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* PLEASE, IF ANY OF YOU KNOW OF ANY OTHER HELP ORGANIZATIONS FOR PEOPLE IN DISTRESS AND THAT INCLUDES FOOD, SHELTER, CLOTHING, MEDICAL, DENTAL, OPTICAL.... SEND THE INFORMATION TO MY EMAIL ADDRESS SO THAT I CAN ADD TO THIS LIST AND HAVE IT AVAILABLE TO ANYONE IN NEED... * There is no guarantee that the above information is currently correct. Please, call and verify if changes or to add anything. WWW.CARLEESTUDIO@AOL.COM THANK YOU FOR YOUR KINDNESS.....
*********************************************** *********************************************** The Artist's Journal
Carlee is an impressionist. Her medium has been in oils. She has presented and sold her work in fine art galleries throughout the United States.
Elementary education was primarily in the Northeast. She studied art at the Baum Art School in Pennsylvania and later at the University of Southern California at Long Beach.
Carlee has traveled extensively throughout the United States, South America and Europe. Specifically, influenced by the French Impressionists she studied the work of the Masters in St. Paul de Vance and Rome. Many of her works of Peru, Ireland, Argentina, England, Monte Carlo, Naples, Pompeii to name a few have sold throughout her 30+ years of experienced artestry.
Carlee resides in Sarasota and has created her art for Galleries such as Eye of the Beholder, The Kress Gallery, The Starving Artist Gallery in Sarasota, The Open Space Gallery in Pennsylvania, O'Rourke Marina in Essex, Connecticut, Gracie Lawrence Gallery in Delray Beach, Florida and Palm Beach Gallery in Palm Beach, Florida.
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Grandma & Cat
Just a brief bio:.....
My formal art training began at Baum Art School.
Would you believe, at one time, my hometown was named the "Best Little Town in the U.S.A."! Why, even the Presidents visited there.... like Mr. Roosevelt, Eisenhower, and Kennedy (I shook his hand!). Many other renound celebrities from Hollywood made sure their tours included our town.
And,... you never lived until you tried the sumptuous "Strawberry Pies" in the Patio restaurant in Hess' department store. Max Hess was a merchandising genius!
What landmarks of tradition! Honored tradition! We had Grand Palaces with marble stair entrances, crystal chandeliers, salons with gold ornamental lighted mirrors that were so elegant super stars would revel in the luxury, and... the lush red carpeted isles, velvet cushions on padded seats ... in Theaters like the 'Majestic' Rialto or the 'Spectacular' Colonial.... that made my best friend, Rosemary, and I feel like royalty any day of the week! And, "Parks" galore!! Best friends were made in little towns like this. No kid or adult could want for more.... but, what did Billie Joel say?
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I left home about '68-'69 and went to California to find enlightenment and balance and clear unobstructed insight. There I found acceptance and direction at Long Beach State College! Long Beach was a community college at the time and I didn't need transcripts from high school as long as I took less than 10 credit hours a semister! How wonderful! I studied Art, of course, and was picking up credits toward a liberal arts degree. That was the best time of my life, so far!
I never got into the drug culture. Oh, it made quite a fashion statement in one regard but the dark side was very nasty. So many people were experimenting at that time. It was hard not to find yourself in such company. Heck, I had a hard enough time making sense of a brutal early life crisis and figuring out my place in relation to this world. I certainly didn't want any more adversities. For a time I did high fashion modeling both in New York and my home town and worked in California to suppliment income and studies.
Then, I moved to Florida. Ormond Beach which was beautiful! And it was or felt so healthy there. Mr. Rockefeller, himself, being very health conscious ... sent a group of scouts out and about the world to find the most healthy place to live .... in the world! The scouts all agreed that Ormond Beach, Florida was it! So he built his estate in Ormond Beach. But, that was a long time ago.
Gradually, I worked my way over through Orlando and, now, Sarasota... Siesta Key! An absolute dream Island! Amazed, I whispered to myself... this has got to be "The Best Kept Secret in the World"! (Of course, now, in the year 2004, it is not, anymore). I was fortunate to buy a little cottage in "The Village" on Siesta Key on Columbus Boulevard for a very modest price because it was a fixer upper. I thought to myself, then, this is worth a million! I could see the splendor of the sunsets from my front lanai as I painted the days and nights away. Many, many times I'd get a chilling, goose bumpy feeling... staring at the sunsets ...and I'd pray... God, please, let me be able to hang on to this, forever. My "Homebase", my salvation, sanctuary...
Fortune seemed to be shining on me. I discovered my paintings would sell in galleries! I had three galleries in Sarasota selling my paintings...and one in Delray Beach. Gracie Lawrence Galleries was kind enough to buy several from me. Then, an art gallery off Worth Avenue in Palm Beach showed my Tiger Woods paintings. I sold all the paintings of my impression of Tiger Woods in Palm Beach to a distributor there. This was back in '96, I think... In 1987 a friend of a wife of the Shah of Bornei asked for a painting of the Shah... from me. I painted him in front of his blue diamond of a Palace and shipped it to her.....I was on top of the world!
Briefly, at one point in my life I joined friends in Essex, Connecticut. We shared a gallery there. The charm of the Ghost (Captain) and Mrs. Muer had to be conceived there! Wonderful people and great memories at the "Gris". I had made a special stained glass creation for Katherine Hepburn who stopped by one day. I called it the "African Queen".
Alas,... before I could give it to her the terrible gale winds of September hit! One of the most ferocious storms in history crashed relentlessly into the Eastern coast that year and the Marina where I displayed my art was 4 feet under the briney deep! Essex was charming but brief. This was about the end of '90 or '91. Just about the time my father died.
I closed up shop, so to speak, after that. I sold what I could including the stained glass creation I had made for Kathern to an antique dealer there so that I could get back to Siesta Key! The paradise that I discovered in '86.
Truely, Siesta Key was an inspirational Village type Island off the Sarasota coast! An evening walk on the mystical beaches enchants the soul. I suspect the quartz crystal sugar sand of the beaches there have a lot to do with the powerful energy I felt. The magic and pleasant Island ambiance left me speechless most of the time but so inspired to do my best creations.....!
Needing to expand my experience more and capture world cultures I began traveling to different countries... Peru, Mexico, Chili, and Argentina... I painted when I returned from each trip and sold what I could to explore some more! I will always bless the eclectic neighborhood of my youth, the "6th Ward", for my love of all cultures. No one in the world could have more respect, love and admiration for all cultures of the world. And to think ... I was part of this wonderful human race!
England, France and Italy! Oh, Italy, that was one of my favorites! Italy has a charm all its own... even the garbage men are gorgeous in Italy! Charismatic..
Then, onward to that blessed little Emerald Isle ... dotting the Irish Sea. The greenest green I've ever seen!! Sure you could loose your heart to Ireland!
I crossed the English channel to Amsterdam, then Belgium, Spain and back to the French Rivera... Cannes, St. Paul de Vance, Nice... Monte Carlo, Monico!
My dream was to keep traveling throughout the world and paint as I went which, of course, would provide a livelihood for myself including the cost of my paints and other materials that I would need to carry with me.
In Europe and South America I had such experiences! I thought I'd try writing short stories together with my paintings and illustrations. The paintings sold from time to time but not often enough ... So, I became an honorary member of "The Not Dead, Yet.... proverbial Striving Artist's Society".
As far as my writing ... well, five (5) publishers were interested out of the fifty-two + (52) rejections from my query letters. They said they had an interest in my work but wanted completed manuscripts or they wanted me to have an agent and/or other stuff. Dear, oh dear.... So many details... I had no intentions of writing a Harvard classic! Far from it! A paperback would do.... or just short stories to accompany my paintings but I needed help getting the great experiences into print. Maybe, a ghost writer? If they didn't like my style. I thought I had some amazing stories to tell. But I'm not a professional writer.... as you can see.... Hence, the traveling artist/writer wannabe was put on stand-by.....
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Stained glass "Mermaid Boudoir Boxes", too.
To continue with my biography:
I am living off my beloved Siesta Key Island, now. Still in Sarasota but on the mainland. It is a 'big' difference! Sarasota has changed a lot from that little Artist's/Writer's Island dotted paradise I came to in 1986. The laid back little Florida houses are, now, huddled in the shadows of huge ivory towers of concrete. "Big" developers are exploding the town. Things change no matter how hard the 'good ol' boys' try to keep it simple and nice.... they die or just fade away like old glory, I guess.
Just as fashion goes from casual statement/comfortable to champion visionaries "panach" so goes the dream blitz to Ritz of Sarasota ladies and gentlemen!
Things for me have cycled a bit on the wrong side, temporarily. (We'll not dwell there.)
However, I must tell you the plummet was certainly not for lack of trying,.......everything I could. I certainly didn't loose it in the stock market.... much too conservative for anything like that. In order to keep things together as a single mom blessed with two beautiful sons I packed all I could into a great ten, then... fifteen year success plan! Well, then it turned into two back to back fifteen year Plans....
Here and there I acquired as many designations as possible ... balancing everything on a shoe-string budget. That "everything" included setting up and running my own real estate company, construction company, owning and managing my own new and used retail clothing, furniture and appliance store, country lounge/restaurant, beauty salon, nursing, notary (must have married over 100 + people..), mortgage broker, owning and managing apartments and rental income properties both residental and commercial and so much more..... I probably have accumulated the equivalent of several Masters Degrees had I had "formal" education.
At one time I had five successful companies going, simultaneously.... Secretly, I hoped my sons would take an interest in something I was doing and, maybe, take it to a higher plain. But they didn't like the shoe string beginnings which was all I could afford. I needed to work hard and extremely long hours... seven (7) days a week, 365 days a year. The $15.00 per week per child support (when I got it) was no where near a help in raising my two sons. So, I turned into a workaholic! And, learned to economize. My friends used to say they never knew anyone that could do so much with so little! "Can you imagine if she wouldn't have had to marry at 16 and could have taken advantage of the four (4) year scholarship!" "There would be no stopping her", they'd say. (Regrets, .... I have a few, .. whoppers!)
I remember, the day after I bought the restaurant, I had to borrow twenty dollars to open the register for business that day! Now, that's a shoe string! But, I did it! I really stretched for that one.... My thinking was ... well, at least, my boys and I will eat.
(can't seem to get one viable business going profitably, nowadays).
Then,.... on the bright side, ... I have my Mother living with me, now! Since most all of my family is dead or very far away this is a pleasant bit of kindness in my life! She and I manage fine, ... just fine... but not as fine as I would like.
My passion is my art! If I could start a successful at-home-business.. who knows? Well, one does what one must do until one can figure out something better to do. Like this Web-site!!!! You never know where the path could lead!........
Note: Mother has, this past year, passed on.... She died in her own bed at home and in my arms.... Just like she always said she wanted. I took care of her and thanked God that I had gotten that little nursing degree (CNA). It certainly helped. (I sure wished I had had some help. I'm sure my sons would have helped if they could have but they're lives were so stretched with responsibilities ... God bless them) Having no mate, no close friend, no sister or brother, no relatives I would trust with so delicate a time... It had to be just right with only my mother's interest and comfort to focus on..... I did my absolute best... This is one of those times in our lives an ordinary person becomes extra-ordinary! And with the help of those blessed Hospice nurses... The Hospice nurses were absolutely wonderful...! They would come any time of day or night whenever I'd call. They would be there in a flash! What "angels".... Bless them and I thank them all for allowing Mother's final wish... I kept her smelling like the little Irish Rose she was.... and pampered her every wish, I promise. The last thing she said to me was, "I must go, now. They're all calling me.... Will you be allright?" I told her not to worry about me. She smiled and just faded away... to total unconditionally beloved always and ever foreverland..... Amen.
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Girl with Red Unbrella
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