Tobin Bennison
Article Category: Skilled Labor
Roger Burleigh of Green Gloves Garden Center By Tobin Bennison Twenty-seven years ago, opening a nursery and landscaping company was probably the last thing on Roger Burleigh’s mind. Back then, skateboarding and BMX occupied most of his thoughts. The half-pipe he built in the backyard of his family’s Merritt Island home attracted Cocoa Beach groms like John Mayo and the Slater brothers, so it’s no wonder he soon added surfing to his list of consuming interests. Burleigh remembers... [Read more...]
Tobin Bennison
Article Category: Skilled Labor
Terri McCutchan • Tobin Bennison • For Cocoa Beach artist Terri McCutchan, nature is “God’s palette,” a gift to be appreciated in all its forms. Terri was born in Miami to parents who encouraged her creativity from the start. Her mother, an artist herself, was particularly supportive of her interests, and it was she who taught Terri to see art in everything around her. To this day, Terri credits her mother with opening her eyes to the boundless beauty of nature, and her work... [Read more...]
Tobin Bennison
Article Category: Skilled Labor
Ryan Speer Tobin Bennison Unlike most artists who adopt aliases, Ryan Speer came up with his “Speerbot” character as a way to unite rather than separate his creative and private selves. Conceived, according to legend, after Speer decapitated himself in a freak X-Acto blade accident while racing to complete an art project at UF, Speerbot is a capsule-like robot outfitted with Speer’s fortuitously preserved head. But for the Satellite Beach-based artist, the character is neither... [Read more...]
Tobin Bennison
Article Category: Skilled Labor
Dr. Donna Ragona Tobin Bennison For many, medicine and art reside at opposite ends of the disciplinary spectrum. For Donna Ragona, the two share more natural similarities than dictated differences. As a veterinarian, Dr. Ragona practices integrative medicine at her newly opened Animal Wellness Center in Cocoa Village. By blending conventional Western techniques with holistic Eastern alternative therapies like acupuncture, massage, Reiki, and nutritional-based treatment, she’s set a new standard... [Read more...]
Tobin Bennison
Article Category: Skilled Labor
Juan Arboleda Tobin Bennison You wouldn’t guess it from looking at the elegant, hand-carved signs he makes, but one of Juan Arboleda’s strongest influences is French graffiti artist Christian Guémy, more popularly known by his “tag,” C125. Granted, Guémy’s intriguing use of stencils informs Arbodela’s separate series of pop art-inspired images, but Arbodela’s interest in the visual immediacy of graffiti and traditional signage fashions an unlikely arc... [Read more...]
Tobin Bennison
Article Category: Skilled Labor
Chris McCall comes from a long line of brewers and beer enthusiasts. Born in Phoenix, Arizona, McCall put Cocoa Beach on the microbrew map when he and his wife Tracy opened the Cocoa Beach Brewing Company here in the summer of 2008. With solid roots in the South- and Midwest, he could have easily overlooked this humble beachside town as the spot for his popular brewpub. But like so many other visitors who fall for its charms, McCall instinctively felt that Cocoa Beach was the perfect place to live... [Read more...]
Tobin Bennison
Article Category: Skilled Labor
CHRIS BREWER When you see Chris Brewer’s paintings for the first time, it makes perfect sense that one of his primary influences is Andy Warhol, an artist who redefined portaiture for a new generation with his affinity for deconstructing his subjects with bold swaths of color. It makes sense, too, that Brewer borrows elements of other boundary-challenging “pop” artists like Mark Rothko, Roy Lichtenstein, Keith Haring, and Jeff Koons. But a far more interesting influence at play... [Read more...]
Tobin Bennison
Article Category: Skilled Labor
Boone Williams Tobin Bennison Recycled art is enjoying a vogue right now, but artist Boone Williams has been riding it long before it was fashionable. Constructed from scavenged parts of destroyed and retired skateboards, Boone’s raptor-like “skate creatures” have intrigued locals since they first appeared last year at shows and events like “Robot Love,” the Close to the Edge music festival, and the traveling Bandwagon Roadshow, of which he is an active member. A native... [Read more...]
Tobin Bennison
Article Category: Skilled Labor
David Hale To David Hale’s way of thinking, many of us use only a small fraction of our sensory powers. As children, he says, we were more attuned to the language of experience. As time progresses and our lives grow busier, our perceptive abilities atrophy from neglect, and “listening” to the world around us becomes more of a chore than it should be. For multi-talented artist Hale, listening connotes an openness to a variety of stimuli that’s unbound by aural limitations,... [Read more...]
Tobin Bennison
Article Category: Skilled Labor
CHRIS HAMER Asking an artist to define his or her aims can be a touchy business. Those who don’t resist an outright verbalization of what, to their minds, should remain an open-ended mystery tend to clothe their principles in layers of academic terminology, technical obfuscation, and theoretical mumbo jumbo. So it’s refreshing to hear Chris Hamer jump joyously at the chance to share his artistic statement and the experiences that helped shape it. Even more refreshing is the simplicity... [Read more...]
