A call for artists, 2024

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 January 9 thru Feb 24, 2023

 Downhome Florida

We want to thank Citizens Bank and the Maxcy Foundation for sponsoring this show and we’re especially thankful to the memory of Patricia Maxcy Wilson whose dream of a local facility for artists grew into this reality.

What a great night of celebrating Downhome Florida Art. 

A first time member award for an outstanding artist who’s been an inspiration to all and dedicated to sharing their talents to those who want to grow their art skills. Congratulations to Robert “Mac” MacMillan for sharing your passion of art with all of us and making our world a better place. 

Thank you to Sally Morrisson for sharing Zora Neale Hurston folk lore story on Butterflies. A shout out to our helpers Pixi Kehoe and Lorraine and to the Passing Through duo for their wonderful music. Thank you all for coming out and supporting Florida Wildflower Studios. 

Next year’s theme is “Florida Byways “ so get off the beaten path and become inspired to create. Chip and I believe in preserving Florida’s flora, fauna and history through the arts. We invite and encourage folks to look around this beautiful place and translate their emotions into art. 

SHOW JUDGE

We are honored to have Florida Native and Winter Haven Award-Winning Artist Marilyn Rackleman as judge for this fun and meaningful show. Her artwork is mixed media sculpture: clay, wood, metal, and found natural materials.
Also, it reflects love and fascination with nature and the natural world.

She often channels her Florida roots as a base of many subjects on the birds and animals that live around her. Through these creations she tells stories about human journey and foster an appreciation for our natural environment. 

View her artwork here

ARTIST BIO

"I grew up in Central Florida and have been creating art for as long as I can remember. Growing up in rural Florida in the 50’s and 60’s was a joy. There were wooded areas all around me, foxes and bobcats wandered in our backyard at night. I could stay outside for hours, exploring, gathering, and creating masterpieces of twigs, leaves, moss, dirt and flowers.

An avid reader and animal lover as a child, I was fascinated early on with the magic of fables & fairytales and the cautionary stories where humans and animals interacted or transformed. 

I graduated from the University of Florida in 1975, with a degree in Art Education. I worked for a few years as a sculptor for the then emerging EPCOT. Then I began my Visual Arts high school teaching career in the public school system, hopefully passing on my love of creating to teenagers, including drawing, painting, sculpture, fiber, photography, and AP courses.

It was often much like herding cats…..but also wonderful.

Raising two kids and teaching High Schoolers didn’t allow a lot of extra time to explore my own artwork, but I managed to do it anyway. “Honestly, being a teacher has made me a better artist…being an artist made me a better teacher.” Being open to experimentation, creative brainstorming, working thru failures--all are important for art students and artists alike."

Marilyn uses stoneware clay to sculpt her figures, and often includes copper, wood, bone, and other found materials. She merges human and animal forms or animal and plant forms to create her own realistic seeming but not of this world characters. “I have loved clay forever. I love its flexibility and its ability to pick up texture. I devote a lot of attention to surface treatment on my pieces, actual impressed texture or imagined, and clay is perfect for this.” Color is added using glazes and acrylic inks. 

Marilyn’s work has been exhibited both in gallery shows and in outdoor art festivals and is in various private collections around the country. Over time, her work has gone from 3D work to 2D and currently, back to 3D … but has continued to focus on creatures, the natural world and the magic to be found around us.

Marilyn lives in Winter Haven, Florida, where she has her studio, on tiny Lake Lucerne, with her four feline judges and her exuberant dog, Dixie.

ARTIST STATEMENT

My greatest inspiration, since childhood, has been the natural world.

I was lucky and had a lot of natural space around me growing up.

Nature can be beautiful, it can be mysterious, fierce, sometimes deadly, but mostly it’s so alive. I love exploring ways I can merge human and animal characteristics, animal and plant forms, rearranging natural elements and body parts a bit to create something totally new. My work perhaps first appears realistic but definitely is not of this world. It’s been labeled both charming and scary, and that works for me. The fables I was hooked on as a kid had their influence!

Some of my pieces are emotional and reflect my own memories and feelings, using animals as the storytellers. Other works are my attempt to show the interconnections between us and our environment, and the need to appreciate and respect those.

I have always been an artist because I have always loved making things. It is my way to be a storyteller.

May 1 through June 30, 2023

Here's your chance to exhibit your miniatures in the FUN free-entry exhibit. Image size shall be no larger than 5"x5". All art must be original. Drop off your entries the week of May 1st and pick up by June 3.