Vero’s balmy weather, combined with some extended New Year’s revelry, lured a particularly large number of people who wandered in and out of the galleries along 14th Avenue in the Historic Downtown Arts District at last week’s First Friday Gallery Stroll.
“It’s just been packed; I can’t believe it,” said artist Shotsi Lajoie, of Tiger Lily Art Studios and Gallery. “It’s been the busiest I’ve ever seen it.”
Fresh off of their pre-Christmas exhibition, Tis the Season Yule Enjoy, the six talented Tiger Lily owners are now concentrating on new works for their March spring show, Birds of a Feather.
Gallery 14 was bursting wall-to-wall with viewers relishing a final glimpse of the juried Our Beautiful Waters exhibition, at which 20 percent of all sales benefitted education programs at the Environmental Learning Center.
A wide variety of wonderful works, including paintings and drawings, photography, sculpture, mixed media and jewelry, drew the eye at every turn.
“We have so many great things this year,” said Gallery 14 partner Lila Blakeslee. “We’ve had a lot of activity in December; we had a really strong October and November, too. It’s a really good vibe. People are coming and really supporting the local artists.”
Also wandering the crowd were models wearing hand-painted dresses from Cottonways, which, along with restaurants Avanzare, Bijou, Baci Trattoria and Burp, had donated gift certificates as prizes for the award winners.
Judges Willie Miller, George Paxton and Allan Teger had selected the winners for Best in Show: Ken Dara for Speckled Perch (Gyotaku Fish Print); 1st Place: Carol Bennett for Blue Seascape (oil); 2nd Place: Lieghann Fischer for Micro Sea (undersea photography); 3rd Place: Judy Burgerella for Waiting to Sail (oil).
ELC Choice Awards, judged by Cathy Walker, were presented to Margaret Goembel, for Rowing Down the River, an assemblage of materials collected from the water’s edge, and Scott Woodward for his lovely oil painting, The Indian River Lagoon. Each will be honored with a Name Recognition Plank on the ELC boardwalk.
“We picked two pieces of art that were representative of the Environmental Learning Center’s mission,” said Molly Steinwald, who began six weeks ago as the ELC’s new executive director. Steinwald is an accomplished photographer with a background in conservation education and art, previously employed as Director of Science Education and Research at Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens. “Scott’s shows the lagoon in a pristine shape and Margaret has taken pieces of trash from the lagoon and has made something beautiful out of it. She sees the value of things you would normally throw away.”
Impressed with what the ELC has already accomplished, Steinwald said she would like to develop a regular relationship with the arts community, eventually displaying local artists’ works at the ELC. Other goals include the establishment of a paid internship for high school students, especially targeting lower-income students who would otherwise not have access to ELC programs.
She hopes to bridge the gap between programs already in place for younger children and the new Living for the Lagoon program, which is geared toward adults becoming more proactive in protecting the lagoon and the environment.
