A cornucopia of creativity

Brisk sales at the Dunedin show force one artist to drive to her home in Naples to restock her work.

[Times photo: Kinfay Moroti] Hoagie, a 2-year-old Harlequin Great Dane, spies a piece of candy in the hand of Victoria Rogers, 7, at the annual show at Highlander Park in Dunedin on Saturday. Hoagie was there with his owner, Roz Potenza of Oldsmar.

By EILEEN SCHULTE
© St. Petersburg Times
published November 4, 2002

DUNEDIN -- T-shirts, sky-blue dinner platters and funny cartoon paintings were selling almost as fast as the spinach pie this weekend at the 39th annual Art Harvest.

"We can't track how many people have come because it's free, but there's been great traffic," said Amy Jennings, co-chairwoman of the event in Highlander Park. "The artists are happy."

Especially Nora Butler of Naples, who draws whimsical, surreal shells and creatures real or imagined in colored pencil.

"Sales have been phenomenal. I had to go back to Naples and restock if that tells you anything," said Butler, who created the official Art Harvest T-shirt design. "I underestimated the show."

Hundreds of art lovers, many leading dogs on leashes, walked slowly around a pond, stopping at more than 200 artists' booths along the way.

"It's an (art show) you can always count on," said Shannon Cobb-Tappan of Dunedin who was shopping at a jewelry booth with her friend, Kathy Brewer.

"It's a show we always try to hit," said Brewer, who lives in Clearwater.

Some of the proceeds from the show, which is put on by the Junior League of Clearwater-Dunedin and the city of Dunedin, will go to the creation of a center for abused children, Jennings said.

Through food court sales and parking fees, "we hope to raise $10,000 to $20,000 for the children's advocacy center," she said.

Some exhibitors grumbled that the event, like many others, has become too standardized and conservative over the years, with the same type of art seen over and over at each show.

"I would like to see more remarkable work get rewarded," said Lance Rodgers, an artist from St. Petersburg who paints nudes that at least one visitor called pornographic. "I've dummied down my work to make a living."

But Stephanie Smith, Art Harvest artist coordinator, insisted "there is a higher caliber of art this year."

"We want to make this Florida's premier art show," she said.

Steven Olszewski of Michigan, who makes clay sculptures, is a fan.

"I've been here 10 times," said Olszewski, who sold sculpture for $1,950 Saturday.

"It's one of the better shows for me," he said. "The (organizers) are friendly. And you don't get a lot of the riff raff here."

Big winners

More than $20,000 in prize money was given out to 30 winners at the 39th annual Art Harvest at Highlander Park this weekend. Here are the top picks:

Patron of the Arts: Rocky Bridges, $2,000 (mixed media)

Awards of Distinction: Bill Herb, $1,700 (ceramics); James Skvarch, $1,700 (graphics); Gael and Howard Silverblatt, $1,700 (sculpture); Steven Olszewski, $1,700 (sculpture)

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