www.margitbisztray.com

“I have always been a writer, scribbling in little blank books, recording life as it is taking place around me.

The year I spent in Japan following my college graduation changed the direction of my career. After eating rare fish parts in tiny Kyoto restaurants, learning weaving at a remote textile school, and starring in karaoke videos, I simply couldn’t hitch myself to selling art work in a gallery or working in an art museum (my previous plan, given a B.A. in Art History). Instead, I decided to be a writer. I woke up at 6 a.m. to read and write for three hours before I went to work in a flower shop and then in an Italian restaurant. I became a student of sentences I read and loved.

In 1994, I moved to Key West, because I’d read that artists lived there. Within two weeks, I joined a women’s writing group and learned what it was like to read out loud. I wrote a weekly dining column for Solares Hill newspaper, and learned about deadlines and the many ways to paraphrase “delicious”. With clippings from Solares Hill, and the right story at the right moment, I sold a feature story to Vogue. Since then, I have been published in O, Gourmet, Metropolitan Home, Islands, Miami Modern Luxury, Conde Nast Traveler, and other magazines I used to dream about writing for.

I live in South Florida with my husband, Markham, who pushes me professionally when I feel meek and taught me to love wine; our son Blue, who started eating sushi at age two, and our daughter Vivian, who loves little blank books and recording life as it is taking place around her.”

Pam Hobbs was born in northern New Jersey and moved to Kansas when she was 13. She attended High school and then received her B.F.A. from the Kansas City Art Institute.  Pam was trained as a weaver in the craft department and used fabric, either woven or surface design as her medium. After college, thirty years ago, she came to Key West Florida on vacation and never left. After seeing the colors of the water, sky and the tropical flowers and trees her colors blossomed, as well as her use of different mediums. She likes to portray her ideas and feelings with bright colors and bold shapes. She also like to give people the same directness, boldness, freedom and happiness she feels living here in the lush tropics. Pam’s work can be seen at 7 Artists Gallery in Key West.

www.7artistskeywest.com

Brooks Whitney Phillips was born and raised in downtown Chicago. She attended Franklin College Switzerland where her studies focused on European art and literature before transferring to the University of Denver. Upon graduation she spent three years working in public relations & advertising until deciding to pursue a career as a freelance writer. She was a long-time contributor to the Chicago Tribune for whom she wrote a weekly-syndicated column and feature stories focusing on music and the arts. She has published six children’s books for the popular American Girls collection as well as been a columnist and feature writer for their magazine, American Girl. She has also published two books with Scholastic and served as Assistant Entertainment Editor for CompuServe’s online publishing division. Brooks has lived in Key West for twelve years and is busy raising a young family, contributing stories to Coastal Living magazine, and finishing a novel—this one for adults!

Brooks can be found working at “610 Studios”, just a two doors down from the Armory.

Novel Excerpt
“September was the hottest month, the endless days bright and still, the drone of cicadas incessant. Dragonflies swooped low over dusty roads with hungry crows in eager pursuit. Alligators lolled in warm mud-brown rivers. Fruit ripened; grew fat and full then fell and rotted under sullen trees. Fruit flies swarmed leaving seeds like bones. Wooden houses swelled. Doors no longer shut. Cotton curtains hung in limp expectation. But come month’s end the cool north wind would begin to blow, lifting the leaves of the drooping orange trees, sending a rustle through the grove like hope. How we’d rejoiced that afternoon with Turkey Boy jumping out of the tree he was pruning to lift me high over his head with a whoop. That wind! It would break the stillness of the Indian-summer heat and steal the warmth before the night was through. Summer always ended that way, abruptly.”

Judi Bradford has had work in nearly all the galleries in Key West at one time or another, including the late Richard Heyman’s original Gingerbread Gallery, later to become Gingerbread Square.  She has been a founding partner in three Duval Street galleries: Cayo Hueso Graphics 1979, Guild Hall Gallery 1983, SoDu Gallery 2006.

For most of her career in Key West, She had a retail studio/gallery, Lizard Licks, named for the soft sculpture critters I made for retail and wholesale markets.

Judi has been involved in several arts project partnerships; most recently she was instrumental in developing the Full Moon HOWL café and gallery stroll, the Key West Plein Air Painters, and in developing the “From a Woman’s Hand”, a juried art show to benefit WomanKind Women’s Health Care Center.

Judi  can be found working at her studio at “610 Studios”, just two doors down from the Armory.

Work by Judi Bradford

Jeffrey Harwell is a graphic design artist and abstract painter who is beginning to explore various multimedia forms of expression including sound and performance art.  Over the years, Jeffrey has taken several classes at TSKW, including the Abstract Painting Seminar with Roberta Marks. He looks forward to collaborating with other artists, and hopes to use his studio to combine his design, painting, photography and multimedia work in new and exciting ways.

His artistic background is diverse, including time he spent as an interior designer and working at Anthropologie helping design and open stores is Santa Monica and Soho.  He also worked for the Smithsonian Institution creating and designing exhibitions for the US Postal Museum.

Jeffrey has lived in Key West for seven years and is an active community member serving on the board of Art in Public Places, the Friends of the AIDS Memorial, and the Tourist Development Association.

jdesigncompany.com

Sherry Sweet Tewell is a local Key West artist. Originally from the bluegrass state of Kentucky, she visited Key West for twenty years before deciding to make it her home. A graduate from Western Kentucky University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts /Commercial Art degree Sherry has been working for the past fifteen years as a muralist, decorative artist and textile designer. Her mural works include numerous large scale commercial and residential projects. The most recognizable mural in Key West is located on the exterior wall of the Wave Gallery at the corner of White and Virginia Streets.

Sherry is owner of Art Shack located at 804 1/2 Caroline Street.

She is also the creator of the children’s book Cosmo the Boat Cat.

Guillermo was born in Colombia, South America where he earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Architecture in 1981 from the Universidad del Valle in the city of Cali. Orozco then attended Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana and obtained his Master’s Degree in Architecture in 1983 specializing in Historic Preservation. His professional efforts focused upon commercial projects in the revitalization of the Historic Warehouse District as well as residential renovations and rehabilitations. In 1987, Guillermo Orozco moved to Key West where he was employed as an architect until opening his Design Studio in 1994. As a Residential Designer, Orozco’s work has included new construction projects, additions, renovations and the adaptive reuse of historic structures as well as the design of fine furniture, swimming pools, and bamboo structures and fences. Guillermo Orozco has received ten Awards of Excellence for his designs from the Historic Florida Keys Foundation five of which were awarded the highest honor of a “Star”.

www.gaorozco.com

Andy grew up in the earlier Key West, before the chain restaurants, and when summers were sleepy. He left to crew on a shrimp boat, came back for the Mariel evacuation and sailed to Cuba.

After several tense weeks and past black muzzles of Cuban gunboats, Andy brought more than a hundred Cubans to freedom, and never left again.

Some of Andy’s favorite subjects are the local characters you will not see unless you walk the side streets and local hangouts of Key West. Native memories, experiences and passions fuel his high-energy watercolors. Bold brushwork, tropical colors and innovative composition are some of his trademarks. His palette vibrates with the sun bleached light of Key West and its darkness.

www.galleryongreene.com

I came to Key West from New England twenty years ago. I have also been the facilities director at TSKW since 2007. Most recently, I have been exploring ceramic and naturally activated sound elements.

Marky Pierson is a prolific artist and graphic designer with diverse skills and interests. He is also…

a production manager for diverse local and national arts projects…

an enthusiastic cultivator of new talent…

the executive producer of theater projects, traveling tours and performance art…

a published writer of poetry, short stories, and journalistic pieces…

And so much more….

Learn more about his work at www.markypierson.com