Hockett exhibit in Tallahassee leads month of art events

Art by Roland Hockett

PANAMA CITY BEACH — Local artist Roland Hockett will be honored with an exhibit of his work at the LeMoyne Center for the Visual Arts in Tallahassee through September.

The show will include new works in painting and sculpture, as well as works from Roland’s  private collection. A silent auction will run throughout the exhibit period, Sept. 4-26. The opening reception is 6-9 p.m. EDT at the LeMoyne, 125 N. Gadsden St., Tallahassee. Details: 850-222-8800. For more information on the artist, visit ArtistRolandHockett.com

Roland Hockett works in copper sculpture, bronze, and paintings that often combine carving and copper along with acrylic on wood. His “Eagles” was placed at the Florida Supreme Court building, and other works were sponsored by the U.S. Embassy and Centro Cultural in Costa Rica. A 14-foot-high 3-section sculpture dedicated to friendship with Spain, “New Liberty III,” was placed on the campus of Gulf Coast State College in Panama City.

His work shows that his passion includes experimenting with skill in combining materials. Thematically, he is interested in approaching combinations of figurative imagery with the freedom of abstraction to achieve the feeling that he is seeking in the works. 

He was an assistant professor at Florida State University in the department of Art Education and Constructive Design, and retired in 2003 as an associate professor in the Department of Visual and Performing Arts at Gulf Coast State College after 34 years. More examples of Roland’s sculptures can be viewed at the Panama City Centre for the Arts and the Bay County Public Library.

AUTUMN IS FOR ART

Art by Robin Pichelmayer

OK, so autumn hasn’t arrived, but you’d think the season had changed. Not only did lower humidity sneak into the area this week, and school start last week, but all of a sudden there’s a surplus of art exhibit openings to bring you indoors.

Here are some other openings and exhibits to check out in the coming month:

•“Oodles of Doodles,” an exhibit of work by artist Robin Pichelmayer, will be in the Bay County Bay County Public Library, 898 W. 11th St., Panama City, throughout September. Mainly self-taught, Robin grew up around very talented women — her mom is an interior decorator, and both grandmothers were avid seamstresses (one of whom is still going strong at age 91).

Originally from Birmingham, Robin bought her first cross stitch kit from Kmart while in high school and fell in love with the “art” of making things. She has branched out to other art mediums, including decoupage, sketching, drawing, decorative painting in homes, hand embroidery and most recently Zentangle and mixed media.

A member of Panama City Artists, Robin exhibits and sells her work along the Gulf Coast and an Etsy shop online. She teaches classes, accepts commissions and will work with you to design your own custom piece of art.

Details: Facebook.com/robinpichelmayerarts or RobinPichelmayer.blogspot.com 

•Paintings by Dale Estka will be displayed at Roberts Hall, 831 Florida Ave., Lynn Haven, beginning in September. A reception will be at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 12, in  conjunction with an unplugged/acoustic jam session.

“The Odd Fellows have graciously opened their space to allow art exhibitions curated by Beach Art Group,” said Helen Balance of BAG. “Dale stays busy producing new art and working with Beach Art Group providing graphic art, photographs of all events including exhibits, workshops and any other activities, and publishes the BAG web page and Facebook.”

Originally from Chicago, Dale and has been painting for more than 30 years. She attended the American Academy of Fine Art in Chicago and was a long-time member of the prestigious Palette & Chisel Academy. She settled in the Panama City area 16 years ago, and has won numerous awards. Her most recent was the 49th Bay Annual Exhibit at the Visual Arts Center, where she won Best of Show for her portrait “Annabella.”

For information regarding Roberts Hall, email Arlene at ahioofrhlh@gamil.com; for Beach Art Group, email Helen at beachartgroup@att.net or visit BeachArtGroup.com

•Starting Sept. 1, Beach Art Group will bring back its Plein Air Tuesday 9-11 a.m. at a different location each week. Admission is free, and guests are encouraged to bring paints and canvases or drawing supplies to paint outdoors with group members. To find the week’s location, check the Beach Art Group Facebook page or email Helen at beachartgroup@att.net

•More than 30 businesses in historic St. Andrews will have art activities, demonstrations and performances on World Art Break Day, noon to 6 p.m. Sept. 4. (Look for a feature article on this event in next Friday’s Entertainer.) Visitors can watch or participate in the events organized by Floriopolis. Singers, musicians, readers, dancers, actors, storytellers and more will be on site. Details: Facebook.com/Floriopolis

•CityArts Cooperative, 423 Luverne Ave. in Panama City, will have its 10th Annual Half-Off Art Show and Sale 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sept. 19, featuring dozens of works on display by local artists. Details: CityArtsCooperative.com

Peace.

Con founder opening new horizons

Jayson and son at a signing event.

PANAMA CITY — I grabbed a coffee with JaysonKretzer, graphic artist and founder of Panama City Creative Con, last week to catch up on his efforts to finalize the event.

I’ve known Jayson for a while. I know he likes superhero stories with at least a hint of sunshine in them. Heroes who want to be heroes, who fight for a better world and believe that’s an achievable goal.

Turns out, that’s kind of what he’s all about. He started CreativeCon to give youngsters an opportunity he missed as a child — to be exposed to creative career paths and meet potential mentors, while celebrating the imagination.

“From the time I was a pre-teen and received my first comic book, I was intrigued by art,” Jayson said in a letter to art teachers that he circulated to promote the event. “That’s also when I figured out I was a visual learner.”

But he had no idea how to pursue art as a career. Growing up in the Northwest Florida Panhandle, he never had the opportunity to meet artists in his chosen field or even learn about educational opportunities to enter creative fields.

Finally, at age 25, he attended a comic convention, where he met many industry professionals face-to-face who helped put him on the right track. Now, for more than 15 years, Jayson has worked from home doing freelance illustration, graphic arts and website design. His work also includes sketch cards created for Marvel- and Cartoon Network-licensed products and two self-published books. In addition, he teaches drawing classes in schools and other venues.

Twenty years after he graduated from high school, comic book movies dominate the big screen while graphic novels are moving into classrooms as a learning tool. Between those very visible media, plus the growing popularity of web comics and cinematic video games, Jayson has seen “a renewed interest in sequential art.”

Seeing all that developing on the horizon, Jayson wanted to give children and teens the chance he didn’t have until adulthood; he wanted to establish a convention that would inspire them to be lifelong creators.

“The goal of Creative Con is three-fold,” Kretzer said. “One: To give young people in our area access to mentors in the field they are interested in. Two: To show K-12 students educational opportunities in our area that will help them fulfill their dreams. And three: To provide children with the tools they need to succeed — staying right here.”

Even here in the Panhandle, where it seems like the 21st century is still just getting a foothold, you can make a go of it in creative fields. And you can help others follow their dreams as well.

Peace.

Artist's Touch: Bonnie Tate's 'Journal Portraits'

Bonnie Tate

• ‘Journal Portraits’
• What: Exhibit of photographs by Bonnie Tate
• Where: Bay County Public Library, 898 W. 11th St., Panama City
• Details: 850-522-2100 or NWRLS.com
• About the Artist: BonnieTatePhoto.com

PANAMA CITY — A hand covered in dirt gingerly clutches a snapshot of soldiers as, caught under the edge of a canteen, a journal page below it lists “Impressions of Khe Sanh.”

With the corner of a diary showing her daily chores, a woman kneads dough on a scratched butcher block, her rings and wristwatch carefully set aside.

These and other images designed to put the viewer in the heads of strangers — seeing the world through their eyes, with tantalizing glimpses of their secret lives — make up the compelling “Journal Portraits” exhibit of work by photographer Bonnie Tate.

“I think of them as mysterious,” Bonnie said. “I’ve always enjoyed pairing photography with storytelling, and making series of connected pictures. My favorite pictures are usually of and about people, or at least have a human element.”

On display at the Bay County Public Library in Panama City through the end of June, the photos were inspired by actual entries Bonnie discovered in journals and diaries she found in thrift shops and other locations.

“Being a diary keeper myself, I am interested in how we interpret the events of our lives and string them together into narratives,” Bonnie said. “These are stories we almost always keep to ourselves. I stage each moment using a loose mix of the author’s description and my imagination.”

Including the actual diary or a page from a journal in each photo creates an interesting merging of past and present, she said, adding, “It also passes on the personal nature of reading another’s private thoughts.”

Those personal insights — the little things, the details — are a recurring theme in Bonnie’s work.

“It is the idiosyncrasies, the quirks, the hint of a story, that create the urge for a picture,” she said in an entry on her website, speaking specifically of portraiture. “Tuning in to an individual’s specifics and recording them is in some way important.”

Bonnie’s father was a journalist, who often told her “the devil is in the details.” She developed an appreciation for specifics and nuances, and this carries over to how she approaches photography. She even has a series she’s working on that shows both God and “the Devil” can be found with a macro lens setting.

“In all of my projects, I approach image-making with an eye for life’s small details,” she said. “I am shooting and organizing this series of photos by season so that when viewed as a whole, the photos will suggest the movement of time, the passing of a year observed in the smallest of moments.”

A series of moves around the country eventually brought Bonnie to Bay County, but she turned that period of transience to her advantage by finding a variety of subjects for her lens. One such move to Texas resulted in a black-and-white series she calls “American Home.”

“With the nature of our time in each place being transitory, my idea of home takes on an ephemeral quality,” she says in a posting at her website (BonnieTatePhoto.com). “Our temporary Texas home was a summer lake house fully furnished with the odds and ends and memories of another family. 

Using the artifacts and surroundings that were not mine, I hoped to create an intimate yet slightly distant sensation that matched my experience.”

Bonnie initially studied creative writing at Florida State University, then went on to receive an MFA in photography at the University of Memphis.

“I got into creative photography when I started studying art at FSU, around 1999, right before the digital wave,” she said. “I had a few great teachers who got me looking at projects by other photographers and also the history of photography, which opened up the possibilities for me.”

She currently teaches photography classes at CityArts Cooperative and Gulf Coast State College in Panama City, and is also available for private lessons. For information on these or other classes, email bonnietatephoto@gmail.com, visit BonnieTatePhoto.com or call 850-238-2077.

“By nature the camera is cold,” she said. “I think that a glimpse of someone’s home, belongings, habits, makes a portrait a bit warmer and richer. Ultimately, I hope that each portrait taps into the unique mystery of the person in it.”

Artist's Touch: Breathing Life into Feats of Clay

Meghan Sullivan at Floriopolis

PANAMA CITY — Meghan Sullivan says she has to stay in motion. A sculptor and potter, she works in terra cotta, making tiles, plates and figures. She also teaches drawing at Gulf Coast State College and the Visual Arts Center of Northwest Florida.

“I really like the tactility of making things,” she said during a conversation at the Floriopolis gallery in St. Andrews. “I don’t think I could sit in an office all day long and be happy.”

This year’s artist-in-residence at GCSC, Meghan grew up in Boston, the youngest of six children.

“My parents always had art around us,” she said, adding that her father worked for the city Arts Council. “We had these handmade plates, and we would fight over who got which one, because siblings fight about everything.”

Girl and Frog tile by Sullivan

Her older sister attended a free after-school arts program while in high school, and when Meghan was old enough, she joined the program because “I wanted to be like her.” She spent the four years of high school receiving six hours of art classes each week.

Meghan attended the Massachusetts College of Art, which was across an alley from her high school. It was affordable, and she could live at home. In her freshman year, she took a pottery class that changed her life.

“It was the most challenging class I had taken up to then, and I was compelled by it,” she said, and by graduation, she was creating ceramic figures.
She took a job working 40 hours a week throwing plates, bowls and cups, then got a residency just outside the city, teaching and doing figurative sculptures. She applied to the University of Florida and was accepted as a post-baccalaureate student.

“It was my first time away from Boston,” she said. “It was very hot, and the first time a lizard came into my house I freaked out. But I really liked living in Florida.”

Meghan eventually got into grad school in Nebraska, earned her master’s degree, and joined the AmeriCorps to pay off some of her massive student debt. In that capacity, she worked with elementary schools in blighted neighborhoods, building community gardens with children and organizing big awareness campaigns and events.

She also did creative projects and volunteered as a bike mechanic at a co-op. Finally, she was offered a job with the city. “But I knew if I stayed there another year, I would end up living in Lincoln, Neb., for my entire life,” she said. “I really missed ceramics, and I was teaching but I wasn’t teaching art.”

Conversation by Sullivan

That’s when she learned about GCSC’s Artist in Residence program. She arrived in Panama City in time for the 2014 spring semester, and was invited to remain through the 2015 school year. She was already familiar with Tammy Marinuzzi and Pavel G. Amromin, assistant professors in the college’s Visual and Performing Arts Department, who were also in Gainesville when Meghan was a student there.

“We shared a car ride once,” she said. “I knew how they drove, but I didn’t know them that well. But I’m a figurative artist, they’re figurative artists, so we kind of feed off of each other.”
A solo show of her work will open at GCSC Feb. 27 and be on display through March. Meghan’s artwork is shaped by her personal experiences, according to a statement on her website (MeghanSullivanCeramics.com) — specifically, being part of a large family and growing up in an urban environment. She calls herself “a storyteller,” for whom the journey is as important as the destination.

“While my background has influenced the tone and content, it is not straightforward autobiography,” she said. “One specific instance in a larger experience is used and extrapolated from in order to create the final composition. ... While the conclusion may not be clear, the meaning of my work is found in the pondering of it.”

Making time for the arts

Marjory Wentworth

Marjory Wentworth

Who: Poet Laureate of South Carolina

What: Featured presenter at Books Alive 2015

When: Feb. 7; two sessions

Where: Florida State University-Panama City, 4750 Collegiate Drive, Panama City

Cost: Free admission

Details: BooksAlive.net

PANAMA CITY — This may have slipped under your radar in recent weeks, but a longstanding tradition that celebrated the arts was dropped from the governor’s inauguration ceremony in South Carolina on Jan. 14, citing a lack of time.

At least South Carolina has a poet laureate. Florida has had three: Franklin N. Wood, appointed by Gov. John W. Martin in 1929; Vivian Laramore Rader, appointed by Gov. Doyle E. Carlton in 1931; and Dr. Edmund Skellings, appointed by Gov. Robert Graham in 1980. Gov. Rick Scott signed legislation establishing a state poet laureate in June 2014, but the nomination process is still in development.

South Carolina governor Nikki Haley was sworn in for her second term Jan. 14. When the state’s Poet Laureate Marjory Wentworth inquired about the traditional reading of a new poem during the ceremony, the governor’s office informed her there was insufficient time in the ceremony schedule for her two-minute poem to be read.

Four years prior, Wentworth read her poem, “The Weight It Takes,” at Haley’s inauguration. It focused on natural images of rivers, rocks and fish, and it called on the new governor to “be the weight that grounds us through swirling hours of each day.”

Wentworth will be a featured author at Books Alive on Feb. 7 at Florida State University-Panama City. She will have two sessions: The News from Poems, and Creating a Sense of Place in Poetry and Fiction (with Mary Alice Monroe). She also will speak to my Education Encore class Feb. 6.

The same day as Haley’s inauguration, Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) addressed the House floor and read Wentworth’s poem into the congressional record.

“We’ve seen many instances of arbitrary actions against the powerless by the powerful when words and actions threaten their comfort levels. Such actions should not be,” Clyburn said. “I applaud Ms. Wentworth for her touching words, and I am reading her poem today in hopes that the people of South Carolina, across the country, and peoples around the world are as touched by her words as I have been.”

In the summer of 2014, Wentworth wrote the New York Times, reacting to a report on the controversy surrounding the choice of North Carolina’s poet laureate, who had almost immediately resigned the position. In her letter, Wentworth noted “poetry is flourishing” in South Carolina, “home of the oldest poetry society in the United States.”

But she also notes that some in seats of power have little regard for the arts. During the previous governor’s term, $1,500 was earmarked to cover travel and accommodations for Wentworth to make appearances at schools and literary events around the state; Haley’s office has set aside nothing for her expenses.

In an NPR interview, Wentworth said she thought the new poem was cut from the schedule because she didn’t stick to “safe” topics, instead mentioning a former slave market at Gadsden’s Wharf, and the execution of a 14-year-old black boy convicted of murdering two white girls, who was exonerated 70 years later.

“I really believe that our history is part of what’s holding us back,” Wentworth told NPR. “It’s kind of an unhealed wound. And we’re all in this together. And I know that sounds a little like John Lennon, but I wanted people to think about some of those things.”

Peace.

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This is my Undercurrents column for PanamaCity.com and The News Herald this week.

Artist's Touch: Art in the Family

Sarah, Theresa, Taylor and Craig Bush at Floriopolis

PANAMA CITY — Craig Bush described his family as “unconventional” during a recent conversation at Floriopolis gallery.

“We all tend to be nonconformist,” he said. “We don’t listen very well.”

What they do well is pursue their muses. Craig, 64, is a retired educator, novelist and painter. His wife, Theresa, 62, is a retired paralegal, jeweler and crafter. Their daughters — Sarah, 36, and Taylor, 29 — are artists working in acrylics, ink and other mediums.

All four gathered on the couch and chairs at Floriopolis to talk about the way art is part of their lives, both as a family and as individuals.

“I was poor growing up, so there wasn’t a whole lot I couldn’t do,” Theresa said. “I still feel that way. I was taught if you want it, then you do it. You make it. I made things because I needed to have them.”

Theresa in her workshop.

Theresa has sewed and made crafts all her life, but retirement gave her time to focus on creative pursuits. After taking an Education Encore class on jewelry design at Gulf Coast State College, she discovered a love of jewelry making — though she wears almost none herself. She also does stained glass art, baskets, felt figures and more.

Her work is for sale at Floriopolis, RTA Designs, and Shipwreck Ltd., but she hopes to do more online sales in the new year. Her Etsy.com store is Four Free Spirits.
“I don’t want to make a lot of money, I  just want to make stuff and get rid of it so I can make more stuff,” Theresa said. Sarah responded, “I want to make enough (money) to replace my low-level job.”

Art by Sarah Bush

Craig said Sarah was in middle school when they all recognized her artistic bent. Her successes encouraged the rest of the family to “kind of dabble” in art more. But Sarah recalls always having art in their home.

“That’s what you do in life. You make stuff,” Sarah said. “When I was little, Pop would write messages in symbols and have me decode it, and that’s a lot of what I do now with iconography, symbology and archetypes. ... My parents have always been creative, as long as I can remember. Even my grandmother was always making a quilt or sewing something.”

When Sarah was in daycare, Craig would walk her home in the afternoons. They collected pieces of colored glass on the roadside each day and glued them to a length of driftwood.

“It’s still hanging on our wall today,” he said. “It’s a little bit bizarre.”

Sarah received an art scholarship to Gulf Coast State College, but kept taking art labs instead of other core courses. After some time focusing on drawing and “building sturdy things,” Sarah said she’s trying to go back to “actually painting.” Her work is online at SarahBushArt.com

Art by Taylor Bush

Taylor said Sarah was her early inspiration, and she took the same classes with the same teachers Sarah had. Taylor creates black-and-white designs and is looking into making prints, fabric designs and possibly T-shirt images, mass producing some of her drawings.
Craig’s debut novel, “Hometown,” was released this autumn, and he’s just completed the first draft of his next novel, “The Ninth Rainbow,” which he hopes to publish in early 2015. “It’s somewhat apocalyptic, but it ends up with a lot of hope,” he said.

Of the creative process, Craig said he follows where the characters lead him: “I often don’t have a clue what they’re doing. When it’s best for me, I can’t type fast enough to keep up with it.”

Craig also paints impressionistic landscapes that he describes as “a little bit Van Gogh-ish.” He has never tried selling any of his paintings, adding that “none of us is great at marketing ourselves.”

As a child, Craig’s imagination was encouraged by a teacher who gave him a copy of “Stranger in a Strange Land” by Robert Heinlein. But reading Herman Hesse in the 1960s made him want to be a writer. He studied journalism in college before shifting to education.

Craig at his writing desk.

“With the novel release, I think I had the right expectation, which was no expectations,” Craig said. “It’s shown me the importance of people in the arts being willing to help one another. It’s not a competition.”

The children have their own places now, but Theresa still had some trepidation about how Craig’s retirement could cut into her creative time. Over the years, each of them has learned to value a level of solitude, but she said it took “some adjustment” when he began staying home all day.

“I think we all appreciate our alone time a lot,” Taylor said, adding that the creative process requires solitude as well as preparation and openness. “Sometimes it’s sort of like a transmission from the universe, and you’re there to catch that. I think that’s the point of the whole thing. It’s super magical.”

Rebel, rebel: The artist as agent of chaos

PANAMA CITY — I spent some time last Friday drawing on a wall at Floriopolis, the Beck Avenue gallery operated by artist Heather Parker. I had her permission — in fact, she invited me to do so — but something about applying a pen to the white wall (even though it was inside an art gallery) seemed like an act of rebellion.

Maybe that says something about my comfort level as a rebel.

The day prior, I interviewed Olga Guy, an artist based at CityArts Cooperative, who told me a story about painting her bedroom walls and doors as a teenager, much to her mother’s chagrin. (See this story to learn how that worked out for her.)

Drawing on Heather’s wall didn’t feel like graffiti. I didn’t have a statement to make. And while convention was being flouted, authority was not. Still, I think that’s what art is, at least the way my mind interprets it: A fundamental act of rebellion.

Against the mundane, the routine. Against the merciless march of time. Sometimes afflicting the comfortable, sometimes comforting the afflicted.

Follow me, here, because art can be a lot of things. An attempt to express divinity. To faithfully capture and reproduce a moment. To reveal emotion or provoke social change. To find patterns and draw order out of chaos, or to express chaos. It can even be as simple as a “pretty picture.”

And yet, all of this is rebellious. The act of creation presupposes that transitory creatures like us — who live and die in such a short span — have something of lasting meaning to contribute. That we defy the universe and the mortal constrictions it places on us.

We leave a message — a thought, a sound, an image, a performance — to be read, or listened to, or viewed by a stranger in another place and time, interpreted and remembered. We break the laws of physics every time we make something — or maybe we prove the theories of quantum entanglement by having an impact across space and time.

It’s a conundrum.

Art can be the product of experimentation, the result of inspiration (and, in turn, it can be inspiring to others). It is forward thinking — I will not be here tomorrow, but this is what I had to offer today — and thus it becomes disruptive, transformative for the creator as well as the viewer.

It’s also like the definition of sound: Unless someone sees it, reads it, hears it, then it’s not really communication. For artists, who most often labor in private, the patron’s eye (or ear) keeps them from feeling like a tree falling in a forest when no one’s around.

In coming weeks, you’ll meet a parade of local artists — painters, jewelers, dancers, musicians, writers and more — on these pages and at PanamaCity.com, as we begin an ongoing series we’re calling “Artist’s Touch.” I hope you’ll join me us we get to know the area’s creative spirits, examine the forms their work takes, and celebrate the rebels in our midst.

Peace.

She’s got skin in this game

Nicole Desiree Hays/Game Show Network

One of the contestants on this season of the Game Show Network’s reality competition series “Skin Wars” counts Panama City as her “second home,” and credits Gulf Coast State College’s theater program for encouraging and supporting her love of performance art.

Nicole Desiree Hays, 30, now lives outside of Tampa and runs her own business, CirqueVille Entertainment, which provides everything from simple face-painting for birthday parties to stilt-walking balloon artists, fire-twirlers, human statues, burlesque acrobatics and more.

“It’s kind of hard, and you have to be versatile, for sure,” Nicole said by telephone Wednesday afternoon. “I’m just happy to be able to create and make a living doing what I love to do.”

Nicole, who I met some years ago when she was in theater productions with my son at Gulf Coast, got into body-painting after modeling for local artist Amanda Stiffler. “She showed me everything about body-painting,” Nicole said. “She became a real mentor to me.”

Two years ago, while pursuing her master’s degree in entrepreneurship, Nicole took a class in body-painting, and that teacher recommended her to a producer for “Skin Wars.” The producer talked to her about the show more than a year and a half ago, and Nicole was called to an audition several months later. Of about 25 who auditioned, 10 were brought to Los Angeles for the February 2014 shoot.

“The cast was awesome,” she said. “We took care of each other, really had each other’s backs. Yes, we were in competition, but everybody grew really close.”

The producers wouldn’t let contestants keep art supplies in the shared house, so they couldn’t work on concepts they might try to use on the show. Nicole said the housemates found a unique way of getting around that prohibition.

“Artists draw all the time, no matter what,” she said. “They took away our supplies, so we used condiments in the kitchen to do art on pots and pans.”

“Skin Wars” is hosted by actress and model Rebecca Romijn, who knows something about body-painting from her time portraying the mutant Mystique in the “X-Men” movie franchise. Romijn was also the first model to be body-painted for Sports Illustrated’s annual swimsuit issue.

“I adore her,” Nicole said of Romijn. “She’s the most down-to-earth person, and she complimented my outfit one episode. I couldn’t believe it.”

One of the judges is RuPaul Charles, who shot to fame as a drag performer and also hosts “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” Although the contestants are not allowed to talk with the celebrities at length, Nicole said, RuPaul kept the experience lively with his quick wit and energy.

Nicole couldn’t talk at length about the elimination aspect of the show, which is halfway through the current season, but she bragged on the talents of her castmates. Each episode, the contestants receive a challenge and limited time to complete it, then one is eliminated by a panel of judges. The finale will feature three finalists competing for a cash prize and a career-launching opportunity.

Nicole said her greatest challenge in an episode that has been broadcast was when she was tasked to create a new superhero in only a few hours. The guest judge for the episode was Lynda Carter, who portrayed Wonder Woman in the 1970s TV series.

“I thought I had a really great story behind mine,” Nicole said, as the design incorporated an item that her grandmother gave her, “but they weren’t able to use the backstories. I guess there wasn’t time to tell everyone’s story. I did a full glitter bodysuit, but really shot myself in the foot. That was the first time I was in the bottom three, which was terrifying.”

Originally from Van Buren, Ark., Nicole describes herself as “the black sheep” of her family of conservative dentists and doctors, in part because she chose the Bohemian lifestyle of an artist. She first came to Panama City on a college Spring Break trip and decided to stay.

“I called home and said, ‘Send my stuff,’” she recalled. “I felt like an orphan. But I met so many amazing families, and Gulf Coast was such a great start for me.”

Peace. 

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‘SKIN WARS’

What: Elimination competition between body-painters

When: Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on Game Show Network (repeats throughout the week)

Details: SkinWars.gsntv.com

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This is my Undercurrents column this week for PanamaCity.com and The News Herald.

‘Stringing a Yarn’ takes many turns

Lou preps a microphone during shooting.

PANAMA CITY — So we made a short film about writing — and we made it in a local art gallery and studio.

In the movie, an old fellow hovers on the outskirts of a class where an artist teaches children to weave on makeshift looms. He is inspired by their activity to write a story called “The Weaver.”

And then — facing the choice that all artists must make — he puts his work on display for the public to view, interpret, critique or disparage. “The Weaver” goes on the wall as if it somehow fit among the embroidery, rugs, needlepoint and other woven arts and crafts on exhibit.

Is it art? That’s the question. The answer is less obvious, perhaps.

The film, “Stringing a Yarn,” was directed, photographed and edited by Lou Columbus, a resident of St. Andrews. It was shot at Floriopolis, the new art hub in the historic district, with the cooperation of artist-in-residence Heather Parker and her young students.

To complete the scenes we had in mind, Lou and I also conscripted artist and natural improviser Deborah Kivett, who happened to be in the wrong place at the right time, and whose critiques of the work had us in stitches.

Now the film, like the short story, is out in the world. It’s a thing that is no longer strictly “ours,” but that the viewing public can take and make of it what they will.

>>See the video, "Stringing a Yarn"<<

>>Read "The Weaver"<<

Weaving is a natural metaphor for the craft of writing, of pulling together the disparate threads of story to create a meaningful whole. It works as well for film-making, as the director envisions the writer’s scenes and the editor connects pieces shot out of order to form a narrative, often tying everything together with the perfect melody.

It’s not the first time I’ve been inspired by the art of the weaver. I once wrote a piece about a woman who saw in the patterns of her crochet all the quantum secrets of the universe, all the ways we’re connected and how simple it is to become entangled, frayed, knotted or cut off.

Life is a series of interconnected stories, and art is steeped in story (and vice versa). Later this month, Floriopolis will host some examples of storytelling arts you might enjoy:

* A “1940s Noir Night” will be 6-8 p.m. on May 24 to celebrate the release of local author Michael Lister’s latest mystery novel, “The Big Hello.” The book represents the conclusion of his “Soldier” Riley trilogy set in 1940s Panama City. Details: MichaelLister.com.

* Bay Storytellers will hold a Panama City Story Slam at 7 p.m. May 30. Participants must tell — not read — a 5-minute story. No poetry or songs are allowed, and the key word “bay” must be included in the tale. Cash prizes will be awarded. Details: Call Pat at 814-2616, or visit Facebook.com/BayStorytellers online.

Meanwhile, “The Weaver” remains on display at Floriopolis, part of the “Spinning a Yarn” exhibit. Visit the shop at 1125 Beck Ave., and decide for yourself if it should be there.

Peace.

---

(This is my Undercurrents column this week for PanamaCity.com and The News Herald.)

The Weaver

THE WEAVER

By Tony Simmons

~

The ancient weaver works her loom in darkness, though the morning sun warms her face. A girl, not her daughter, sits beside her, invisible but for the scent and sense of her presence, a mass with little gravity and no voice. The child feeds the crone’s dry fingertips the threads from spools arrayed on a wooden rack like rainbow pools as the weaver requests them.

”Give me the blue of the sky on a summer’s morning,” says the weaver. ”The sun not yet at zenith, as it is now. No clouds or haze. The blue of an infant day.”

Taking the thread from the girl, the weaver feels its texture, recognizes its touch upon calluses that time has smoothed from the youthful swirls once etched in her skin like the weaving of a fleshy fabric. She nods, feeds it into her loom. Flexes her back, moves with the machine, building visions she glimpses only in her darkness, visions only the unseen child can confirm.

”Give me the emerald of the shallows,” the woman says. ”Waveless. A reflecting pool fashioned from crystal, revealing the sugar carpet where stone crabs scuttle. The emerald of a swimmer’s salty perspective.”

Once more, the girl delivers the thread into the old weaver’s grasp, and she in turn provides its thin materials to her contraption, working the narrow hairs into wide swaths of texture and hue until drops of sweat run off her nose and the day’s light softens upon her head.

”Give me the white of ghosts, of a virgin’s wedding dress, a saint’s halo,” she says. ”White of sugar, white of salt, white of quartz or bone bleached by the sun of a billion years.”

The weaver takes the thread she receives into her fingertips, and she pauses. The texture is incorrect. She sniffs the material, gathers a clump of it rolled like webbing in her palm and strokes it against her sunken cheek. She drops it in the empty, black space between herself and the girl, feels the cool of evening descend as the sun disappears, Apollo abandons his orbit.

”Girl, this is not the white thread I wanted,” she says. ”This is not my thread at all. What are you trying to do? What game is this?”

The darkness is quiet, though she senses the child still sitting beside her, like a breath in the night. The weaver waits as the air turns cool on her face, her fingers go cold, and the ache in her bones becomes a steady moan only she can hear.

”Try again, child,” she says. ”Find me the thread though your sight be rendered black as mine.”

Something moves then. A sound of air and soft contact, of wood scraping. The old weaver knows the noise like she knows the cry of her own muscles – thread in the loom, the sweep of the arm, the action of the machine.

And she moves aside, her day done, someone else picking up the thread of her life and working it into images she cannot even imagine.

----

(This is the story I wrote for use in our short film, "Stringing a Yarn." It was designed for use with a typewriter font that only had working end quotes, and no apostrophe.)

Video: 'Stringing a Yarn'

So I had a silly idea a few weeks ago and told my friend Lou about it. We turned it into a short video:


It's our tribute to writers and artists everywhere. But mostly to writers.
Peace.

'Dragon Rising' is coming tomorrow!

My latest novel is "Dragon Rising," Book One of The Shadow War. It will release on Kindle and in print via CreateSpace on New Year's Day (if all goes according to plan). Expect links and whatnot as soon as it is live and ready to order.

Here is the unfinished artwork/cover design from artist and graphic wiz Jayson Kretzer:

You'll get to see the finished version tomorrow, and I'll also be writing about the story behind the story for tomorrow's launch, so don't miss out.
Peace.

Finding Redemption Through Art

Holly Scoggins' 'Light From Its Load, The Spirit Flies'

PANAMA CITY — Redemption is more than just a counter where you turn over your collection of tickets from the arcade games in exchange for cheap plastic trinkets.

Or at least, it should be.

The Visual & Performing Arts Division of Gulf Coast State College will allow visitors to explore artists’ interpretations of “Redemption” through the remainder of the semester. An art exhibit on this subject opens next Friday, Nov. 15, in conjunction with the premiere of the college’s stage production of “Les Miserables.”

Victor Hugo, writing about his novel on which the musical is based, said “Les Misérables” is about “a progress from evil to good, from injustice to justice, from falsehood to truth, from night to day, from appetite to conscience, from corruption to life; from bestiality to duty, from hell to heaven, from nothingness to God.”

He continues: “The starting point: matter; destination: the soul. The hydra at the beginning, the angel at the end.”

(Which is, in my opinion, just as good a description of the artist’s visceral drive to create art as it is of one’s attempt to redeem one’s soul.)

Throughout the story, characters struggle with their perceptions of themselves and the most extreme of circumstances, and they pray to be redeemed from the lives and choices they have made for themselves and those closest to them.

“Redemption” will feature work by seven artists from across the United States who have, according to promotional materials, “contemplated the idea of redemption through painting with results as diverse as the people who made them.” Participating artists are Dina Brodsky, Gary Chapman, Megan Ewert, Richard Heipp, Logan Marconi, Kymia Nawabi and Holly Scoggins.

“While some address redemption in its most literal, theological meaning, others take a broader approach and focus on the idea of a journey, transformation, or self-actualization and self-perception,” according to a description of the show prepared by GCSC.

The exhibit will open with a reception, free and open to the public, from 5 to 7 p.m. Nov. 15. The work will be on display in the Amelia Center Main Gallery (Room 112) until Dec. 5. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and admission is free. For more details, email professor and ceramics artist Pavel Amromin at pamromin@gulfcoast.edu.

In some views, redemption must be earned through self-sacrifice. Others see it as a gift freely given to those who truly seek it — redeemed by grace, not works, as the Good Book says.

However, these particular works promise a wealth of redeeming value. Give them a look, and let me know if they transport you to a better place.

Peace.

---

(This is my Undercurrents column for PanamaCity.com and The News Herald this week.)

Flashback Friday: An early review of 'Starman' comic

(On May 21, 1996, the News Herald printed the following review of James Robinson's revival of the Starman character at DC Comics. It was as much a love letter to that series as a statement in reaction to what comics had become in the 1990s. I remain a fan. (Please ignore the use of the 'x' in 'comix,' which was how we spelled things in the 'Generation NeXt' section back then.))

Jack Knight, From Wikipedia

The heroes of old are, with a few notable exceptions, gone from the pages of four-color comix. That bright world has lost its innocence — and much of its creative energy — to teams of muscle-bound vigilantes toting semi-automatic plasma bazookas, and to impossibly endowed females flirting with loss of circulation if their rubber corsets were any tighter.

 Then came Starman.

As created by writer James Robinson and artist Tony Harris, Starman is Jack Knight — a small figure of a man, a tattooed late-20-something, obsessed with all things rare and antique. He'd rather scour rural flea markets for View Master reels and Depression glass than dress in Spandex and duke it out with the villains.

His idea of a costume is night-vision goggles and a leather jacket.

But as the younger son of a 1940s superhero, Jack has become the epitome of the chicken-or-egg question that haunts history: Do great events conspire to create heroes, or do great men and women arise to make history?

In Jack's case, events sought him out and he rose to the challenge. His big brother, David, was first to don Dad's mantle, only to be killed by a sniper's bullet in the first pages of the first issue.

(Jack has since had two surreal visits with his deceased brother — the first as they fought in a grave yard over the right to the Starman name, and the second as David sought to warn Jack of future events.)

With his father injured, his brother dead and his own antique shop razed by the children of an old foe, Jack uses his dad's "star rod" to rout the bad guys and restore order to Opal City.

Through Jack and his supporting cast, Robinson has crafted a book with the multiple layers of history, personality, foreshadowing and drama usually found only in works print-only fiction. His characters are distinct and react with realism — as seen in the frustration and distance between father and son that slowly dissolves into a growing respect and admiration for their individual strengths.

The periodic "Times Past" stories allow guest artists to explore events in the history of Opal and its citizens, giving us a glimpse of the Golden Age of heroes; or a tale of the nigh-immortal. sometimes-villainous Shade and his friendship with Oscar Wilde.

Meanwhile, artist Harris has crafted a vision of retro-deco cities, of characters delineated by quirky swirls and outlines, of shadows and black bordered pages.  No larger-than-life people dominate his panels — save for the lumbering Solomon Grundy. Though stylistically rendered, these are anatomically realistic human beings with an expressive range far removed from the grimacing brain-bashers in other comix.

Like our own shared version of reality, this can be a dark world. People die. Bad guys revel in the pain of others. Some cops are less-than-true to their code. Evil is powerful.

But now there's a beacon in the night.

"Starman has always been around," Robinson said in his introduction to the series, "a light in the darkness, in his own little corner of the DC universe."

Artists monkeying around downtown

PANAMA CITY — More than 200 handcut and handpainted apes will dangle from trees, poles, awnings — and anywhere else they can find to hang from — Saturday in downtown Panama City.

It’s a “public art” project spearheaded by Heather Parker from CityArts Cooperative. Like their tiny toy counterparts, the foam apes are shaped with hooked arms and tails.

“We chose this shape, from Hasbro’s ‘Barrel of Monkeys’ for several reasons,” Heather said. “A childhood connection (many adults had them or saw them as a child), their arms link together to form a chain (great alone as one monkey, but can connect with each other and have a big impact, kind’a like people, huh?), and well, they’re monkeys!”

Heather was joined by many people intrigued or amused by the project. Adults, children, school groups, professional artists, Friday Fest visitors, business owners and bunches of “regular people” helped make monkeys, she said.

“We’ve had at least 100 hands in the barrel helping to make this happen, from purchasing foam, donating paints, meticulously hand-cutting monkeys, or just dropping by to quickly add a splash of paint,” she said. 

“Some of the monkeys are impressive one-of-a-kind works of art.”

Heather pointed out that Wikipedia defines “public art” as works of art in any media that have been planned and executed with the specific intention of being sited or staged in the physical public domain, usually outside and accessible to all. Such cultural interventions have often been realized in response to creatively engaging a community’s sense of “place” or “well-being” in society.

“Imagine a downtown that is a place you want to be,” she said. “Would it be lively, colorful, lighthearted, joyful, playful, entertaining, filled with talent, self-expression and creativity? Mine would. So for one day, I’m filling it with colorful monkeys.”

Heather hopes this and other public art events will bring more people downtown and expose them to the possibilities of art. She would like downtown Panama City (along with St. Andrews) to become a regional art hub, and to make art a “living, breathing way of life” for everyone.

The day promises to be a full one in the downtown district, with Vintage Market 7:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., an artist meet-and-greet at Main Street Gallery 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., a paper-cutting workshop at CityArts 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and the Art-Tique “tour” 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Monkey installation is from 6 to 9 a.m., if anyone wants to help Heather hang the monkeys. Display will be 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., after which the monkeys will be removed.

“We expect some to fall throughout the day, which is why they are all handcut from lightweight Styrofoam,” she said. “If a monkey falls on your head, you’ve got a great story, but no injury: ‘One time, I was downtown, you’ll never believe this, but a ...’ ”

Art is about more than murals and painting, Heather told me once. It’s about exploring, laughter and joy.

Peace.

(This is my column for PanamaCity.com and The News Herald for this week.)

Getting in the groove

PANAMA CITY BEACH — My haul at last Saturday’s Vintage Market in downtown Panama City included four albums featuring old-time radio shows of “Superman,” “The Green Hornet,” “The Shadow” and “The Lone Ranger.”

My friend Brady has said he once tried to listen to an old radio show, but it was too strange — apparently stranger than an audio book or whatever the closest modern approximation might be. I replied that “The Shadow” was “The Walking Dead” of its time — appointment radio; no doubt future generations will look at “The Walking Dead” and not understand our fascination with the quaint technology called “television.”

Other than the treasures I find in thrift shops and yard sales, my album collection has swelled in part because family or friends no longer played theirs, so they gave them to me. It’s how I accumulated everything from Broadway musicals to the Dead Kennedys, from chamber music to King Crimson, and from Boots Randolph to Souxsie and the Banshees. It also has helped me develop as broad a range of favorites, which I often display in a changing rotation.

One wall in my writing space at home features albums exhibited in frames; I trade them out when the mood strikes. Recently the collection has focused on portrait covers and included the likes of Kate Bush, Johnny Cash, Todd Rundgren and Nat King Cole. Before that, it was a group of movie soundtracks. During the season, it features old Christmas records. I suspect it’s about to be filled by radio shows.

And it’s not just nostalgia, either. Vinyl lives.

That’s more than simply a statement about the “warmth” you might hear someone describe when comparing the sound of a vinyl record to a CD or mp3. It’s also a truism about the record industry in an age of digital downloads.

Indeed, if you buy an album on vinyl these days, the price usually includes a code to download the entire album for your mobile listening pleasure.

Vinyl will be celebrated Saturday with international “Record Store Day,” which is also a way to recognize local music shops. Both objects of attention may seem like dinosaurs (and this is a guy who still works in print media talking, so I’m not calling names), but they still have life in them — and maybe even a bright future.

Central Square Records in Seaside is the nearest participating store, marking its fifth year as part of the event. The shop will have most of the limited-edition records being offered for the day and lots of giveaways (record totes, label samplers, T-shirts). There will be live performances in the store by Chris Alvarado (releasing his new album “Home"), Cody Copeland (supporting his new release "Two States"), and Gileah & The Ghost Train.

Central Square will also have a drawing for a test pressing of J.J. Grey’s new album, "The River." The store opens early for the event — 8 a.m. — and there will be a crowd, so be prepared.

Peace.

(This is my Undercurrents column for PanamaCity.com and The News Herald this week.)

Two Writers: A Video

Thanks to Lou Columbus for shooting and editing this chat between me and Michael Lister. It's a bit long, but if you have the time, we both read from our work in the second half; Michael reads from his newly released novel, The Big Beyond, and I read from a work-in-progress, Giants in the Earth.




Thanks again, Lou!

Live with an expectation of inspiration

PANAMA CITY — Remember those 3D puzzle posters that were so popular in the 1990s? Life can be like that, especially for an artist.

A flower never is just a flower. A sunset is more than celestial mathematics. A poem is greater than the sum of its rhymes.

Beneath the surface, there always is a hidden meaning. Behind the noise, there’s a pure tone, a carrier wave of truth.

The artist seeks the mystery, the writer poses the question, the musician unleashes emotions — though in each case, the answer will be different for each viewer, reader or listener.

I got the opportunity to reflect on these concepts in public last Sunday, as I made myself available at the Bay County Public Library, where I joined local mystery author Michael Lister for a discussion, reading and book launch. Michael was debuting his latest 1940s noir novel, “The Big Beyond,” and invited me for an open-ended talk about writing, creativity and life.



I read from my current project, which I'm calling "Giants in the Earth."

Michael referred to the moment when everything comes together as a “lightning bolt.” He wasn’t referencing some “eureka” instant of inspiration, but rather the experience when all the pieces you have gathered — all the myriad of facts, feelings and ideas you have explored — suddenly fit into a greater whole.

It doesn’t happen by accident. You must prepare the way by steadily working, and open yourself to the moment. The secret is to look deeper, to listen closer — not just being aware, but also making yourself available for the universe.

And as you seek, feed the furnace of your brain, exercise your creative muscles, tilt at windmills — so that when the connections begin to reveal themselves and that elusive lightning bolt is looking for a place to manifest, you are prepared.

The day following our talk, I interviewed artist and longtime friend John Russo, who also mentioned how inspiration is something one has to pursue. If you wait for it, you could find yourself waiting all your life, he said.

The lightning can find you, sure, even huddled indoors. But if you want to improve your chances, you have to chase the storm, and then stand on the hill and hold a metal rod toward the heavens. Sometimes it helps if you challenge the wind, rage against the night.

You have to court it. You have to, at the very least, live in a state of availability to the muse. To seek.

(And you must acknowledge that the lightning, when it comes, could destroy you. Don’t be fooled: We live in a constant state of being and becoming, one heartbeat shy of nothingness. It’s the same in life as in art.)

The burst of inspiration can be a dangerous thing. It can change our lives, especially when we actively fall into synch with the universe.

Peace.

(This was my Undercurrents column for PanamaCity.com and The News Herald this week.)