Meet the Artists

Please contact artist if you are interested in purchasing their piece.

CRITICAL ISSUES TAKE CENTER STAGE… BOOK BANNING.

January 11 – 21, 2024

Buy tickets to Alabama Story

Debra Campbell

Tampa art educator, Debra Campbell, took a winding road to find her ultimate calling as an artist. Since childhood Debra has been devoted to producing art. She entered the Sam Fox College of Art at Washington University. Debra spent 19 years as a K-8 art educator, tapping into the creative flow of her young students and later as an adjunct professor at USF’s School of Art and Art History. Currently, Debra is working on her fine art as well as creating a wearable line of art scarves, kimonos, bags and other items. The line is called Campbell and Cope. Debra works mostly in collage and mixed media to create visual dialogues about our environment and explore the imbalance of social structures.

Artist Contact
dcampthree@gmail.com

Featured Work

“Do Not Remove This Book” was photographed in a library in London. The young woman rests on a large book that is chained to the floor. She seems content to just use her phone, unaware that the sculpture would portend a scenario where everyone would no longer have full access to books.

Debra Campbell’s photograph, “Do Not Remove This Book”, is a reflection on what it means to not have full access to books, learning or information.

Robyn Avalon Crosa

Robyn Crosa was born in Miami, Florida to immigrant families from Lebanon and Cuba. Her early childhood was spent in the Tampa Bay area, later relocating to the greater Atlanta area where she grew up to be an adult and established herself as an artist. After taking a life changing trip to visit her relatives in Cuba, she realized that her family was the most important thing in the world to her. Recently, she decided to move back to Florida to be closer to family and currently resides in Saint Petersburg, Florida. The artist considers herself a Renaissance woman and devotee of the Great Mother Goddess – the latter a theme that threads her artistic work together – a worship of the divine feminine. She believes that creative work is a form of worship and sacred ritual to the Great Mother Goddess of Nature. Robyn’s style is folk art that is inspired by the works of indigenous people, as well as self-taught folk artists including Howard Finster (Talking Heads album cover) and Xavior Roberts (creator of Cabbage Patch Kids). She creates her doll sculptures based on the natural shape of the wood and then embellishes them with wood burning techniques as well as acrylic paint and found objects. Her first gourds were created as self-portraits – leveraging their natural feminine shape and seen through her eyes as a reunion of herself with her mother and sisters. Her work has received an Honorable Mention in the school wide Dean’s Art Award Contest in the College of Arts and Sciences at Georgia State University, first place ribbon, a second place ribbon, and 3 third place ribbons at the Georgia Gourd Festival in Griffin, GA. Most recently they have been displayed at the Salvador Dali Museum Holiday Art Show in Saint Petersburg, FL; the Carrollwood Cultural Center in Tampa, the Morean, and ArtsxChange. Ms Crosa was the recipient of the Emerging Artist Grant at the Florida CraftArt Festival in 2020. She is currently a member of the Women’s Caucus for Art. For more information or to purchase please view website: https://gggbyrobyn.wordpress.com/

Artist Contact
gggbyrobyn@yahoo.com

Featured Work

Stacy Abrams Voting Box- a voting box for taking ballots for any small organization. Place your ballot in the box to be counted. Gourd has a lid which comes off so that ballots can be placed inside and then later counted.

The Goddess of Southern Democrats: Stacy Abrams Voting Box. Everyone’s vote should be counted! Civil rights leadership at it’s finest!!

Tana Gundry

Tana Gundry lives in Tampa and began painting during the pandemic therapeutically but realized that visual art is one of her passions and sharing her thoughts and experiences through her work is now an important part of her artistic expression. Tana works a full time job but is an active participant in and supporter of local theater. Tana has directed several plays in Chicago area and acted in a few at Carrollwood Players. Tana believes that love is one of the greatest gifts humans give to one another. The more we seek to understand we are sharing in the human experience, the more we will understand one another.

Artist Contact
filmtana@gmail.com

Featured Work

Love Leaves A Legacy (Acrylic paint on watercolor paper, 9×12)

Embracing love teaches those that follow to do the same.

Samson Huang

Multimedia artist Samson Huang lives and works in the Tampa Bay area. An image creator and a sculptor, he amalgamates any media (oil, watercolors, ink, found objects, etc) to achieve the intended emotional and psychological narrative for a given space and time. His works have been exhibited nationally and are in private and public collections. Locally, Samson’s artworks have received acclaim in Hillsborough County exhibiting at the Tampa Museum of Art in the Skyway 2020/21 Contemporary Art Show, and was juried into the Gasparilla Festival of the Arts as an Emerging Artist 2022. Additionally, Samson was the recipient of the Professional Development for Artists Grant awarded in 2019, and has been awarded a similar grant for 2024 by the Hillsborough County Art Council. He was a featured guest instructor at the Tampa Museum of Art, as well as Make Plant City Night Out sponsored by the City Council. Furthermore, Samson’s works have been juried into the Global Nurses Convention Art Show in San Francisco, an event attended by more than 3 thousand nurses from all over the world. Locally, he has worked with the Tempus Project in Ybor City and The Werk Gallery in St. Pete.

Artist Contact
TheArtofSamson@gmail.com

Featured Work

This piece illuminates the horrors of violence and bigotry that stem from racism and censorship. The ubiquitous motif of the noose is a monstrous weapon that divides human beings resulting in injustice and death. It is centrally positioned with the book titled “Alabama Story” on the spine with a black rabbit and a white rabbit on the front and back covers of the book. This profound book, about the shear expression of love regardless of outer appearances, is placed in the noose representing censorship, division and intimidation of the human spirit, which is compassion and loving kindness. This artwork intends to aspire us to eradicate violence, bigotry, racism and censorship.

We all possess compassion and loving kindness, regardless of our outer appearances and circumstances. When we tap into that, division disappears.

Keesha Jimenez

I am a Puerto Rican traditional artist based in Tampa. I feel strongly about censorship and education. I have studied and created artwork for over fifteen years. I have a bachelor in Studio Art, Art HIstory, and Psychology from University of South Florida in 2016 and 2020. Being able to be knowledgeable about history, art, and political stances from different types of perspectives is very important to me. Silence has driven everyone to hate others for their cultural differences and enthnicities claiming one is better than another, but in fact, no one is superior. Censoring the knowledge we had in the past harms our future generations. This is why I titled my artwork “Silence.”

Artist Contact
kloraineartwork@gmail.com

Featured Work

This artwork is created in Clip Paint Studio showcasing three people with a ribbon wrapped around their body. The piece is completed in black and white to represent the views of censorship and how people forget that by banning books, destroying knowledge, and harming others does not just affect one person, it affects all. Black. Brown. White. The color does not matter. It affects all human beings.

The piece is completed in black and white to represent the views of censorship and how people forget that by banning books, destroying knowledge, and harming others does not just affect one person, it affects all. Black. Brown. White. The color does not matter. It affects all human beings.

Alex Singer

I am a professional illustrator based in Tampa, Florida, known for my versatile approach to the craft. My artistic style seamlessly blends traditional techniques such as ink and watercolor with digital painting and editing tools, including Adobe Photoshop and Procreate. My artistic endeavors center on crafting engaging narratives, providing viewers with glimpses into the stories, scenarios, and characters I bring to life. In this particular instance, my intention was to offer the audience a tantalizing preview while also considering the layout and potential text integration within the illustration.

Artist Contact
alexsinger0@outlook.com

Featured Work

I found inspiration in librarian Emily Wheelock Reed’s character in the play. I couldn’t help but put myself in her shoes and consider how someone could create such a commotion over a children’s book that portrays happiness between two characters. As I gazed at the court case documents scattered across my desk, I tried to make sense of the situation. It’s not just about the book or the two animals getting married; it’s about the fact that one rabbit is black and the other is white. The real issue is that they are about to build a happy life together, TOGETHER. This is what offends the narrow-minded individual – their prejudiced beliefs rooted in fear and ignorance. It’s about maintaining the status quo and suppressing certain groups, preventing their stories from being heard, their names from being spoken, and their identities and narratives from being acknowledged.

As a society, let’s nurture a deep love for reading and ensure that books are accessible to all, inviting everyone to savor the sheer delight of diving into their pages.

January 11 – 21, 2024

Buy tickets to Alabama Story

Locations

Here’s where we will be bringing theatre to you next!

  • JANUARY – FEBRUARY 2025 – CADILLAC CREW
    The Studio @620,
    620 1st Ave S, Saint Petersburg
  • MARCH 2025 – VOICES OF WOMEN THEATRE FESTIVAL
    USF College of the Arts,
    School of Theatre and Dance,
    3837 USF Holly Drive, Tampa
  • JULY 2025 – WITCH HUNT
    Stageworks Theatre,
    1120 E Kennedy Blvd., Tampa
  • SEPTEMBER 2025 – ADA AND THE  ENGINE
    Stageworks Theatre,
    1120 E Kennedy Blvd., Tampa

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