Skilled Labor

Features a wide array of unique local talents from painters, artists and craftspeople to boat captains, builders and jewelers. If they’re good at what they do, we talk to them here. The 1-2 page section features an in-depth profile of the subject as well as excellent photographs of their work. Readers love recognizing a familiar face and connecting it to an equally familiar painting or piece of artwork. Regardless of the profile subject, Skilled Labor is always an enlightening and enjoyable read.

	Angel Irlanda "It took Dalí a lifetime of work to reach the point where he felt he found his true voice," Irlanda says. "'I've only just begun,' were his dying words. I'm starting where he left off, which is the responsibility of future generations of artists, to finish the work (their idols) began. I know the direction Dalí was trying to go. I've only just started and still have a long way to go. click here to read the interview
	Stanley Klopfenstine You'd never guess from looking around Stanley Klopfenstine's humble studio-cum-gallery that he's one of the world's most respected stained glass artists. click here to read the interview
	VinnieLu's Beachside Chocolates In response to a growing number of frustrated consumers in search of independently-owned alternatives, large businesses have taken to adopting plasticized faces while retaining their distant corporate structure. The result is a slew of chains featuring the innocuous and “neighborly” trappings of a Main Street America that’s quickly disappearing. click here to read the interview
	David Burton Burton had been playing the instrument throughout his Pittsburgh childhood until his father found a job at Kennedy Space Center and moved the family to Indialantic in 1967. While he’d progressed well and seemed destined for a spot in a world-class orchestra, Burton had a hard time finding an adequate oboe teacher in the area. Whenever he opened his case to reveal the formidable double reed woodwind, he was met with incredulous stares and recommendations that he commute to Orlando for lessons. click here to read the interview
	Damien Share The clementine, for the uninitiated, is a variety of mandarin orange, about the same size as a tangerine, but far juicier, sweeter, and happily seedless. The best clementines usually come from Spain, though I’ve bought some adequate examples from South Africa. They’re very easy to peel – the rind comes off in one sleeve-like piece – and small crates usually show up in markets as winter begins, which is often why they’re called “Christmas fruit.” click here to read the interview
	Matt Molnar I’ve never taken to any of these custom motorcycle reality shows. Apart from the way they feed the current American addiction to offensive ostentation, primadonnish belligerence, and Caligulan egotism , it’s hard to tell the tools being used from the hosts who use them. click here to read the interview
	Rick LaClaire The sculptural arts have always confounded me. I can see how Rembrandt spattered black here to bring out a wash of white light there, or how Van Gogh rendered breezes with thick, sweeping brushstrokes, but damned if I can figure out how Bernini, for instance, turned a solid piece of marble into an angel piercing the heart of a swooning St. Theresa. And how Brancusi or Moore carved smooth, lifelike curves out of such harsh, unforgiving angles is beyond me. Hell, I’m even amazed by the old dockside salt who’s whittled a stick into a whistle. click here to read the interview
	Gary Propper The more I dig deeper into his complex history, the more I feel like Martin Sheen’s Captain Willard in “Apocalypse Now” and the more Propper begins to resemble Brando’s Major Kurtz. While Kurtz was a far more foreboding quarry, Propper is shrouded in mists of similar mystery, and initial inquiries into his character only thicken them. Nonetheless, I set off up river intrigued, yet apprehensive. click here to read the interview
	Ross Tierney On April 12th, 1981, when a group of Portsmouth, England junior school students were let out of class to watch the televised launch of STS-1, two very important -- and very different -- journeys began. click here to read the interview
	Durke Schmidt Little over a decade ago, art critics were too busy scoffing at the rise of urban art forms to notice the sly changes it effected in advertising and nearly all forms of popular media. click here to read the interview
	Henry Lund Type in an internet search for "Henry Lund" and you'll come up with a site dedicated to the Clondalkin Paper Mill sit-ins of 1982-1987, along with a personal account by a man of the same name who emerged from the horrors of WWII relatively unscathed. click here to read the interview
	Kenny McArthur Anyone familiar with Cape Hatteras or, more specifically, Hatteras Village proper, knows what a unique place it is. Besides offering a glimpse back into a simpler era, what strikes visitors is the singular character of its inhabitants. click here to read the interview
	Mike Nemnich Indonesia's location in the Pacific "Ring of Fire" makes it one of the most geologically fragile regions in the world. Prone to earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes and flooding, the archipelagic nation is in a constant state of flux, as witnessed in.. .click here to read the interview
	R.L. Lewis Highwayman Painting You don't need to be a Sotheby's appraiser to recognize the value of an original Highwaymen painting. click here to read the interview
	Pam Werneth Mother Nature isn't as perfect as we'd all like to think. Hurricanes are a big clue, and earthquakes aren't all that great, but scoop up a handful of sand, and you'll see what I'm talking about. click here to read the interview
	Stephanie Delaney How Indialantic resident Stephanie Delaney manages to raise four children on her own while creating art is a wonder in itself. That she’s created such a huge, widely-ranged body of work is nothing short of a miracle. click here to read the interview
	Steve Harris You wouldn’t think it flipping through his portfolio or admiring the many pieces adorning his studio, but Cocoa Beach artist Steve Harris' low grades in art class nearly kept him from graduating high school. click here to read the interview
	Wayne Coombs There’s a wood sculpture in Cocoa Beach’s Mai Tiki gallery that’s more illustrative of artist Wayne Coombs’ personality than any of his highly-praised and hugely popular tikis. click here to read the interview
	Paul Wren Just on the outskirts of Downtown Melbourne, there’s a building so full of creativity that it spills out the doors and onto the surrounding sidewalk. The exterior walls are covered with artwork and the pavement is decorated with a fake (I hope) chalk outline. Each day, people visit TH-INKER Tattoo Studio and carry a piece of creativity out with them. Proprietor Paul Wren has been providing tattoo art to the Brevard community for the past 16 years, and both his studio and artwork reflect his creative approach to the tattoo world.  click here to read the interview
	Bruce Reynolds The enduring image of the surfer as the apolitical free agent of the past, though clung to tightly by many, is somewhat outdated by 21st Century standards. That hairy, carefree beatnik swaddled in the cozy blanket of neutrality isn’t much more than an unattainable ideal in this era of mass computerization, cultural globalization, and the omnipresent threat of terrorism. click here to read the interview
	Jim Hannan Victorian art critic, essayist, and draughtsman John Ruskin was obsessed with water. He spent much of his childhood observing it wash against the London docks and spent the latter part of his life trying to capture its transience in words and sketches, even going so far as to dabble in hydrology and meteorology to better grasp its attributes. click here to read the interview
	Fishing Aboard The Relentless II with Captain Scott Bussen I’ve never been fishing. Sure, when I was a kid I would catch an occasional brim or catfish behind my house in the creek, but I’d never really been Fishing. click here to read the interview
	Georgio Andonov Though his knowledge of English is somewhat limited, painter Georgi Andonov is one of the most eloquent men I’ve met. click here to read the interview
	Robert Tomlin Ever met a guy who's got it all figured out? I don't mean a guy who thinks he's got it all figured out - there are plenty of those around - but a guy who wears the unmistakable grin of one who rides life daily and refuses to philosophize from the shore. click here to read the interview