This Edition’s cover story.
In an era dominated by digital images and instant photography, artist Marc Brechwald proves that a simple graphite pencil can still stop viewers in their tracks. At first glance, Brechwald’s work often looks like black-and-white photography. The detail is striking, every wrinkle, reflection, and subtle shadow captured with precision. But lean closer and the truth…
Few contemporary artists navigate the territory between spectacle and substance as deftly as Jason Hackenwerth. Based in Saint Petersburg, Florida, Hackenwerth has built an international reputation for work that is immediately captivating, art that invites delight while confronting impermanence and transformation. Across sculpture, installation, and painting, his work resists easy categorization, instead it unfolds as…
Full-time Saint Petersburg, Fl artist Erik Hesson has, over many years, developed and refined a personal artistic style he calls “Linear Perspectivism.” His abstract, geometric approach merges shape and color into a cohesive visual balance—an ordered structure. When did you first realize that art was more than a passion—that it was going to be your…
ARTIST – MOM – HAIRDRESSER – MODEL – SURVIVOR – MENTOR – ADVOCATE Jacqueline Yulick (Jackie) doesn’t invite you in; she leaves the door wide open. In her electric, color-drenched paintings, women stare back at you—not as dreamlike muses or passive symbols, but as powerful presences with stories to tell. “My art is the communication…
Isac Gres is a St. Petersburg contemporary artist known for bold abstractions that balance vibrant color, texture, and form, creating works that are both visually striking and emotionally resonant. INTERVIEW: Q Your journey from Cuba to the United States must have been transformative. How did your experiences during that transition shape the surrealist themes in your artwork? A…
I was born in New York but moved to Florida where my early formative years were steeped in the sunlight and the botanical diversity of the south. I have always drawn and painted since early childhood. Like all children, I loved it. I just never stopped. My passion, then and now made every moment feel…
The undertone of her work is rooted in the story of love. The journey to find it, revel in it, cherish it, lose it and find it again are all deeply seated. Nature, energy, and the connection between them are injected into her view of the human condition. Her emotionally charged realism is infused with symbolism and…
In St. Petersburg where sun-soaked walls double as canvases and creativity spills onto every corner, one figure has persistently left his mark. Chad Mize, with an unmistakable style and determined vision, has become the bandleader of the St. Petersburg art scene. If this city has a patron saint or guiding hand, it would be him:…
My name is Victoria Kudryavtseva, I am engaged in artistic ceramics and painting on natural silk and cotton (batik). My creativity is a very exciting process to me! It’s like magic, when the white material begins to live and glow in my works and emotions. My creativity is very diverse, I paint all types of…
Energy, power and survival leap out of the 2025 Raymond James Gasparilla Festival of the Arts featured image “The Fight” by Ashli Harper Story by Sarah WorthPhotos by Ashli Harper and Will Staples Thick, raised paint to create movement and energy, along with choice of color, may take your mind to current headlines, but the…
Vlasta Smola has made art the fabric of her life. After moving to the United States to receive her MA in Communication Arts, she had a brief corporate career in marketing and graphic design. Her true passion was rooted in the fine arts, however, and before long she found her painting aspirations reignited. In St. Petersburg,…
Q: Where are you from and how does that affect your work? A: I was born in St Petersburg, FL. I grew up around the water and it’s always been a part of me. Sub tropical imagery is more in my bones than mountains and evergreens. I’ve always enjoyed the challenge of painting water and…
Carrie M. Jadus was born in Tampa, Florida. At the age of 5 her family moved across the bay to St. Petersburg. Encouraged by an ancestry of artists and a supportive family, Jadus acknowledged her aspiration at an early age. As a teen, she attended Pinellas County Center for the Arts (PCCA) at Gibbs High…