For most people who have an idea, it starts out as a scratching on a napkin or a doodle in the margins of homework. This page is dedicated to those who persisted in coloring outside the lines and dared to create as a career. Over the last 150 years, Clay County has had a hand in influencing artists of all sorts. This page is for those who express through the visual and written canvas, and I hope you can be influenced by what and how these particular individuals created and learn how their artistic expression have survived the test of time.
The very term "Artist", or "creativity" is an abstract word, that is sometimes as difficult to define as it is to try to explain to one who find this difficult to comprehend. I found this essay that asks that very question, and this individual, to me, knocks it out of the park for a great way to explain the what's and how's of an artists role. Enjoy!
William Bartram
In the late 1780's William Bartram was America’s first native born naturalist/artist and the first author in the modern genre of writers who portrayed nature through personal experience as well as scientific observationn his 1791 book entitled "Travels". His journey expanded most of the south-east united states through the undiscovered, wild, sub-tropical region of Florida and explored the interior of the state documenting, illustrating, exploring, and learning about the Seminoles, Creeks, and Cherokee Native Amerian Indian Tribes of the area. This territory was such exotic reading for the European reader as they read of Bartram's adventures and his illustrations of alligators and snakes, as well as strange plants and fruits, his words gave those who read "Travels" a rich idea of our land , inspired their imagination and set a new pace for other adventurers to follow. "William Bartram became the grand old man of American natural science, advising and mentoring the first generation of naturalists who were beginning to explore the new territories being added to the young nation." More info here.
Bartram loved this area so much he bought 500 acres to farm indego and rice just across the river next to the Shands Bridge, today this land is the area of Florence Cove Road. However his farm failed after 2 years of trying and he returned to England therafter and published his book "Travels". This information was lost until a UNF professor rediscovered Bartram's property documentation in 1995 in England! While living here Bartram made a discovery, a small rare lavender-blue wildflower he discovered is indegenous only to Northeast Florida, he called it "Salpingostylis coelestinum" part of the Iris family. It is commonly reffered to as Bartram's Ixia where this flower is found in piny woods and grows in only in Clay and Bradford Counties and edges into outskirts of neighboring counties. It is a rare flower, but not endangered.
William Bartram
Sketch of Native American Seminole
A rare wildflower found in our area
Augusta Savage, Sculptor - Artist
Augusta Savage
Augusta Savage, was born in Green Cove Springs, Florida - February 29, 1892. Her father a Methodist Minister disapproved of artistic expression and did not allow her to create. They left Green Cove Springs in 1915 and moved to West Palm Beach, she entered a sculpture in a county fair in 1919 and won, this inspiration gave her the opportunity to move to Jacksonville, Fl in 1921, but was unsucessful. She moved to Harlem, New York where she gained an artistic reputation and went from being an artist, to a art teacher, to an art director. She is acclaimed as one of the finest Aftican American Artists and her life's ambition for art survived and succeeded.
Euginia Price
Euginia Price was a unique woman in the early 20th century, 1916-1996. Born in 1916 her initial asperaions at the ripe age of 10 was to be awriter, however she later studied dentistry like her father. She left her church when she attended college, and wrote serials for Proctor and Gamble in 1939. Ten years later she reclaimed Christianity and this lead her life to change her career path to historic novels. She studied Georgia and Florida History, and one of her books "Margaret's Story" depicts the history of St. Margaret's Church, in Hibernia area on Fleming Island. I highly reccomend this book - outstanding!
Euginia Price
Zora Neale Hurston
African American Author, her best selling novel "Their eyes were watching God" in which Green Cove Springs is depicted as one of the novel's locations.
Oprah Winfrey had this book on her reading list and it was also made into a movie with Halle Berry. She was one of the guests at the Muldrow Hotel from the Sesquicentennial Images depicted.
Gene Odom
Gene Odom was the personal bodybuard of Ronnie Van Zant and provided security for the Lynyrd Skynyrd band. The first video is Gene interviewing the original coach Leonard Skinard. In the second interview Gene is reflecting his best friend Ronnie Van Zant at Jacksonville Memory Gardens. The were best friends in childhood, but he was in the same plane crash that killed his friends, Ronnie Van Zant and other band members. Gene survived and is disabled due to the results of the plane crash. He is the author of several books dedicated to remember Ronnie Van Zant and childhood memories. Lynyrd Skynyrd I'll Never Forget You, is the novel he wrote, and you will enjoy the read as I did. Video is by Tony Beazley.
Loretta Norris, or “Retta,” was born and raised in Green Cove Springs, Florida and she is a self-taught artist who presently resides in Waynesboro, Mississippi. Retta came to rural Mississippi after spending many years in Houston, Texas. She attended the University of Florida, Houston Community College, San Jacinto College, where she pursued various courses of study…none of which was art.
She says, “It just never occurred to me that I could paint because I can’t DRAW a stick man!!!” She is one of the residents that experienced Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and yet she is still making an impact, this spring she has a current show in New York City.
