Local Artists

“Here’s to good women. May we know them, may we be them, may we raise them.” The mantra that hung in Jenna Alexander’s bathroom throughout her childhood has never left her. It was her inspiration for her newest series, Stripes and Buns. She wanted to know what made a good woman. Flipping through her 260-page book, you find out. “Their words tell more of a story than their pictures,” she says. Alexander, a St. Augustine based artist, photographed over 200 women in striped shirts and buns. They are authentic photographs, symbolizing a hardworking woman. Out of the 200 photographs, she …

The turning of the New Year inspires rebirth, renewal and rediscovery through a cleansing of the spirit and affecting positive change. To get the year started off fresh, explore personal agency and the healing power of water with ecofeminist artist who will be hosting a creative engagement workshop Jan. 12 at the . Participants will create a personal narrative drawing in mixed media illustrating their own story using recycled materials. Crooks based the concept for the workshop on her own tapestry drawing entitled “Decent; Dissent; Descend: Into the Springs of RED Pearl River,” the fourth and final tapestry drawing of …

Historic Posters Feature Artist and Fan Since 1980, the Jacksonville Jazz Festival has presented itself each year with striking visual imagery through the event’s official poster. Throughout the years, talented local artists have contributed their unique touch to what has become a much anticipated and collectible piece of art. This year, the Jacksonville Jazz Festival is proud to feature two poster designs created by local artist . A rarity compared to previous years, the 2018 posters pay homage to the jazz performer and fan. Each piece of art incorporates Whipples’s distinctive and highly recognized three-line motif. “I use three lines …

Nicole Holderbaum’s fascination with murals stems from a simple reason. “I like to paint really big,” she says. “It’s nice to have a huge canvas to go crazy on.” The artist has been committed to painting and facilitating street art in the Jacksonville area for the past four years. She snagged the attention of the Landing’s directors and event coordinators last year when she organized the Jax Kids’ Mural Festival. They later approached her about spearheading a mural project in the Landing’s indoor shopping area. “They talked to me about potentially painting the walls,” she says. She decided to turn …

The invites autistic children to a morning of creating. Their Art Aviators Family Workshop is geared toward children with Autism Spectrum Disorders and their families. heads Family and Children’s Programs at . He organizes the Art Aviators workshop to encourage children with Autism Spectrum Disorders to get creative on their own terms. “Folks on the spectrum can’t always communicate verbally or through the written word,” says Aiuppy, “so giving them access to drawing and painting is a way for them to get their thoughts and feelings out in a really safe space.” With Art Aviators, the MOCA educational staff strives …

Florida Times-Union columnist Steve Nelson has been painting since he was four years old. The writing emerged surprisingly when he was nearly sixty. “Painting was my first love,” says Nelson in his bustling Times-Union newsroom cubicle. “Writing is just fun.” His illustrated Wild Life column is a staple in the paper’s queue today, but wouldn’t have emerged without encouragement from Nelson’s editor, Ken Amos. Nelson considers Amos his writing coach, an essential figure in his process. Fortunately, Nelson identified parallels between his two forms when he first started writing the column in 2013. “Writing is a lot like painting,” he …

The founders of believe that if you build it, they will come. It’s a hybrid warehouse in the newly-proclaimed Arts District of Jacksonville that combines technology with the arts. “Without art, technology fails,” says , co-founder of SPACE 42. Through his extensive background in technology consulting, Kevin has found that most tech geniuses work like artists. “In turn, without technology, art fails.” Together with business partners James and Charity Higbe, Kevin and Michelle Calloway have excavated the 22,000 square foot warehouse on Phyllis Street behind CoRK Arts District. Properly marrying art and technology to create an innovation center requires an …

When she first conceived the idea for the Kesha exhibit, Arts and Culture Developer, Shawana Brooks recalls asking herself, “What would it take to showcase artists that lived here in Jacksonville and resource their abilities back to the community? What would it take to execute creative and collaborative art exhibitions that had a strong position on learning in all dimensions?” Through her curation of 14 black female artists, Brooks developed Kesha as a representation of the black female experience attached to one female name. She strives to explore society’s consistent erasure of the black female through “high quality contemporary work …