Traversing the wilds of downtown Tampa on a beautiful day in March, I began my march through the awesome jungle of tents that were scattered across Tampa streets like a nomadic caravan. Tampa’s largest art festival, The Gasparilla Arts Festival, was held March 4-5th. Featuring over 300 artisans from all over the United States, there was something for everyone here, including fried fair style foods and portable water fountains that looked like urinals to me(oops, sorry).

The problem with this event, now in its 36th year, is that there is too much. From arts and crafts to paintings of sunsets to serious art, the experience tends to be overwhelming for me. After about two hours I reach my art saturation point, and there is no possible way to adequately view and appreciate the good stuff that is sandwiched in between wooden birdhouses and seashore paintings.

This year a separate event “The Booty Art Expo”, coordinated by Tampa’s Covivant Gallery owner Carrie Mackin, was presented in 8 PODS (not the Body Snatcher kind). In a novel display idea 8 local artists/galleries displayed their work in mobile storage pods that are normally used in moving. The body of art was above average, showcasing the blossoming Tampa art scene. As I backed up my U-Haul to one of the PODS to unload some old furniture organizer Mackin rebuffed me(just kidding). Hopefully presentations like “The Booty Art Expo” can become an ongoing project in downtown Tampa.

Check out 49 seconds of Art Booty video at www.tampabaymuse.com.

The Heaven and Hell Car
While wandering through the streets during the Gasparilla Art Fest I came upon a curious sight, a strangely decorated Honda parked along the street with all the other festivalgoers. Standing beside his creation, Chris Hubbard (CHUB), dressed in overalls and a white t-shirt looked like a wise weary traveler. As he chain-smoked he spoke of leaving his establishment job as a bio-scientist and dropping out to do art. While living in Tampa in the late 1990’s he was inspired by a Clearwater couple’s art car to create his own art car dubbed “The Heaven and Hell car”, addressing themes of man’s inherent nature of good and evil.

Chris currently lives in Athens Georgia when he is not traveling the world in his art car. He has also recently started making original art pieces out of sheet metal and found objects. Check out more of the Heaven and Hell car and Chris' original artwork at www.heavenandhellcar.com.

Check out my video interview of Chris Hubbard at www.tampabaymuse.com.