The Joys of Local Art

The Art at Home Exhibit and Sale returned for its eighth year on November 23, 2025, and showcased the artistic creations of 16 artists hosted from four island home galleries. Art at Home was the perfect place and time to shop for a thoughtful piece of artwork or a handmade ornament in a warm and personal setting while chatting with the local artists and learning about their crafts. Each home had a hospitality table of nibbles and light bites and refreshing beverages, inviting guests to slow down, enjoy the art while they picked out creative pieces for their holiday gift list.

Goodland’s Tara O’Neill, an award-winning artist known for her vivid oil paintings, shared her home gallery with artists Nancy Norman, Hope Hanley, and Hyla Crane. Nancy Norman is all about ceramics, and she brought functional pieces such as charcuterie board decorations “to add a smile to your hot/cold hors d’oeuvre plates.” Hope Hanley is new to this group and brought images of local fauna and flora printed directly on aluminum sheets, producing stunning results, like the Marco Island Quizzical burrowing owl face on metal print. Hyla Crane was back this year with her collection of upscale recycled jewelry using buttons and zipper pulls from vintage designer clothing and repurposing them into lovely necklaces, earrings, and dressy hair barrettes for the holidays.

Jim Freeman, also from Goodland, has an expansive home gallery of photographs showcasing the themes of water and driftwood, taken mostly around the 10,000 Islands. Jim shared his home gallery with Amanda Tessarzik (Goodland Pottery) and was joined by exhibitors Glenn Pace and Tim Brown. Pace, from Everglades City is back, having missed last year’s exhibit, adding that he had a very productive exhibit during the annual Holiday Bazaar the past weekend. According to Glenn, he uses black mangroves, cypress, and cedar to create artistic and functional wooden bowls combined with vibrant resin designs. During the weekends, he has an art display at Art in the Glades in Everglades City and his bowls are also featured at the Blue Mangrove Gallery in Marco Island. Timothy Brown brought a collection of sailboats crafted from natural driftwood, using neutral-colored strings. Brown is also a weekend exhibitor at Art in the Glades.

On Marco Island, nature photographer Jim Robellard and his wife, watercolor artist Judy Chinski, hosted jewelry maker Mary Limont and ceramic artist Myriam Kriel. Robellard had a selection of photographs of local birds, such as burrowing owls and eagles. Most recently, Robellard curated the “Words as Art” exhibition at the Marco Island Center for the Arts, highlighting how technology (AI) can transform traditional photographs into vibrant and thought-provoking pieces.

The second Marco home featured Jacqueline Glasgow (The Island Potter), a new Marco resident, along with Leigh Herndon’s collection of silk batik and Japanese tie-dye wearable art, Bonnie Brisky's (Bon Bijoux Designs) handcrafted jewelry, and Empty Bowls of Naples. Glasgow had a display of her unique turtle plates, sharing that she started her collection with little turtles to give to the Park Rangers at Delnor Wiggins State Park as a giveaway to the children to help educate them about sea turtle nests. She is an exhibitor at the Coastal Art Walk at the Esplanade one Sunday a month. Susie Hauze, Frances Lang, and Rinny Ryan, volunteers for Empty Bowls of Naples, also had a display table with information on their January 17, 2026, Empty Bowls of Naples 20th Annual Fundraiser. According to Hauze, last year Empty Bowls of Naples provided grants to 14 local organizations and awarded $225,000 in grants “to eliminate hunger in Lee and Collier, one bowl at a time.”