Majestic Reflections Bring Creator’s Vision To Life Through Photography
Ormond Beach, FL – Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and in the case of artist and photographer Ed Siarkowicz, it’s in the reflections.
The unveiling of his new show “Majestic Reflections: A Collection of Inspirational Images”, during a reception on October 2nd, brought Siarkowicz back to his artistic roots at the Ocean Art Gallery.
After forming a friendship with gallery owner Frank Gromling nearly two decades ago, the pair have worked closely to showcase Siarkowicz’s photography work since 2014, first at the gallery in Flagler Beach, and now, in the arts community of Ormond Beach.
“I’ve had the opportunity to work with Ed Siarkowicz for a long time. I’ve had my gallery for over 9 years and Ed was one of the first artists in it. He was a friend of mine before that. We shared his work with the community, and it was very successful,” recalled Gromling, whose expertise recently earned him an appointment to the Florida Council on Arts & Culture.
“Ed has been able to redevelop a whole new interest in photography, a strength in photography that has a soft touch to it, derived from his experience with impressionism. It’s all reflections of water, and it’s gorgeous. But it’s very subtle, very soft, and Ed’s photography looks more as if it’s pastel or watercolor. It’s absolutely unique in my estimation.”
What Do You See?
Siarkowicz has a knack for being laser focused. Whether it’s storm chasing, photography, or historical preservation, for him it’s all about the details. Starting the “Reflections” project several years ago, Dr. Ed, as he’s known to many (a chiropractor by trade), began photographing Florida locations with reflections at the center of his attention.
It was a once-in-a-lifetime meeting that sparked up a newfound friendship, and led Siarkowicz through the lens to find inspiration in God’s work.
“In 2015 I had an unexpected chance meeting with Pierre Matisse who is the grandson of Henri Matisse, the famous French painter. We struck up a friendship and I was invited back three days in a row to talk about photography and art. He revealed a project he’d been thinking about for some time which was photography of impressionistic water reflections, so for five years, he and I, and my original photography mentor John Olivo traveled throughout the state of Florida looking for impressionistic water reflections,” explained Siarkowicz.
Capturing only the reflections as he saw them, Siarkowicz said there is no hardscape in any photo and the only editing done was to increase the color saturation to match what he saw while in the field.
After reviewing countless images taken over the years, the trio whittled down the collection to just over two dozen photos. Half of the selections are from Flagler County’s Washington Oaks Gardens State Park, Bull Creek Fish Camp and Shell Bluff Park, with the remaining from locations in Volusia County and the Bok Tower Gardens.
“To get great reflection, you need the right sunlight, the right water color, right depth, so that you’re not being distracted by what’s on the bottom. Out of the six years he and I worked together to get these, there’s only 28 images that I think are show worthy, and that’s what’s here,” said Siarkowicz during the show’s opening.
As a proud mentor and friend, New York photographer John Olivo attended the opening reception.
“What I admire about Ed’s work is the fact that he has an unbelievable eye for composition, and for art looking pieces. He can just photograph things and you know how they’re going to come out because he has the eye for it first,” said Olivo.
“He is the kind of guy who listens to you. Dr. Ed, everything I told him he took to heart, he tried it, and then he would come back to me and report how it worked out. As I saw him develop, his range of composition was getting larger and larger every time I saw him.”
The collection will be featured in the book “Majestic Reflections: A Collection of Inspirational Images”, set to be released in the upcoming months according to Siarkowicz and will complement the show on display at Ocean Art Gallery.
“All the things you see here, I deliberately went out looking for God,” he said.
“In quiet places, quiet moments, serene settings, and my intention as I was driving to some of these locations was to find a quiet, meditative spot for Him to show himself to me. The meaning for me, of all these images, is that this is what He showed me. That’s why there’s very little editing that’s done. The biggest compliment that I could get other than somebody buying a piece, would be for somebody to say I really see God in this picture.”
Visit Ocean Art Gallery at 197 E. Granada Blvd, Ormond Beach, FL 32176
Featured Image: Featured Artist Ed Siarkowicz and mentor John Olivio
Aspiring Talent Puts Artist’s Halloween Skills On Display
You’re up for midnight snack. Looking down the dimly lit hallway you see a heart-stopping sight.
Slowly lurking your way is what appears to be the stuff of nightmares – ‘Halloween’ movie character Michael Myers. In a split second one of two things will happen. You’ll faint or fight, but since it’s October, the season of spooky, your chances of a positive outcome are pretty slim. Even if you run, the inevitable rock is waiting to trip you.
Lucky for you, behind the mask is 15-year old Palm Coast mask designer John Stiles.
For this home schooled horror aficionado, it all started years ago with a trip to a costume store and a love of authenticity.
“It started out when I was 8. I watched Halloween for the first time and I was like ‘wow, that mask looks pretty cool’,” said Stiles.
“I found one at a Halloween store but it didn’t look like as good as I thought it would look. So, I brought it home, and I completely redid it. I took off the hair, I repainted the mask to make it look more accurate and I glued back on the hair, and it looked screen accurate,” he explained.
With an arsenal of tools at his disposal, started with saving up his allowance, he’s fine-tuned the art of the makeover. Known in the industry as a “rehaul”, a mask redesign can take six or seven hours.
Sometimes Stiles isn’t satisfied with the premade options and begins the meticulous three to four day building and design process from scratch.
“At Halloween stores, masks usually have really good sculpts as themselves – it looks like the proportions are correct, it’s just the paint is wrong. Usually that is when I would do a rehaul,” he said.
“But if I wanted to make a mask from scratch, let’s say a Leatherface (Texas Chainsaw Massacre) I recently did, I would build it up with clay, pour plaster over it and that would make the mold, so I could pour latex into it. That’s when I make the mask from scratch. If I can’t find a mask that looks accurate, I’ll make them from scratch.”
Of the 50 or so he’s created over the years, Stiles definitely has his favorite horror characters.
“Michael Myers because it’s the most iconic. I also paint Jason Voorhees hockey masks. I’d say those two are my favorite.”
Turning his hobby into a revenue generating opportunity, he started an Etsy store, and his inventory was quickly snapped up. The savvy entrepreneur reinvests the profits back into his business, crafting two or three masks a month.
“It started out with Etsy. I had a couple laying around and I guess I wanted to sell them to see what I could make off of them. I started out with looking to see how much rehauls cost usually, and I put them up on Etsy and they sold. I was like super surprised, so I started doing it a lot more often,” he said.
“I make three a month, depending on how much I sell previous to that. The masks themselves before I repaint them are not that cheap, so I have to sell one before I buy another, basically.”
John’s family is having a blast watching him create a business he loves, while sharing his scary talents with them.
“I’ve been so very proud to watch John come up with his own business idea and make it successful with pure determination and hard work ethic,” said dad, Rob Stiles. “He’s going places for sure.”
Mom Faith Stiles agrees.
“I’m beyond proud that he is such a focused and hard worker. However, what makes me the most proud is that at such a young age has the courage to step out and follow his passion even if to some it might seem unconventional. He is truly an inspiration to watch and I’m blessed to be his mom,” she said.
It was during a recent trip to Halloween Horror Nights that John found his tribe, and hopes to parlay his talents into a career opportunity.
“I do want to end up opening some sort of mask shop or Halloween store. I have seen some Halloween stores, just typical mask stores, that do rehauls for customers, so that would be a pretty cool business,” he said, with a possible expansion beyond just the horror genre.
But for now, it’s one big, scary dream at a time.
“I actually went to Halloween Horror Nights two weeks ago and being a scare actor is like one of my biggest dreams.”
Check out John Stiles’ creations at https://www.etsycom/shop/JASmasks?ref=profile_header or on Instagram at @j.a.s_masks.
You’re Invited: CCPC Adoption Center & Thrift Store Grand Opening
Location: 4500 N. Hwy US1 Bunnell, FL
Community Cats of Palm Coast is celebrating the Grand Opening of our Adoption Center and Thrift Store. This free, outdoors event in the Alamo Business Center features live music, food, games with prizes, raffles, tours of the adoption center, volunteer sign up and more. Hope to see you there!
Sold Out: FVS Giving Store Gets Helping Hand From Many Avenues
Flagler County, FL (October 9, 2021) Relying on donations from the community to make The Giving Store a holiday success for children across Flagler County, the Flagler Volunteer Services add up the dollars raised at the semi-annual Rummage Sale each spring and fall to make ends meet.
Whether it was pent up demand or a sneak peek at some really stellar bargains, the two day event at Cattleman’s Hall over the weekend resulted in a solid return on investment – it takes months to collect all of the donation items to sell, and a nearly empty truck on the Saturday.
In other words, it was a good weekend.
“The sale was phenomenal. We sold probably more than we’ve ever sold as far as all of our stuff was almost gone at the end, which is fantastic,” said Suzy Gamblain, executive director of the Flagler Volunteer Services.
“I think that there was such a long time that we weren’t able to do sales, there were a lot of people that were really looking forward to it. We also had some really great donations, I think because as COVID happened, people cleaned out their homes and gave really nice stuff. We had really good luck and it made us feel really good,” she said.
Eager volunteers worked throughout the week to help set up the goods for sale, and were grateful to receive help with the heavy lifting from the Flagler Palm Coast JROTC cadets, who lugged tables, lifted furniture and even came back to help with the breakdown and cleanup on Saturday afternoon.
Wyatt Brown, sophomore, JROTC
“I’m happy to help out Flagler Volunteer Services with their rummage sale because I get to help the community and get to meet other people, other cadets from different flights,” said Flagler Palm Coast High School JROTC sophomore Wyatt Brown.
“I get to work with amazing people who do hard work for hours on end, every day and most importantly I get to help out the children who can’t buy the presents themselves,” he said.
Providing service to assist the community is a character trait retired USAF MSGT. Gardner Holland, an instructor with JROTC, calls a fundamental building block of the program.
“We do this every year. Our kids like coming out and helping out,” said Holland. “Our program is about building community and citizens of character. Community service in our classroom, we stress it.”
Flagler Volunteer Services is just one of many service organizations that receive support from Flagler Palm Coast High School’s JROTC program, shared Lt. Col. Melvin Baskerville, Senior Air and Space Instructor at FPC.
“Coming out here supporting Flagler Volunteer Services is just a tremendous treat to us. We like to come out here and support by giving our time and energy to help because a lot of these folks who run this are retired,” said Baskerville. “To come out here and show them that the youth cares about their community, and willing to give up their Saturdays, it’s what the ROTC program is about.”
All of the work leads up the annual Giving Store holiday shopping experience for kids in the community, allowing them an opportunity to “shop” for their families, at no cost. The event is set for December 18th at Cattleman’s Hall and registration is currently open according to Judy Mazzella, volunteer coordinator for the Flagler Volunteer Services.
“It was great to get all the volunteers together. They were all really excited to get back out and do what they love to do, which is volunteering and raising money for The Giving Store,” said Mazella.
“Registration for The Giving Store has opened and we’re always looking for volunteers to shop, and then help with set up and break down, and the day of the event,” she said.
Want to help? Give Judy a call at 386-597-2950 and sign up to volunteer for The Giving Store.
https://flaglervolunteer.org/about/the-giving-store/
VMA Announces Robot Brawl Battle Bot Winners
VMA is pleased to announce the winners of Saturday’s Robot Brawl 2021. The event was held at Jackie Robinson Ballpark on Saturday, October 2nd. The event included a variety of activities in addition to the Robot Brawl such as face painting and crafts, demonstrations from the Volusia Sheriff’s Department Bomb Squad, and a job board hosted Coastal Cloud.
Students from seven area schools entered a total of 33 robots that the students built for a chance to ‘brawl’ with each other and win prizes. There were hundreds of supporters, parents, families and manufacturers in attendance.
The robot names, schools, and prize amounts are as follows:
In the l lb. bot category, Burns Science & Technology Charter School won 1st place with their bot ‘Hyperkill’ and won $1,000. They also took 2nd place with ‘Rhino Flipper’ for $500, and 3rd place with ‘Super Nova’ for $250.
In the 3 lb. bot category, DeLand High School came in 1st place and won $1,000 with ‘Neptune’, DeLand also came in 2nd place in the 3 lb. weight class and won $500 with ‘Please Work’, and Deltona Middle School came in 3rd place with ‘Strobe Light’ for $250.
In the final 15 lb. weight class, New Smyrna Beach High School earned 1st place and $1,000 with ‘Edger’, Pine Ridge High School earned 2nd place and $500 with ‘No Good’, and DeLand High School earned 3rd place and $250 with ‘Hit & Run.’
“We are so grateful for the support of our sponsors that donate to these amazing students and allow us to host this event and give so much back to these well-deserving schools,” said VMA President & CEO Jessica Lovatt. “From our title sponsor to our School sponsors, we can’t thank them enough,” Jessica added.
The Robot Brawl was a multiple-round, single-elimination competition where points were earned by how much damage is inflicted on the other robot during each 90-second round. If they disabled the other robot, it was an automatic win. The three judges that donated their time were; Linda Cuthbert, Volusia County School Board Chair, Dr. Colleen Conklin, Flagler County School Board Vice-Chair and Florida State Representative Elizabeth Fetterhoff, District 26.
The schools participating in this year’s event were; Burns Science and Technology School, Deltona Middle School, New Smyrna Beach High School, Spruce Creek High, T Dewitt Taylor Middle High, DeLand High School, and Pine Ridge High School.
Media Release: Marketing 2 Go
Photo I: New Smyrna Beach High School takes home 1st place and $1,000 with their robot “Edger”.
Photo 2: Robot Brawl judges LtoR Florida State Representative Elizabeth Fetterhoff, District 26, Linda Cuthbert, Volusia County School Board Chair, Dr. Colleen Conklin, Flagler County School Board Vice-Chair.JPG
Photo 3: Emcee Frank Mercer interviews a bot pilot during the event.
New Business: Zen Arrives In Palm Coast Under Vedic Moons
Palm Coast, FL – In the quest for balance and harmony, people turn to all kinds of activities and remedies to achieve Zen in their lives.
Bringing a peaceful vibe to Palm Coast, Vedic Moons’ owner Erica Bridgham is tapping into her love of the holistic and natural universe to help others find what she’s discovered, through her spiritual wellness center.
A serial entrepreneur, the New Yorker has owned and managed restaurants and nightclubs in the past, in addition to a multi-media marketing company, and her health was a casualty of the fast-paced corporate world.
After looking deep within herself, she decided to make a change and began studying the practice of Ayurveda, an Eastern philosophy of healing your mind, body and soul with nature and herbs.
“This was my calling, my purpose. Spirituality, Ayurveda and yoga has healed my life. Now it brings me so much joy and I feel that when I’m doing this work, I feel good,” she said.
“When I was doing my other work, I was stressed. There was just so much wrong happening there and I was like, ‘this is not it for me’. I didn’t want to wake up there in the morning and take care of everything. Even though I had so many employees, I still did it, but I wasn’t happy, and it actually made me sick.”
“I went to school in New York City at Ayurveda’s World and I trained under Dr. Naina Marballi. She is classically trained in Ayurveda medicine, she’s a doctor in India, she’s been doing this for over 45 years and she’s still my mentor today,” shared Bridgham.
Bridgham’s husband Ryan is from St. Johns County, and when the couple headed south, found Palm Coast to be the place they wanted to plant their roots.
“I’ve been a New Yorker my whole life but it’s changed a lot,” said Bridgham. “I meditated on this and wanted a place where I could put my feet, start a family and inspire others and be more in nature. Palm Coast is absolutely beautiful. I’m so grateful to be here.”
In a community that is health conscious, Vedic Moons’ classes and workshops meld seamlessly with the community. After hosting her official grand opening on Saturday, October 2nd, she held her first Hatha flow yoga class the following Wednesday evening, setting a schedule of classes and workshops engaging the community.
“We’ve opened our yoga and meditation room so you can come in for slow, restorative yoga, hatha yoga and also mindfulness meditation classes. We have hours during the week when the room’s just open for you to come in, do your own thing, and we also will offer some energy healing. We have an in-house psychic medium and tarot card reader, so you can book those and you’ll have your private time with them,” she said.
“I want to teach people about how they can heal themselves,” said Bridgham. “It doesn’t have to always be a prescription bottle.”
Bringing a natural energy to the shop that’s nestled into the St. Joe Business Plaza on Palm Coast Parkway, there are crystals, tumbled gemstones, candles, and other metaphysical pieces, designed to help find or restore that center point.
A Tarot card library lets the curious explore and an herbal apothecary stocked with over 150 organic natural herbs ranging from licorice root to peppermint leaf and whole berry goji line the shelves, ready to serve in a variety of recipes for cooking, teas, baths and spiritual wellness.
Bridgham takes the time to get to know each client before handing over an herbal mix, and relies on her training for best practices.
“It does consist of me getting to know you and your constitution. We want to make sure everything works in balance with your body. There are so many other factors – what medicines you are on, what ailments you have, and I’ve actually told people I’m not giving certain herbs because they have certain things going on,” she said.
Response from the community has been one of welcome according to Bridgham, and they hope to expand their space within the plaza.
“We want it to be a collective space for every back ground and religion,” she said. “We’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback, so I’m grateful for that.”
Find out more at www.vedicmoons.com.
Vedic Moons
4984 Palm Coast Parkway, NW, Suite 4 Palm Coast, FL
386-585-5167
Hours: M-Sun: 10 am – 7 pm
Eggs & Issues: FDOT: The Growth and Future of Volusia’s Transportation
Eggs & Issues is the premier event venue for discussion of public and legislative affairs in the Daytona Beach region.
Join us to gather strategic information for your business and be part of important conversations that work to better our community.
The Daytona Regional Chamber of Commerce is proud to host Florida Department of Transportation District Five Secretary Jared Perdue. Join us at our Eggs & Issues event to hear from Secretary Perdue about Volusia County’s current and future plans for transportation needs in our region.
Daytona Regional Chamber member admission is $17 in-person at Halifax River Yacht Club. Future member’s admission is $35. Advanced registration is required. Please make sure you are logged into your member portal to receive your member rate when registering for this event. This Eggs & Issues program is made possible in part by Halifax Health and the Daytona Beach News-Journal.
We know safety is important to everyone. With the increasing number of COVID cases in our County, we continue to encourage you to safely participate at a level that is comfortable to you. We ask that you wear a mask while attending our programs and meetings indoors or are unable to social distance inside or out. We will respectfully abide by any requirements that are stipulated by our venue hosts and ask that you respect this decision and continue supporting our local business community.
If you need assistance or have questions about registering for this event please contact Shanna Coley Hughes, Program Manager, 386.523.3672 or shanna@daytonachamber.com
