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Highlands Today

Downtown Art Festival Attracts A Crowd

Jesse Osbourne/Highlands Today

Vergie-Anne Wade from Maine checks out shoes made by Mik & Barb Wright, owners of "Those Shoes" company at the 12 Hours of Art festival in downtown Sebring Saturday morning.

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By Gary Pinnell | Highlands Today

Published: November 11, 2007

SEBRING — If there's a word to describe what Geno Beuth does, it must be whimsy.
Yes, it's the same sort of whimsy that created the now-famous portrait of the dogs smoking and shooting pool, but nevertheless, virtually everyone on Saturday who passed by Beuth's booth at the 41st annual Fine Arts & Crafts Festival stopped, looked and reacted.

"I like the frog," one observed. That's called "Leap Frog," and it's of a mutt, tongue hanging out of a silly grin, hitting a frog's back in full stride, and jumping over it.

"Woodstock" is a dog playing an electric guitar. "I saw a picture of a teenager playing a guitar, and it all started there," said Beuth, who moved to Sun N' Lake of Sebring from Estero two months ago.
Until 1983, Beuth was a New York City ad agency executive for J. Walter Thompson, then went to Denver as the creative director. Gene Beuth studied at the Phoenix School of Design, Pratt institute, and the School of Visual Arts in New York City. He made films for CBS, Young and Rubicam, and Sesame Street.

Beuth was among 35 artists who exhibited on the traffic circle Saturday, plus 37 craftsmen on North Ridgewood Circle.

The other booth that attracted unusual attention was Mik Wright's ThoseShoes, all hand-made, hand-dyed and hand-painted.

"They're gorgeous," exclaimed one woman. "How much are they?"
"Two hundred and thirty dollars," Wright said. She put them back down. Just looking.
No two shoes are alike, Wright said. Some are tropical themes, some African, where Wright was born. All are lined with goat leather.

Down one of the side streets was Joanne Lauchman. Her helpers weren't letting anyone just pass by the Henscratch Farms tent.

"Mandatory wine tasting," she called out, handing a tiny plastic soufflé cup to a woman.
"It's not 5 o'clock yet," the woman said, smiling for a little encouragement. She got it.
"Oh, it's 5 o'clock somewhere," Lauchman assured. She brought samples from three vintages, a red and a blush that have won silver medals, and a white that got the Concordance award.

Back to Beuth, he also paints, but rarely exhibits those. As for the statuettes, which are made of celuclay, the hard-as-rock modern day replacement for paper mache', they're for sale. The range is from $1,350 to $2,300.

If that sounds expensive, Beuth said it's just a hobby. What he enjoys more is making people smile, and watching their reactions to his creations.

"I've created art for somebody else all my life," Beuth said. "This is for me."

More info: GenoArt.com

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