Arts For the Parks

UPDATE: Sentry Box placed in the Top 200 in the 2006 Arts for the Parks contest!

Title: Sentry Box, 18 x 24 in.

Completed March 2006

Price: $700 

Paper prints (13 x 19 in.): $55.00

Giclee on canvas prints (18 x 24 in): $100.00

Contact the artist to order a print today!

I set this up with Jeff, the model. Jeff works at Castillo de San Marcos National Monument as a living history portrayer. I arrived one Sunday early in the morning and introduced myself to him, asking if I could take some pictures of him around the fort. He suggested that I come back to see the volunteers who showed up later in the day. I had to come back anyway because it was overcast that morning, so I did.

But when I came back I saw the volunteers were all 50+ years old, and they were wearing infantry uniforms similar to Jeff's. There's a history prize in this contest. I considered that the life expectancy of a male in 1670 was probably 40 or 45, and anyone lucky enough to live that long or longer certainly wouldn't be in the infantry anymore. So Jeff it was. Jeff and the other living history portrayers set the cannons off on Sundays. But to the dismay of all, the gun powder guy was sick that day. So a crowd had gathered on the upper deck of the fort to watch the cannon. When Jeff stepped up there, me trailing, a crowd gathered around him and 20 people took his picture or asked to take it of him.

It's not Fort Matanzas. I had to take out the Bridge of Lions, which would be in the place of the horizon line over the wall to the right of the turret. And I had to take out the homes and pools on the left side, too.

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Title: Tatiyana Braves the Haunted Slave Houses After Church on Sunday, 22 x 28 in.

Completed April 2006

Price: $850

Prints are available upon request.

Paper prints (13 x 19 in.): $55.00

Giclee on canvas prints (22 x 28 in): $115.00

Contact the artist to order a print today!

The location for this is Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve at Kingsley Plantation. In the late 1700's, Zepheniah Kingsley settled in the north Florida area and built a plantation of sea island cotton and citrus. Of course all the labor was done by slaves. Kingsley actually married one of his slaves, and eventually fled to Haiti with his wife and all his slaves when control of Florida was given to Britain from Spain. His marriage was illegal. But the slave houses built undoubtedly by his slaves are still there. There are 37 in all, and most are in ruins, but one is refurbished. Almost all of them have remains of the massive fireplaces used for cooking and heat in the winter as seen in the image above.

The main house where the owners lived is currently closed for remodeling until further notice.

I set this up with assistance from an acquaintance of my mother's. The young lady, Tatiyana is 9 years old. She and about 9 members of her family came to see Kingsley Plantation this day, and I met them there to take pictures of her. I'd never met any of them before, so it was very uncharacteristic of me to do this. I'm normally much more shy, but the lengths I go to for the contest...

Tatiyana did not like this location at all. Almost immediately her discomfort was palpable, and when it was time to go into the houses and pose, she began to cry, and I felt awful. But her aunt and I talked with her gently and she was game enough to walk around the houses looking nervous. A month later, I spoke with the woman who helped me set it up - the acquaintance of my mother's - who said that Tatiyana finally told them why she cried. Apparently, "she saw them". She saw the people who lived in these houses, she saw what they were doing, and it frightened her.

I named the painting before I learned this.

But I learned also during this conversation that Tatiyana and her mother are currently living in a homeless shelter.      

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