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Arts and Entertainment: Arts Center Gears Up for Big Weekend
December 3rd, 2008

Arts and Entertainment: Gallery Walk to Kick Off Holidays
November 4th, 2008

Arts and Entertainment: First Art Exhibit of Season
October 30th, 2008

Arts and Entertainment: Arts Center Plans Children`s Art Classes
June 13th, 2008

Arts and Entertainment: Student Art Featured at Arts Center
May 2nd, 2008

Arts and Entertainment: Highwaymen Movie Offered Thursday
April 15th, 2008

Arts and Entertainment: Enter the World of Connie Nelson
April 4th, 2008

Arts and Entertainment: Call to Artists
March 22nd, 2008

Arts and Entertainment: Benefit Lunch for Children`s Art Program
March 7th, 2008

Arts and Entertainment: Arts Center Plans March Opening
February 29th, 2008

Arts and Entertainment: 3-D Show Coming Saturday at Arts Center
January 29th, 2008

Arts and Entertainment: Rock the Boat Art Show Displays New Talent
December 1st, 2007

Arts and Entertainment: Arts Center Opens Vibrant Show
November 12th, 2007

Arts and Entertainment: And the Winner Is......!
May 23rd, 2007

Arts and Entertainment: Rawlings Conference Continues Through Saturday
April 13th, 2007

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Enter the World of Connie Nelson

Enter the World of Connie Nelson

By Marsha Schwartz

"Enter the World of Connie Nelson"

April 5 - May 2

Opening Reception Saturday April 5 5 - 7 PM

The April exhibition at the Cedar Key Arts Center features Connie Nelson, a mixed media artist whose extraordinary talent reflects her wisdom and belies her humility.

Next year Connie Nelson will have been living permanently in Cedar Key for 30 years. She was born in Minnesota in the early years of WW II and spent her formative years there. When asked when she first knew she wanted to be an artist she said " I always had the desire to create. I had an enormous admiration for other artists, but initially didn't believe in my own talent."

Connie graduated from college with a BA in Fine Arts. She then migrated to Bennington College in Vermont where she continued to study art. The art community there included , among others, Kenneth Noland, William T. Wiley the California funk artist, Robert Motherwell and Helen Frankenthaler, some of the most famous contemporary artists of the late 20th century. She was surrounded by the "east Coast heavies" and the West Coast loosies" as she puts it. Connie insists that she had an awful lot of luck to be around artists with reputations and ambition and she was deeply influenced by them. After Bennington, she moved to Brown College, where she looked at art constantly and continued to soak up art like a sponge. Connie also taught basic design at Rhode Island School of Design.

Connie eventually moved to Boston, where she met Kevin Hipe. They left Boston together in 1978 and made their way to Florida and Cedar Key by February 1979. They had headed south into the unknown with no plan, "just to find a better way to live" . They needed to follow their own ideas and turn off the noise of ambition. When they found Cedar Key, they knew that this was "it". Soon after arriving in Cedar Key, Connie was awarded a Florida Individual artist Fellowship and began receiving contracts to produce art for book jackets. She also was chosen to produce the art for the t-shirts and posters for the prestigious Winter Part Art Festival. She and Kevin opened the Suwannee Triangle Gallery in 1985 and remained in business for 22 years. They also ran the weekend Children's Art Classes in Cedar Key for 7 years. Connie designates these classes as the most satisfying teaching experience of her career.

Connie's sense of humor and vision of herself and her art are evident in the body of work on display at the Arts Center. As she will tell you herself, the events of 9/11 became a seminal turning point in her life as an artist. There is a serious undertone to even the most seemingly whimsical pieces in this show. Be sure to see this major exhibition of an amazing artist.

Editor`s Note: See an article featuring selected works of Connie Nelson on Cedar Key News --Online.

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