If you’re like me, you can’t get enough of Bravo’s darned addictive design-related reality shows, like Project Runway, Top Design and Shear Genius (the one about hair stylists). Well, get this–the International Academy of Art and Design has created their own online reality series, Artistik Envy, which focuses on a competition between ten multimedia and [...]

[Read more →]

I will be participating tomorrow night in the first Pecha Kucha Night Tampa Bay at Romeo’s Gallery in Ybor City, and I’ll be talking about the future of public art in the Tampa Bay area.
Yes– in 6 minutes and 40 seconds, I will discuss the current state of public art locally, draw attention to innovative [...]

[Read more →]

Erik Jones at work. Image courtesy Pale Horse Design & Gallery.
Friday
6-11 p.m. – Opening reception for the 2008 FloCas Traveling Exhibition at the Bustillo y Diaz cigar factory (runs through Oct. 24). The exhibit features work by 30 graduate students from USF, FSU and UF juried by MOCA NoMi director Bonnie Clearwater.
7-9 p.m. - [...]

[Read more →]

Rebecca Sexton Larson, Contemporary Retablo, “Before we can see” (verse: Henry David Thoreau). Mixed media on pinhole photographs, 29.5” x 28.” Courtesy sextonlarson.com.
Artsqueeze “hearts” Rebecca Sexton Larson and her ability to transform nearly any box-like object into a pinhole camera. (Pay a visit to the Big Draw Studio in Ruskin this week to see [...]

[Read more →]

The folks at Flight 19 have announced a closing reception date for Bob Wysocki’s Post-Metal: Sat., Nov. 8, 7-11 p.m. If you haven’t seen this installation yet, it’s one of the most exciting projects to take place in Tampa this fall (or year…perhaps even in recent memory). Check out the video above to see my [...]

[Read more →]

Donna Box of Valrico taking part in a class at the Big Draw Studio.
Did you know that Ruskin, Fla., was founded by people inspired by the social theories of art critic and Victorian intellectual John Ruskin? And here I’ve been thinking “tomato” every time I hear Ruskin for the last twenty years…
In honor of [...]

[Read more →]

USF grad student Ariel Baron-Robbins teaches a class at the Big Draw Studio in Ruskin last week.
Have you heard about the Big Draw?
Out in Ruskin, a group of artists is working to stage a month-long celebration of drawing (that most intimidating of artistic exercises) that will culminate with a party and mural unveiling on [...]

[Read more →]

Chris Parks, The Fleet of Doom, digital illustration, 2008
Saturday night marks the return of The Exhibitionists (the TMA young members group formerly known as Avant Garde) to downtown Tampa. Their show, Brand New Day, staged in the ground floor of Skypoint, aims to be an art party with a curatorial premise that actually holds some [...]

[Read more →]

C. Wade Brickhouse, Paper Vessels, 2008. Courtesy Florida Craftsmen.
Most of you probably know the artists’ studios housed above Florida Craftsmen in downtown St. Petersburg as Artspace. I’m told by staff at FC, which owns the building, that a slight reorganization has taken place. The studios will be known as ArtLofts going forward, and the artists– [...]

[Read more →]

Inside ArtHouse3. Courtesy Katherine Gibson.
For those who don’t know, South Tampa resident Katherine Gibson has periodically transformed her home into a temporary gallery space for the past few years. Add friends and neighbors, guest artists, hors d’oeuvres and … you get the picture.
From Kathy’s email about the latest installment of ArtHouse3:
Come see a [...]

[Read more →]

Jade Dellinger, curator of MashUp at USF CAM, sent me a link to this highly amusing video earlier today. My only disappointment: the reporter didn’t rock out (which everyone else who participates in the project does) before smashing the guitar. I was there on Friday night for the opening and additional guitar smashings - most [...]

[Read more →]

Video courtesy Tampa Bay Business Committee for the Arts. Produced by Edit Suites.

Last week, Chicago-based marketing guru Patricia Martin landed in Tampa to talk about the ideas behind her new book, RenGen: The Rise of the Cultural Consumer and What It Means to Your Business.

Some of Martin’s rhetoric sounds familiar. Instead of a “creative [...]

[Read more →]