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Neighborhood report

Tickled to pieces over Carmen chameleon

By AMY SCHERZER
Published September 30, 2005

It had been one of those hot and chaotic summer days for Colette Eddy and the staff at her photography company, Aerial Innovations.

Everybody needed to relax, "so I popped a bottle of champagne," she said. As they began to unwind, the conversation turned to Eddy's recent purchase, a $100 mannequin from Macy's annual prop and window display sale.

"Bald, beat up and blue" is how Eddy described the lifesized plastic woman residing in a shed at her Davis Islands home.

Such an acquisition would not be unusual for Eddy, who has a photographer's eye for the offbeat. Since founding the nearly all-female business 18 years ago, she has spent thousands of hours behind a lens - in the air and on the ground - photographing sites for lawyers, engineers, developers, Realtors and marketing professionals.

It was Rolfer Candace Cressor, a type of massage therapist, who rents space from Eddy on Azeele Avenue, who tossed out the crazy idea.

How about they take the mannequin apart and each get creative with a body part? They could photograph the extremities around town, like movable art.

"Everybody loved the idea," said Eddy, who serves on the Tampa Chamber of Commerce's cultural affairs committee.

Eddy took the torso to "gold plate" with spray paint. A friend, Ken Bartrum, dolled up her head with Cleopatra-style makeup, emerald eyes, lush red lips and a wave of black hair.

Tacy Briggs had a ball with the right hand, photographing it waving from a plane, holding a firecracker and shielding her baby, Nicolas, in his crib. She also shot it on the steering wheel while driving 70 mph.

Chris Powers decoupaged both arms with headlines and news photos of the pope to Terri Schiavo. Photographer Julie Valdes had her two sons paint the left leg, a collaboration of fiery reds and other primary colors. Cressor painted a peace sign dotted with eyeballs on her left hand.

Jenny Brockwell dressed the right leg in red fishnet hose over photos taken of the mannequin. She also pasted a strategic photo - a philodendron "fig" leaf.

By summer's end, the group reassembled the mannequin and named her Carmen, after Bizet's beautiful Spanish gypsy opera character. You might have seen her posing in downtown Tampa with a view of the University of Tampa minarets or seated on a bench at the Davis Islands beach.

"She's a beauty," Eddy said, "a work of art."

Immediately, Eddy knew Carmen would be an asset to the arts community. But how? An e-mail from Art Keeble, executive director of the Arts Council of Hillsborough County, provided the answer.

Keeble, a former board member of the Southern Arts Federation, told Eddy about an emergency relief fund to help artists and art groups in Gulf Coast communities hit by Hurricane Katrina.

"In New Orleans, the orchestra hall is underwater and the musicians scattered hither and yon," he said. "Artists lost their studios and museums are devastated."

To Eddy, it made perfect sense to auction Carmen to the highest bidder and give the proceeds to help the artists rebuild. She organized a party for her clients, set for Thursday.

Keeble started the bidding at $100.

To participate in the auction, call Eddy at 254-7339.

- Amy Scherzer can be reached at 226-3332 or scherzer@sptimes.com

[Last modified September 29, 2005, 09:21:10]