Artful adventures
Wake up your creative spirit
By Cynthia Reeves / Photos by Kate Treick Photography
There is a creative spirit in all of us waiting to be unleashed, and spring is the perfect time to awaken that animal.
Creativity is an essential force — quintessentially human — that motivates us with a desire and longing to create something. That primal drive cannot be seen or measured, but it is accessible through creative pursuits. For one person it is photography or writing, for another sculpting, painting or dancing.
The Pensacola area is rich with opportunities to exercise that drive to create, move and explore.
EXPLORE CERAMICS
When Christine McArthur retired from many years making dental crowns and bridges, she discovered she could not shake the desire to create, so she found herself behind a pottery wheel at First City Art Center.
“I love to play in the mud and seeing the finished product,” she said.
McArthur loves it so much she has returned to the Friday class for three years. She is currently working on a small bowl. Unlike some of her classmates, she does not sell or show her pieces. They are just for her personal enjoyment. As she shapes and forms the clay in her hands, McArthur stops frequently to greet her classmates, laugh or admire someone else’s work. She admits part of the delight of the class is the sense of community and the friendships she has made.
Kara Struck, Christine’s pottery instructor, agrees that creating art in a group is enriching.
“It’s cheaper than therapy. It satisfies,” Struck said. “I also connect with a group of people who are seeking some of the same things.”
Struck has a degree in ceramics and art and design from LSU, but her full time job is as a nurse at Sacred Heart Hospital specializing in neurological issues like strokes and seizures. The three-hour class once a week is a creative outlet for her just like it is for her students. It is where she destresses and makes connections.
Struck starts class announcing, “If you have any specific glaze questions. I’m all yours! Otherwise, just work on whatever you’re doing.”
There is a lot of freedom for personal expression, but she offers demonstrations and specific content as well. Like the other classes at First City, students are at a variety of skills levels.
“Some are brand new; some sell at art markets,” Struck explained. “All you’ve got to be is willing.”
First City Art Center serves 10,000 children and adults each year. There are 250 adults in ceramics classes per week, and executive director Bart Hudson said, “predominately the majority of them are women.”
The age range is 18 to 80-plus.
“We have folks who have never touched clay or a paint brush,” Hudson said, and intermediate level groups who are reconnecting with classes they took in college or high school.
There are classes in everything from Pottery on the Wheel, Sculpture and Glass Making, Intro into Painting and Mixed Media Art Journaling.
Struck encourages all to give it a try.
“Figure out where you fit in. It satisfies something different in everybody.”
EXPLORE DANCE
Nikki Konzelman and her sister, Holly Tolbert, flex their creative muscles on their feet. The siblings take a multi style adult dance class at LaBelle Performing Arts in Pensacola.
“We just did it to embarrass our kids. Now they are our biggest supporters!”
Konzelman grew up dancing; Tolbert is a dance mom who got the itch to dance after watching her children’s enjoyment. On Tuesday nights, they join another group of women who share their love of the movement.
It is joyful to them.
“It is good to move,” Konzelman said. “I need to move my body more. I can’t get on a treadmill. That would be a mistake!”
Kelly Shearn is their instructor. She teaches multi dance and tap, but the studio also offers adult ballet classes in addition to dozens of classes for children. Her adult multi class is a mix of musical theatre, tap, lyrical, stretch and conditioning and hip hop. Everyone is welcome.
“We have women straight out of high school and in their fifties,” Shearn said. “We don’t discriminate. If grandma wants to dance; she can come, and she does!”
Some people take the classes all year long; others just drop in for a session or two.
The class Konzelman and Tolbert take is currently preparing for their annual recital by learning an opening scene for a musical theater performance.
“The footwork is right, left, right toe, step...”
Shearn leads the class in an energic and playful scene from the Pitch Perfect Musical. The eight women in class for the Tuesday night session each express their own personal style. Konzelman breaks out in some hip hop moves and jokes around with the other dancers. Her sister is a bit more reserved, but both women thrive in the class.
“The fun is contagious, and the enthusiasm is contagious, and no one cares what you look like,” Shearn said.
She believes everyone should try a dance class at least once, “especially because as adults our first priority is never ourselves. It is 45 minutes of pure joy.”
EXPLORE COLLECTING ART
Other women find pure joy in collecting art or visiting art studios and galleries. If you love fine art, but do not necessarily want to pick up a paintbrush or dance on stage, consider an afternoon at a local art gallery or reaching out to an art dealer.
Gloria Lemmey of Pensacola, the founder of Milkkrate art agency, offers opportunities for women to tour the studio of the painter she is currently representing.
Lemmey has arranged opportunities to visit abstract artist Ryan Mayall’s studio in Pensacola, or to host a small art party at someone’s home. You bring the champagne, and she’ll unveil the art and the artist. These intimate gatherings introduce both collectors and novices to the world of art.
As Struck prepared to lead her pottery wheel class, she reflected on the idea that to explore art and to create does not necessarily take skill. It takes desire. A little passion.
“A lot of people are mistaken that they have to be an artist. You don’t have to be an artist to make art” or to love art.
Want to explore?
First City Art Center
1060 N. Guillemard St., Pensacola;
850-429-1222; firstcityart.org
LaBelle Performing Arts Center
8253 Chellie Rd., Pensacola; 850-944-5650; labelleperformingarts.com
4634 Lori Lane, Pace; 850-994-1875
Gloria Lemmey
milkkrate.com; hello@milkkrate.com
