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Letter to the editor

Home-grown art

By Elizabeth Bettendorf, Times Correspondent
Published February 15, 2008

This A Day in the Life chameleon was created by ceramicist Pam Moody, owner of the Creative Native Gallery.
	[Handout]

ADVERTISEMENT [Handout] Pam Moody always dreamed of owning her own art gallery where she and other native Florida artists could display their work in a cozy space that was both personal and inviting. [Handout] Frogs peek out of leaves in this sculpture. Pam Moody's art gallery is housed in a 1940s bungalow in East Tampa.

TAMPA

Pam Moody always dreamed of owning her own art gallery where she and other native Florida artists could display their work in a cozy space that was both personal and inviting. Kind of like home. Last fall, the Citrus Park ceramic artist opened the Creative Native Gallery in a 1940s bungalow at 5307 N Falkenburg Road in East Tampa. She painted the outside of the vintage house pale yellow and the shutters a Caribbean blue-green. Inside there are "no white walls to be found," she jokes, but rather, lots of earthy greens, brick red, wheat colors, even black.

"It's added a lot of interest and charm - it really is cute," says Moody, 44, a ceramic artist who creates unique, nature-inspired Florida sculpture for the home, including designs inspired by coral and sea life. She also creates bowls, platters and ceramic architectural pieces like tiles and fireplace surrounds.

"For some people, seeing art displayed in a homelike setting gives them ideas about how they can display it at home," Moody says.

Other artists exhibiting in the Creative Native Gallery as well as in its Web site, www.thecreativenativegallery.com, include a folk artist, photographer, metal sculptor and painter.

Moody, who was born in Sarasota and grew up fishing and boating on Florida's east coast her father worked on missiles during the early days of the space program, thought of the name for the gallery while looking at an abstract ceramic alligator she created. It has since become the gallery's logo.

"I also thought about how all the other artists were from Florida and I wanted the name to be something that explained who we really were. 'Creative Native' just popped into my head."

Moody is almost completely done rehabbing the house, which she bought last year with her husband, Bob, who owns his own marketing business, which he operates out of the space.

She calls her husband her "biggest supporter and a big believer," someone who has given her unconditional support and without whom she couldn't have opened the gallery.

"Having a gallery was always a dream of mine, but it wasn't possible until last year, when we found this property," Moody says. "It needed a lot of work. And East Tampa is not known as a big art destination, but that's changing."

The vintage bungalow is a 30-mile trip from their home in Citrus Park, but Moody says it's worth the commute because the property was a good fit for both of them.

It stands in what was once a rural, residential neighborhood that now includes industrial buildings and a diner mixed in among the homes.

"It really was a humble little house, owned by salt-of-the-earth people who, judging by the roof line, added on to it a number of times," she said.

Now, she's fixing up the last room in the house: a studio space where artists can work and where the Creative Native can hold classes. She says she wanted a mixture of artists showing different kinds of work at the gallery - not just ceramicists like herself.

"It's kind of like a co-op for all the artists who show here," says Moody, whose work is also currently on exhibit in a Nature Conservancy gallery in Hobe Sound.

Other artists whose work is on display in the Creative Native include Rhonda Kitchens, Sherrie St. James-Bastien and Terri Lyon.

The gallery is only open by appointment and for after-hours events like an art opening the artists threw during the holiday season.

The artists are hoping to appeal to a range of clients, particularly snowbirds who have second homes to decorate in Florida.

"People from up North want something from here, something that isn't mass produced - they want a piece of real Florida."

Elizabeth Bettendorf can be reached at ebettendorf@hotmail.com.

If you want to go

To make an appointment to see the art on display at the Creative Native bungalow, call Pam Moody at (813) 841-3038.

[Last modified February 14, 2008, 21:56:28]