First Annual Artists’ Studio Tour
Saturday, April 28, 9AM–4PM

More than 150 people got up close and personal with artists during our inaugural Artists’ Studio Tour. This daylong, self-guided tour featured 7 locations, including studios and homes in the Fort Myers area. Click here to see photos from the day. Click here to read all of Tom Hall's stories on Examiner.com.

The day began at the Alliance’s 10-acre campus, where participants enjoyed continential breakfast and received a program and map to the studios. Participants decided the order and the amount of time they spent at each stop and saw a spectrum of artistic mediums, from painting and fabric to pottery and metal work.

Then there was hors d'oeuvres and wine tasting with Marcus Jansen from 3:00-4:00 p.m. at his brand new downtown Unit A Contemporary Art Space. Participants mingled and reflected on what they’d experienced during the day’s tour. One lucky participant walked away with an autographed copy of Jansen's book "Marcus Jansen: Modern Urban-Expressionism."

Artists’ Studio Tour sponsorship was provided by Happenings Magazine, Finemark National Bank & Trust, Total Wine & More, Whitten Technical LTD and Leigh Frizzell Hayes. Water stations at the studios were generously provided by BB&T - Oswald Trippe & Company.

The 2012 Artists:

 

Chris Catti

An artist and photographer, Chris Catti is a South Florida native. Born in Miami, he spent most of his youth in Fort Myers. In August 2009, Chris was accepted to the Hallmark Institute of Photography. After graduation, he moved to New York City to assist in fashion photography.  He began experimenting with photo transfers and acrylic paints on paper and realized this is the direction he wanted to take. In 2010, he moved back to Fort Myers and partnered with local artist Barbara Yeomans to open a studio for additional workspace. His focus now is creating artwork using an image transfer process converging paint and original photographs.

 

Pat Dunn

Pat Dunn enjoys painting in studio and plein air painting. She has traveled to France painting with Gale Bennett at Art Study Gervery for several years and now is focusing on painting Southwest Florida. Her limited palette keeps her colors true to the light often seen. In depicting colorful subjects on the coast and in Florida’s wonderful landscape. Pat enjoys the challenge of painting plein air and can frequently be seen painting with national known artist Kathryn McMahon whom she claims has helped her in her efforts to master painting on site. Her home is an open studio and likes to invite artists to paint alongside of her and share the pleasures of mastering the skills and pleasure of art.

 

Katie Gardenia

Katie Gardenia was born in 1943, in her grandmother's restaurant kitchen. Inspired by her grandmother's encouragement, she began sculpting at the age of nine. Her imaginative spirit lives in her whimsical enchanting fantasy sculptures. With a passion, she has created well over two thousand individual figures of art that have found their way into collectors' homes worldwide. These fantasy figures have an old world look about them, as if they had recently sauntered out of a story book illustration and are happy to be free. They possess a magical quality that touches the viewer’s heart and reawakens the joy and the spirit within. Each sculpture takes on a unique personality and presence emerging from its environment. Drawing upon her rich imagination, she creates lavish costumes combining the old with the new.

 

David Hammel

David Hammel's family roots can be traced to Florida as far back as the
early 1800s. David is the creator of the largest dinosaur sculpture by an independent artist in the state of Florida, the PipeaSaurus located at the Imaginarium Science Center in Fort Myers. David is currently a pottery instructor for the von Liebig Art Center in Naples, the Alliance of the Arts in Fort Myers, and the VSA Arts of Florida where he teaches students with various physical, mental and emotional disabilities. David's art mediums include stone, steel, clay, wood, painting and more.

 

Marcus Jansen

Considered now, by art historians and critics, to be a leader in urban expressionism, Marcus Jansen, since childhood, painted on surfaces like canvas, newspapers and anything else he could find to express himself. Jansen's work can be found in museum collections such as The Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, The Moscow Museum of Modern Art, (MMOMA),The National Taiwan Museum of Fine Art, as well as The New Britain Museum of American Art. After his Gulf War assignment in 1991, Jansen left the military and decided to switch careers to become a professional painter in 1997, falling back on his artistic schooling. Within the first ten years of painting, Jansen managed to appear on the cover of major magazines with his art including "New American Paintings" in 2011, making him the first Florida based artist ever to do so. In 2011, Jansen was one of only 18 artists worldwide, to be selected by Absolut Vodka for the "Absolut Blank next generation of artists" campaign. His latest project is a new art space called UNIT A in downtown Ft. Myers.

 

Valerie Jewell

Originally from Kentucky, Valerie Jewell has lived in Fort Myers since 1984. She has taught wire wrapping and jewelry making for nine years. She began as a woodcarver, but after taking a wire class knew immediately it was her new passion. She also does beading and some silversmithing. She teaches at Cape Coral Arts Studio, Dlynne Designs and the Potomac Bead Company. She says she’s drawn to wire work because there is no end to what you can do…you can create whatever you can imagine, whether structured or freeform.

 

Leo Johnson

Leo Johnson is a third generation Cuban-Sicilian, who is still immersed in the art, culture and language. Leo studied painting in San Miguel, Mexico, at a school founded by Diego Rivera, Orozco and Siqueiros, the great Mexican muralists. He has won many awards for his paintings and has shown in New York City, California and throughout the United States. He had a one man show at Der Flur Gallery in Kassel, Germany in March 2003. He also participated in Spektrale 3 in Berlin, Germany in September 2003.  “In my paintings I try to reflect the human spirit-its agonies, joys, exuberance- and peaks and valleys of everyday life.” He also gives classes and he will share his vast knowledge of painting beginning with the old masters and focusing on modern movements in art. You will gain an overall appreciation of the progress and current state of visual art. He was nominated for teacher of the year in 2009 Angels of the Arts Awards and was a 2003 artist for the Arts for Act auction.

 

Krista Johnson

Krista Johnson has spent her life in the lush nature of Southwest Florida and her primitive-style paintings are spirited expressions that capture the color, abundance and mystery of the world she loves. Johnson’s paintings are full. Whether it is vegetation, people, reptiles or birds her canvases are covered with her subjects pushing up against each other, giving the viewer much to explore. She has for 12 years co-taught a children’s art program at the Alliance for the Arts in Fort Myers where she is the Exhibition Coordinator. Johnson’s work has been exhibited regionally and most recently in the exhibit Leo and Krista Johnson at Florida Gulf Coast University in 2009. She lives and paints in Fort Myers with her husband, painter Leo Johnson. Krista is the singer and songwriter for the pop rock group The Bettie Page Boys.

 

Steven Kalb

Steven Kalb has been blacksmithing for over 15 years and has had the privilege to study under some of the finest smiths on a statewide and national level. “My career as a firefighter in Lee County has given me a unique perspective by allowing me to learn about hazardous materials and the process' of the industry. My goal is to create art and awaken people to threatened species. By using up-cycled metal and ever expanding new technologies, I am working toward a carbon neutral blacksmithing shop and greener art. Together, we can make a world of difference.”

 

Myra Roberts

Since moving to Sanibel Island from Chicago in 1999, Myra Roberts has become one of the best-selling artists in Southwest Florida. Clients enjoy her vintage-style oil paintings that convey the mood and style of the 1920s to 1950s. Art giant Robert Rauschenberg, who lived for many years on an estate on neighboring Captiva Island, honored Myra by purchasing one of her paintings of Audrey Hepburn at an Art for ACT Fundraiser. Rauschenberg told her he knew Hepburn, and that her painting captured her spirit. Roberts will have her paintings on exhibit at a full range of venues in 2011 and 2012, including BIG ARTS, the Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center, and the Holocaust Museum of Southwest Florida.

 

Byron M. Wood

After 30 years of managing his own business in the Chicago suburbs, metal artist Byron M. Wood transformed his knowledge of metals into creation of works of art of profound impact and lasting beauty. Inspired by the Southwest Florida environment, Wood specializes in depictions of the bird and water life that surrounds his home in Fort Myers on the Gulf Coast. Wood displays his work in a number of galleries throughout Southwest Florida and in the Florida Keys.

 

Barbara Yeomans

Barbara Yeomans is a printmaker and painter. My philosophy of life: My work is a dialogue of my thoughts and feelings. A spontaneous expression of experiences. I am interested in everything, I love history, art, music, travel, people and their stories, nature, fashion, fabric, texture, shape, reflection, shadow & color – so this curiosity and interests are woven into my images. I am doing what I was supposed to do and that is wondrous. Inspiration comes from everywhere. Her early education took place in England. Studied art at Cheltenham College of Art.  Majored in Fashion Design & minored in Millinery. Studied printmaking at Edison College. Has travelled extensively, studying art all over. Represented by Broadfoot & Broadfoot Galleries, Manhattan & Boonton, N.J.

In the Edwards Building:

Reina Lombardi

Reina Lombardi earned her B.A. in Studio Art at the University of South Florida and went on to earn her M.A. in Expressive Arts Therapy and Mental Health Counseling from Lesley University. She is a Registered Board Certified Art Therapist with the American Art Therapy Association. She uses art therapy in her work with clients at Delta Family Counseling in Cape Coral and as an art enrichment facilitator for the Art Speak program at the Foundation for Lee County Public Schools. She says her artwork is deeply influenced by her environment and identity as an art therapist.

 

Jason McDonald

Jason McDonald (evilchimpo) was born in 1970. This self-taught artist spent his formative years in rural Southwest Florida intuitively developing the techniques that lay the groundwork for his lyrical and fluid style of rendering today. Far from simple sketches, McDonald stimulates interest on a cerebral level in a whimsical and sometimes heartily silly viewpoint. His unique style has garnered him collectors and fans around the globe.

 

 

Morgan Raines

Morgan Raines was born and raised in Jacksonville, where he started drawing and painting at age eight. After college graduation, he pursued a business career which took him to several locations in the United States where he followed his love of art through painting. Then in 1992, he and his wife Kristy embarked on a dream of owning their own business and pursuing his life-long love of art using themes from nature. They raised cattle on a farm in the Missouri Ozarks and he continued to paint using many of the animals and much of the natural, local beauty as his subjects. While there, they founded Double-R-Prints, a graphic arts company that used many of his original images on consumer products and business logos. He has shown his artwork continuously over a 50 year career, gaining recognition through art shows and sales. Themes from nature continue to be the primary subjects of his paintings. Since nature cannot be improved upon, Morgan has chosen to depict them in a different artistic way through his own 'sgraffito' style.