A canvas of umbrellas: Florida Women's Art Association opens spring exhibit at MOAS

As president of the Florida Women's Art Association, LC Tobey wanted to bring forth a spring exhibit that had never been done before at the Museum of Arts and Sciences. 

And in turn, she thought of her 2019 trip to Paris. Umbrella art installations are fairly common. During her trip, Tobey got the chance to experience one, a memory that resurged once she took the helm of FLWAA, which has a membership of over 100 artists. But what would make their exhibit stand out is that, unlike most installations of this kind, which are composed of clusters of colored umbrellas, FLWAA's would be individually painted. 

"I like to stretch people," said Tobey with a laugh. "And I told them, 'You've never done an installation before so I'm going to stretch you.' ... So we brought in the umbrellas and we said, 'We want you stretch your imagination and do this installation and we want you to use the umbrella as your canvas.'" 

Thus, "The Color of Rain" exhibit at MOAS was born. It opened on March 26 and will run through May 22. According to a press release, the exhibit invites visitors to ponder, "How do you conceive color when it is with rain?" as they listen to rain sounds, sponsored by CitiSound. 

"Rain doesn't really have a color," Tobey said. "But what I challenged the artists to do was to give their interpretation on their umbrella canvas of what rain looks like when it touches color, because it works as a magnifying glass — it just magnifies the color and it makes the colors brilliant and dark and deep." 

Exceeding expectations

A total of 44 artists contributed to the exhibit, with about half of them being from Ormond Beach. 

Local artist Teri Althouse painted one of the exhibit's rainbow floral umbrellas, a collaboration with three other artists, and as someone who typically works in a different medium to most — alcohol inks — working with an umbrella as a canvas was a challenging project.

"The inks work really well on the umbrellas, but you're always worried about, 'Is it going to hold up? Is it going to last? Is there going to be problems down the road?'" Althouse said. "But the whole experience was really a lot of fun."

And why a rainbow floral for her inspiration? Althouse said that's because rainbows emerge after rain. The collaboration with the other artists was also a great experience, and she enjoyed witnessing their varying artistic expressions become cohesive. 

Seeing the exhibit come together in the end was overwhelming, she added.

"It was more than I ever expected," she said. "It was so beautiful, and there were so many different ideas and different artistic takes on the color of rain. It was almost emotional."

Walking into a dream

Tobey had a clear picture in mind of what the exhibit would look like from the start. She took it as a sign that, despite the challenge, it would come together. 

"My grandmother used to say, 'If you can see it, it's going to happen,' Tobey said.

The umbrellas were juried into the show and 48 were selected. Some artists, she shared, still couldn't picture the end result when they dropped their pieces off. Many were rendered speechless when they saw it during the opening reception on March 28.

"I was smiling from ear to ear because I had seen it in my mind, I imagined it — but to actually see it be birthed and come alive ... it was like a dream," Tobey said. "I walked into a dream, and it's so nice to have so many people who believe in you to make this a reality."

Tobey doesn't have an umbrella in the show, but she does have sculpture. 

As her husband was helping remove umbrella handles for some of the pieces, she looked at them and began brainstorming, deciding she would make a something out of the 22 handles. Tobey, who in addition to painting and photography is also a glass artist, stuck the handles in a plexiglass puddle. The sculpture is part of the exhibit. 

"I like to do things that are funny, and I think some people got it," she said. "They just walked up to it and they started laughing."