Art Environments

Hello everyone! My name is Katie Bush and I am excited to be given the opportunity to be a guest blogger for SHAMc's awesome blog. I  recently wrote and illustrated a book called 1206 Third Street- it's about Todd and Kiaralinda, SHAMc's founders.  I am an art museum educator, art blogger, and artist and I love to visit art environments around the world. 

So, before I begin telling you about some really cool art environments, you might be wondering... what IS an art environment?

An art environment is a piece of property that has been transformed in some way. For example, Todd and Kiaralinda created Whimzey Land. It has been an ongoing project for over two decades, one that has resulted in an art environment that people travel from all over the world to visit! Take a look for yourself:

The Whimzey house in all of its teal glory!

Todd and Kiaralinda in front of their lovely home

The "Florida Orange Tree"

A lot of the materials they use are repurposed, like this bicycle wheel!

Whimzey Land images via The Daily Telecraft

Art environments are literally everywhere all over the world. There is no one type of art environment because each space is as unique as the people who make it. There are also many reasons that people create art environments.

I want to share with you some really fun art environments from around the world...

• Paradise Gardens in Georgia

One of the most famous art environments was created by Howard Finster. It's called Paradise Gardens, and it's located in north west Georgia, USA. Finster was a minister who created artwork. He created Paradise Gardens to emulate his idea of the Garden of Eden, and to be used as a chapel. He spent years creating the space, which he decorated with his favorite artworks. According to the Paradise Garden Foundation website,

"Paradise Garden Located in Summerville, Georgia, is a maze of buildings, sculptures and displays. The Gardens were built from found objects and recycled materials ranging from bottles, bathtubs and toilets to bicycle frames and cast-off jewelry. The setting is a four-acre swampland that is drained by numerous canals."

Paradise Gardens images via Creative Loafing Atlanta

• Watts Towers in California

If you've ever been to Los Angeles, I'm sure you've heard of Watts Towers. The towers were created over 30+ years by Simon Rodia, an immigrant who worked at the Malibu tile factory. He would bring pieces of unusable tiles back home and mosiac them into the towers. He even lived in a cottage attached to the towers for years. The pressure from his neighbors' distaste of his art made him leave and never come back. They are now a national landmark and one of the most recognizable structures in the world.

Images via The Daily Telecraft

• The Palais Idéal in France

Over in France is the Palais Idéal, created by a French postman named Cheval. On his daily run, he would pick up fragments of rock. Over the course of many decades, he fashioned his "ideal palace" using concrete and the rocks that he collected.

Images via The Daily Telecraft

Here are some other art environments, but without all of the fun background information:

Salvation Mountain in Niland, CA

image via BadBirds

The Bone Zone in Madrid, New Mexico

image via Kelly Ludwig's Flickr

Kapaleeshwarar Temple in Channai, India

image via All Around the World Art

The Heidelberg Project in Detroit, MI

image via BlueWolves

Solomon's Castle in Ona, FL

image via Wandering Educators

The Rhinestone Cowboy House, now located at the JMK Arts Center in WI

image via AtlasObscura

The Cathedral of Junk in Austin, TX

image via NarrowLarry

The Magic Garden in Philadelphia, PA

image via Modenus

Thanks for reading! Peace, love, and art! -Katie Bush

One of our smallest, yet biggest, helpers

In December, when ten year old Devan heard about the possibility for an art and music center in her town, she knew she had to be a part of making it happen.

Todd Ramquist and Kiaralinda had every indication their idea to turn their small rental home at 706 2nd Street North would be competing for a Pepsi Refresh grant, and Devan added to the excitement with her own. She immediately involved herself by visiting Whimsey and finding Kiaralinda. "I just walked up to her and asked," Devan said. "I wanted to help."

And since then, Devan has helped. She handed out postcards at the Christmas parade. Her parents brought her to the aqua house that will someday be unrecognizable compared to its current condition, and she couldn't stop talking about the Safety Harbor Art and Music Center to her friends and family. In fact, Devan went a step further; she made it her personal goal to help make this dream come true. Plus, to make it even better, SHAMc fit the requirements for her fourth grade service project.

"I knew it would be a great project because it would serve the community," she said. "I like art and music."

Unfortunately, not only for Devan, but for the arts community as a whole, there was a computer glitch in that first attempt and Pepsi didn't include SHAMc in the competition. "We were so close!" Devan said, remembering her disappointment, but still smiling.

Maybe most kids would have dropped it--gone on to new, perhaps more exciting projects--but not her. Devan had already created a project binder and she separated the sections into categories: What I am doing; How I can Help; What is the Art and Music Center?

"It's a big purple binder with 'SHAMc' on the cover and the spine," she explained. "I have cards on how to vote and some newspaper articles too. When I heard that we got in, I wrote 'yeah!' in my May updates section." She laughed--her energy meeting every definition of a happy kid. "The binder is massive now," she said. "Cards stick out of the sides. I always keep cards in my backpack so I can hand them out and tell people how to vote."

If anyone understands the complexities of trying to win a $50,000 grant, it's Devan. She has been talking to classmates, to teachers, and to everyone she meets, but because she attends two different classes each day, she has to fit the time in to leave her class to present her project to other classes. Her teachers are supportive, and Devan is sure that by the end of May everyone in her school will know what the Safety Harbor Art and Music Center is and can be.

At Third Friday in May, Devan was at the SHAMc booth, showing people the model of the center's plans, passing out cards, and talking to community members.

Why would a ten year old dedicate herself so fully to an idea--to a service project like hers? Perhaps it's because Devan knows what she wants for her future. "I'm in chorus, plus, I have won a lot of art shows. One was a chalk butterfly with vines and I didn't think it was that good, but my teacher told me I won!," she said. "I want to do something with art. I like dancing. I might be a Cirque du Soleil dancer and performer. Dance is art. It's just a different kind of art."

Devan won the Tropicana Speech competition at her school and is going to District for Battle of the Books. She is also performing in Fairies Inc. in Dunedin.


Our sincere thanks and lots of high fives to Devan. Thank you for your help during this process. We appreciate all you've done and we appreciate your hard work!