Red tide provokes a different approach in Plummer’s art
Lora Lea Plummer, the October Artist of the Month at the Sanibel Congregational United Church of Christ, is known for creating paintings that are saturated with bright color and have a whimsical quality.
While some of her work on view fits that description, other newer paintings reflect a darker theme: the toxic environment caused by red tide and blue-green algae. The cheerful outlook is gone, replaced by somber colors and unsettling themes.
“I was in Jacksonville for a couple of weeks and when I returned, I was appalled by the enormous number of dead fish and other sea life,” she said. “This is supposed to be the Sunshine State, and there was death everywhere.”
While the sun appears in some of her new works, it is a hard-edged stylized design above a sea of red, gray and black fish, amoeba-like shapes and white, toxic-looking spots. Others in the “Heartbreak in Our Waters” series show a sea teeming with creatures, but they are gray bodies in a gray sea, signifying the carnage in the waters. One bright yellow fish shines out among the gray-and-black shapes – the lone survivor.
Plummer is a teacher at Sanibel Christian Preschool, a ministry of Sanibel Congregational United Church of Christ, and received her degree in graphic design from Southwest Florida College.
The exhibit is on view in Fellowship Hall at the church, at 2050 Periwinkle Way, Sanibel. It may be seen during office hours when the hall is not in use and on Sundays after the services.
The paintings are for sale, with a portion of the proceeds to benefit the SCUCC Memorial Fund.
For more information, call 239-472-0497 or visit www.sanibelucc.org.