by Natasha Khairullah
Staff Writer
Trevis X. Geary is on a mission. And she won’t stop until it’s accomplished.
The Jacksonville artist grew up on the Northside off Heckscher Drive and has had a clear view of the container cranes at Jacksonville Port Authority’s Blount Island Terminal all her life. She says the 150-foot-tall mammoth machinery – that most see as just “junk” – are spectacles to marvel at. That’s why they have been chosen as the subjects for her latest collection which, in partnership with the Port Authority, will be displayed at the upcoming Art Walk.
“So many people just push them out of their view,” said Geary of the large dockside mechanisms used to load and unload container ships. “It’s like they don’t even realize they’re there, despite their size. That’s why I decided to paint them.”
The collection of 12 large paintings, created with acrylic and charcoal on canvas, will be part of a month-long exhibit titled, “Water Works” that will be showcased at an opening reception at 6:30 p.m. on the third floor gallery of the Jacksonville Main Library.
“My favorite thing about the paintings is how many people see them and say, ‘Oh yeah, those big ... things’,” said Geary. “It’s almost as if they don’t register, and the idea of something so big going unnoticed is really amusing.”
Geary, who is also an elementary art and music teacher at St. Paul’s Catholic School in Riverside, was approached by the Port Authority to lend her work to the proposed exhibition after she started painting the cranes in August 2006.
“We just really loved what she was doing and wanted an opportunity to sponsor a show of her work,” said the Port Authority’s Graphics Coordinator Meredith Fordham. “It’s an honor for us.”
For Geary, the honor is all hers.
“Honestly, I’m just flattered that people have taken an interest in my work like this. That’s the biggest compliment that you can receive,” she said, adding that the business of organizing a show to introduce her work to an audience outside of her students and their parents has never been one she’s taken to.
“I’m just not that entrepreneurial type, I guess.”
The 33-year-old mother of three may be new to the art of exhibiting her work, but she’s definitely not new to “art.” Raised by two artists, Geary said she never received a formal introduction to painting or drawing but that a creative energy was always flowing in her household.
Her mother was an art teacher, so paints and art supplies were abundant and her father’s interest in the sciences provided telescopes and microscopes and every other fascinating trinket to pique a child’s curiosity and imagination.
Following high school at Stanton Preparatory, Geary attended Florida State University and majored in Biology with a minor in Art. Later in 2006, after a nine-year absence from school while raising her daughters, she received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of North Florida and has been teaching art to pre-K through grade 8 and music to grades 3-5, ever since.
“Outside of my world with them (her students), displaying my work has been pretty limited and I’m good with that, but this is definitely a wonderful opportunity.”
For more information on “Water Works”, e-mail [email protected].