallery "D"

Last Friday, June 3rd, was the kick-off for the Cuban Sandwich Show at the opening reception of Tampa Pix - Cuban Sandwich, at the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts. Curated by David Audet, it includes photographs by Suzanne Williamson, Steve Gregory, Cat Thompson, Suzanne Camp Crosby, Bud Lee/David Audet, Gordon Myhre, Carolyn Kossar, Laszlo Horvath, and others.

The show is in Gallery "D", which also functions as the Museum's Library. Lots of good reading material there, btw. It was an intimate crowd, with several of Tampa's best photographers present.

Suzanne Williamson, "Cuban Sandwich Dreams, La Segunda Bakery, bread and sandwiches"

Suzanne Williamson showed several photographs printed on fabric, and tacked onto coffee sacks. The pictures, in the documentary style, were made at a local bakery. The one on the left has a formal elegance with the receding parallel lines of the table, bread loaf, and overhead vents.




On the right is another picture by Ms. Williamson, this one of the exterior of Papi's Food Market. To see more of her work, [Link].

Suzanne Camp Crosby, "Cafe con Leche, 2010"

[Please forgive the round reflection by the upper right]



Suzanne Camp Crosby's "Cafe con Leche, 2010" is a surreal juxtaposition of a coffee cup in front of a rendition of a coffee cup painted on a window, photographed back into two dimensions, through the medium of film digitally scanned. Plus the 3-d cup is an outsized model. Reminds me of some Magrittes, recontextualized into the present.







 On the right, a picture of Suzanne talking about her work.[Link], [Link], [Link].

 David Audet talking about one of several Gordon Myhre portraits in the show.

Gordon Myhre, "Mykette"

On the left, another Gordon Myhre portrait, titled "Mikette".

David Audet, "To the Victor go the Spoils", a mixed media work consisting of a rat trap, a small Matthew Brady print and more inside a cigar humidor box.
[Link]






On the right is Carolyn Kossar's "Black-Necked Stilt", a 20x24 inch Polaroid image transfer. She said the picture was motivated by her love of birdwatching. [Link]




 Carolyn Kosar (on the right), talking about her work.





On the right is Laszlo Horvath talking about his surreal digital composites.

The show closed with Tampa Poet Laureate and cultural treasure James E. Tokley reading a remarkable poem about the Cuban Sandwich. It was a paean to the ritual and culture surrounding the theme of this festival. One that says: This is who we are. I had the pleasure of talking with the poet after the reading and swapping a few stories. A perfect ending to a great evening. [Link], [Link], [Link]








Congratulations to all the photographers in the show, to the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts for hosting the show, and to David Audet and the Cuban Sandwich Show crew for putting on a great kick-off.


--- Luis
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This show was a one-nighter, here's info on the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts:

200 N. Tampa Street 33602 (Entrance corner of Jackson Street and Ashley Drive)
813.221.2222 Admission is $10.00. Currently they have the Ansel Adams show (which was reviewed here a couple of weeks ago)  up.

Street Art: Stenciled

Here's a trio of gas masks found on the side of a warehouse, lined up with extreme care, and sprayed in blue. I have a hunch that it is the same artist that did the stencils in the Alley Gallery post.

Here's a color-corrected close-up of one of those masks to show details in the work.This is a beautifully done stencil.

The same artist put this traffic cone to riff off an existing "No Parking" sign, about fifteen feet from the gas masks. Note the care taken to show volume in the cone and composition.

At another location, and by a different artist, is this. I think of her as The Last Madonna, stenciled, melancholy and filled with longing, she illuminates the dystopia with grace as she clutches her own breasts sensuously. She's been up for several years, luckily in a spot well- shielded from the elements and the eyes of vandals who would paint her over.

She used to be found all over town, but has been painted over through the years almost everywhere else. The artist practiced a little Feng Shui & carefully integrated her with the colors and lines of the wall here.

Sometimes I think we should act like the cavemen of Lascaux, get intoxicated, and carrying lights, ecstatically prowl wildly, casting shadows through the alleys and ruins where these works lie in search of revelations, but it would only hasten their destruction...



--- Luis

Deja Vu Window @ La France. So it begins: The Cuban Sandwich Show, Part I

The first event in the month-long Cuban Sandwich Show was the Deja Vu window display art at La France, a landmark period garment store established by Jill Wax in 1974, located at 1612 Seventh Ave. [Link]

La France "Deja Vu" window

 A trunk full of Cuban Sandwiches is in the middle. On one side is a robot with Jack-o-Lantern eyes firing a rocket-powered fist at the (literally) empty suit on the other side. A battle for the Golden Cuban Sandwich in progress?

Congratulations to La France for kicking off the Cuban Sandwich Show. Much more to follow....

---- Luis

One Road, Two Paths @ Salt Creek Artworks, Part II: Cheryl Mackey Smith

Cheryl Mackey Smith's work is easy on the eye. Some of it is decorative, in beautiful, multi-hued patterns and shapes to beautify one's environment.

Part of Cheryl Mackey Smith's Exhibit at Salt Creek Artworks

Some goes much further. She uses clay, beads, wire, found objects to make basically four different kinds of work: Decorative, biomorphic, geomorphic, and close to the decorative, but along humorous lines, conceptual. On the left, we see three of Cheryl's geomorphic works, the "Terrain" series.

Cheryl Mackey Smith, "Fumaroles"

In "Fumaroles", we see some of the tropes that are used in this geomorphic series. Note the segmentation of the form. It is an elegant, irregular grid in the form of cuts. They come across as a visualization of geological (tectonic) forces, and a temporal record or signature of them over time. The viewer feels the torsion and tensions, and gains an idea of their vectors and history.
  Fumaroles are "smokers" in geological hot spots. There are many to be found in Yellowstone. The color here is bright and its shading accentuates the topography of the ceramic.

Cheryl Mackey Smith, "Harvest"

In "Harvest", the idea of the "Terrain" series being derived from aerial views is easier to see. Cheryl told me that she the idea for this work came from flying over an agricultural area. If one looks closely, the patchwork quilt of cultivated fields becomes apparent. The colors here are a little reminiscent of an abalone shell.

Cheryl Mackie Smith, "Earthscape: Desert Wind"

"Desert Wind" is a departure from the others. The eye-candy colors are replaced by unglazed tan and smoky tones that link to the desert theme well.
  Each of the sub-frames delineated by the grid on these things could be considered a sub-frame/work, concatenated into the whole.

Cheryl Mackie Smith, "Party in Your Pocket"

On the left, one of Cheryl's decorative/conceptual pieces, which are humorous and light-hearted. Note how there are actually several small works in this piece. Multiples, but each is an individual. This idea runs through a lot of the work in this show.

Cheryl Mackie-Smith, "Toasted"

In "Toasted", the idea of multiples is clearly at the core of the work. The artist uses the variations on tone deliberately created by the process used as part of the esthetic here.

Close-up of "Toasted"

On the left, a close-up of  "Toasted". What we are seeing the artist deal with, in these multiples, is a typology, a catalog of variants or objects in a category/class. This was used in photography by August Sander in the 1920's when he attempted a typology of the German people in his book, "Face of Our Time". Cheryl Mackie Smith is doing something similar, but in a more conceptual way here, perhaps a metaphor of the collective and the individual?




Congratulations to Cheryl Mackie Smith, Salt Creek Artworks and Lance Rodgers for a good show.

--- Luis

This Weekend, June 3rd - 5th

 Tampa Pix @ Florida Museum of Photographic Arts/Cuban Sandwich- Opening night reception with artists' talk. Opens Friday, June 3rd, closes July 6th. 2011. 6PM - 8PM.



This group phototography show is held in Gallery D, along with the Ansel Adams show, "Classic Images: The Photography of Ansel Adams (already reviewed in AT).  The show is curated by David Audet, with Suzanne Williamson, Steve Gregory, Cat Thompson, Suzanne Camp Crosby, Bud Lee/David Audet, Gordon Myhre, and others' work on display.
While this opening night is free, the FMOPA is $10 admission at all other times.


Florida Museum of Photographic Arts
200 N. Tampa Street, Tampa FL 33602 (map)
(Entrance corner of Jackson Street and Ashley Drive)
813-221-2222
http://www.fmopa.org/
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Essence of Ybor/Cuban Sandwich Show @ Ybor Square -  "Essence of Ybor", a juried art show presented by the Ybor Art Association. Extra: scavenger hunt is 6:00-7:30pm Saturday, June 4, free. Ybor Square.

Artists include Dominique Martinez, Marc De Waele, Rick Reeves, Paul Tabio, John Canning, Jason Shiver, Samantha Churchill, Donna Morrison, Greg Latch, Ray Paul, Bruce Ferguson, Terry Klaaren, Tatyana Igumnova Hankinson, Susan O'Hara, Nancy Baier, Melody Swindle, Bob Pomeroy, Clyde McLaughlin, Antony Capers, David Edmund, John Costin, Roberta Scholfield, Willie Emerson, Kellie Schultz, Paula Brett.
Free
Historic Ybor Square Courtyard 9th Avenue and Avenue Republica de Cuba (14th Street), Ybor City, Tampa, FL 33605

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Art on 19th St @ Singing Stone and Arnold Martinez Gallery - Open Gallery and Studios, live demonstrations by artists and live music. Free. Singing Stone, 1903 N. 19th St. 10 AM - 5PM Saturday, June 4th,  Ybor City.
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Gulfport Art Walk -  Enjoy a delightful sidewalk art show in this romantic beach town. Fifty Artists, Live Music, plenty of bars and restaurants, glass-blowing mini-classes at the Industrial Arts Center, and be sure to walk out on the pier. Friday, June 3rd, 6PM - !0PM. on Beach Blvd, Gulfport.
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Night of Wine And Glass @ Duncan McClellan - "Un Notre de Vino e Vetro" at Duncan's extraordinary gallery/studio space. The food and wine, as one would expect, is first-rate, wine from Zonin, food from Mazzaro's, Madfish, Salt Rock Grill and others. Silent auction of McClellan wine glasses, sports memorabilia and more. All for the Abilities Foundation, which helps returning disabled vets find job placement. $45 for one, $80 per couple. Trust me, this promises to be an outstanding evening. Duncan McClellan Gallery, 2342 Emerson Ave., St Pete. 727.538.7370 6:30 PM Saturday, June 4th.

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One Road, Two Paths @ Salt Creek Artworks, Part I: Randall Smith

Randall Smith photographs tableaus. The word comes from the French diminutive for 'table', sometimes meaning 'picture'. In this case, they consist of table-top arrangement of figures, etc. which are photographed. The photograph is the finished work.

View of Randall Smith Exhibit @ Salt Creek Artworks

 Randall is based in Orlando, and works out of a studio in Winter Park.  He told me his work tells stories, but don't anticipate neat linear narratives. They're more like the way we experience dreams, in symbols, often with multiple interpretations. The viewer more or less synthesizes his own story as a combination of  what is in the photographs and his own psyche.  

Randall Smith, "Midnight Fairy's Moonlight Ride"

 In the above picture there are tropes that appear in other R. Smith pictures. Styx crossing-worthy boats, in this case being drawn by blue ( a favorite Smith color) birds. The cave-looking wall, Randall told me, is one of the few times he's created a CGI backdrop.  Note how the Fairy's boat rests on dice. An older, Virgin Mary-like figure observes or officiates from the shore as the fairy rides by.  Two sailfish jump behind the three bird train, their bodies arced. They pull the boat via the ubiquitous red string that appears in so many of these images.

Randall Smith, "Often Traveled, Seldom Used"

In "Often Traveled, Seldom Used", we find another procession, this one being pulled by camels, three of them, and an implied fourth one, since the red string that binds disappears off the frame's left edge. There are three cocktail umbrellas (which gives you a clue as how big the tableau was) and three stars with red circles behind them on the far side of the camels. There's a pigeon, and in the foreground, two small figurines apparently wrangling the red string.

Randall Smith, "Journey"

 In "Journey", a white female doll body rests on what at first glance appears to be a bier, but it is another boat, moored in mid-air by the red string. Below, about a half dozen firemen hold a wire as if trying to construct an infinity figure. Above the body a proportionally large apple (dream of Avalon?) floats weightlessly.

Randall Smith, "A Drifting Ride in Morning's Mist

 In "A Drifting Ride In Morning's Mist", we come across yet another procession. The red string is leashed to the bird apparently powering the vehicle this mythological female personage rides. In the back is the blue that Smith uses often in his background. We also see the Golden Leaf, which appears in several other images.

Randall Smith, "Destiny Unfolding"

That blue can clearly be seen in "Destiny Unfolding", in the background. The red string (passion?) threads through this picture also. A winged prince-like figure holds a proportionally large feathered dart with the red string attached to it.  On the right is a Lotus. 









 On the right is "Divided Destiny". A clear plastic or glass couple stand in the lower middle foreground. two blue birds holding the (you guessed!) red string in their beaks, which is roping the couple in. The Stars make an appearance just behind the figures. The bluebirds are held up by red triangles. The Gold Leaf towers behind them. the die is there, this time turned to the "1" to us. There's a cocktail umbrella behind one blue bird, and a fighter plane swooping behind everything in the deep blue background. Randall Smith has created a fusion of personal and extant mythologies, sometimes light and whimsical, and a few millimeters over, in the same image, they are sobering. For more of his work, see here: [Link].

Tableaux have a rich tradition in Florida photography. Robert Fichter was doing them back in the 70's, and still is, as are some of his students. [Link] . Suzanne Camp Crosby also worked with two-dimensional tableaus since the early 80s, perhaps earlier. [Link].


Congratulations to Randall Smith, Salt Creek Artworks, and Lance Rodgers for a good show.

Part II, the work of Cheryl Mackey-Smith will be up soon...

--- Luis

 One Road, Two Paths @ Salt Creek Artworks - Photography by Randall Smith, mixed-media art by Cheryl Mackey-Smith.