Sanibel Art League celebrates Golden Anniversary with new exhibit at city library
A blurb in the Sanibel-Captiva Record newspaper in 1964 reported: “Island artists joined together to form the Sanibel Captiva Art League at a meeting last week at the Captiva Civic Center. Leon Levy was elected chairman of the group and a committee of six was appointed to coordinate details of the organization.”
As so began an art group that evolved into the voice of all things art in the islands. The group on Oct. 6 started its fall season introducing new artists at the Sanibel Public Library. The works of Kathy Taylor, Jaye Boswell and Jim Bird hang in the library.
Boswell is a former public school art instructor known for introducing the Junior Duck Stamp to the Sanibel School. The art program since the 1980s has introduced school kids to wildlife and artwork. Boswell is recognized nationally for her efforts in organizing the Junior Duck Stamp. She was an ink fashion artist in the 1960s in San Francisco. She also drew playbills, edgy greeting cards, rock posters and political advertising art.
Bird is noted for custom watercolor portraits. He delights in doing portraits of older people to bring out their character and facial characteristics using the power of shadowing in Florida’s bright sun. He is the League’s vice president.
Taylor has painted for more than twenty five years. She is from a family of artists and has studied with Dale Laitinen, Janet Rogers, Timothy Clark, Steve Rogers, and Charles Reid. Her work is shown with the Sanibel-Captiva Art League and the Fort Myers Beach Art Association. She is the League’s president.
“The whole idea of the Art League,” said Ellie Harries, publicity co-chair for organization, “is to promote art in a friendly way.”
And while it’s good to share the vision of local artists, the art industry also has a powerful impact on the economy in Southwest Florida. Research in 2013 by Americans for the Arts showed that jobs, tourism, entertainment choices, awards and sponsorships, nonprofit vibrancy, the overall energy of a region jumps with a healthy arts community, or as the Island Reporter noted in an article on the Art League dated Aug. 10, 1979: “To promote Sanibel-Captiva as a natural forum for cultural activities in Southwest Florida.”
Ultimately, of course, local art is about expression, or: “technical competence, originality, color, form, composition, presentation and general impact,” the 1964 Sanibel-Captiva Record article summarized.