Painting and acting and singing: Oh my!

 

By C.S. GILBERT

 

Last week we reported the art scene heating up. This week it seems more like a conflagration. It is if there’s been an explosion of the arts, and it’s not just Key West but throughoput the Keys. At the annual retreat hosted by the Florida Keys Council of the Arts at the Marathon Community Theater last week, the 2015 edition of Culture Magazine was introduced, detailing a wide variety of cultural events happening throughout the Keys from October 2014 to September 2015. Resorts, hotels and inns will distribute 35,000 copies of the guidebook and—full disclosure—I’m delighted to have written an article about hands-on opportunities in fine art, music, dance and theater.

Arts Council board member Ganine Giorgione Derleth of Marathon is well known as an international champion ballroom dancer and teacher but explained, “I’ve been an artist my whole life and at this point I wanted to put more emphasis on it, so I decided to make it my business.” To that end retreat day marked the evening opening reception for her solo show at the theater. While the collection included some nicely done tropical standards such as palm trees silhouetted against the ocean, a variety of other subjects demonstrated a lovely, evolving impressionism. I was especially drawn to two small seascapes—Sailboat and Naples Pier—but, she said, her newest work will be on a larger scale, such as Crane Point, Adderly Lane and especially Metamora, Michigan. See her work at giorgionefineart.com.

The 300 block of Petronia Street in Old Town offers some exciting viewing. At Lemonade Stand Gallery, technology junkies and drag queen fans will be fascinated by Johnny White’s lenticular photographs, an amazing before and after parade of local performers, mostly in and out of drag (Gassy Winds, aka Equity actor J.B. McLendon, is the exception—no surprise there), which appear and disappear as the viewer moves through the gallery. I could attempt to explain the process whereby photos are electronically sliced into miniscule strips and reassempled as a merged image, but you just have to see for yourself. The show runs only through November, so don’t delay.

Another delightful visit on Petronia was across the street at Blue Turtle Gallery. Proprietor Teresa Willis was, in another fairly recent life, a very successful graphic designer I first met when working on marketing and PR for Imprompty Concerts. She was very good at that, so there was a bit of a stir when she turned entirely to fine art. I’m delighted to report that her recent work is really lovely, with a mix of visitor-pleasing icons—her roosters, for example—and some wonderful originals. Check it out at blueturtlegallery.com.

As Theatre XP’s “Poetry of Hearts” closed Nov. 21, a flurry—no, a blizzard—of dramatic art was hovering on the near horizon. Waterfront Playhouses’s seasonal kickoff, An Evening with Cole Porter, ran last weekend and Key West Fringe was gearing up for two major runs: Alice’s Parlor: The Short Plays of Alice Gerstenberg in the rectory of St. Paul’s Church on Dec. 3,4,5 and 7. There will be previews as part of Art! Key West Thanksgiving weekend. Cited were Gerstenberg’s “feminisn, involvement with the Little Theater Movement and tendencies to question constraining social roles.” Clearly my kind of woman. Visit fringetheaterkeywest.org.

Last but certainly not least, the Keys Chorale at FKCC is presenting the community with a holiday gift: a free concert of a wide variety of music, from classical favorites to classic Christmas carols, usually in fresh, new arrangements, and a stellar Hanukkah number on Friday, Dec. 5, 7 p.m. an the campus patio. The community chorus, both a credit and continuing education course, is this semester over 60 voices under the hand of new director Jim Cutty. It’s magical—and yes, I sing (or try to sing) tenor, but often as not I’m tempted to just enjoy being surrounded by music and listen. Come bring a picnic supper beforehand!

 

That’s all for now. Gotta fly!

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