Festival draws raves from art lovers, artists

By EILEEN SCHULTE

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 8, 2001

TARPON SPRINGS -- The 27th annual Tarpon Springs Art Festival was good to Mary Proctor on Saturday, even before she sold much art.

The Tallahassee missionary and folk artist was selling her multimedia art under an ancient oak tree with a trunk that twisted high toward the sky, its canopy spreading shade over her colorful creations made of everything from spoons to jagged shards of mirrored glass.

The 40-year-old artist, dressed in gold and black from head to foot, sat in a lawn chair in her booth, basking in compliments from curious art lovers who had paid a doller each to get into the two-day festival that winds around picturesque Spring Bayou.

Proctor's art had moral messages and was inspired by her late, beloved grandmother, Miss Hattie, she said. One piece shows a stern Miss Hattie in a pink and white dress and Proctor depicted as a little girl. The message reads: "My grandma didn't need a whip, she had the look it took."

"There was a time people had the Ten Commandments in their homes, the Lord's prayer. I say let's go back to the old times," Proctor said, adding her art is soulful and exciting because it has meaning.

While the art drew admirers, not much had been sold an hour and a half into the show. "It's still early," Proctor said.

Charlie Phillips, Greater Tarpon Springs Chamber of Commerce executive director, looked out at the crowd milling around the booths and seemed pleased.

"It started off good," he said. "No rain, high 80s, we're tickled to death."

The juried art show features 225 artists, entertainment and food vendors. It continues from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. today.

Down the street from Proctor's booth, Atlanta-based artist Laurence Bridges was selling higher-priced items, including ornate mahogany and gold leaf child- and adult-size carousel horses mounted on rockers, one priced at $6,000. These are functional pieces of sculptured art: You can ride them.

And people do.

"It's a toy for adults," Bridges said, munching on a breakfast of crab. "CEOs put them in their offices. They make their managers ride them for 15 minutes for meditation purposes."

Bridges said it takes him two months to make one horse (he's created six so far, and has sold every one). He was confident the 400-pound horse at the Tarpon Springs festival would be sold before the weekend was over.

But probably not to Carole Lenhart, who drove from her home in Plant City to attend the festival. She prefers "beach-type art and ocean and water scenes."

Still, she was enjoying herself, taking everything in.

"I think it's a terrific show," she said.

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