The Fort Myers Dowtown Rotary is assising with parking as they did last year.  Avoid the Fuss Ride the Buss.

Park you cars downtown across from  Fist Watch in the old Boulevard Plaza.   There are buses every 15 minutes running downtown.

Thanks

ArtFest Fort Myers, Southwest Florida’s premier art festival takes place downtown Fort Myers on February 4 & 5, 2012 from 10 to 5 each day. Each year Fort Myers’ only free, two day art extravaganza, decorates our downtown with exceptional artwork, entertainment and children’s art activities.

Attendees enjoy and purchase artwork in a variety of mediums and prices from nationally recognized artists from across the country and around the world.

Its better than a gallery – there is lots of variety – you can talk to the artists – you can view the work of over 200 fine artists in a single weekend – you can introduce your children to the magic of original art.

Enjoy this amazing opportunity to see some of the most creative and exciting artwork to be exhibited anywhere in Florida this season.

ArtFest Fort Myers artists are rarely seen at other local art festivals. Their work is refreshing and new. It’s a perfect time to find that one of a kind piece for your home or collection!

In the Main Gallery
November 21st – December 31st

Alicia Schmidt:
40 Years a Retrospective

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Opening Reception: December 2nd, 5-7:30pm
Exhibiting: November 21st – December 31st
Gallery WALK & TALK: December 3rd from 10-11am
Members Gallery: Barbara Fewster
Theater Lobby: Lydia Fogaras Ljuboja M.D.

“Alicia Schmidt: 40 Years A Retrospective” will contain work dating back to 1971, including paintings, drawings and watercolors. The collection starts with traditional academic work, figures, landscape and portraits but also represents various turning points in Schmidt’s life as her work developed into a minimal style and then into abstract works.

Alicia has been a resident of Cape Coral since 1966, moving to SW Florida from Dunkirk, NY. Her work has been exhibited nationally and regionally in solo, group, and juried exhibitions and has been the recipient of many awards.

My good friend Lydia Black says there is lot to do for the whole family.  Eventsfortmyers.com will be there to cover the great day.

Come sample the many ways you can get involved and experience the arts in Southwest Florida! Watch area performing groups sing, dance, play instruments and act in mini-performances on the open air amphitheater stage. Witness creativity unfolding before your eyes as local visual artists demonstrate their talents in painting, drawing, sculpting and mixed media demonstrations.

Cultural Organizations

Art League of Fort Myers * Art Poems * ArtFest Fort Myers * Artful Missions * Arts For Act * Broadway Palm Dinner Theater * Calusa Carvers * Cape Coral Art Studio * Cultural Park Theater * Cute as a Button Creations * Florida Repertory Theatre * Gulf Coast Symphony * Gulf Coast Writers Association * Imaginarium Science Center * Laurel Fine Arts Foundation * LMHS Arts in Healthcare * Music Together * Nerveana Medical * Pan American Alliance * Pushing Daisies * Signature Chamber Concerts * Southwest Florida Symphony * Southwest Florida Craft Guild * Southwest Florida Historical Society * Southwest Florida Symphony * Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center * Symphonic Chorale of Southwest Florida * Tracy Theriault Designs * Weavers of Char-Lee * WGCU Public Media

Artists & Authors

Andrea Trank * Be the Breath * Bill North * Bruce Wm. Walsh * David Hammell * Dominick Bello * Doug MacGregor * Geoff Coe * Pamela Cupp * Terry Lynn Spry * The Tube Dude

Performers

Creative Theater Workshop * Dance Alliance * Dance Warehouse * Jeanne Bochette/Gulf Coast Dance * Flutist Kat Epple * Kellyn Celtic Arts Irish Dance Academy * Noah Waddell * North Fort Myers Academy for the ArtsSW Florida Fencing Academy * Young Artists Awards

Performance schedule:

10:25     Creative Theater Workshop – Preview of the musical comedy “Dear Edwina”

10:50     Kellyn Celtic Arts Irish Dance Academy – Irish and Highland dances

11:25     Dance Warehouse – Competitive dance — lyrical, hiphop, jazz, musical theater (ages 4-16)

11:50     Gulfcoast Dance

12:15     Young Artists Awards – Award-winning vocalist Sam Bostic

12:40     Oficina da Capoeira – Brazilian artform combining elements of martial arts/dance

1:05        N Fort Myers Academy – Perform jazz, pompon, lyrical dances with dramatic scenes

1:30        Noah Waddell – 10-year-old Noah will perform classic piano scores of major composers

1:55        Dance Alliance – Perform “Monster Mash” with interactive audience participation

2:20        S.W. Florida Fencing Academy – The art and science of modern fencing

Special appearences by: Chick-Fil-A * Florida Virtual School * Lee County Library System BookMobile * Fort Myers Fire Department * Shy Wolf Sanctuary

Kids can win a free week of summer camp by creating their own piece of “fall-themed art” by downloading this form and bringing it to the festival on October, 22nd.

Cultivating Carrots and Peace in Your Garden

Cheryl Wilfong, author of The Meditative Gardener: Cultivating Mindfulness of Body, Feelings, and Mind, will visit Fort Myers as part of the week long Living MindFULLy Festival.  On Friday, September 23 at 7 p.m., Cheryl will be at the Eco Center at Rutenberg Park to read from and discuss her book.

In her wise, down-to-earth book, the Vermont Master Gardener and mindfulness meditation teacher offers a rich bouquet of meditations. Her gentle, friendly, and humorous tone creates a nurturing environment in which to practice mindfulness in our very own gardens. Wilfong invites us to stroll beside our flowerbeds, appreciating them just as they are, and noticing the joy they bring us. We may not have done all the weeding or planting we had hoped, but appreciate that we are doing the best we can.

The Meditative Gardener nourishes the seed of enlightenment that is already growing in your heart. Use the tools of mindfulness and kindness to discover how to cultivate your garden and your meditation practice at the same time. Other spiritual gardening books tell us how to create a tranquil garden. The Meditative Gardener supports us in simply finding tranquility in the garden beside the front door. Instead of being a busy bee, simply be.

LivingMindFULLY project partners include: Lee County Parks & Recreation, Hearts’ Path to Mindful Living, Integrative Mindfulness, HD PR Group, Renaissance School, Lee County Alliance for the Arts, SW FL Naturally, and Cypress Cove Retirement Community.  Proceeds from this event will benefit the 501(c)3 on-profit organization, Hearts’ Path to Mindful Living.  This group’s mission is to promote supportive, life-affirming mindfulness-based programs teaching powerful methods for reducing stress, contributing to health and well-being. 

Walk Flyer 9 5 2011

Unfair: the art of Alex Heria

Opening Reception September 2, 2011 6:00pm-10:00pm

World renowned photographer Alex Heria presents his Unfair collection at daas Gallery during the month of September. The exhibition opens to the public during the monthly Fort Myers Art Walk.

Alexander Heria was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey in 1961. He moved to Miami, Florida at age ten. Heria received a BFA in photography from Florida International University, Miami in 1992, and his MFA from Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston in 1994. He has taught photography and graphic design for seven years at FIU, Miami Dade College, and the Art Institute Miami. His photography has been exhibited locally and is in numerous private collections. Currently he is an artist-in-residence at the ArtCenter/South Florida.

“My work has always been a search of a place and a clan I could call my own. Born in New Jersey to Cuban immigrant parents, I am part of a subculture known as Cubichis. Subsequently, I belong to two worlds while being truly integrated to neither. Whether it’s portraits of family and friends or gardens on the roadsides or the personal vision of trees as atmospheric phenomena, there’s a seeking-to-feel-right-and-whole with the subject at a deeply personal level. I enjoy the medium of photography for this quest; it has an uncanny ability to record faithfully the scene depicted while creating surprising new relationships simultaneously. It is the learning and exploring through surprise that interests me most as an artist.”

The exhibition will be on display through Friday, September 30th. For more information about the event, please visit www.daasgallery.com. Regular gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00am to 3:00pm.

News Flash about Daas Gallery owner

Also The owner and Good Friend David Acevedo has been commissioned to paint a mural upstairs in the Sky Bar area .   David has helped out on many different projects including paint the downtown purple with his Relay for Life window painting at Starbucks as well as MDA.

Hopefully these biker chicks won’t be there.

“Poked in the Mind’s Eye: The Humorous Perspective of Doug MacGregor”

Opening Reception: Friday, May 6th, 5:00-7:00PM
Exhibiting: May 6-28
Gallery WALK & TALK w/ Doug MacGregor: May 18th, 1:30-2:30PM

Opening Reception

 Friday, May 6, 2011 6pm-10pm.

A very special exhibition opens at daas Gallery in the month of May. This time, daas hosts a collaborative event between two of their own resident artists. Danielle Thomas, a glass and mixed media artist and her husband Troy Thomas, visual artist and assistant gallery director, will join forces to present a series of new works created just for this show. The exhibition is cleverly entitled Marriage. The title not only signifies the unification of Troy and Danielle in the month of May, but also the marrying together of the multiple mediums on display.

“To us, marriage is a piece of Art—an ever-changing canvas of bright spots, dark blobs, crazy lines, hard patches, and happy places. It is within that piece of art, that fabric of being, which we drew our inspiration for this show. It is not only about our marriage to each other, but the marriage of differing mediums to create our art. We wanted to stretch our comfort zone in our favored mediums and explore what it means to “marry” them together in a contemporary manner. The result is a vibrant display of colors, shapes, and ideas.” – says the artful couple.

Danielle Thomas is a fourth-generation artisan, with her father introducing to her favorite medium—glass fusion. Danielle draws from historical references, such as her great-grandmother’s quilts, to create her pieces. “I see scraps of glass as scraps of fabric and feel the heat sews them together, ” – says Danielle. After successful showings throughout the Florida art fair circuit, Danielle took time off to pursue other interests. She is now back to fusing.

Troy, on the other hand, did not get much exposure to art while growing up in a small town in Ohio. After a few attempts at an early age of production, he did not get serious about fine art until his return from serving in Iraq in 2005. Troy tends to prefer to paint geometrical abstractions, which stems from his keen love of Math.

As for the love story for these two, theirs is a modern version. Girl sees picture of boy on the Internet in fatigues holding an art piece he created. Girl emails boy. Boy replies. A long-distance courtship of emails, phone calls, and instant messaging ensued until the physical meeting occurred. Fireworks. They lived happily ever after.

Marriage will be on display through Friday, May 27. The daas Gallery promises another phenomenal night of great art, great friends and good wine. For more information about the event, please visit www.daasgallery.com. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00am to 3:00pm.

The American Cancer Society Relay
for Life volunteers held Paint
Downtown Purple in the Fort
Myers River District from February 20
to 26. The event honors survivors, caregivers
and those fighting cancer.
Thanks in part to participating restaurants,
the event was a big success. Many
of the area businesses donated some of
their proceeds to Relay or allowed volunteers
to paint the windows of their businesses.
This year’s Downtown-River District
Relay for Life begins at 6 p.m. on Friday,
May 6 in Centennial Park.
For more information, call Don
Molloy, event chairman, at 980-1077 or
go to www.relayforlife.org/downtownriverdistrictfl