FIND ARTIST TARA O"NEILL in tiny, mitten-size, Goodland, one of just a handful of working fishing villages remaining on Florida's Gulf Coast. Born the ninth of ten robust children to an Irish immigrant father and grammatically fussy mother, art gave Tara a private deliverance from chaos, and a voice to be heard over bedlam. The tropical palette of her childhood continues to significantly affect Tara's work. Although most noted for her vivid oil paintings, she has admirably proved her hand at drawing, photography, print-making, assemblage sculpture, carpentry, and bartending.

      BEFORE EARNING baccalaureates in both Fine Arts (studio) and English (creative writing) from University of South Florida, Tara had formal studies in art at Northern Virginia Community College, Fairfax, VA; Plymouth State College, New Hampshire; Brookes College at Oxford, England; museum workshops in Dublin, Ireland and Florence, Italy. Throughout all she also managed to study informally in Central America, the Caribbean Islands, the western (U.S.) high desert, and several places quite off the map. (The Artist highly recommends the Scottish Highlands for cobalt blues, apple greens, and exquisite whisky.)

     EXHIBITIONS and Public Works include: Blue Mangrove Gallery (current), Marco Island Executive Airport; Hillsborough Public Library Fine Arts Gallery; Tampa Museum of Art; USF Conremporary Art Museum; Leadership Marco Wet Paint Live!; Art League of Marco Island; Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Center; Goodland's Post Office Mural Project; Naples' Gators Galore public sculpture project and Marco Island's Dolphin Debut; presenter at Tommie Barfield Elementary School's Artist and Writers Workshop. In 2000 Tara was awarded the Marco Island Chamber of Commerce's Beautification Award for an 85' x 22' mural that sailed across the Island's water tank.

MEMBERSHIPS:
     United Arts Council of Collier County
     Marco Island Art League, Center for the Arts
     Naples Art Association, Von Liebig Art Center
     Naples ArtCrafters
     Marco Island Foundation for the Arts
     Marco Island Area Chamber of Commerce
     Goodland Civic Association
     Phi Kappa Phi

     NOT TO MISS: Every April since 2003 Tara hosts a dynamic one-woman exhibition (with a mighty colorful reception) at Little Bar Restaurant in beautiful "uptown" Goodland.