This unique patchwork sculpture used to be in front of the downtown Safety Harbor Fire Department…read morebuilding. Now, it's saved in a nearby residential neighborhood for all to see! Life is good with unique art in Safety Harbor!

Works of public art are fun to find!…read more This is Henry the gopher tortoise! Henry is in honor of the legendary Caladesi Island settler Henry Scharrer. Sylvia the sea turtle, in honor of oceanographer Dr. Sylvia Earle, will be painted on the west side of the tower. The Dunedin water tower is located at the intersection of US Alt-19 and Curlew Rd. The murals are by Tom Stovall who was awarded a $78,142 contract to paint Henry and Sylvia on the water tower in September 2020. Life is good with art!

Visible from across the tracks on 9th Ave, head to the corner of 9th Ave N and 3rd St N for the…read morebest viewing spot. The Honk4Love mural, artist unknown, is both huge and amazing! I'm sure SHAMC, a local arts center, had something to do with it. Check it out! Life is good with art!

Walking around historic downtown Tarpon Springs I couldn't help but be drawn to this vintage…read morepostcard style mural on the outside of the Chamber of Commerce Welcome Center. This is a 25-by-4 1/2-foot digitally printed mural by Eagle Photographics in Tampa. It was unveiled in 2020 and is a reproduction of a 1994 painting, called Changing Tides by North Pinellas based artist Christopher M. Still. The mural depicts Tarpon Springs sponge diving heyday around the Anclote Key Lighthouse. The original painting was donated to the Tarpon Springs Public Library by Elizabeth Coachman, an artist and former head of the medical laboratory at AdventHealth North Pinellas. Elizabeth and her husband Michael wanted to keep Changing Tides in the City of Tarpon Springs. Artist Christopher M. Still is known for his paintings of Florida's wildlife, people and landscapes. He works out of Dunedin, Florida and has a gallery in Tarpon Springs. In 2010 he was inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame. Of the mural he has said "It's a big honor to do this, to have an entryway sign for Tarpon Springs. It's neat having it as an entryway sign out here and you can walk over and see the original indoors nearby." Today the Changing Tides mural serves as a welcome to the City of Tarpon Springs. People love to have their photos taken in front of it and it preserves the rich history of this town as a sponge diving village.

Wonderful public art sculpture here in Tarpon Springs! Art is everywhere here if you look for it!…read more Life is good with art!

I discovered this beautiful 17 feet high by 22 feet wide mosaic mural in historic downtown Tarpon…read moreSprings. The brightly colored mosaic is on the side of the Meres building adjacent to the parking lot that was once Mother Meres garden. The mural was a gift to the city from the Garden Fairies of Tampa Bay, a group of civic, artistic gardeners who have spent seven months creating the massive multimedia art piece. The Garden Fairies received no public funds for the $60,000 mural. It was created through their fundraising efforts and a benefit party by the Chamber of Commerce. It took 2,000 hours to complete the installation of 46 panels over Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 2010. Even the concrete walls surrounding the nearby dumpster also were decorated with 86 smaller panels. The mural commemorates Amelia Petzold Meres, a city pioneer and amateur horticulturist from the early 20th century. Mother Meres loved plants and people. She was born in Germany in 1845 and emigrated to the United States with her family when she was 5. In 1882, she moved to Tarpon Springs with her husband, Walter to run the Ferns Hotel on the corner of Tarpon and Pinellas avenues. Amelia Meres and her husband had a home east of the hotel and on their land she created a lush jungle garden that fed the hotel guests fresh fruits and vegetables and honey produced in the garden. Eventually she was bestowed the nickname of "Mother Meres." In addition to the garden she also planted the cycads that gave Tarpon Springs' Cycadia Cemetery its name later replacing them with oleander after the cycads dies off in a freeze. She held the town's first Christmas party, brought plants to the sick, and helped plant trees to beautify city. With a kapok seed giver to her by her friend botanist David Fairchild of Miami, she planted the famous kapok tree at the former Kapok Tree Inn on McMullen-Booth Road. Mother Meres died at the age of 78 on Oct. 20, 1923. After her death the garden became a city park with benches and a band shell. In the 1950's the park was turned into a parking lot. The parking lot is also the site of the Sunday Tarpon Springs Farmers Market. It is so nice to see Mother Meres love of gardening and generous spirit is still honored and thriving 100 years later.

We were in tampa exploring the parks and public art and came across this mural. I am a big fan of…read morepublic art and landmarks so I had to add it to Yelp for others to see. When I got back home I looked up what the story was about this mural. According to the tampa website for public art. In their initial concept, artists Edgar Sanchez Cumbas and Guillermo Portieles wanted to represent the hard working individuals in West Tampa "who embraced a thriving a social and cultural community through its broad mix of nationalities and religions." From this concept and through much input from community leaders and historians, the mural "Kaleidoscope: a Heritage of Color" was created. " Cool piece of public art to check out

I love public art works and The Naiads caught my eye on a recent trip to Tarpon Springs. The Naiads…read moreis a sculpture located in the roundabout at the intersection of Dodecanese and Roosevelt Boulevards at the west end of the Sponge Docks. The Naiads depict Goddesses from Greek and Roman mythology. In Greek mythology, Naiads are nymphs associated with water. The fountain and base for the sculpture is constructed from stone imported from the Greek Island of Kalymnos in the Dodecanese archipelago. There are some benches surrounding the art. The Naiads was created by Texas born artist, Glenna Goodacre in 1989 and installed in 2019. She also created Storybook Time in front of Tarpon Springs Old City Hall which is now the Cultural Center. Goodacre graduated from Colorado College and studied at the Art Students League in New York. After her marriage she lived part time in Santa Fe, New Mexico and in Dallas, Texas where her husband practiced law. Her favorite subject matter was portrait busts and figures and sculptural compositions of active children. Goodacre is most well known for creating the Vietnam Women's Memorial at the Vietnam Wall in Washington, D.C. in 1993. Goodacre passed away in April 2020 at the age of 80. I really enjoy this elegance of this piece. It makes a great place to take a picture. I also love the connection this piece has to the water where the historic sponge divers made their living.