Hole In The Donut Travels

If you look hard enough, you can pierce the phony facade in even the most tourist-choked destinations. In Miami Beach I finally broke through the barrier when I connected with its artist community.
My first view of the art of Karim Ghidinelli was from a second floor balcony at the Art Center/South Florida, looking down into [...]

Although I don’t pretend to understand the surreal images of distorted females and melting clocks that pervade the art of Salvador Dali, his work had always intrigued me. I simply assumed the symbolism was an unknowable product of a demented mind. So I was surprised when the docent at the Salvador Dali Museum in St. [...]

During my recent trip to Chicago, I took an afternoon stroll around Northerly Island, located just behind the downtown Museum Campus on the lakefront. This narrow peninsula was once home to Meigs Field, a tiny airport that opened on December 10, 1948 and by 1955 was the busiest single-strip airfield in the country. In its [...]

In the world of museums it would seem unlikely if not downright preposterous to find circus artifacts mingled with fine art, yet that is precisely what visitors find at the John and Mabel Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida. With a name like Ringling, the circus connection is not surprising – the benefactors [...]

If the old wife’s tale is true – that an apple a day keeps the doctor away – folks in Hendersonville, North Carolina should be the healthiest in the state. North Carolina is the 7th largest apple-producing state in the nation and Henderson County is the largest apple-producing county in North Carolina. This was news [...]

Like many artists, Stanley Papio was never fully appreciated until after his death. A former boxer, horse groom, and Army veteran, Papio made his way to Key Largo in the 1940’s and settled on a cheap piece of land right next to the highway, where he built a salvage and welding business. In those early [...]

There are things I love about Key West. The weather is awesome – my skin absolutely glows in the tropics. It is a small, eminently walkable island (only seven miles around). Key West is one of the safest places I have ever visited; I can walk home alone at any hour of the night without [...]

Using everything from wood to cardboard to found and salvaged objects, Reuben Margolin creates one-of-a-kind techno-kinetic wave sculptures. His inspiration comes from observing things in nature – things as simple as a caterpillar’s movement or the patterns created when a drop of water splashes into a pond. When he moved into his new shop, Margolin [...]

The footage of an angry ocean crashing onshore and sweeping beneath an oceanfront cottage is indelibly imprinted onto the memory of anyone who saw the movie “Nights In Rodanthe.” The storm scenes are so jaw-dropping that people may think they were computer generated, but the house is real. It is located in the development of [...]

Although I have visited some downright unpleasant places in my travels, the majority of the places I visit are lovely, interesting, and entertaining. However, it is also true that some places “grab” me more than others. I like almost every place I visit, but occasionally I find that I love a particular place. This happened [...]