Husband and wife Chris Chomick and Peter Meder met in 1978 while clerks in a Chicago art supply store and found their mutual love of puppets, stop-motion film and mechanical toys. They were soon collaborating on projects, including a stop-motion animated puppet version of the Dutch Boy for Sherwin-Williams Paints, starting a career of creating special effects for national TV commercials. As Chomick+Meder, they began creating their unique movable art dolls from clay, wood, and other materials. Their award-winning figures have been featured in national and international art doll and automata publications, and are in private collections around the world.
MEET MORE AWARD-WINNING ARTISTS WHO CALL ST. PETE/CLEARWATER HOME MARK AELING creates eye-catching sculptures for public and private clients around the country, including the splendorous Ripples of Life (with co-designer Carrie Jadus) at The Florida Aquarium. In 2012, Aeling was the only American invited to show work as a finalist in the International Stone Sculpture Triennale in Japan. ELIZABETH BAKER is a modern composer whose innovative works were showcased at the 2014 Electronic Music Midwest festival in Kansas City and the 19th International Festival of Women Composers in Gainesville. GREGORY BYRD is a poet whose work, often set in his boyhood home of the Florida Keys, explores place and mythology. Among Byrd’s accomplishments are a 2011 Fulbright fellowship in poetry to Albania and a Pushcart Prize nomination. ROXANNE FAY is an actor and playwright, garnering acting awards from, among others, Broadway World, Theatre Tampa Bay, and Creative Loafing. As a playwright, Fay was named a 2018 artist-in-residence at The Growlery in San Francisco. LINDA DEE GUY is a mixed-media painter with more than 20 solo exhibitions, as well as international shows in Peru and Japan. Her public work is on permanent display at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. D YAEL KELLEY is an oil painter and longtime arts advocate whose evocative expressionist paintings can be found in collections throughout the nation and world. STEVEN KENNY is an oil painter whose unique style combines classical human figure painting and fantasy-drenched surrealism. He exhibits work around the world. BILL LEAVENGOOD is a two-time Eugene O’Neill playwright and Circle Repertory alumnus whose plays have been produced off-Broadway and regionally for more than 20 years. DAVID MANSON is a jazz musician, composer, and educator. He is the founder and director of the St. Petersburg Jazz Festival and the groundbreaking EMIT series of jazz, world music and new music.
YA LEVY LA’FORD
CAROL MICKETT AND ROBERT STACKHOUSE are a husband-and-wife team who collaborate on large-scale site-specific sculptures, paintings, and prints. Stackhouse’s solo works can be found in such museums as the Museum of Modern Art and the Corcoran Gallery of Art. ROSE MARIE PRINS’ luminous mixed-media paintings and sculptures have been featured in solo and group exhibitions at museums, cultural centers, and galleries throughout the United States, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Woman’s Building in Los Angeles. BABS REINGOLD is an artist who creates dynamic wall art and installations that explore beauty, poverty and the environment. Reingold’s work can be found in private and public collections around the world. ANDEE SUN SCOTT is an interdisciplinary dance artist whose bold choreography has been performed nationally and internationally, most recently in the Harvest Chicago Contemporary Dance Festival and Barnstorm Dance Fest in Houston. TOM SIVAK is a composer whose credits include original musicals, the score for the documentary film Golub, and a world premiere performance of his composition Prelude and Fugue by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. LISA POWERS TRICOMI is a theater professional and a drama therapist. She works with such groups as veterans and children and adults diagnosed on the autism spectrum to help them improve their lives through storytelling and self-expression.
PETER MEDER & CHRIS CHOMICK
At Creative Pinellas our mission is to facilitate a vibrant, integrated, collaborative and sustainable local arts community and cultural destination. We offer a range of grants to support and sustain working artists, and to lift emerging artists. The grantees featured here are St. Pete/Clearwater’s artists of outstanding talent and ability. For more, visit CreativePinellas.org/artists V I SI TSTP ETECLEARWATER.COM 47