![]() As she navigates the twisted relationships between her new friends and their powerful parents, Sawyer’s search for the truth about her own origins is just the beginning. There are people in her grandmother’s glittering world who are not what they appear, and no one wants Sawyer poking her nose into the past. The one thing she doesn’t expect to find is friendship, but as she’s drawn into a group of debutantes with scandalous, dangerous secrets of their own, Sawyer quickly discovers that her family isn’t the only mainstay of high society with skeletons in their closet. ![]() ![]() But when she realizes that immersing herself in her grandmother’s “society” might mean discovering the answer to the biggest mystery of her life-her father’s identity-she signs on the dotted line and braces herself for a year of makeovers, big dresses, bigger egos, and a whole lot of bless your heart. And she definitely never imagined she would accept. Originally from Louisville (or, as she pronounces it, “Lou-a-vall”), Kentucky, Claudia has lived in Fort Myers for more than 42 years.Eighteen-year-old auto mechanic Sawyer Taft did not expect her estranged grandmother to show up at her apartment door and offer her a six-figure contract to participate in debutante season. To perfect her treatment of light and shadow, Claudia studied with realism artist Terry Lynn Spry and, more recently, with Francisco Gilia, who has nurtured her love of oil painting and helped Claudia perfect her technique. ![]() Since then, she has infused her drawings, painting and collages with a dreamlike quality filled with surrealistic symbolism using paint, paper, photos, found objects and more to render her compositions. That changed when she took a class on surrealism taught by Victor Flores. For the longest time, collage was her medium of choice. Goode has been pursuing her passion for art since she was five years old. For example, in 2022 alone, Claudia curated more than 20 one-person art exhibits at Arts for ACT as well as a juried group exhibition consisting of over 40 artists. Her myriad duties include hosting a monthly first Friday “artful evening” and “meet the artist” reception, choosing the artists and curating the artworks that will be featured each month and then hanging the show, which often includes hundreds of two and three-dimensional works of art. And since 2003, she has also served as the curator of the gallery. Goode has been its Human Resource Director since 2000. The acronym stands for Abuse Counseling and Treatment, which is the domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking center in Fort Myers. Once you do, it will come as no surprise that the artist who rendered this mural is none other than Claudia Goode.Ĭlaudia is best known throughout Southwest Florida as the curator and motivating force at Arts for ACT Gallery in the Arcade Building on First Street. But what you probably don’t know is how the fort that the Army built here came to be named for the Colonel – or why the artist who painted his portrait placed a pile of skulls at his feet. Mural 8 in the Fort Myers River Basin Mural Project depicts the town’s namesake, Colonel Abraham C.
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