Anne Madden fell in love with Ruskin in the early 1990s.
It's small and community-minded, and she and her husband, Dave, can walk to work or the video store or ride their bikes around town.
"There's a real sense of place here that reminded us of a lot of the European villages we've visited," she explains.
As owner of the Blue Ibis gallery on U.S. 41 in Ruskin - a 3,200-square-foot commercial building with blue walls and images of the elegant namesake bird everywhere - Madden hosts artists from all over the Tampa Bay area. Her come-in-your-Bermuda shorts-and-flipflops-to-an-art-opening philosophy makes clients relax and feel less intimidated by the art scene.
Madden, who is a member of the Hillsborough County City-County Planning Commission and the Metropolitan Planning Organization, has attracted a loyal following among Ruskin residents who routinely catch her openings or visit her on-site frame shop, Frame Crafters.
Her current show features the emotional and abstract paintings of Boris Chezar, a 91-year-old Sun City resident who's as interesting as his work, she says. An interview with Chezar on WMNF-88.5 this summer attracted visitors to the opening who wanted to meet the artist and get an up-close look at his work.
That's the idea, says Madden: Collect something that's "not just a piece of decor" that you'll swap out with your sofa in two years. Collect what's meaningful, something that tells you about where you were - both spiritually and physically - at a particular moment in time.
Her philosophy: "My couches may come and go, but the artwork always stays."
Even her Blue Ibis logo has deeper meaning: It was drawn by Ronald van Rikxoort, a premier maritime artist in northern Europe who's also a good friend.
Madden's classic Florida 1950s ranch house near downtown Ruskin is filled with art collected during her travels with her husband whose career in Army counterintelligence took them all over the world.
"I don't scrapbook or anything - my memories are on the wall," she says. "When I look at something, I remember the conversation I had with the artist or how I bought the piece with my son somewhere in Europe."
The couple moved to Bloomingdale in 1992 when Dave was stationed at MacDill Air Force Base. Her plan was to finish one last class toward her master's degree in international relations and then "be happily on our nomadic way."
Life, as it usually does, "got complicated," Madden says, and they never left. She never finished her master's, either. Instead, she bought a frame shop in another location that eventually morphed into the Blue Ibis.
Bliss for her.
Bliss for the artists she comes to know, many of who can't help but become good friends.
"My husband says I don't just collect art," says Madden with a laugh. "I collect artists."
The Blue Ibis Art Gallery and Frame Crafters frame shop is at 301 U.S. 41 S in Ruskin. For information, call 645-2906.
