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To celebrate Women’s History Month, the Alliance for the Arts opens doors to seven local female artists’ studios on March 3. Through a self-guided tour, visitors from near and far get the rare opportunity of experiencing the sanctuaries where art is created while getting acquainted with the makers and gaining a close-up view of the materials each artist employs.
“Southwest Florida is home to an abundantly diverse collection of visual artists,” says exhibitions coordinator Krista Johnson. “By illuminating the talent of females, we celebrate each woman’s creative contribution to our community.”
The self-guided tour begins at 10 a.m. at the Alliance, where ticket holders receive a program and map to the studios, and visit on-site art studios featuring working artists.
Tickets for Alliance members are $25 or $35 for non-members and can be purchased online at ArtInLee.org/StudioTour or by calling 239-939-2787.
About Annette Brown
Annette Brown has always been an artist. For many years, her art expression was as a professional hair stylist. Now, Brown gets creative energy expressing herself through mixed media.
About Stacey Brown
Stacey Brown uses an intuitive creative process which incorporates the use of paper, paint, ink, crayon, pencil, ephemera and other materials. Her creations include paintings, collage, mixed media, jewelry and furniture.
About Donna Chase
Donna Chase is relatively new in the local art scene. Her math and business training prepared her for an unusual path into this world. Her creative outlet had been limited to helping friends decorate their homes. That changed a few years ago and her paintings have been shown in numerous juried shows throughout Southwest Florida. Her Pop Art chairs were accepted in the 2015 All Florida Show at the Alliance for the Arts and at Sidney Berne Davis Art Center. She also has exhibited painting at Arts for Act, The Visual Arts Center and the Cape Coral Art League. Her style is playful, colorful and diverse. Donna does not limit herself to a particular style but sees each painting as an expression of her love for life.
About Kathy Danca Galli
Growing up on the west coast of Florida, Kathy Danca Galli has been grateful to experience the beauty of our blue planet first hand. She is a photographer, former photo editor for Scuba Diving magazine, master diver, former registered boy scout (seriously), ocean advocate and lover of all bodies of water. Kathy’s work has been featured with Captains for Clean Water, Scuba Diving magazine, Sport Diver Magazine, Divephotoguide.com and has won contests with the Ocean Conservancy, Our World Underwater, and the Florida Skin Divers Association.
About Julie Griffin
Julie Dean Griffin is a native of Fort Myers, Florida and has been an artist for over 40 years. Griffin graduated from Florida State University where she finished with a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Art and supporting minors in Art Education, Marketing and Art History. Primarily working in the medium of oil painting, she is specialized in the Academic Method of Painting. She now resides in Fort Myers and continues her work mainly producing landscapes and portraiture.
About Mariapia Malerba
Mariapia Malerba is an Italian-American artist who was born in Puglia, a region in Southern Italy. She studied art in high school and went on to study at Accademia di Belle Arti, a fine art institute in Lecce, Italy. After earning a degree in art, with primary coursework in scenography, set design and costume history, Mariapia moved to Lake Como in Lombardy, Italy to work as a textile designer. She has created textile designs for well-known fashion designers, such as Dolce & Gabbana, Versace and Cavalli.
About MiMi Stirn
MiMi Stirn’s art is pure symbolism and surrealism embodied in 2D mixed media resins. Influences of Klimt, Dali, and O’Keefe are apparent in both message and stylings. Works include sculpted modeling paste, hand-mixed acrylics from pigments purchased from a distributor who is part of The Society of Ochers of France, operators of the last remaining Ocher quarry in the Provence region. She proceeds to mix elements, layers of staining, finished with colored and clear coated resins. With her art career stretching as far back as high school, she studied sculpture and through the years mastered the embodiment of both her love of sculpture and painting into dynamic and unique works of art.
