'Adventures in the Arcane' gets some ink

Adventures in the Arcane

A Syndicate Publication

$5.99 in print

$1.99 on Kindle

Available from Amazon.com

 

This new anthology of four tales and three essays reignites the fire of old-fashioned weird pulp adventure. It was featured today in The News Herald's weekend Entertainer section.

 

It will make its debut at Panama City Creative Con on Sept. 16-18.

 

Here's the cool book trailer I made:

 

 

Some days the evil loose in the world can’t be beaten by two fists, a trusty sidekick, and a pump shotgun.

Some nights reek of deep time, musty tombs, and creatures spawned from beyond the stars.

When monsters attack, you need heroes with a strong moral compass...and a little supernatural help.

Adventures in the Arcane contains four fantastic stories of pulp heroes, werewolves, pirates, and wizards. Prepare to be thrilled! A Syndicate Production featuring the work of Mark Boss, S. Brady Calhoun, Lou Columbus, Jayson Kretzer and Tony Simmons. 

Only pros, no cons when you’re this creative

PANAMA CITY — The world hushed last Saturday evening. As I stood on the shore of St. Andrew Bay and the sun slipped behind the Hathaway Bridge like a fluorescent tomato, the incessant rumble and exclamations of the day began to fade.

Fish skipped on the rippled surface close by, and children splashed ankle-deep. Adults sat on tailgates, speaking in hushed voices, and a man in a lighted wetsuit floated on columns of water, “moon walked” and flipped.

It was a long walk back to my car, still parked in the Gulf Coast State College lot near the Student Union, where I had put it early that morning to offload books and collectibles. I had spent the day at Panama City Creative Con, which took over the Student Union and Amelia Center Theatre for comic, costume, game, film, art and other shenanigans.

It was a blast that I didn’t want to see end. From swing dancers on stage, cosplayers cramming corridors, artists working as you watched, and children coloring masks — to vendors, authors, artists, costumers, and vintage games and comics for sale.

Only the grinchiest of Grinches could look at the smiles, the energy, hear the laughs — the obvious joy so many experienced at being able to share creative pursuits that thrill them — and still be unimpressed.

Attendance hit about 1,300 paid tickets, according to organizer Jayson Kretzer, plus countless “visitors” and complimentary guests. Jayson said he received “very positive” responses from post-con surveys, as well as numerous emails, texts and messages from con-goers to thank him and his volunteer team for putting the show together.

“People loved seeing (award-winning ‘Star Wars’ and comic artist) Dave Dorman and (GCSC alumnus and movie actor) Michael Papajohn there,” Jayson said. “The kids’ room was a huge success — especially the ‘make your own costume’ part of it — and everything went off without a hitch.”

Jayson even had a few people pledge sponsorships for next year’s event, which he hopes to expand to two full days.

“One of my favorite moments took place during the Kids’ Costume Contest, where I saw multiple kids donning outfits they created that day in our Kids’ Room,” Jayson said. “It really felt like we got it right this time. We’ll keep improving of course, but we’re on a good track now.”

I can hardly wait. I even started thinking about a cosplay for next time. Consider that fair warning.

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.”

Artist's Touch: Embracing a natural humanity

Heather Clements at work.

‘HUMAN NATURE’

What: Solo exhibit by artist Heather Clements (HeatherClementsArt.com)

Where: Amelia Center Main Gallery, Gulf Coast State College, 5230 West U.S. 98, Panama City

When: Open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday (regular gallery hours) through Feb. 14; Clements will present a lecture 1-2 p.m. Jan. 30; the gallery will have an opening reception 5-7 p.m. Jan. 30

Admission: Free to exhibit and events

Details: GulfCoast.edu/arts or 872-3886

PANAMA CITY — Heather Clements sat at a cafe table in CityArts Cooperative on a recent rainy morning to discuss the illusion of our place in the world and how she tries to express that through her art.

For several years, her focus has been on the intersection between humanity and the greater world — often depicted by melding the human form with trees, flowers and animals.

“The main concept is environmental, the blur between humans and the rest of Nature,” she said. “The idea of ‘Human vs. Nature’ is an inane statement. We are Nature.”

The Visual and Performing Arts Division of Gulf Coast State College is hosting “Human Nature,” an exhibition of Heather’s drawings, Jan. 26 through Feb. 14. The exhibit, including several new pieces never before shown to the public, will be on display in the Amelia Center Main Gallery (room 112) from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday (regular gallery hours).

In addition, Heather will present a lecture from 1-2 p.m. Jan. 30 in the Amelia Tapper Center, room 128. An opening reception will be 5-7 p.m. the same day. Admission is free for the exhibit, lecture and reception.

“...Humans are not separate from Nature, but a part of Nature,” Heather said in promotional materials for the show. “I believe in order to have the motivation to innovate for a sustainable future, we not only need to understand the facts, but have a full perspective shift that embraces the awe-inspiring symbiosis we share with the rest of nature. My art explores how beautiful and euphoric it can be to reconnect with our natural world.”

Work by Heather Clements

Originally from northern Virginia, Heather attended art school in Baltimore, Md., graduating cum laude. But she had no idea what to do with her degree — “or my physical body,” she said.

“I didn’t want to go back home,” she said. “I wanted to move forward rather than backward.”

A friend was moving to Panama City, a place Heather said she’d never heard of before, and she joked about moving with her to be by the beach. Heather contacted several galleries in the area, and the owner of The Gallery Above on Harrison Avenue (now the A&M Theatre) offered her a solo show.

Shortly thereafter, he handed the whole gallery over to her. She ran it as a community arts hub from 2007 to mid-2009, with monthly exhibits, themed shows, open mic nights, touring bands, indie films, swing dance lessons, performance art events and much more.

“It has been a place for people to come with an open mind and experience unique and creative things,” Heather told me as the closing loomed that summer, adding that she was proud of the “real creativity and thoughts and emotion and feeling in the art.”

Heather went on to offer drawing classes at the Visual Arts Center of Northwest Florida, where she also served as the exhibitions manager and graphic designer. In 2010, she became a director at CityArts Cooperative, where her husband, Mat Wyble, now runs Mat’s Good Coffee. The changes in her life have reflected in her work.

“Before college, my art really wasn’t about anything. I was experimenting with light, color, texture. Honing my technical skills,” she said. “In college, I started to stretch and learn conceptually, how to make my art about something.”

But in her last years of college and immediately after, Heather’s art was about Heather.

“I was working through my issues,” she said. “Art would tell me what was going on in my head when I couldn’t figure it out for myself.”

In her time living in Panama City, Heather’s art has gone through definite periods of focus: portraits, octopi, and paper cuts, for example. For her new exhibition, she returned to her “first love” — drawing.

She works from reference photos, and she wants her human models to be completely natural (no makeup and no styled hair). She doesn’t draw them thinner than they are, and she doesn’t remove freckles or wrinkles.

“Ever since I was little, my art focused on the human figure,” she said. “Maybe it’s egotistical of us, to be a human and draw humans, but that’s what’s important to us — ourselves.”

But the most important reason Heather’s work forces viewers to examine their relationship with the natural world:

“There are a lot of things wrong in the world,” she said, “but none of them matter if we don’t have a world to live on.”

Artist's Touch: When art is life, ‘we are the plan’

Heather Parker

PANAMA CITY — Heather Parker relaxed on a couch Friday in the community gallery she founded last year, nursing an aching knee, and musing on the accomplishments of the year and the life that brought her to this place and time.

Floriopolis, which is referred to as an “arts and culture metropolis” in historic St. Andrews, opened Jan. 18, 2014, at 1125 Beck Ave. Heather and some of the 100-plus artists who have work in the gallery, as well as students, friends and family, will celebrate the anniversary 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday with free art projects for everyone, live music and a wine toast at 4 p.m.

Heather said the past year has been a learning experience. Some plans remain unfulfilled, but many projects reached fruition and paid off in spectacular ways.

“We know what we’re doing now,” she said. “The mission is very solid, the role we’re playing in the community is solid. It didn’t take as long to fine-tune as I thought. ... What has been great is, people cry when they come in — there’s so much self expression. I’m personally still coming to terms with that.”

The gallery’s new exhibit, “Glow,” will be in place through March. Then Floriopolis will host an ongoing project through September called “The Space Between Words,” which will include a short story contest. The winning 2,000-word story will be tattooed on 2,000 people — each receiving one word from the tale.

October through December, the exhibit will be “Life on the Water,” with an eye toward work the public will want for Christmas gift shopping.

“We had great traffic and super sales for the holidays,” Heather said.

'Charlotte,' by Heather Parker

Heather’s favorite medium is acrylic painting on wood. It has required her to learn about absorption rates, how paint will spread or bleed. The wood grain always becomes part of the work, as she finds hidden shapes in the swirls of dark and light.

“I’ve barely painted anything this year, though,” she said. “That’s why I started painting little blocks of wood, something to do first thing in the morning before I’m even really awake yet.”

She “always loved art,” Heather said, but she wasn’t much of a student in her youth, graduating high school only because an administrator liked her. She moved out to live with other students when she was in 10th grade, and paid her portion of rent by selling artwork door to door.

“I only went to art classes and on test days,” she said.

Later, she worked at the education department of a children’s museum in Virginia. But when her work and her daughter Megan’s kindergarten schedules couldn’t be reconciled, Heather quit and began homeschooling. Selling art to make up for the loss of income led to a position at the Suffolk Museum of Art.

“You can use art to teach almost anything,” Heather said.

The family moved to Bay County from Virginia in 2000.

“We had been doing trade shows a couple of years,” Heather said. “We were tired, we ran out of gas, and our trailer was damaged as we crossed the bridge. ... We sold the trailer and stayed.”

Heather has worked for the Junior Museum of Bay County, the YMCA, and the Visual Arts Center of Northwest Florida. Then she and a fellow artist, Xan Miller, opened the CityArts Cooperative downtown. Heather is still involved there via her connection to the Chautauqua Learn & Serve School, where she is the artist in residence.

“My time at the Coop helped me figure out what I wanted to do as a person to contribute to the world,” she said, adding that the reactions of people who visit Floriopolis are always positive and personally satisfying. “That might be the best thing that happened to them today.”

(Heather will teach art classes at the Panama City Beach Senior Center on Jan. 20, Feb. 17 and March 17.)

Heather’s husband, John, doesn’t like attention, she said, but she credits him with keeping her on track. Not only does he do a lot of the heavy lifting around Floriopolis, as owner of Patriot Tax Solutions he does the books. John’s “a numbers guy,” and each time Heather comes up with another event, project or mission to tackle, John asks her what the plan is.

“I know how far out of his comfort zone I push him,” Heather said, such as when she decided to “bomb” downtown with 500 Styrofoam monkeys, or create a transparent plastic giraffe and photograph it visiting locations all over town.

Okay, he’d say, what’s the plan?

“We are the plan,” she said. “As we do it, the next step will reveal itself.”

Artist's Touch: Stress relief becomes way of life

Don Taylor and work-in-progress.

PANAMA CITY — Touring Don Taylor’s home off State 390 is a lesson in local history and art, as he and his wife, Louisa, recount the house’s former occupants and location while showing their collection of works from across the world.

Art has been in Don’s life since his childhood, growing up in St. Augustine.

“My father went to art school and did metal crafting,” Don said. “He turned down an animation job offer from Disney in 1930. He painted as a hobby and gave the paintings away to friends.”

Reaching his upstairs studio and classroom space, Don held up a work-in-progress showing three cooks busy in a kitchen. He photographed the men through a large plate glass window using a telephoto lens, then combined his favorite poses into a single composition.

“You’ll never get a photograph that’s got everything you want in the right places,” he said. “Don’t try to copy the photograph. Pick what you want out of it and recompose.”

(One of the day-classes he’s teaching at the Panama City Beach Senior Center this month covers sketching designs based on a favorite photo.)

“The thing I really enjoy, probably more than anything else,” Don said, is sketching and painting from real life. He’s filled books with sketches and watercolors of sites he’s visited in his travels, and he said every detail of that day is imprinted in his memory when he does so.

“I can take thousands of photos (on a trip) and six months later I’m hard pressed to tell your where in the world I was,” he said. “But with these (sketches) I become totally absorbed in it. I can tell you everything — where I was, what was going on around me.”

Sample from Taylor's sketchbooks.

Don had never heard of Panama City before he attended veterinarian school at Auburn University. His next-door neighbor had lived here though, and, “I came down and spent Christmas with them here, and when I finished school I moved here in 1972,” he said.

He established a veterinary practice, Gulf Coast Animal Hospital, which he sold 15 years ago to spend more time painting. Now, he only works relief days at the practice. Don is also a veteran of the Vietnam conflict, where he served in the U.S. Marine Corps.

Don started painting as a form of stress relief, and found he loved doing it.

“You forget all your problems and worries,” he said. “It’s not like work, it’s something I totally enjoy.”

Don began teaching painting “a number of years ago,” and has a waiting list for new students. He teaches in his upstairs classroom space, as well as local galleries and recreation centers, and far-flung workshops, such as one scheduled at Blue Ridge, Ga., in June.

He began entering shows almost as soon as he started painting fulltime, about 15 years ago, and has won numerous awards and recognitions across the country. Most recently, Don was recognized by the American Artists Professional League for his watercolor painting “Heaven’s Glow.”

“We are extremely proud to recognize some of America’s finest artists, and our award winners’ work epitomizes the quality of art that our organization strives to support,” said Peter Rossi, AAPL president, in remarks at the 86th annual Grand National Exhibition held in November 2014 in New York City.

Don also has served on many art association boards; he is a past president of the Southern Watercolor Society and past member of the Board of Directors at the Visual Arts Center of Northwest Florida.

“We have a wonderful local group of artists,” he said. “A lot of them have been painting 20 or 30 years, and still have a good time.”

In the artist’s statement on his website, DonTaylorArt.com, Don said he hopes his art will evoke the same feelings in the viewer that he experienced when first seeing the subject — “the sense that there is more to the subject than mere rendering. ... I attempt to apply the illusion of detail in many works so that viewers can use their imagination to complete the image. Sometimes less is more.”

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.

Come see me at Creative Con tomorrow!

PANAMA CITY CREATIVE CON

What: A gathering of writers, artists, actors, publishers, dancers, musicians and other fantastic creators to meet the public and share their talents

When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 13

Where: Gulf Coast State College, Student Union East Building, Panama City

Cost: $10 for adults, free to children age 6 and younger

Details: PCcreativeCon.com

Creative Con grows into new venue
Guests include ‘Pluggers’ artist, actors, musicians, more

PANAMA CITY — Having outgrown its original home, Panama City Creative Con shows no signs of slowing down.

This year’s Creative Con showroom will be on the second floor of the Student Union East building at Gulf Coast State College in Panama City. The show floor will be in the main lecture hall with a kids’ art program and guest panels located in two adjacent classrooms.

Creative Con is a day celebrating sequential art, comics, costumes (or “cosplay”), writing, publishing — and tons of other creative endeavors, such as dancing, filmmaking, music and more. Originally housed in the children’s department of the Bay County Public Library, and supported by the Library Foundation, massive attendance last year convinced organizers Jayson Kretzer and Bettina Mead to seek a roomier location.

“The new venue allows the opportunity to showcase more creative guests as well as expand the activities we can have the day of the show, such as live acoustic music in our singer/songwriter series, movie screenings, food on site and more,” said Kretzer, a comic artist, writer and graphic designer.

More than 50 guests are scheduled, representing a wide variety of creative and artistic careers. Special guests are Gary Brookins, cartoonist for the “Pluggers” and “Shoe” comic strips, and Jeff Parker, the award winning co-creator of the daily comic strip, “Dustin.”

“This show is not just another comic convention — it’s a creative career path convention,” Kretzer said. “We have a lot of guests this year who grew up or went to school in Bay County and have gone on to find work in the creative career of their choice, such as Gary Brookins and Michael Pedro (who worked on concept art for the video games ‘Halo 4’ and ‘DCU Online’), so I’m pretty excited to have the opportunity to bring them back to Panama City to share their experiences with our up-and-coming creatives.”

Other guests include:

• Artists Josh Hughes (“Atomic Terrier”), John Russo, Amanda Rachels, Victor Strickland, Mark Maddox, Katie Bracewell, Nathan Smith, Matthew Shelley, K. Michael Russell (“Hack/Slash,” “Justice League”), Clint Hagler, Aaron Hazouri, Brett Brooks (“Dust Bunny”), Randolph Dixon (“Absentee”),  Edmund Dansart and John Holland.
• Writers Chris Arrant, Mark Boss (“One Bullet”), Bobby Nash, Evelyn Rainey, Shaun Phelps, Michael Lowe (LETO-1), Erica Heflin, Chris Widdop (“Velcro: The Ninja Cat”), Wes Locher, Kevin Laporte, poet and professor Lynn Wallace, and this writer (“Tales of the Awakening Dead” and others).
• Cosplayers Alice Infinity, Lozziepop Cosplay, Emerald Coast Cosplay, Mandalorian Mercs Costume Club, and Jo Roberts.
• Actors Dawn Buvurger (“Cremain”), Savana Jade Wehunt (“The Walking Dead”), and Daniel Emery Taylor (“The Return of Swamp Thing”).
• Publishers Martinez/Butler, Inverse Press, and Graphic Knowledge Magazine (gkthemag.com).

Other guests are educator Kat Kan, stuntman Jim O’Rear, podcaster Deadpool Speaks, rock band Rogues Gallery, toymaker Roderick Hall, humorist Teresa Roberts Logan, ghost hunters Panhandle Paranormal Investigations, videographer Lou Columbus, and dancers from Blues and Lindy in the Panhandle.

A children’s activity booth will open at 11 a.m. The costume contest will be at 1 p.m., with three age divisions: Junior (ages 12 and younger), General (ages 13 and older), and Group (two or more people, all ages).

Other events include:

• Two cosplay panels with tips and advice on makeup, custom creating costumes, places to shop for materials, and how to make props.
• Making Comics, the Inverse Press experience using crowd funding to market independent comics.
• Comics to Screen, a panel discussion with Wallace, Arrant and Columbus. 
• Movie screening of “Fat Chance,” directed by guests O’Rear and Taylor, will show at 2 p.m. in the Theater Room (anyone under the age of 18 must have parental guidance due to some mature subject matter).

A full schedule is available at PCCreativeCon.com.

ART AS A CAREER

Kretzer said he has been intrigued by art since he received his first comic book as a pre-teen. However, growing up in the Panhandle, he never had an opportunity to meet professional artists and illustrators or learn about these types of career paths.

“Finally at age 25, I was able to go to a comic convention,” Kretzer said. “I met many industry professionals face-to-face who helped put me on the right track for my career.”

For 15 years, he 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. He often teaches or speaks in local schools and other venues, which gave him chances to share information with younger students.

But he hopes to go further with Creative Con by inspiring young artists the way he was inspired.

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

Today, comic book movies are on the big screen, which Kretzer hopes will encourage use of graphic novels in the classroom as a learning tool and bring about a renewed interest in sequential art. There is a push from STEM to STEAM education, adding the “A” for arts back into the science, technology, engineering and mathematics curriculum.

Creative Con attendees can participate in career discussions in the fields of game development, costume design, sequential art, songwriting, creative writing and more. GCSC will share information about course offerings like the new Digital Media bachelors degree, and Haney Technical Center representatives will address their Digital Design program.

“Art spurs innovation and growth within children of all ages,” said Kretzer, who identified himself as a visual learner. “Art and design are an integral part of many new-age jobs.” 

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.

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

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.

I am the Night

My friend, Jayson Kretzer, is an artist. He did the cover of DRAGON RISING. He has begun doing "warmup sketches" every couple of days based on the Twitter handles of his followers. The first one he did was inspired by writer Jen Foehner Wells' Lovecraftian nickname:

"Jenthulhu." Awesome, right?

Today, I was blessed to be the subject of his pen. Or at least, my Twitter name was: 

"MidnightOnMars." Get it?

I was about to ask Jayson which of these creatures represented me, when I realized that I am the night. I am a concept. A fact of Nature. A time and place. (At least, that is, my Twitter name is.)

Thanks, Jayson. You made my week.

River Readings Photo Blog

Carrie Fioramanti talks about Mandalas and Meditation.

Heather Clements demonstrates hoop dancing.

Me sitting with a group of conference-goers who took me out to lunch.

The group without me. Thanks, guys!

The participants worked on a mandala throughout the day.

Panel on Mindfulness: Michael Lister, Lynn Wallace, Carrie Fioramanti, David Lloyd.

Aaron Bearden talks about being great. My notebook and mandala in the foreground.