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Artists' Lifeworks Gone Up In Smoke

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By KURT LOFT | The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 11, 2007

Denis Gaston woke at 5 a.m. to the phone ringing. A fire, the caller said, was raging through the Imago Art Gallery, a downtown co-op of artist's studios.

"I thought it was a crank call," Gaston said Monday, reflecting on the shock of what happened over the weekend. "But when I ran over and saw the fire trucks, I knew what was happening."

The blaze destroyed hundreds of original works by 15 local artists. Some lost a few pieces. For others, like Gaston, the fire wiped them off the map, essentially erasing all remnants of their creative efforts.

Gaston lost more than 60 paintings valued at $35,000, including 30 works that just returned to Imago from a show at the Salt Creek Art Gallery in St. Petersburg. About 75 percent of his earnings came from the sale of his art, and the rest from a part-time job.

"It's surreal," said the popular 62-year-old Dunedin painter. "This is a lifetime of work. And everything I used to make art was destroyed, too."

The fire broke out early Sunday at the 5,200-square-foot building on Douglas Avenue. Firefighters responded to the blaze about 3 a.m., and damage to the building was assessed at $500,000, according to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office. Arson is being investigated as a cause.

"Everything was destroyed, everything is gone," George Ann Bissett, executive director of the Dunedin Fine Arts Center, said of the work by painters, sculptors and mixed media artists. "It goes right to their soul because art is so incredibly unique. It's horrible, all these years of work gone after one night."

Sioux Hart, a Clearwater pastel and watercolor artist who worked at Imago, feels like a part of her past is missing.

"I was really ramping up to take off as an artist, and it's all gone, a treasury of work is gone," she said. "I had one piece in a show somewhere else, so that's all I have left of my art."

Hart had been working on a handmade book, with an ornately designed cover that she left in her studio space at the gallery. It was to be her daughter's Christmas present.

For an artist, losing a body of work and their tools is like starting over — and without a steady income, said Lance Rodgers, curator the Salt Creek Gallery.

"Imagine not only losing your home and all your precious possessions, but your job at the same time," he said. "These artists have to find a way to pay their bills, restock arts supplies, then slowly produce work they can sell. It's a long, drawn out, hurting process."

The city of Dunedin wasted no time in offering help. Officials are looking at available property that could temporarily house an artists' co-op, and privately owned buildings that might fit the need, said Bob Ironsmith, Dunedin's director of economic development.

The area's Professional Artists Visual Association, or PAVA, is organizing a fundraising campaign, and the Dunedin Fine Arts Center is planning an event to raise money for artists' supplies.

The damage is done, and now it's time to start from the beginning, said Maria Volaitis, whose 79-year-old mother, Sultana Volaitis, lost her life's work in the fire.

"It's the thing that gives her life, and she lost 40 years worth of work in that studio, commissioned paintings, hundreds of works," she said of her mother's art. "She doesn't even have any paints left."

Reporter Kurt Loft can be reached at (813) 259-7570 or kloft@tampatrib.com.

SUPPORT

IMAGO ARTISTS

Donations may be sent to the Professional Association of Visual Artists. Money collected will be distributed to the artists in equal amounts. If you would like to donate, send a check to PAVA, P.O. Box 2665, Dunedin, FL 34697. Receipts will be sent to donors. For information call (727) 539-8901.

A fundraising event will be Dec. 19 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Dunedin Fine Arts Center, 1143 Michigan Ave., Dunedin. Art materials also will be accepted. For information call (727) 298-3322.

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