Hong Kong Willie

On the corner of Fletcher Avenue and Morris Bridge Road in Tampa is possibly the largest collection of styrofoam buoys I've ever seen unattacted to a fishing fleet. This is Hong Kong Willie. Surrounded by an interstate highway, a corporate business park, and national chain hotels, the orange helicopter on a flat-bed truck festooned with a web of fairy lights does catch the eye. The Hong Kong Willie blog has links to interviews and news stories outling the Hong Kong Willie philosophy of reuse, and tracing the evolution from bait shop to art studio.

Hong Kong Willie Preservation Art Group (audio / slide show from WUSF)

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Added May 2, 2009

My husband took an unblurry photo of the helicopter, so I've added it here:

Cat Statue

Back in 1991, I visited Key West for the first time, and one highlight of the trip was the Hemingway House. The tour guide casually pointed out a ceramic statue sitting on top of a cabinet, a gift from from Pablo Picasso to Ernest Hemingway. Years later I heard that the statue had been stolen, which honestly wasn't surprising considering it was a cool Picasso statue just sitting on a cabinet in a house.

Years later, while going through boxes of old photos (oh, the pre-digital days), we came across this picture from that 1991 trip. According to the Hemingway House museum's website, the cat was found in a box in the 1970s, and Hemingway's wife said that it was a gift from Picasso to Hemingway. The two men had become friends when living in Paris in the 1920s. The statue was stolen during or shortly after a house tour in November 2000, and recovered a month later when the thief tried to use it as a deposit for a small boat. Unfortunately, the statue was badly damaged. The statue now on display in the house museum is a replica.

(Sources included the Hemingway House website, the Dec. 11, 2000 Miami Herald, and the Jan. 26, 2001 Palm Beach Post)

Taft Richardson, Jr.

Folk artist Taft Richardson, Jr., known for his community service as well as his sculptures made from animal bones, passed away in Tampa earlier this week. Spirituality infused his work, which is well illustrated by this website by Folkvine.


Further reading:

"Taft Richardson Jr.: Bones spoke to artist " (St. Petersburg Times, December 3, 2008)

"Bones of invention" (by Jeff Klinkenberg, St. Petersburg Times, August 13, 2006)


From the library:

Extraordinary Interpretations: Florida's Self-Taught Artists (by Gary Monroe, University Press of Florida, 2003)

Just Above the Water: Florida Folk Art (by Kristin G. Congdon and Tina Bucuvalas, University Press of Mississippi, 2006)

Christopher Still at the Gulf Coast Museum of Art

"Coming Home," through January 25 at the Gulf Coast Museum of Art, chronicles 30 years of artist Christopher Still's career. The title refers in part to Still's longtime connections to the museum and Pinellas County.

"Exhibit tracks evolution of artist Christopher Still" (St. Petersburg Times, October 26, 2008)

Christopher Still's murals in the House Chamber at the Florida State Capital

Miami's Bayfront Park

Like many other coastal cities, Miami is located at the confluence of a river and the ocean, but the buildings can overwhelm the water. Downtown Miami does have a waterfront park, although US 1, Biscayne Boulevard, and the Metromover form a barrier between the buildings and the green space.

Bayfront Park offers quite the assortment of entertainment options, from open-air ampitheaters to trapzee lessons and hot-air balloon rides.

Bayfront Park has had a long history as a public space, all the way back to the 1920s. But it's been a tumultous past, with numerous reinventions. The most recent design is by Isamu Noguchi, dating to the 1980s. His scuptures dot the park, including one titled Slide Mantra that people obviously have been sliding down.

Dade County's World War II memorial is also located in Bayfront Park.

Sculpture at Fairchild Tropical Gardens

The work of three modern artists is on display at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, through May 31, 2008. Artworks by Fernando Botero, Roy Lichtenstein, and Dale Chihuly are scattered amongst the gardens, which are works of art themselves.


Man on Horse, by Fernando Botero



















Gilded Ikebana with Scarlet Stem and Blue Frog Foot, by Dale Chihuly



















Head, by Fernando Botero



















Niijima Floats, by Dale Chihuly



















Coup de Chapeau II, by Roy Lichtenstein



















Red Reeds, by Dale Chihuly



















Modern Head, by Roy Lichtenstein

Nancy Moskovitz

Florida artist Nancy Moskovitz was nice enough to talk to me yesterday about her artwork, particularly the house portraits she has done. She told me that when she paints or draws a house, she tries to capture the "essence of the house," rather than create a formal architectural rendering. She noted that these artworks make nice corporate gifts, but some clients just want a reminder of a special house. Also, sometimes she is asked to paint landscapes of property particularly meaningful to a family, like a ranch or farm.

Nancy also paints portraits, and you can see her work on both her website and her blog. I like her paintings of the Sharpe's Ferry Bridge, a 1920s drawbridge over the Oklawaha River in the Ocala National Forest.