Wild Kingdom exhibit runs through July
The Joe Center for the Arts opened Wild Kingdom, its July exhibition, on Friday evening, June 28.
The show’s juror, local artist Cyndi Lanier announced her choices for the winning entries and presented $600 in cash awards.
Capturing Best of Show was “Working the Marsh,” an oil on canvas by Pauline Watts.
The first place winner was “Kite Lift Off,” an acrylic on canvas by Laura Green. In second place was an acrylic on aluminum panel entitled “Genesis 1:28” by Kelly Deal, and in third place, an India ink drawing on watercolor paper “Blue Jay #2” by Gary Carroll.
The three Honorable Mentions went to “Let’s Hear it for the Buoys,” a watercolor by Marcy Trahan; a photo print “Brown Pelican in Breeding Plumage” by Aimee VanGelder; and a photograph “Chewbacca” by Richard Trahan.
The coveted People’s Choice award is to be announced after the voting ends with the close of the show, Friday, July 26.
Deal, who teaches art at Port St. Joe Elementary School, named her entry of a nurse shark “Genesis 1:28,” after the passage that reads “Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
Deal said she relied on a photograph taken by Tammie Matthews while she was snorkeling in the bay of a shark.
The artist also entered two watercolor paintings on Yupo paper, “Tag Turtle Remix” and “Cletus Will Eat Us.”
All the art is available for purchase at The Joe Center for the Arts, 202 Reid Ave. with a percentage of the art sales going to support the nonprofit arts center.
Educational activities planned during the Wild Kingdom show include Feather Identification, on Wednesday, July 3 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. ET; Birds of Prey, on Thursday, July 11,from 6:30 to 8 p.m.; and Owls of Florida, on Saturday, July 20 from 1 to 2:30 p.m. Other activities include Sea Turtles, Terrapins and Tortoises, a talk with Florida Coastal Conservancy director Jessica Swindall on Thursday, July 18 from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m.
Mel Elum will hold an acrylic painting workshop to explore and create a jungle scene in the style of Henri Rousseau on Saturday, July 20 from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.. Register online at thejoecenterforthearts.org
The Joe also features a selection of gyotaku prints and paintings throughout the exhibition created by Lanier, a nature printer and artist who has explored various media over the past 30 years including pastels, watercolors, photography, nature printing, paper dyeing and oil painting.
The Joe Center for the Arts is a 501(c)(3) organization whose mission is to exhibit, educate, inspire and partner through the arts. Open Wednesday through Friday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Meet the Editor
David Adlerstein, The Apalachicola Times’ digital editor, started with the news outlet in January 2002 as a reporter.
Prior to then, David Adlerstein began as a newspaperman with a small Boston weekly, after graduating magna cum laude from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He later edited the weekly Bellville Times, and as business reporter for the daily Marion Star, both not far from his hometown of Columbus, Ohio.
In 1995, he moved to South Florida, and worked as a business reporter and editor of Medical Business newspaper. In Jan. 2002, he began with the Apalachicola Times, first as reporter and later as editor, and in Oct. 2020, also began editing the Port St. Joe Star.