Tobin Bennison
Article Category: Skilled Labor
Many local artists look to the water for inspiration, but few have gone to the lengths — or indeed, depths — Monique Richter has in search of creative guidance. Born and raised on the beaches of Ft. Lauderdale, Monique moved to Melbourne five years ago, and now, at the young age of 26, she’s already spent more time on the water than many salts twice her age. A seasoned traveler and lifelong water worshipper, Monique prefers plunging headfirst into the ocean where others seem content... [Read more...]
By: Tobin Bennison
Article Category: Skilled Labor
Drawing and painting have always come naturally to Jessie Sibert. You might even say that his artistic talent is God-given. At least that’s how the self-taught Merritt Island artist sees it. “I truly believe that whatever talent I have comes from God,” he tells me. “In many ways, He’s been pushing me to paint throughout my whole life. I think that 90% of it is Him and the other 10% of it is just me getting up in the morning to pick up my brushes.” Sibert says... [Read more...]
By: Tobin Bennison
Article Category: Skilled Labor
Surf artist Phil Goodrich, an Indialantic native now based in Fork, SC, began drawing in high school to express his frustration with the status quo. During the late ’80s, Melbourne High was focused almost completely on its football program, Goodrich remembers. “We tried to start a surf club and the school wouldn’t help us out at all,” he says. “Instead of fighting them, I made little cartoons and caricatures of the people who were working against us.” Starting... [Read more...]
By: Tobin Bennison
Article Category: Skilled Labor
Ask artist “Java” John Goldacker to name a central visual influence on his work, and his answer is as unequivocal as it is unusual: Music. One of music’s most extraordinary qualities is the way it can conjure images through seemingly unrelated sensory organs. That it inspired Goldacker to invest in a quiver of pens and pencils and a drawing pad, rather than the expected source instruments, is even more extraordinary. At first reckoning, events in Goldacker’s New Jersey early... [Read more...]
By: Tobin Bennison
Article Category: Skilled Labor
As beachside residents, we’re quite used to gauging the seasons without the benefit of usual climatic indicators. If it weren’t for all the deflated pumpkins sitting by the roadside, we’d be hard-pressed to identify this as a typical November. Fortunately, we can rely on numerous events to remind us of winter’s half-hearted approach. Along with an abundance of fall celebrations and community food drives, the Space Coast Art Festival has become synonymous with the Thanksgiving... [Read more...]
By: Tobin Bennison
Article Category: Skilled Labor
The Democratic Republic of Congo is home to the world’s largest and most deadly war. Over the past 10 years, roughly 6 million people have died, and nearly 1,500 people continue to lose their lives daily, many of them children. Most of the conflict is tied directly to the country’s vast natural resources. These resources are both a blessing and a curse, making the DR Congo a country of great potential and a frequent victim of exploitation. The minerals found there are used in consumer... [Read more...]
By: Tobin Bennison
Article Category: Skilled Labor
Nancy Dillen What constitutes a “Florida Artist”? If you say that, foremost, one has to be from Florida, then you ignore the many artists who’ve been born elsewhere and have moved here to create. It also might discount a number of artists who live beyond our borders, yet still draw inspiration from Florida environs from afar. The answer, then, might lie in the landscape of the State itself as a prominent subject. But is it enough to have rendered the beach, a ramshackle shack,... [Read more...]
By: Tobin Bennison
Article Category: Skilled Labor
If you were to compile a list of essential stops and sights for a guidebook called “The East Coast Surfer’s Pilgrimage Route,” you might have a hard time justifying the inclusion of Twombly’s Nautical Furniture in Cocoa Beach. Barring the weathered pirate statue standing out front, it’s a pretty innocuous looking edifice, one that offers scant indication of the treasures amassed within its walls. Plus, it’s a furniture shop. Yet like a nondescript chapel that... [Read more...]
By: Tobin Bennison
Article Category: Skilled Labor
Local artist and gallery owner Karen McDonald describes herself as always having been “artsy-craftsy,” dabbling in disciplines like batik, stained glass, decoupage, candle making and tole painting since her teens. But she always thought she couldn’t draw and wasn’t “good at art.” All that changed when she enrolled in a night class about 15 years ago while living in San Diego. “I had an urge to take a night class and wanted something artistic,” she... [Read more...]
It’s said you can tell a lot about a person by the car they drive. If that’s the case, then surely the woodie owner rides in the most revealing and loquacious of biographers. The woodie is undeniably fetching, yet it exudes the kind of understated and approachable attractiveness you find in the girl next door, the one you’ve had your eye on since first grade. It whispers the sort of comfortable affluence earned by dint of hard work and deep appreciation for days off rather than... [Read more...]
