Last Days in Key West

(Above: Photo taken at Bahia Honda State Park. Click on any picture in this blog post to enlarge.)

I'm behind in my blogging but not so far behind that I can't catch up!

The last few days of my month-long artist residency with The Studios of Key West went by in a flash. I had to say good-bye to the other two artists-in-residence, including actress Kristen Michelle who has since written a wonderful blog post on "The Actors Embassy NY" titled What Living With An Artist Has Taught Me. I'm so very flattered!


(Above: Landscape painter Anne Ireland with our meals at Blue Heaven Restaurant in Key West.)

I had a farewell feast with Anne Ireland at Blue Heaven. The fish was so fresh and the music was great!


(Above: My studio at The Studios of Key West ... with my newest grave rubbing art quilt, on the floor being pinned to a used painter's drop cloth as a backing.)

I finished all the free motion embroidery on my largest Grave Rubbing Art Quilt to date. This is a whole cloth collage of crayon-on-silk grave rubbings. I created it on Halloween weekend in Charleston. I'd brought material for the back of this quilt ... recycled material, of course ... an old painter's drop cloth which I'd washed and ironed. I spent my last full day of the residency on the porch, in the sunshine, stitching buttons from the former South Carolina State Mental Hospital through this unique backing and quilted top.

Then I packed and drove to Miami's International airport to pick up Steve. (He came on a one-way ticket to drive me back home!) On the trip up the Keys, I stopped at several locations, especially the places near the "old road" and its foundation ruins.


(Above: The old "Overseas Highway" at a place known as "The Bridges" ... looking north toward Bahia Honda State Park)


(Above: The old bridge.)


(Above: The "old bridge" looking south from Bahia Honda State Park.)


(Above: Looking to the beaches at Bahia Honda State Park from the top of the "old bridge". From this vantage point, I saw an enormous manta ray!)

I went to Bahia Honda State Park too ... and saw a really large manta ray swimming in the clear ocean water ... very near the fishermen who couldn't see it at all.



A stop at Robbie's just south of Islamorada meant seeing the giant tarpons again.

Steve and I returned to Key West for a single day of fun.


(Above: Sunset at Mallory Square.)

We bicycled all over the island, had dinner at Pepe's (est. 1909), and clapped for a spectacular sunset from Mallory Square.



Steve was thrilled to pose for a photo at mile marker zero on the Overseas Highway. We posted together at "the Southernmost Point".



Then, we drove back to Columbia ... and to a mountain of custom picture framing work that piled up during my absence.

Next post(s): The week back in Columbia!