by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
A lot of preparation goes into the Jacksonville Jazz Festival, which begins Thursday night with the Jazz Piano Competition at the Florida Theatre and continues Friday, Saturday and Sunday of Memorial Day weekend.
Musicians make travel plans, street vendors set up and Downtown’s businesses prepare for a crowd.
Sharla Valeski, artist and owner of The Next Gallery on Laura Street, is working on a new series, “Happy Flowers,” just for the festival. She set up a work table near the front window of the gallery and has been creating the originals for about a week.
The process she’s using combines ink with watercolors. First, Valeski draws the outline of the flower petals, then applies the pigment with a dropper.
“It’s like the ink and the watercolor kind of fight each other,” she said.
Valeski said although this will be the first festival since she opened the gallery, it won’t be her first experience exhibiting during the event. She participated in the “Art in the Park” element several years ago at Metropolitan Park.
“The wind was blowing my work all over the place. I said ‘never again,’” she said. “I think Downtown is a much better place to have the jazz festival.”
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