Faux Demo Seminar Huge Success!

It really was an amazing Saturday afternoon at The International Design Center!

But I wouldn’t have been able to do it alone, which is why I am posting here today. These are very special people who were at the “What To Know Before You Faux” event on Saturday August 8th and who truly were an asset to the out come of this event, I would like to mention their names and thank them publicly for all their help. First of all PJ Hoover of Fauxtastic Dreamscapes of Naples, who has been by my side for the whole summer with these events and coming to my rescue more than once, I can not say enough about her, she really believes in what we are trying to accomplish here in Southwest Florida and we are actually creeping up on our goals and are getting the  recognition for our efforts of building a network of high quality artisans and craftsman. Our goal is to bring artists out of their proverbial shells and join us on our journey to create a more open atmosphere amongst local and non-local area artists, home owners, Interior Designers, builders, vendors of high quality products and to meld the creativity between ALL artists no matter what their specialties or mediums are, because decorative art shouldn’t just stop at the walls and ceilings.

The second artist I wish to thank for his quick thinking and responsiveness to a rather over whelming influx of guests that seemed to be coming through the door like a Florida hard rain and  making sure that the seating was taking care of, who also has been with PJ and I from the very beginning of our quest is none other than Florian Spahiu of Ancient Modern Finishes.

I also have a special thank you that it is much deserved going out to Michael Schleider of Coni-Mar Designs of Naples, who showed up right when the timing couldn’t have been better, and I must say between all of them jumping up to the plate in the middle of the ninth inning enabled me to hit a home run for the crowd, to bring in what I thought was a game winning team effort!

It seems that there is a separation within the artists community that has been created over the years here in Southwest Florida and it wasn’t by choice or market demand or anything of that nature , it just happened………fate?……..who knows, but my goal, or maybe I should say OUR goal, is to break down that wall and expand our creative energies amongst all artists and to  include everyone in Southwest Florida that the arts just doesn’t just stop at the canvas or the sculpture or in our case the walls. Two of the most inspirational artists I have met so far on my life long journey as an artist, are the ones who have really opened up my mind and my eyes to  how important it is to the psyche of an artist to expand and grow in his or her creative energy. William Cochran who I have had the honor to sit with last November  and Sean Crosby (USA) who I have met many years ago along with Michele Nadai from France. I have noticed that much of the area residents love the arts but because decorative artists have such a separation from other artists we are not being recognized both publicly and privately so in actuality the general public doesn’t really know where we are and has caused an outsourcing scenario when it comes to the needs of the public here in Southwest Fl. My goal is to change all that and to bring the available talent of the area to the attention of the local and seasonal residents as a way to help our  local economy and decorative artists.

The other goal is to bring more education to Southwest Florida for decorative artists of the area because quite simply most of us here don’t either have the time or the funds to travel around the country and Europe to get the much needed education that I have found personally there is a demand for, which is the reason for the grand opening of a studio in January of 2010 in which I have already made arrangements with some of the top artists in the business to come to the area to  help with the needs of the local decorative artists as well as ALL artists.