Three months of shows including fleeing a screaming X, creating new work and finding another flavor of paradise. RhondaK's new mermaids and stories behind her Old Florida Style Folk Art. http://www.rhondakwrites.com

1. 3 MONTHS OF SHOWS, WHOAS AND BEAUS CASEY KEY AS HEAVEN ON EARTH AKA Thank God I’m a Single Girl RhondaK’s Thanksgiving November 2009 Slideshow about Shows RHONDAK NATIVE FLORIDA FOLK ARTIST http://www.rhondakwrites.com

2. This is a sign that I’ve found some success with the past few months. The two palms are the one’s that used to be in the front of my Siesta Key under the radar home. I repeat them over and over because they mean something to me. Something about place. Fun. Finding the bottom to my heart. Unfortunately, my not so good, not so loving, not so heart-full X-beau caused a series of incidents where I ended up in a crackhouse in Port Charlotte. I left him there where…he sunk two boats in one week. So much for being a commercial fisherman. Being more of a mermaid type myself.. with “The Tide Always Changes” in my blood..I left. Who actually would stay with a sinking ship within sight of land and sanity? Besides, he started loosing his mind and would run screaming down the street. A sort of problem many Port Charlotte neighbors seemed to share. If it was something in the water, it was water running down the streets. I’m not sure why he thought I’d enjoy staying. Though looking back, it was pretty funny stuff. RhondaK’s Thanksgiving November 2009 Slideshow about Shows RHONDAK NATIVE FLORIDA FOLK ARTIST http://www.rhondakwrites.com

3. Casey Key is the type of place that would melt you into tropical scented butter. It is a bone meltingly beautiful place where you can get back to the Sea that moves you. This is Sadie pug watching the Nokomis Beach Sunset. As locals, we can go down on our private beach and just get into our own zone of happy, peaceful pugness. Which I hope is reflected in my merry-time, lush life art. RHONDAK NATIVE FLORIDA FOLK ARTIST http://www.rhondakwrites.com

4. RHONDAK NATIVE FLORIDA FOLK ARTIST http://www.rhondakwrites.com This photo is from Pop’s Sunset Grille. After staring at this spine softening sunset through these Happy Hour Bottles I came up with a new series of signs.

5. RHONDAK NATIVE FLORIDA FOLK ARTIST http://www.rhondakwrites.com

6. RHONDAK NATIVE FLORIDA FOLK ARTIST http://www.rhondakwrites.com This is an article from the Gulfport Gabbler. The night I fled my Port Charlotte crackhouse and the falling apart screaming running down the street X-beau ( seriously—you couldn’t make that up )…I packed up my Ford and went to do Geckofest. I had no idea where I was going to live, land—BE. It was my best show EVER. I used the money to find a place to live on the semi-exclusive Casey Key where it is rumored Stephen King, Oprah Winfrey and some Mafia live. And I got some not so bad press.

7. RHONDAK NATIVE FLORIDA FOLK ARTIST http://www.rhondakwrites.com

8. RHONDAK NATIVE FLORIDA FOLK ARTIST http://www.rhondakwrites.com Some time ago I sent a sign and lyrics to Jimmy Buffett’s office in the Keys. I wanted to sell him the lyrics to get a boat. Two months after Alan, TikiMan, killed himself in the Keys. It is possible this X beau was the love of my life. Maybe. Who can tell. He was a man who meant a great deal to me, got me to leave a bad job and bad life…and left me on a boat. Sounds bad … but it wasn’t. X’s…are often the very important doors closing. Buffett still hasn’t bought the song, but the road to trying to sell it, write it, hold it—has been a better life.

9. RHONDAK NATIVE FLORIDA FOLK ARTIST http://www.rhondakwrites.com I have been producing a lot of new work. Particularly many new original mermaid signs. I’ll show these in a few slides. They are “signs you are a mermaid” or “signs you might be a mermaid.” Plus just a lot of colors with sayings I’ve written, lived, created…found and more.

10. RHONDAK NATIVE FLORIDA FOLK ARTIST http://www.rhondakwrites.com

11. RHONDAK NATIVE FLORIDA FOLK ARTIST http://www.rhondakwrites.com

12. RHONDAK NATIVE FLORIDA FOLK ARTIST http://www.rhondakwrites.com In these past three months, I did about 10 shows from Tampa to Punta Gorda. A sign painter stole my copyrighted saying "WALK A MILE IN MY FLIP FLOPS...and Bring me back a BEER!.."© and I had to ask them to cease. So I continue to worry how someone at my level can protect original work like this soon to be copyrighted “signs you might be” and “signs you are a” mermaid series. This is the sort of fear that keeps many people from doing anything. I have to say when I saw my words on this lifeless pink square sign --- I felt sick. Because those words…and the one’s I’ve written are about my actual real life. I try to make something of my flip flop time.

13. RHONDAK NATIVE FLORIDA FOLK ARTIST http://www.rhondakwrites.com

14. RHONDAK NATIVE FLORIDA FOLK ARTIST http://www.rhondakwrites.com

15. RHONDAK NATIVE FLORIDA FOLK ARTIST http://www.rhondakwrites.com I did Bayfest 2009 in Bradenton Beach, Florida and saw some of my signs at work ( Barreda’s Custom chalkboard.) I also did my first real fair with rides. I still do custom chalkboards. I’m about to do a gratis one for Bridge Street Market in Bradenton Beach where I’ll be selling through May.

16. RHONDAK NATIVE FLORIDA FOLK ARTIST http://www.rhondakwrites.com I picked up a new store in the wonderful Old Florida fishing village Matlache. I started painting 3 foot mermaids that I sell for $50 and up. All are one of a kind. These are the only two I have right now. They both have their own spirit. The one on the right is a new version of my “pirate mermaid.” After a really bad May-August, I find myself painting “Seas the Day” And the “tide always changes” over and over again. It has magic in it. Trust me.

17. RHONDAK NATIVE FLORIDA FOLK ARTIST http://www.rhondakwrites.com I am typing this the day after Thanksgiving 2009. This is a painting of the place where I moved to with Alan-may he rest in peace. It is the Star Fish Company in Cortez, Florida. I still sell there and paint funked up Folk art pics of it with many of the signs I wrote there around it. Some classics. I’ve been writing here, too. It isn’t life on a boat…but it in its own fashion very spiritually intense. Paradise comes in many flavors.

18. RHONDAK NATIVE FLORIDA FOLK ARTIST http://www.rhondakwrites.com

19. RHONDAK NATIVE FLORIDA FOLK ARTIST http://www.rhondakwrites.com I am thankful Sadie the pug and I escaped from a really bad ( though somewhat hilariously bad ) situation. We live now in a beach cottage, walk on an uncrowded beach, sell more places, do more work and …. Have more fun. And no one screams at us. And I am thankful to all the people, places, and dreams that have brought me here.