Arts & Entertainment

Bloomingdale Artist To Present 50-Year Retrospective

In addition, the Brandon League of Fine Arts will host an indoor art fest.

Throughout the month of August, the Mook Gallery at Center Place, 619 Vonderburg Drive, Brandon, will highlight the work of mixed-media artist and Bloomingdale East resident Minnette Webster.

Webster will look back over her lifelong career in art during the show titled “Revisiting a 50-Year Journey in Art.”

The show will open Thursday and a free reception for the artist will take place Aug. 14 from 4 to 6 p.m. Refreshments will be served.

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In addition to being an accomplished artist, Webster is well-known as an art teacher.

About six years ago she began teaching one-hour art classes every other week in Hillsborough Correctional Institution in south county, a faith- and character-based women's prison.

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Since then, she has developed a full-blown arts program at the institution.

"It's amazing what those women can do and to see the changes in them as they explore their artistic talents," said Webster. "It's probably the best thing I've ever done."

Webster also will resume teaching at Center Place next month and offers an art class for seniors at the Campo Family YMCA. 

She said the retrospective of her work at Center Place will give viewers an idea of the journey she’s taken through the world of art.

"It wasn't too hard to come up with 50 pieces," she said. "I've got a lot of work out there."

Included in the exhibit is the first piece Webster did while attending the University of Alabama. "I call it 'Whatever' because it represents whatever you want it to."

Each piece in the collection is accompanied by a narrative, discussing what she was thinking when she created the piece.

"I really enjoyed doing that," she said. "It was a trip down memory lane for me."

The exhibit also reflects her changing style and preferred medium.

"It's interesting to see how my technique has evolved over the years," she said. "I started out in oils, then did pen and ink, then watercolor, back to pen and ink, and finally print-making."

The invitation to her show also reflects the changes she's undergone over the years. It's a series of self-portraits, all seated on a couch. The first one shows her in college wearing high heels. The second one reflects her as a wife and mother. She's wearing slippers. In the third, she's wearing Birkenstocks and, in the final portraits, she painted herself upside-down wearing orthopedic shoes.

Webster is an active member of the Brandon League of Fine Arts and the Greater Brandon Arts Council.

Center Place, 619 Vonderburg Drive, Brandon, is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

In addition to Webster’s exhibit, Center Place will host the Brandon League of Fine Arts’ first Stay Cool Indoor Summer Artfest Aug. 6 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Chaired by league member and Bloomingdale East resident Doreen Donovan, the exhibit is not a judged show and no prizes will be presented. However, artwork will be for sale and artists will keep 100 percent of the proceeds from their sales during the artfest.

Refreshments will be available for purchase.

Exhibiting artists include Roxanne Tobaison, Doreen Donovan, Sue Allen, Anne Drewry, Marsha Nelson, Alice Suarez-Velasquez, Ruth Soucek, Elizabeth Kershaw and Felix Velazquez.

To sign up to exhibit, call Donovan at (813) 685-0712.

 

 

 


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