Feast of Flowers part 5

Message art and digital publication

Fountain of Youth 72” x108” Oil on Canvas 2012 Collection of Kim and Claudio Vincenty

I’ve been around art for quite a while. Making, teaching, exhibiting, curating, writing, talking. I’ve done a bit of all of it. At the end of the day the most tedious and difficult artistic arena is what a lot of us refer to as “message art.” Of course, all artistic endeavors should be able to convey either information or attitude and on occasion, opinion. But the visual images that are full of symbolism and messages have a tendency to become burdensome. There were so many ideas and feelings I wanted to express in the Feast of Flowers projects I had to significantly limit the obviously informative aspects in the visual component of the exhibition.

My readings about the early European exploration and colonization of the mainland United States evoked countless concepts I felt worthy of highlighting. My assistant, Staci BuShea and I decided to publish a book along with the exhibition. This work was intended to offer other creators an opportunity to express themselves when confronted with the five-hundredth anniversary of Florida. We put out feelers within our community seeking ideas. Invited several people to participate and received a wealth of information. Publishing the book in print became out-of-the-question so we decided the digital route would work best.

During the next few weeks I hope to figure out a way to offer the entire digital file for your perusal. For the time being, I’ll talk more about using artistic venue to get across ideas.

This digital book gave us the opportunity to publish documents such as the Requirement of 1513, a religious document the explorers read in Spanish to the native population. This work in essence absolved the Spanish explores for the carnage inflicted upon the indigenous populations.

This document as it is read in Spanish offers the local populations a path to salvation and lets them know that if they do not surrender to Christianity and to Spain that they will be slaughtered. A powerful message, for sure.

Mangrove Buckeye 48”x48” oil on Canvas 2012 Private Collection

Crucifix Fish 72”x36” oil on canvas 2012

This image of a skeleton of a salt water catfish is reminiscent of a crucifix.

Round Key 48”x60” oil on canvas 2012. Private Collection

This little spot of land is one of the westernmost of the Ten Thousand Islands off the western shore of Florida.

All in all the Feast of Flowers exhibition along with the digital publication and a series of lectures at The Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens was loaded with content. Some messages were subtle, some subliminal, and some were obviously laid out for all to see.