Gulf Coast Journal with Jack Perkins; 301; Sculptor Jack Dowd, "Women Build," First Methodist Church of Sarasota, Youth Library

The fund has a special presentation of w e d u Tampa-St. Petersburg Sarasota. An artist who makes the ordinary extraordinary. The day a little church that refused to take the money and run. Women build it for women. And. Like in this Romeo Journal. This w edu auction is exclusively brought to you through a generous grant from the Gold Coast Community Foundation of Venice envisioning a region known for endowed philanthropy a vital nonprofit community and the ability to address emerging issues. Dear Journal. Alongside its beautiful Bayfront the city of Sarasota

regularly installs what it calls its season of sculpture. Beautiful eye catching works some. Whimsical. Some. Geometric. Some rather imposing and even controversial. Sculpture is that most tangible of all the arts and those who sculpt some of the most fascinating of all the artists. Example. Sarasota is own Jack Dowd. Retiree's bikers homeless people. Not what you might think of as the normal artists models but in the world according to sculptor Jack Dowd. These snapshots of American diversity are pure model. Sure. They're not generals on horses or Abraham Lincoln's portrait or something like that that you see people every day people. Here on the outskirts of Sarasota Jack's exaggeration of the Mundine

comes to life. It should be fun. It should be important it should tell a story. And it should be for the people. Understated satire humanity slightly skewed concern for the dog and the underdog. Those are what make Jacks full sized figures so genuine so extraordinary. Charlie For example our to all folks that every time I work 40 years at a job and now they probably around the country in a camper. And so they're sitting there and I doing this thing and. They're real. Jacks curving to rear began back in 1970 in Vermont with a chain saw. Hold your hand. I got them all chainsaw artist except that except for a little white house I'm going. Fine but his first attempt at Wood sculpting was far from an instant success. It was in a cigar store Indian that didn't stand up when I got down with it. I took an old

barn beam and a chain saw back in 68 and I remember it was on the ground so I carved out the duty and I and stirred it up and it fell off it had a flat bottom but it was top heavy. Eventually his materials evolved from wood to Gypsum bronze resin. Gypsum cement is at its weakest point. Well it's so wet. Here alongside his son John and the mold maker Rochelle Garcia that Jack watches the casting of his life like vision. John has been his apprentice carpenter and right hand man for years. An artist sees things not as they really are but as he is and whatever. Way I Want. I grow up and my experiences in life have. Taught me to look at things the way I look at them and it's only in the way I look at them which makes it a fingerprint one of a kind. One of his most famous fingerprints are statuesque tribute to New York

nightlife appropriately labeled. Last. Home. It's closing time. And all these folks have no other place to go really. So the bartender becomes the Christ. He holds all the cards and they're desperate. To hold there and I want him to feel that. Camaraderie that you feel if you went to church. Two groups of people in search of hope. Two different forms of communion. This was a scenario Jack witnessed often as he was a bar owner himself. It was always my intention to have it parallel that because I felt that church. And. Pubs. Are all the two places that have been around since the beginning of time. Then the most long lasting institutions in the world. And it just seems the same people do the same things in both places.

Eleven bars later Jack said last call to his own business. He and his wife Jill moved to Sarasota in 1982. Recently he has redefined his work again focusing on characters of more celebrity status like Andy Warhol. This is about my six. And in done so far actually seven but I sold one. He was one of the few artists who put himself before his work. The work should be before the artist. Should be about the work. When finished there will be 20 life size statues of the artistic icon all simplistically painted yet not void of detail like he always used his index finger to rub the paint around when he did when he did these so screens and so the paint was pretty potent stuff and he would be out on the town he always had paint on his finger and always be blue or red or some color. Could you wash it off. And as much as Jack loves his still life. He doesn't want to

become one himself. I need to do more work. I'm 68 years old now and I need to work more. Monet did his best work at 80. Jack what you what you just said is the opposite of what you expect someone in Florida to say. I have so much more knowledge now so many important things that I gain with age so much experience. I've seen so much that there's so much more to say than I would if I were 20 or 30 year old person. Offbeat clever or eccentric colorful traits that these anti-heroes and underdogs share with their creator traits that make a larger than life sized statement of our human spirit as it exists in the world of Jack. We all know Habitat for Humanity that fine organization where men get together and build houses for those who. Might. Get us a man. Men build houses.

Apologies. Because what we're about to see is a group that is an offshoot of habitat appropriately called. Women. I know. This is my not. My. Bare walls and big dream. A milestone for Jessica Garcia who will soon earn the title of home owner. It means a lot. And I don't need to depend on nobody. To hold the house by myself. What makes her house even more special is that Jessica helped build the. Site. We're. Done. We. Have. Done the single.

Time or. Lets them a little bit of Mary. Not a typical home improvement project for a woman. But then again this isn't your typical construction site. But I'll make it all make more sad so I'm not going to go with that one. You know. Welcome to women Bill. Special Habitat for Humanity program. The women builders is designed to be a house built entirely by women. It allows us to bring a lot of new volunteers into our program. Houses built by women for women. Yes Men help to women build is not designed to exclude men but one could reach more women jack hammer nails and even break a few cents with until more women are now comfortable with coming to the job site.

So I would say we're running 20 25. This woman. Which has. Been a big help. You know for the relief of. Bruce winter is the construction supervisor for this budding Sarasota community known as Jordan's crushing. Homeowners that get them out here and work alongside each other when they move in they know. You know they know all of their old. Neighbors and there's not very many neighborhoods that people move into where they can really say that. It's possible. There you go things seasoned and novice helping hands work side by side. In fact there are times when no experience is advantageous. Sometimes we may. Take instructions better because we. Don't. And learn bad habits. We just start from whatever they tell us and where I think we don't know a flat head from a Phillips head. Neither did B.J. Everett a retired schoolteacher.

I don't think you need to have any experience to be out here because everyone is so wonderful and so willing to teach you. That you can just come out and volunteer and they'll find a niche for you. And up on that roof. That is 71 year old Elaine Hill. My dad build a house. On the river boat. I think it's in the jewels. That. Carmen Santiago and I'm Spyer to volunteer is that in turn inspired her husband. I will go home and tell them how much fun I was having this is my money home by my side. Something going. He's unreal. I've been on the roof somewhere. And he loves it so. Around 60 percent of Habitat homeowners are women and serviced by naming all the paperwork that everybody done a ton to do. Often. Homeowners must put in at least 300 sweat equity hours. It's empowering. To know that you can.

Do. Things for yourself just like. In anything else. You can. At a time when the housing market has spiraled out of control women build is a godsend for low income families. You have to. Have a low enough income to show that you're in need. The program that we offer but high enough income so that you know that you can afford the monthly mortgage payments a monthly mortgage payment. To some of the necessary evil to Jessica. A welcome blessing. It's my house I'm renting. It's something I'll be able to give my daughter to something she could call hers. More than mere structures are being built on the block which. The violence here is have pretty much became my family. I look for it. I mean working with thought I've learned a lot. They're. Incredible people. Just because they don't need to live is.

Just like anything when you give you give away more and all the homeowners we've met they just are. So inspiring. It's. Tough. Construction camaraderie community Shanshu a life tool for these women builder. Speaking of building and buildings. As one wanders around downtown Sarasota I want to negatively comes upon quite an anomaly. I mean high rises. It is very low rise amid the new. It is one of the oldest structures in town and it's not going away. When the bells started ringing at the First Methodist Church one hundred fourteen years ago Sarasota has dirt streets included artesian wells for thirsty

horses. With barely a few hundred residents. Sarasota was a fishing and farming village the backbone of the community. The little white church on Pineapple street. All these years later the First Methodist is still located on South pineapple but it's plain to see the historic churches not so little anymore. Nora. This is Sharon Stone. Everywhere you look in downtown now there's something new going up condos office buildings places to shop. For the church congregation. This building boom created. Quite a dilemma. Seventeen million dollars is a great deal of money. But again 130 years is a good deal of history. With another big construction project planned across the street including this parking lot

site. A developer wanted the prime church property to. The company behind pineapple Plaza. But 17 million dollars on the table in exchange for their city block of land in the heart of downtown Sarasota. The First Church would receive a pot of gold. I don't think the developers offer was tempting. As other churches know all too well the rise of Suburbia has left a lasting mark downtown. Specifically rows of empty pews and the financial pressures that go with them. That's. Not what's at stake here. Would the church take the money and run. Clutching the promise of a financially secure future. Or would it stay right where it is.

After much debate and prayer the Congregation of the First United Methodist Church decided. The unexpected windfall and a fresh start in the suburbs. Were not a gift from heaven after all. We have congregations that are out of the suburbs and. We'll be supporting them and encourage them. But we sense this is our calling. And that's worth a great deal even more than 17 million dollars. The calling embrace is a ministry that reaches out to those who will live and work in the downtown buildings now being built. We don't even know what the ministers are going to be yet. Rumor stone discerning who the people are going to be. How will partnering Nashiri more make sure that we're inviting and welcoming. And. Current and to come back and that's where. The growth of this church. Take places people. Can be hard. And. With equal enthusiasm. Fifty years ago the venerable downtown

church opened an earlier chapter in its storied history the dedication of its current sanctuary and pineapple street. On Christmas Day 1955 the pews were filled with more than fourteen hundred members. They had. Roughly. 50 years later surviving church members who had been there at the dedication. Gathered for a photograph. I'm sure. I would be in there with. LESLEY COLLIER has been a church member for 53 years. Her wedding was here her parents funeral was here her sons Aaron and Adam were baptized. Here we are tradition we've been here a hundred fourteen years we've never moved around this area and I truly believe we should be here. Sarasota mayor couldn't agree more. Marianne Servian said urban centers are undergoing a rebirth and much of the vitality is coming from

retiring baby boomers. People are starting to move back from the suburbs and back to the downtown because there is to be in a downtown all the offerings and it's all within walking distance. Add to the offerings a fabric of the community a church that dates back to the village of Sarasota. I think it really said that this is a congregation. That is built upon a lot of history but also on. Ministering to generations of its own parishioners who are reaching out to the elderly and the homeless. The First United Methodist Church of Sarasota. Is Here To Stay. It will not. But. Even for 17 million dollars. In the bustle of the city is a quiet place. And in Sarasota in that

quiet place is I one. Who is very influential. Those who are. Eager to be influenced. There was a knock at the door. Do you think. You see. A good book a child's delight. Some of us can still remember our earliest experiences of reading where we surrendered to the power of a great story found ourselves in love with books. At last Mills has. One woman is on a mission to bring that experience to as many children the possible. There she is amid the stacks. Marilyn Nikki for us gives library at Shelby library and share a soda. And game quite a following. You see her library is not the one you may remember as a child. It's called.

But. There's an energy here. It's fun. Just. We're trying to reinvent what we do you. Plain and simple. I want people to come to the library and half when books must compete with video games and computer toys a Blanda story hour just won't do the whole Marilyn's is anything but the land. Every Wednesday night she gathers upper stories and her enthusiasm and systematically delights her young audience. It may be an old folk tale about why dogs chase cats. Want darts. Well. You know. Harry. For a whole day. And I get giant

mosquito. He looked. To the face he'd ever seen things done towards it. I missed it too much to my shoulders. And then. How about a story from a book shaped like a hamburger. But first before you even eat. So Marilyn doesn't simply read a story. She becomes part of it. She wants to make the kids part of the experience too to share in her childlike excitement. Put some life and energy into that let's get up and move it. Here. Yes. Great if you have passion for storytelling is creating a growing audience of young Sarasota families. Certainly. For me I did stream. It's really fun to be sure. While literature may not be important to. Helping kids to connect with the

power of words is. Their faces tell the story. Those you can up and you're looking at. And then the smoke and then those hands shoot. Me. You don't know who to pick and they all want to be a part of the story. Maryland draws from her own early connection with books the shy little girl from such got Yuan who found comfort adventure joy in the written word. It's hard to say papa bear. I don't think it will be very long. Marilyn is inspiring a new generation to reach for bookish six year old MMA Leyva Van Tyle loves to read. The book so very interesting. Like after you get in it always are just an eight year old Eric Bow is a book lover to. Tradeable. Thank you

next. Course of action is mom Dawn credits the Shelby story teller. They've been coming to Marilyn's story time for years. Nobody else can do as well. You can't help but to feel a part and involvement in what she's doing and the messages that she's putting out there about reading for marijuana. The message is simple and personal. It has much to live life. And I think that's why I can't go to bed on Wednesday. I am excited and. Excited through. The Course. The story doesn't end here. Really this is. Where. You have. To.

Scream. Tristan dragon. Our kids spend 10 times as much time watching television or doing video games than reading. Even we in television find that. Now as we close this month's volume of the Gulf Coast Journal let me step aside and let us see some more of Sarasota is of sculpture. Oh.

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dot org. This w production has been exclusively brought to you through a generous grant from the Gold Coast Community Foundation of envisioning a region known for endowed vital nonprofit community. And the ability to address emerging issues.