Gulf Coast Journal with Jack Perkins; 309; Artist Roger Skelton, Barber Jetson Grimes, Sarasota Sailing Squadron, Photographer Giavanni Lunardi

Oh. The family has a special presentation of w. we do you Tempest St. Petersburg Sarasota. It's not unusual artistry style is the result of nearly being killed. Along with your life with your bag on the wall. You can go back on the wall like the Sarasota photographer who captures the world back in which. We learned to sail. And visit a real down home. Part of the community barber shop. This volume of a Gulf Coast Journal. Production is exclusively brought to really generous grain from the Gulf Coast Community Foundation of medicine. Building strong union leadership partnership and down the lander.

Dear Journal. Beating the Odds is a theme for us this month. A couple of examples first. An artist whose artwork as he acknowledges is simple shaky childish but he had to beat the odds to even be doing it. And yes fans who love Roger Skelton but he feels he has a love of art. But more he has an

appreciation for life. To truly understand Roger's artistic works today you have to look into his painting which should be a lifelong dream. I don't want to be a starving artist. I've come to full make up big time from my own. I never got there but I got into other endeavors because there was an accident. And tell me about that. 19 it was my accident I was head had by a drunk driver. This was all that was left of Roger's car that fateful day. Rodgers spent 10 days in a coma and when he woke he was told that likely he would never walk or talk again. Medically I have a brain time contusion which is a bruise on the right side of my brain and it's like a stroke.

Roger refused to accept the prognosis. Slowly started swimming every day for two months and in that time he was miraculously walking and talking again. He found himself reflecting on his life and searching for a New Direction Home boy a hippie type of guy I was really I guess I still am in a way. Today this self-proclaimed hippie has found his way. His bike now takes him where he wants to go. But. It is his art that gets him where he is. Though his motor skills are damaged and his speech is slurred his spirit and will are strong strong enough to overcome the odds and allow him to paint again. Not just for fun this time but for some discerning collectors. Oh my guys live here and I'm no writer. Oh you were at the collector's gallery in downtown Venice.

You know Roger is somewhat of a celebrity collector Laurel Connors owns quite a few of his pieces and many of his works are on display and for sale at the gallery. But I just got a little following. We have Mary and I know who is Scott a lot of his pictures in his office and we've had people come in and eat like that eclectic look and we've done two big commissions for him. Rodgers roosters are a hit as are his cats. Scenic sailboats. Many people just adore his art work. First of all it's very different. It's very colorful. I call it a collector because it's just something you don't see all the time and it's a kind of artwork that you would buy to look at it and smile. Roger himself seems to have that effect on people. Every week he spends a day in Studio D at the Venice art center a place where aspiring artists and

professionally gather to swap stories and improve their skills. The class agrees that Roger inspires them not only because of what he's been through but for what he has become as a person I am a painter. One I didn't even know I've seen paintings before he has an accent and I've seen pigs now and I actually prefer the loose looseness that he come up with now and the more the magination. I think he's a much better artist than ever even he favors the new style. I used to. Paint with my elbow down causes you more often. But one of my two kids told me I just lose my. Oh wow don't all just help that so I sort of you know with my whole arm let it go wild that wildness in Roger's painting has become his signature had me absent. So your work is happy accidents crime the police a lot of people that

must gratify you. What does gratify may have pre-natal light me constitutes a key and I don't have total control of it. Don't try to control I know it's a little bit. I would hate to use the word Jew but it's a little bit like. The time of putting on Mark. And lows. But it's got some people so that's brilliant it got the tongue tied behind it. That's something he includes his intense will and emotion. Something Kathy Castor has picked up on. She is in class with Roger at the Art Center and is battling lupus a disease attacking her nervous system and her ability to hold the brush steady. I hope to learn from Roger how to be more loose with my painting. He's just amazing and his attitude toward life and how he approaches things. Those who know Roger well say his attitude is his freedom. They say he's a

man free of any bitterness in that door now walks the drunk driver who ran you down years ago. What would you say. Well I've been given All right let's just be prepared. Roger says he will continue to create new works of art for as long as he lives. Ironically his second chance at life. It colors his world with more brilliance than never. As a kid growing up in a small town I remember how dad every other week would take us down the public square to Dick Morrison's Barber Shop where we kids would get our haircuts. But a lot of the men there weren't really there for

haircuts or shaves they were there. For the sake of community. That's where they went to swap their tales of their lives and of their town. Is just such a place around here. We found one. And a man who runs it who also had to beat some odds. I'm just a guy. Native of Sarasota have been working as a hairstylist and a barber for over 40 years so can't complain too was gone in raids in the new town I've been in business here for 20 years. I've been very active in the community for all of my life. I've seen a lot of changes here in Sarasota at a $12 site some have been very good and some have not been very good. Thanks Mike thanks. This community was very inclusive community. We had something like 80 businesses that were viable it was prosperous and it was you know very very successful. I've

always worked hard to bring that vitality back to this community. How is one of the youngest ones in the band it was a simple life. I play a B-flat baritone. You didn't have too much exposure to what was going on outside the community. This was the first African-American church in the Newtown community everybody was a power I mean you were chastised by Artie down the road are the friend across town. We weren't allowed to swim go to beaches. You know when I was a kid I had never been in salt water you know to swim. I remember going through the integration of the beaches and sorry sort of. The fights and the brick and the whole thing. They put away. All the people that were in the beach I mean all the people came out the water. They went over and got a little seashell you know and said we need to get away and call us names and all of those things. But we can continue to go back to the integration of the movie theaters here. You know all of that really

define who I am now. I never backed down for pushing that envelope to make things better for other people and better for my community and better for Sarasota. When I was finishing high school we didn't have a lot of choices of things to do especially when you're African-American individual. So I selected going into to the bar and I remember when I went into one of my classmates he was a barber and I remember asking them you know how did he like what he do is so I love it I mean this is great. And I say well how much money you made last week. He said man I'm a 50 dollar man I say that's a lot of money. And the rest is history. 19 I have my my license and I've been working on this car they have a sense. So this is been. Very very. Rewarding to me. I remember coming out of my shop you know 10 12 years ago looking out my when the five o'clock in the morning and you would have three or four hundred people on the street doing

drugs and selling drugs. The policeman. The part of me would even come into this community because they were at the ranch. If this community had to move it was going to move forward. We needed to deal with those kind of issues. I had a year and a half of vandalism Oh my my business. The drug came. Hands were trying to put me out of business had my my my house bomb that they tried to burn down my building my car windows was broken on a on a regular basis for six months I had to have police protection at my house. They didn't run me out there. Now we see this community really flourishing and being very you know prosperous we have to start looking at the young people and bring them out. And hopefully they will see our love and. Develop a passion for this community. And see them see this community evolve into something really great. Now the potential is that it can truly be. We're on Sarasota City Island. The waters of the bay and beyond that the city

skyline. Great sailing waters. And if one is interested in sailing it's a perfect place to come. OK now we've got. A flea. On the. Cross I'm out here so we're going to have to haul off to stay out of their way. OK so I want to turn down a sailor's delight and the sun is warming the sails are full and all the goodness of nature converge is I do love it I've been saying all my life John Jorgenson knows that feeling he also knows that too few people get to experience it. Just to go down the bay gently sailing down the bay everything with a bit of a priest behind you. It's a great feeling. John's working to share the sport of sailing with as many people as possible. He's a member of the not for profit organization called the Sarasota sailing squadron. You're right.

This organization allows a lot of people to get introduced the same thing that would normally. It's certainly not a dinner club. True this is no yacht club. The ambiance is more like a summer camp and members like it that way. It's just a very good casual place and the town is increasingly very fancy. It's a very down there at the place for families and people who are really excited about sailing for an annual fee of around one hundred fifty dollars you can join the squadron and keep a sailboat hear. What you have to use the boat. That's part of the deal. Friday night race is about cruising groups to go out on the weekends and. It's right where. The sailing squadron is a place for serious sailors to refine their technique and for the new and curious to test their sails. You can go through the sailing programs and learn how to sail and see if you enjoy sailing. And then if you do you can become a member and that list is causing a partial vacuum which means that the biz neuter sailing she's hoping to learn by helping the

crew this afternoon. I'd like to be able to hone my skills a little bit you know what John teaches sailing so she's in good hands a chap and you're going first. A few tips on terra firma where they take to the water. This is how all of our past behind your back. I stayed in the above. Oh good thing you know. OK great for sailing as a language all its own risks all its own. True you can damage your shins and get hit in the head that the boom and all those kind of things but it still it still is a lot of fun. Time for this new sailor to test her mettle. But Vicki won't be completely on her own. Peters why Diski also an instructor is helping out on this journey. The sailing squadron has become a big part of Peter's life. I have made some good friends here. And it's just a great place I don't have a lot of fun and enjoy life.

Let's go ahead and head off to port a little bit pick up some more speed. The basic rule of sailing as in life is that nothing remains the same. You're constantly reading the wind and adapting to change. And not always with grace. And you see the top of the sail how it's moving back and forth like that. That's called laughing on the sail beats like that it means that it's not quite from front. That's part of the lure even for veteran sailors. Even though you might be an Olympic level sailor there's even more to learn. What I really want to do is interest her in keeping on going. Offline. What are the way. Old sailors used to say when everything is just right you can hear the water chuckling. More. So with a world exclusive.

Yeah. Good sailing is not unlike good conversation. Everything fluid. Nothing forced nature and Shaler virtually finishing one another's sentences. Ever want to feel like you don't have a care in the world. It's nice. Just to the south you can see the squadron's evening races under way beautiful spinnakers in the late day sun. Teamwork born of friendships and even serious competitors all sharing the same when. Perhaps one day soon Vicki will join in that race. But for now this personal journey will do. After all. She sailed. We all know the fashion magazine has their covers adorned by the most beautiful

models of the world wearing the most stunning apparel they evoke images of New York and Paris and Milan. And yet many of those photographs are made. Right here in Sarasota. Meet the lucky photographer. You're a photograph you're a lifelong memory caught in a single moment in time. Flawless beautiful. Still. This is life through the lens of photographer job on the Lunardi because you have a good life. OK. And I like to make people you know looking beautiful. People are looking at not only beautiful but beautiful is something inside so that you get what is the best on them. That's what I like. Giovanni has a gift for exposing inner beauty in a medium that is less than

skin deep. You know he's not only to be beautiful is just to have a face that you know talk to you that you can't just talk to people you know and when I have a good model in front of me I'm always saying listen remember that it's not me on the back of the camera but he's the millions of people that would look at your picture of his resume reads like a list of who's who in celebrities and supermodels then I would take this little wrinkle this about you know the face and also that the two pockets that he has you know under the eyes regardless of fame and fortune. No one is exempt from Giovanni's critical eye and Photoshop touch up not even his own grandchild. But this is not there to you know touch up you know this mags you know because he has like you know a little pimples you know like that you know I want to make him look beautiful and you know I know his marbles well least those who can speak are not offended.

Thank you again not 70 anymore so I'm straight going to 30 and the weakest. Some because it's what. We have. Done is bring us around much to the surprise that. Giuliani grew up in Parma Italy 80 miles southeast of Milan. College she studied geology not the most traveled path for a fashion photographer in the making. You know some people are completely different. Photos were merely for documentation. That is until an expedition to the Alps suddenly Giovanni saw images in a new light. The camera became a creative appendage. Photography a new found love. I had my own darkroom my bathroom and so I was in the process seeing every every evening every night and nobody was in the house and I could use the bathroom you know and I had my mother she asked me to clean after that.

Yet it was still a leisure pursuit. Giovanni got his master's degree in geology and dreamed of travelling to exotic places. Potential employers had other plans. That work weather is asking me to work on the microscope on and on on a desk and so that was not my my think. He got a job at a small magazine in Parma taking portraits of people so you know a friend of mine you know she was in the wrong she she sent he said to me why don't you come in Paris when I'm there because I know all the people from Vogue studios the year is 1968. Twenty six year old Giovanni gets a job at Vogue assisting the industry's most talented fashion photographers. You have to learn from other people because what you learn is not the technique but you learn mostly you know the way they react to a model and they way they talk to a model they way to to to to look at the light. You know they know everything about life and so in a school you're not alone. He became an expert in faces and so the best for me out of the

ground from Norway like Finland Sweden Norway and Germany. That's the best part of me. You know I like Americans you know depending on where they come from because it's in the front you know. Giovanni would marry his ideal model type. That's because I'm John Wayne and very patient. Otherwise you know what. The couple met at a nightclub in Yugoslavia when Enos was just 17. With the blessing of her father Giovanni helped launch her career as an international model. She was really understanding me and we had a lot of fun and we had a building picked something had which eventually led to building the couple's own family portrait. Three sons all with model features they have to modernize it time if you need a guy. Three thousand magazine covers and more than 40 years later after his first snapshot

Giovani has watched the focus of his industry change now as a business you know before was like more like a life and not a place that he lived in from their lives. Over the years Giovanni has worked in all the fashion capitals but his favorite locale issued a studio in Sarasota working alongside his son Christian while Ina's handles makeup and styling. He's like I think a book you know so I have clients in Europe they send me their clothes you know the Senate I mean the IDSA and then you know they asked that I send a picture and he thought that's because the disease that is very good. A linens full of creamy complection this and youthful ambitions keeps return meant out of Johnny's picture going through a big positive reviews. It's a passion and I's been always had passion all my life. It's not it's not Canadia work and I something I don't like. Right here right

now. Life is. Good. Life stands still. Through the lens of Giovanni. As we close this month's volume of the Gulf Coast journal hoping you'll be with us when we open the extra. We note that there are several good reasons to go to Siesta Key. But maybe the best. Is the subs. The the. The the.

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