Donated Photos Have Come to City Hall

Back in December, Mr. and Mrs. Jeremy Jacobs donated three beautiful photos that were taken by Peggy right here in Wellington. I'm pleased to announce that they are now hanging in the Wellington City Hall. You can see them on the second floor, right side. They are across from large windows that provide beautiful natural lighting.

Peggy Jacobs took these photos at the Big Blue Preserve right in the heart of Wellington. You can see at least seven species of birds, including the elusive roseate spoonbill. As you can see, Peggy is a natural artist with the camera.

A few of our Board members met at the City Hall so pictures could be taken for an upcoming article in The Palm Beach Post. As we were gathering downstairs waiting for the photographer, we got an unexpected surprise. It seems Jeremy Jacobs is the owner of the Boston Bruins hockey team. Since May of last year, they have been the proud owners of the Stanley Cup. While we waited, suddenly a firetruck arrived, with full lights and siren, escorting the Cup! It was brought in to the lobby of the City Hall, and we all took turns getting our picture taken with the Cup. We even got to try on Mr. Jacobs championship ring! Here we are surrounding the cup.

Left to right: Linda Rovolis (1st Vice President), Tony Baker (Director), Ilene Adams (Director), Leslie Pfeiffer (Director), Suzanne Redmond (President), Sandy Axelrod (Recording Secretary), Jean Talbott (Treasurer), Peggy Jacobs, and Adrianne Hetherington (Corresponding Secretary).

What's an ATC?

For many of you artists out there, you know exactly what it is. ATC stands for Artist Trading Card. I don't know who invented it, but I'm guessing it was a very generous artist. You see, Artist Trading Cards are small works of art, 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" (the size of a playing card). The idea is to make a small piece of art and trade it with another artist. No money changes hands. You are giving your art to another, but then you are getting one of theirs in return.

Sometimes they are traded in organized swaps. If a dozen artists say they're going to trade, then you need to make a dozen ATCs to have to trade.

Sometimes you trade in person, and sometimes you trade through the mail. You may not ever meet the artist, but it sure is fun when you receive that package in the mail and you know it's someone's wonderful art. An artist may choose to be a host or hostess of a swap. Usually that means that all of the ATCs will be mailed to her home. She then splits them up so everyone gets one of each, and mails them back to each artist with the postage they have provided. At the Wellington Art Society, we go out to dinner together to swap. We get an idea of how many people are coming, and then we email everyone so they know how many to make. There are about 20 of us in the group who make ATCs, and 8-12 will participate in any given swap. Our latest swap/dinner was held at I'm Greek Today in Royal Palm Beach.

We choose a theme for our swaps. This time, the theme was Dreams.

Sometimes ATCs are interactive. They have some movement, an insert, a puzzle. This next one shows someone dreaming of inner peace.

This one uses a song lyric as inspiration. Who can remember The Eurhythmics singing "Sweet Dreams are Made of This" back in the 80's? I brought it forward to this decade and crafted the latest trendy treat, a cupcake.

This artist looked into the meanings of dreams. That generated a lively conversation over dinner.

Who hasn't at one time dreamed of flying?

We do 3 - 4 ATC dinners per year. We haven't scheduled the next one yet. Do you have any suggestion for a theme?