Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Charley, the muse

Waiting out a hurricane inspired a couple to turn their garage into a work of art.

By NANCY JOHNSON
Published July 22, 2005

They all look alike: ordinary, unassuming.

This one-story blue stucco house smack-dab in the middle of a well-manicured Riverview subdivision is no different.

But when the garage door lifts, "People pass by and give a thumbs-up," said Alfredo MillerGelate. He and his wife, Joanne Morrow, turned their white garage walls into a canvas. Take a gentle whiff. The tell-tale smell of fresh acrylic paint hovers in the air.

Together, the couple created a colorful mural covering every inch of the garage walls and floor.

"I just start painting and whatever comes out, comes out," MillerGelate said.

Each scene tells a story and depicts something significant in their lives. MillerGelate grew up in Panama, so he painted fishing boats he remembers seeing along the canal as well as a famous church in Portobello that he dreams of visiting someday.

He created a North Carolina beach scene and lighthouse in honor of his wife's home state.

On another wall of his garage, he expressed his Christian faith with a scene of Christ hanging on the cross of Calvary.

One garage view transports them to Guyana's fishing docks.

"It's rest and relaxation, but I show how the poor people live," MillerGelate said. "You have the outhouses and clothes hanging. It's everyday life."

The couple swept the garage walls with the final brush strokes during Hurricane Dennis.

They came up with the idea of the mural last year as Hurricane Charley slammed Florida.

"We were sitting in the garage and there was junk everywhere. We were watching the wind blow and all the rain," Morrow said. "It was just crowded, not airy enough."

The garage has always been an oasis for Morrow.

"That was my escape. I'd turn the radio on, put the TV on and then suddenly somebody would join me out here," she said, raising her eyebrows and smiling at her husband. "I'd say, "Aw, you found me.' "

Finding space to paint in the garage was the hard part. They moved the two cars outside. Still, they had to step gingerly, squeezing in tight spaces, careful not to fall over anything.

It took nine months to paint the mural.

"That's like birthing a baby," Morrow said. "Yes, this is our baby."

Art was a hobby for MillerGelate, who retired from the Air Force. He has painted cups, signs and T-shirts over the years, refusing to take money for his artwork.

"I didn't go to school for this," he said. "It's natural talent, a gift."

He calls his wife the ultimate Jack of all trades. When she's not on the job at the Brandon post office, she's knitting blankets, baking a pound cake from scratch or helping her husband with his artwork. She painted the background for the garage scenes and offered suggestions on artistic detail. She encouraged her husband to turn his creative flair into a business, doing pieces on canvas.

Neighbors are asking him already to paint their garages.

"Sure, I'll do it. But you see all these professionals with all these techniques," he said. "I tell people I don't paint like that. I paint what I feel."

To find out more about their artwork, contact Portobello International Designs at (813) 671-3831.

[Last modified July 21, 2005, 09:00:09]