The Best Source for Art & Music - The Artisan Magazine

New International Art Fair Launches in Tampa Fall 2026

-

March 10, 2026

Four-day, indoor fair will feature 300 artists from around the world.

Tampa is set to welcome a significant addition to the global arts calendar this fall with the inaugural Art Fair Tampa, taking place October 15–18, 2026 at the Tampa Convention Center. The four-day celebration of contemporary art, cultural exchange, and immersive creative experiences will feature 300 artists from around the world.

Art Fair Tampa establishes a world-class platform connecting emerging and established artists with collectors, curators, and art enthusiasts from across the globe. The event’s expansive indoor format at the Tampa Convention Center provides a climate-controlled environment ideal for viewing and acquiring art, while providing immersive installations and programming designed to enhance the visitor experience.

“We’re thrilled to launch Art Fair Tampa in a way that showcases both global talent and the unique creative energy of our region,” said Tyler Sirota, the event’s lead organizer. “This fair is more than an art festival, it’s a cultural experience that connects artists, collectors, and communities from around the world. We anticipate it will become one of the largest indoor art conventions in America.”

The Tampa Bay region has cultivated a thriving arts scene recognized by residents and community leaders alike for its economic and cultural contributions.

“Art Fair Tampa reflects Tampa Bay’s growing reputation as an artistic hotbed both domestically and internationally,” said Santiago C. Corrada, President and CEO of Visit Tampa Bay. “The sheer scope and scale of this inaugural event reinforces our ambitious commitment to the arts while welcoming new audiences, collectors, and creators to experience Tampa Bay’s history and culture that has inspired so many.”

While Tampa has many international artists that call it home, the fair also provides local artists with a valuable opportunity to benefit from a premier international platform in their own community.

“Tampa has an incredible creative community, and this fair elevates it on the international stage,” said Chase Parker, a Tampa-based artist. “For artists who have worked globally, it’s exciting to see that level of attention and opportunity arriving here at home.”

Art Fair Tampa is scheduled for October 15–18, 2026 at the Tampa Convention Center. For artist applications, exhibitor details, and ticket announcements, visit artfairtampa.com.

About Art Fair Tampa

Art Fair Tampa is an international art fair showcasing contemporary art from established and emerging artists worldwide. Held at the Tampa Convention Center, the fair creates a dynamic platform for cultural exchange, connecting artists, collectors, curators, and art enthusiasts in an immersive four-day experience. Art Fair Tampa celebrates the intersection of global creativity and Tampa Bay’s vibrant arts community. For more information, visit artfairtampa.com.

NEW ST. PETE INITIATIVE BRINGS TOGETHER ARTISTS AND GALLERISTS WHERE THEY WORK

The Artisan Magazine

-

March 10, 2026

0

NEW ST. PETE INITIATIVE BRINGS TOGETHER ARTISTS AND GALLERISTS WHERE THEY WORK

Monthly-rotating industry night for arts and culture workers: Open Studio Friday

Open Studio Friday was created out of a desire to connect and see each other’s artwork and creative spaces. Every month, on the Friday evening before 2^nd Saturday ArtWalk, a different art studio building invites fellow artists, gallerists, curators, and arts & culture workers. This is a much-needed addition to the well-established and beloved St. Pete institution: 2^nd Saturday Artwalk by the St. Pete Arts Alliance.

While having a studio or gallery on ArtWalk is an important experience, opportunity and privilege, a problem for artists, curators, and gallerists is not being able to leave their own space that night to visit art studios and openings, see works in-progress, and meet their peers.

Inspired by artist Jason Hackenwerth and Sixstar Studios who opened their doors on a Friday before ArtWalk last year, artist Luci Westphal proposed a monthly rotating “open art house” at a different campus each month and set up a simple website, calendar, and mailing list. Timing was perfect as Sixstar Studios hosted another art event the evening before February ArtWalk on February 13, 2026.

Open Studio Friday has officially launched: now every month, the art community gathers at different artist building for an “arts & culture workers’ industry night” to connect, support, inquire and get inspired. Organized from the bottom-up through a simple initiative and leaderful self-organizing, Open Studio Friday will enrich the local art community.

The next “Open Studio Friday” will take place on March 13, 6 – 9pm, hosted by the studio artists, MGA Sculpture, and Soft Water Gallery on the ArtsXchange campus at 515 22^nd Street South, St. Petersburg 33712.

The current schedule for upcoming Open Studio Friday hosts: Morean Center for Clay (April 10), ArtLofts (May 8), Five Deuces (June 12), Morean Arts Center (July 10), The Factory (August 7). To confirm up-to-date scheduled locations, please check OpenStudioFriday.com and subscribe to the mailing list.

“Having an art studio on ArtWalk is fantastic. I wouldn’t want to give that up. But it has come with a price. ArtWalk used to be my favorite and most important evening of the month. It wasn’t until I got my own studio at the ArtsXchange that I realized how crazy it is that the only people who don’t get to participate in seeing other artists and their process in their studios are us artists and gallery people. We don’t just miss out personally; I think we create better work and build a stronger community if we meet where we create.”
– Luci Westphal (artist, community-builder)

Uniquely Original Art Studio Welcomes Willicey Tynes

The Artisan Magazine

-

March 9, 2026

0

Uniquely Original Art Studio Welcomes Willicey Tynes

In Saint Petersburg, Uniquely Original Art Studio is a bright, friendly art space where people come to paint, create, and learn. The studio is open for classes, art parties, and community events, and it opens its doors during the city’s Second Saturday ArtWalk — a monthly art event when galleries and studios across town welcome visitors from 5–9 PM with new exhibits and creative work to explore.

The heart of the studio is Catherine Weaver, an artist who helps everyone feel confident with paint and color. Catherine walks around the studio smiling, talking to people as they work on their art. She believes art helps people share their stories, and she makes sure beginners feel just as important as experienced painters.

This month, Willicey Tynes, a Bahamian-born artist known for his painting and sculpture work, shows new pieces at the Second Saturday ArtWalk. Willicey’s art draws people in with strong shapes and emotion, and he talks with visitors about how his ideas grow and change.

At the same time, Willicey also begins teaching classes at Uniquely Original Art Studio. In his classes, he teaches painting and creative thinking, encouraging students to explore new techniques and express themselves in new ways. People gather around him with brushes in hand, excited to try something bold and different. Catherine watches happily, proud to share her creative space with other artists and students.

Every Second Saturday, the studio feels especially alive. Paintings and sculptures line the walls, visitors sip wine, or their favorite drink, and talk about their favorite pieces from the walk, and artists like Willicey and Catherine both teach and inspire. The art community feels close and supportive, open to anyone who wants to join in.

At the end of the night, people leave with new art, new ideas, and big smiles — already excited for the next time they can come back and create again.

Facebook

ARTicles Gallery Presents: Carol Dameron

The Artisan Magazine

-

March 9, 2026

0

ARTicles Gallery Presents: Carol Dameron

OPENING RECEPTION THURSDAY MARCH 12, 5-7 PM

THIS Thursday, March 12, at ARTicles Gallery from 5-7 pm for the opening reception of “I Went To The Mountain . . .” featuring new works by artist Carol Dameron.

Dameron, a St. Petersburg artist, brings her current exhibition, “I Went To The Mountain . . .” after a long hiatus. The exhibition reflects what she describes as a strengthening growth period. “The one word I use to describe [it] is fervor. Combining realism with abstract expressionism enables me to move into a new spatial reality with fluidity.” Even more, it is an exhibition of deep personal significance. It is dedicated to her late husband, noted photographer Herb Snitzer, and includes the painting “I Went to the Mountain to Talk to the Sun,” which expresses the act of carrying someone’s ashes up to the mountaintop “and ceremoniously releasing them into the ether, to turn into stars.”

Dameron began her formal art education at the Sophie Newcomb College of Tulane University in New Orleans, then continued at the Louvre Museum and The Centre Americain in Paris. She also studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Dijon, France and the Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, followed by four years of landscape and plein air paintings in the countryside of southern Portugal. Her paintings and drawings are in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg and the Polk Museum in Lakeland.  

Inspired by Venetian Renaissance painter Giorgione, Dameron uses her figure and landscape works to convey the visible and invisible. “I attempt to express silence through situational and spatial ambiguity in order to reveal a deeper reality behind the surface of things,” she explains. Her works have been described as rich and luminous, allegorical, and a fusion of contemporary mythological and erotic vision with classical European techniques.   After Thursday’s opening reception, Dameron’s exhibition will remain on display at ARTicles Gallery until April 3.

Parking for the exhibition will be available in the lot adjacent to ARTicles at 1234 Dr. MLK, Jr. St. N., and also in the lot behind Gayoso MedSpa at 1116 Dr. MLK, Jr. St N.

DRV Gallery Unveils ‘The Gilded Guitar’ this March

James Briggs

-

March 9, 2026

0

DRV Gallery Unveils ‘The Gilded Guitar’ this March

Gulfport’s DRV Gallery welcomes acclaimed regional and national artists this March 21st at The Gilded Guitar by Rick Schettino with music by Front Porch Picnic. The event runs from 5:30–8:30 p.m. and highlights elite talent in visual and performance art.

Rick Schettino has led a life characterized by his passion for music and the allure of the open road. As a solo singer/songwriter and a professional free spirit, Rick has spent the past 25 years traveling across North America to perform live while also working remotely as a freelance art director. Now settled on the Gulf Coast, he uses his decades of creative experience to explore fine art for luxury interiors. Combining his love for guitars with his deep understanding of design, Schettino meticulously transforms both new and rescued stringed instruments into unique pieces of art—what he refers to as wall jewelry.” These elaborate sculptures blend found objects with carefully considered design.

Front Porch Picnic offers a selection of 20th-century hits performed in an acoustic style with strong vocal harmonies. The band features Paul Wilborn, the Executive Director of the Palladium Theater, along with Robin Sibucao, Sher Sibucao, and the award-winning actress Eugenie Bondurant on vocals. Bondurant is a nationally acclaimed actress known for her roles in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Werewolf, and Conjuring 3.

DRV Gallery is located at 5401 Gulfport Boulevard S in Gulfport, Florida. For more information, visit the gallery’s online home at www.drvgallery.com and follow its social media @drvgallery on Facebook and @drvgallery22 on Instagram.

Ted Wray: The Book as Sculpture

The Artisan Magazine

-

March 6, 2026

0

Books are everywhere at Ted Wray’s studio, though they no longer function as carriers of written language. Stacked, compressed, bent, and carved, they become a new piece of unique material art. In Wray’s hands, the book is transformed from a vehicle of information into a sculptural form.

Based in St. Petersburg, Wray works primarily with found books: encyclopedias, dictionaries, atlases, and other once-authoritative volumes that have fallen out of use. These books, often discarded, carry with them a quiet cultural interest. They represent permanence in a moment defined by change.

Rather than erasing the book’s identity, Wray reconfigures it. Pages are compacted into dense strata, spines bent or reshaped, text carved and rendered unreadable yet newly legible as multi-dimensional form. Content shifts from written word to design. The act of reading is replaced by an experience of balance and space.

There is a strong architectural sensibility in the work. Many pieces resemble compressed landscapes, columns, or fragments of built environments. Negative space is treated with the same care as material presence, and each sculpture is meticulously balanced, both physically and visually.

Wray’s background is in printing and design. Books have qualities that are increasingly shifting in contemporary culture. By altering their form, Wray invites reflection on how information is stored, valued, and ultimately discarded.

Language, while present, is often obscured. Printed pages may be folded inward, carved or layered beyond legibility. What remains is the suggestion of knowledge: compressed, inaccessible, but undeniably present. The viewer is left to consider what was, and what now is.

Exhibited throughout the Southeast, Wray’s work has found an audience among collectors and institutions interested in contemporary approaches to material art. The pieces function comfortably within gallery spaces. You may see his work in person at Brenda McMahon’s Gallery in Gulfport, FL.

Ultimately, Wray’s practice is neither nostalgic nor destructive. By using books that have lost their functional relevance he intentionally reconfigures them into layered sculptural forms. A shared new dimension.•

Ted Wray Galley

Poetica – March/April 2026

The Artisan Magazine

-

March 6, 2026

0

THERE WILL BE SPRING
By Marc Yacht

Cruel and cold are the winter months
Living beings pursue the warmth
Many just huddle together
To overcome frigid weather.

Lakes, ponds, and rivers, ice caked, still
Empty trees shake, bend, and shiver
Dry chilled air and shadows prevail
Rare warm sun may offer relief.

Freezing days and nights pass slowly
Life itself does move at half-pace
Comfortable shelter allows safety
Smart to bed down, await sunshine.

The storms will cede to better clime
Time will only proceed forward
The clouds and shadows disappear
There will be Spring, there always is.

Dr. Marc J. Yacht, MD, MPH is a retired medical doctor. He spent several years in private family practice and then joined the Florida Department of Health. Currently, his interests are music, poetry writing, and submitting OP-EDS relating to current national issues. He and his wife are both retired. Their three children are married. He and his wife currently reside in Hudson, Florida. Email: Mjyacht58@gmail.com

The Felt Bell
By Malachi Sinlao

Inside me is a little bell,
A wonderful, spry, and colorful bell,
Filled with wonderful stories to tell,
Deep within my heart, this little bell dwells.

Yet sounds fail to escape from my little bell,
For no noise can be heard from a bell made of felt,
Its casting is crocheted as a soft open shell,
With a clapper whose clanging is woefully quelled.

Dare I embrace the silence of my little felt bell?
Even as its vibrations tip-toes through my cells?
No! Its song must be heard from the Heavens to Hell!
But for music so hidden, how can it be dealt?

I will write of the wisdom of my little felt bell!
And whenever it rings I will rise up and yell:
“Come listen to my song!” and I’ll sing it myself,
Because one day it will ring louder,
as my confidence swells.

Malachi Sinlao is a Filipino-American author and poet from St. Petersburg, Florida. His poems have been previously featured in the Summer 2025 and Winter 2025 issues of St. Pete’s Neptune Magazine and the January/February 2026 issue of The Artisan. You can find more poems on his Instagram @malachi_sinlao and short stories at malachisinlao.substack.com.

Mosaic Poem
By Janet Blair

Write it like the dreams you try to lasso, those
fragmented glimpses floating by too hastily to absorb.
Catalog them like a set of sensory index cards.

A vintage key carried down long and sleepy hallways,
opening each storied door, in turn.

The smell of new skin as you rocked your daughter,
breathing in her separate self the first time.

That hair your son had at age four, blond and
silky soft against your hands.

The worry tree you always pictured as a weeping willow
bowing prayerfully over Crescent Lake.

Your mother’s long fingers that typed 75wpm, wrote shorthand,
and wrapped around cups of steaming black coffee but trembled toward the end.

The live oak planted by the playground, circled with stones and tattooed
onto skin as rooted remembrances.

That helicopter ride you took a few years ago
its whirling rotor blades chopping up the air
as it swooped you up over a city surrounded by cerulean blue.

You looking down at the fragile architecture of it all
just before lifting into another morning.

Janet Blair lived in Trinidad, Germany, Ecuador and Guam along with several states across the U.S. before finding her home in the city of St Pete almost three decades ago. Currently, Janet holds a position as a policy analyst for the State of Florida and spends her weekends writing poetry. Her most recent and upcoming work can be found in The Orchards Poetry Journal, South Florida Poetry Journal, New Verse News, The Florida Bards Anthology and The Eckerd Review.

Do Books Have Seasons?

Nina Kenney

-

March 6, 2026

0

Spring is approaching slowly and steadily. Here on the Gulf Coast, the seasons may vary little, yet there is a shift noticed in the air when the sun suddenly kisses your skin with a deep warmth. I find that having grown up with the four seasons, I hibernate during the winter months: hiding inside, eating warm foods, reading. I crave the renewal of spring long before it arrives.

As the flowers begin to blossom again in the bushes outside my apartment, I’ll reach for my ever-growing “to be read” pile and anticipate the exciting releases to come this spring. Let us say goodbye to the chill and shed our layers to lie on the beach or the grass in the park with a book or two beside us, waiting to be read. I am very much in tune with the shifting seasons, the changes in the leaves, the color of the rising and receding waters. Nature is not separate from me, from us, and reading helps me to remember this.

Last issue, I wrote to you on the writing community in St. Petersburg. As a reminder: Book + Bottle hosts a Writer’s Happy Hour from 4:00-5:30 on Tuesdays; The Bad Writer’s Group meets from 10:30-12:00 on Saturdays at varying coffee shops; St. Petersburg’s Poet Laureate, Denzel Johnson-Green, hosts a poetry meetup from 3:00-5:00 at Black Crow Coffee Co. on First Ave. We are so rich to have a bountiful community of writers and readers. For one Bad Writer’s meetup a few Saturdays ago, we met in Crescent Lake Park. We settled beneath the billowing oaks, and the sunshine broke through the wavering branches. I had a thought then about the seasons of life and wondered if books have them too.

Some may argue that a summer read should be read on the beach, and a winter read should be read cozied up on the couch or by a fire. I argue that all books, with the inclusion of seasonal characteristics or not, touch on layered themes of discovery, and maybe even transformation. In this case, surely within them, seasons are inherent, as they are within us. When I look for a book to read, I am not merely inquiring whether or not it is reflective of my interests, or if it’s the correct time of year. I am looking for indications that the writer will take me on a journey through character, plot, or setting. A book I’ve recently read, The Overstory by Richard Powers, does this well I believe. We learn about the complexity of trees, their networks, and forest behaviors, but we also learn about the seasons of life and society through central characters and the natural environment. Perhaps the seasons are not dictated by weather, but by the phases of experience, though this can prove to be quite difficult to investigate with only a jacket synopsis!

Take a look at your “to be read” and “want to read” piles. Are there books in those lists that you saved to read for a certain time of year? What would happen if, instead, you read them now? Perhaps, there is more for you to discover.

Nonetheless, there are many exciting releases to watch for this spring. Below I have highlighted just a few to expect from Florida writers:
-Brawler: Stories by Lauren Groff, author of Florida and Arcadia
-Myra by Nicky Gonzales
-Maybe the Body: Poems by Asa Drake

In January, I wrote that writing is recurrently a solitary act of love. Reading can be this too, but I encourage you all to take this issue, or your next read, and enjoy it alongside a new friend, or a tree of whom may provide you shade from the warming sunshine.

Until next time.

Jo-An Thomas: The Stillness Within the Stroke

The Artisan Magazine

-

March 6, 2026

0

Jo-An Thomas: The Stillness Within the Stroke

In her St. Petersburg studio, artist Jo-An Thomas approaches the blank surface with quiet resolve. Before her is rice paper — unforgiving, absorbent, final. In her hand, a Chinese brush loaded with ink. There is no sketch beneath, no erasure ahead. Each mark must arrive fully formed.

This is the discipline of Chinese brush painting, a centuries-old tradition rooted in calligraphy, philosophy, and meditation. For Thomas, it is both a technical practice and a way of seeing.

“The brush records everything — your breath, your focus, your state of mind,” she says. “You can’t separate the image from the moment it was made.”

Thomas came to the medium on a chance visit to a small gallery in a Japanese high-rise shopping center that sparked her interest. The master spent 2 hours talking to her about the art form. She was smitten by a simple painting of a turtle, and that painting has stayed in her mind.

From that point forward, she pursued the discipline seriously, studying traditional techniques, classical texts, and the philosophy underlying the practice. Central to Chinese brush painting is qi — the life force believed to flow through all things. The goal is not realism, but essence: to suggest bamboo rather than describe it, to evoke water rather than define it.

Thomas’s work reflects this philosophy. Her paintings — bamboo groves, flowering branches, mist-shrouded landscapes — are composed with elegant economy. A single line may suggest wind. An open field of paper becomes space, breath, silence.

What distinguishes her work is a balance between spontaneity and control. Each piece requires preparation and stillness, yet the execution must be immediate. Once the brush touches paper, there is no correction.

“You commit,” she says. “That commitment gives the work its vitality.”

While deeply rooted in tradition, Thomas’s paintings feel contemporary in their exploration. In recent series, she explores themes of impermanence, quiet resilience, and the tension between presence and absence.

Her approach also extends to teaching. In workshops, students are encouraged to slow down, to attend to posture, breath, and intention before making a mark. Technique matters, but awareness matters more.

Today, Thomas’s work appears in regional exhibitions and private collections. “If someone slows down — even briefly — and really looks,” she says, “the work has succeeded.”

In an era defined by noise and speed, Jo-An Thomas’s art offers something increasingly rare: a moment of stillness, held in ink.

Website

The Art of Art’ing: Collaboration as Culture

Featured

Brian

-

March 6, 2026

0

The Art of Art’ing: Collaboration as Culture

Last issue, we reflected on the late, great Kimberly Hendrix. Not just as a creative force, but as a connector with a gravitational personality. The kind of person whose energy pulled artists, stylists, photographers, and dreamers into the same orbit. More than a decade later, that spirit still shapes the foundation of our art and culture scene here. The truth is simple: scenes don’t grow from talent alone… they grow from collaboration.

This story is about one of those collaborations.

Art isn’t just output. It’s interaction. It’s participation.

Enter the team:
Liza Fleming — z•aa dress up studio — wardrobe with personality
Sophia Lazaro — Hair & Makeup — shaping mood and character
Mandy Jiang — Model — presence, instinct, and on-set celebrity (because every model is)
Téa Bremner — Production — a curator’s eye meets a producer’s vision
Brian James — Photographer — yeah, that’s me 🙂

While on a recent commercial lifestyle shoot, Téa and I had the pleasure of working with model Mandy Jiang. Téa turned to me while on set and said, “We need to shoot with her again. She’s got so much range.” Then she started building the vision out loud: lean into the edginess, go more editorial, push the wardrobe, deepen the lighting, elevate the makeup. Mood board incoming…
That’s where the collaboration began.

Mandy was first in. “Fashion is a means of expressing who you are to the world without words,” she said. Perfect answer. Now we needed fashion with a voice. When we reached out to Liza at z•aa, her response matched the energy immediately: “I’ve always respected your vision and your unique aesthetic; Clean, polished, strong, edgy, distinct. I see those same qualities rooted in what we do at z•aa.” It’s coming together. Next: hair and makeup. Sophia Lazaro didn’t hesitate. “As soon as you reached out, I was thrilled to be part of it. I was drawn to the creativity in the mood board and knew we could make something special.”
That’s how it happens. Not with contracts, but with conviction.

Sometimes as a creative, you need a shoot that feels like it’s just for you. No client. No clock. No required outcome. Just space to test lighting, explore mood, and make images for the love of making images. It’s a return to the origin point where talent meets trust. Friends as models, shared wardrobe racks, pooled ideas, and a great playlist in the background.
Fashion photography is never a solo act. It’s a team sport and every position matters – photographer, stylist, model, makeup artist, producer. Each contribution compounds the result.

TEAM: Together Energy Accumulates Moments.
I just came up with that and I’m keeping it.

Connection is the catalyst, and collaboration is the multiplier. The work, the images, the fashion, and the culture are simply the visible results of creative people choosing to build together.

That’s where I choose to live.

Forever creating.
B.