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Artist Explores Passion With A Touch Of Glass

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By JOHN CEBALLOS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 1, 2008

RIVERVIEW - When Melissa Carter started drawing sea life on wine bottles three years ago, she did not necessarily envision showing her wares at art festivals across the state.

"I would paint the bottles and make lanterns out of them more as a hobby than anything else," Carter said.

Since that time, she has displayed her work in Ruskin's annual tomato and seafood festivals. In early February, she made a trip to Sarasota for the Siesta Key Arts Festival.

Her glasswork will next be seen at the 16th annual Apollo Beach Manatee Festival of the Arts on March 8-9, which will take place for the first time at the South Shore Community Park, 6896 U.S. 41 N.

This is the second time Carter will bring her work to the event.

The Detroit native eventually moved on from wine bottles to wine glasses and plates as her canvas. She also began painting colorful male and female forms on her wine glasses - in addition to sea life - which she dubbed "Groovy Guys" and "Lively Ladies."

Carter, who cleans houses in her spare time, said each wine glass with sea life takes about 15 to 30 minutes to create. The "Groovy Guys" take half an hour to complete, and the "Lively Ladies" take a little more than 45 minutes.

"The ladies are a little more intricate, so they take the longest to prepare," Carter said.

She estimates having completed 600 to 700 wine glass pieces.

Still, her passion is in another form of artistic expression.

When her husband of 39 years, Jeff, was diagnosed with brain cancer in June 2004, the couple started wearing yellow cancer awareness bracelets made popular by seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong. They have two children - Scott, 36, and Brandee, 34 - as well as seven grandchildren.

After Melissa Carter realized the yellow bracelets represented childhood cancer, she set about creating jewelry that corresponded to forms of the disease.

She designs a bracelet with 16 colored beads, including gray for brain cancer, representing forms of cancer. The bracelet is made of Sterling silver, and Swarvoski crystals are used for the beads.

The bracelets cost $38 and a portion of the proceeds go to H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute in Tampa.

"Fortunately Jeff is doing a lot better these days, but this is still very important to us," Carter said. "We have five different kinds of cancer in our family, so we wanted to be able to represent as many as we could."

GET TO KNOW

WHO: Melissa Carter

AGE: 59

RESIDENCE: Riverview

SPECIALTY: Glasswork

INFORMATION: (813) 672-6637 or visit www.jnmgulfcoastdog supply.com or www.jnmgulf coastcoffeeco.net and click on the "All Cancer Bracelet" link.

Reporter John Ceballos can be reached at (813) 865-1555 or jceballos@tampatrib.com.

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