The gardening season in Florida is exactly opposite to that up north. While fall just about everywhere else means raking leaves and putting the patio furniture away, in Florida it is the season to plant and ornament the garden for the sunny, temperate months ahead.
The timing is perfect, then, for “Garden Art,” the upcoming show at Flametree Clay Art Gallery in downtown Vero. The exhibition of garden-themed artwork for both indoor and outdoor display will open Friday at the Gallery Stroll.
Gallery partner Karen “Keko” Ekonomou is in charge of receiving and installing works for the open-entry show. It will feature work by guest clay artists as well as Flametree’s resident artists and its “cubies” – artists whose work occupies modular wall units in the gallery’s featured exhibition room.
Flametree has three or such exhibitions a year, says Ekonomou. While the open-entry format adds ever-changing novelty to the gallery’s offerings, the grab bag of last-minute entries can be a challenge to organize.
While the call for entries to the show goes out weeks in advance, the artworks don’t arrive until the week the show is installed.
“It drives me nuts,” says Ekonomou. “I won’t expect any work until the day before the show opens.”
And while the specific offerings – as well as the identities– of those at-large clay artists will be a surprise to be savored on opening night, Ekonomou is excited about the work of the known quantities that will be on view.
One garden component is a sure thing.
“There will be bugs,” she says.
Veterans of Vero’s monthly gallery stroll are by now familiar with Ekonomou’s larger-than-life clay stick insects that are designed to cling realistically to the wall. Flametree resident artist Trudy von Linsowe will show fetching ladybugs and weevils that do more than elicit smiles.
“Trudy makes some really cool bugs that have little pockets in the back of them—like key hiders,” Ekonomou enthuses.
Animals are always a popular subject for the artists at Flametree, and Florida critters will be well represented in the Garden Art show.
Retired art teacher Peggy Thomas is the gallery’s most productive resident artist, says Ekonomou. In addition to a fresh-from-the-kiln toad, Thomas will present a realistic (although infinitely more personable) possum carrying its babies piggyback; an armadillo and two rabbits, one standing erect on its hind legs, and the other crouching with its rump in the air. The pugnacious-looking pair appear to be a cross between a rabbit and a kangaroo.
“It’s a hare,” says Ekonomou, by way of tactful explanation.
Thomas reveals her whimsical side in brightly glazed terracotta sculptures: rotund, winged bunnies and cats that are made to hang from celling, eave or tree branch by a monofilament tether.
Birds will also be a staple of the show. Maria Sparsis will show a trio of rooster heads in terracotta clay. Stained with a mellow brown iron oxide, the chickens’ fleshy red combs and wattles are offset by bright eyes and shiny beaks. The heads are intended to be set on stakes amidst leafy foliage, says Ekonomou.
Ginny Piech Street will show her humorous wall-mounted bird heads. Although she is Flametree’s newest resident artist, Piech Street is no stranger to the gallery. She has been a “cubie” for a couple years, and last January was Flametree’s featured artist.
One of the reasons Piech Street decided to come out of her cube is to display large works like her totems: stacked clay sculptures that incorporate comically anthropomorphized birds and fish, flower forms, and abstract shapes. Cold-finished with acrylic paints in unexpected combinations of color and pattern, the totems command a bit more space than the vases, cache pots and small sculptures that are the usual cubicle fare.
“The cubicles are a little restrictive in their size,” she says. As a resident artist, Piech Street also looks forward to the perk of placing her work throughout the gallery.
A bird totem, which Piech Street estimates to be a little taller than her own height – 5 foot 3 inches, will be included in the Garden Art show.
Also for the birds are houses and feeders that, while whimsical in form, are practical in function.
“My clients tell me that my birdhouses are used by the birds,” says Ekonomou, who admits that she does not have any particular type of bird in mind when she creates the glazed pottery houses.
“It’s just a standard house with a hole—whatever can fit in there, fits in there,” she says.
One of her bird houses in the current show mimics a hollowed section of log, complete with a conical roof of plump green leaves.
The rough bark texture on the house is the result of a commercial glaze. When the manufacturer recently discontinued the product, Ekonomou said she got online to find the glaze that remained in retailers’ stock throughout the country.
“I bought every jar on the market,” she says with satisfaction.
Prices for art at the gallery are set by the individual artists and generally range from about $35 to $250, although selected items are higher. Piech Street’s large totem, for example, has a price tag of $1,200.
Now in its fifth year of operation, Flametree is known for two things, Piech Street says: affordability and diversity.
“If you can’t find something you like in here with all the different styles and artists that are represented, then you are very picky,” she laughs.
For Ekonomou, Flametree is a beacon of democracy in art ownership.
“I really like it when someone can buy a piece of my artwork and take it home. I love to see their faces, I love to see them smiling at my work. But when they realize that it is in their budget, I just get so excited over that. I want everyone to be able to come in here and purchase a piece of art. Not just the wealthy, but everybody.”
Ekonomou notes that while Piech Street makes art as a living, for the other Flametree exhibitors, “It’s still a lot of fun.”
When the gallery first opened, the prolifically creative Ekonomou saw an opportunity to move some of her wares out of the house.
“I came into the gallery thinking, ‘It’s like extra storage space.’ When it actually started to sell, I thought, wow, let’s just keep this going,” she says.
Flametree holds a reception for the show Friday from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
