Belle Haven Home
The recent column in SRQ Magazine, “stadium of culture” , addresses the North Trail. It’s beauty and it’s blight. Where two cultures inter-mingle and the result… well, it’s fine as long as you’re just passing by. The author goes on to suggest that now is the time for the county to up the ante for the arts, that more be done to prove and promote Sarasota as a cultural Mecca. Florida Trend didn’t even mention Sarasota in their article “Arts and culture in the Sunshine State”. It’s a shame really. We got all the right stuff.
My credentials, I have none. I am not embedded into the community art scene. I don’t belong to any association, organization or group. I’m an outsider. A lowly photographer trying to sell a few prints. From this worm’s eye view, I see a commission who still thinks 13 spring training games are worth a 30 year bond, an art committee that can’t agree on their own mission and a community full of people interested in their own agenda. What if more money is allocated for the arts, who get’s to say where and how it is spent?
Which brings me to my point.
If I were king for a day, I would ban the aquisition of more sculpture and work on revitalizing some of our historic architecture and run down neighborhoods. I would promote these as artists havens, co-op’s studios, and galleries.
Every time I pass this place my heart aches. Wouldn’t it be nice to snatch this out of the hands of whoever owns it and breath new life into it.
The Belle Haven Home
When I was going through my photos, my first thought was to Photoshop all the debris away. Then it occurred to me that hiding all the trash would certainly make for a pleasing photograph, it wouldn’t be a true representation of this situation.
Belle Haven sits in the shadows of a Hyatt Regency and it’s neighbor is an empty lot., surrounded by the same cold galvanized steel fencing. An amazing structure quietly deteriorates as thousands of people pass by it every day. Do they see her I wonder?
This is Sarasota
We cry out that we need more money at the same time we are raising big $$$ for a sculpture that (imo) serves no real purpose. Does a sculpture really improve our quality of life and do we really need another one?
We call attention to the blight that surrounds us, but this is how our historic buildings are being treated.
Ah, if I were king for a day. Instead of having to use my 300mm zoom lens to capture the beauty and artistry, I’d be gazing out from the balcony.
It’s still free to dream.
Dreams can unlock the gates that conventional thinking keep under lock and key
Palm Avenue parking garage
Palm Ave parking garage part II
“The whole thing is an abomination and now you want to put lipstick on a pig?!!”
~Joe Barbetta~
As for the $25,000 the city will “piss away” to artists who will paint the inside of the garage? Well, people “don’t give a **** about murals.
Unlike Commissioner Barbetta, I do believe people care about murals and since the “abomination” has been open for over a year now I had to see for myself what lipstick on a pig looked like, so early one morning I parked on a side street (I’m cheap and refuse to pay to park) and headed over to the garage. It has art now so the proper terminology is “car park”.
As I walked the perimeter I thought, “this might be a nice place for some shops”. At this particular time the space below the garage sits vacant and the storefronts are being utilized as a billboard for the Asolo. I looked up and noticed a lone shoe had found its final resting place on top of the see-through overhangs. A vision of grungy sneakers tossed over electrical wires flashed in my mind. Sorry to say, the garage has not reached its full potential.
As far as the murals, I had no idea what to expect and as I turned to go up a flight of stairs I was startled until I realized it was on of the murals. The first level is a tribute to dance with artwork by Eduardo Kobra. This is the image that startled me and this lonely ballerina is my favorite. Her soft form plays well off the cold cement and aluminum. So simple but I can’t stop looking at her.
“The problem with the mall garage is that everything looks the same. They try to differentiate between levels. They put up different colors, different numbers, different letters. What they need to do is name the levels, like, ‘Your mother’s a whore.’
You would remember that.”
~Jerry Seinfeld~
We haven’t gone as far as Jerry would have us but we do have color. Color done by some wonderful artists who participated in the 2011 Sarasota Chalk Festival. On the first level you will see…
Dance: Artist Eduardo Kobra.
2nd level: Movie: Artist MTO.
3rd level: Music: Artist Chor Boogie.
4th level: Opera: Artist Monica Spain & Marco Bell.
5th level: Theatre: ArtistSkip Dryda.
Is the inside of a parking garage an appropriate space for public art? I like it but you should take the time to see for yourself.
Palm Avenue parking garage
The new Palm Avenue parking garage
Designed by Jonathan Parks Architects, built by Suffolk Construction, the expectations are high for this $12 million investment. Below the 743-space garage lies 12,000 square feet just waiting to be filled with restaurants and shops. If the Palm Ave garage isn’t enough to solve Sarasota’s parking conundrum, a second garage has been slated just a few blocks away! Foresight or frivolity? It’s your call. If the $600,000 sunshades aren’t enough to make a person want to park their car, bike or motorcycle in the garage, the $25,000 public art project will at least be worth a look.
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