Mayflower Dining Room Art Book

A Look into
the Art of

The Mayflower
Dining Room



Plymouth Harbor on Sarasota Bay is home to very generous
residents. The vast majority of art that adorns our campus
walls is a result of residents either bequeathing it to Plymouth
Harbor Foundation or donating restricted funds enabling the
purchase of artwork.
Graciously compiled by some resident art enthusiasts, this
brochure details the artwork in our Mayflower Restaurant and
Café. Four pieces of artwork were introduced in 2013, while the
remaining were acquired in 2019 and 2020. Many pieces are
of abstract media, while others are more representational. The
artists, all but one local to Sarasota, share their education, their
techniques and what inspires them. The experience of artwork is
interactive, sensory, cognitive, emotional or even spiritual and has
been proven to have a long-term change on our brain circuits. So
please enjoy the exciting artwork in our dining room.
Ruth Carmichael was a Plymouth Harbor resident from 1990
to1998. Her business, Art for Industry, brought modern art into
the lobbies and hallways of big businesses in Boston and New
York City. Artwork was rotated stimulating the minds of many
while giving the artists exposure. Upon her death, Ruth left a
permanently restricted endowed fund to Plymouth Harbor, from
which distributions go towards art and art-related activities.
We thank Ruth and all our donors who continue to make
Plymouth Harbor the vibrant place it is today.

Bonnie Bell

Biography

Bonnie Bell was a batik artist who was active in her art in the
1960s. She lived in one of Florida’s west coast communities south
of Sarasota and created her art in her home studio.
Batik is an ancient method of producing line, design and color
on textiles by dyeing them, after having first applied wax to the
fabric in the areas that were to be left untouched. Each color
“bath” requires a new application of wax to protect the areas not
to be dyed that particular color.

History of the Batik Panels at Plymouth Harbor

When Plymouth Harbor was built in 1966, the Mayflower
Dining Room had pictorial fabric panels at the windows as
drapes. Over the years, the fabric wore out; however, about a
dozen small scenes were saved and framed, plus the large panel
of The Ship.

This Batik Panel: The Ship

The large framed batik panel of the Mayflower ship in the Café
is the namesake of our Plymouth Harbor dining room.

Around Campus

Six of these smaller panels may be seen hanging in the north
and south corridors of the Tower Lobby.

The Ship

Details

Artist Name: Bonnie Bell
Title of Art: The Ship
Medium: Batik
Dimensions: 82” x 102”

Catherine Cyrus

Biography

Catherine Cyrus began painting at the age
of 12, taking private oil painting lessons and
has continued throughout her life studying
with her favorite artists including, Frank
Webb, Barbara Nechis, Polly Hammet,
Pat Dews and Robert Burridge. Her style
has progressed from realistic landscapes to
impressionistic florals and most recently,
to large dynamic abstracts.

Artist’s Statement

My current work is non-representational. It is challenging to
produce and at the same time challenges the viewer to project
whatever meaning onto it that comes from their own experience.
This makes it a more personal encounter.

This Painting: The Sea

This painting captures the beautiful blues of Sarasota’s own bay
waters, with all the variations of tone and movement.

The Sea

Details

Artist name: Catherine Cyrus
Title of Art: The Sea
Medium: Acrylic

Dimensions: 47” x 72½”

Robert Doyon

Biography

I am a self-described “Swiss Artist’s Knife,”
with skills and interests in all sort of creative
endeavors. After spending many years working
in design and fabrication in Orlando’s theme
parks, theaters and museum exhibits, and
assisting other artists in the making of their
artwork, I decided to nurture my own artist’s
spirit full-time. At the age of 48, I earned my
Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, with Honors,
in Sculpture/Painting from the Ringling
College of Art & Design in 1994.

Artist’s Statement

Over the past 25 years, I have created abstract and conceptual
works with deep connections to my experience and surroundings.
In the exhibition Walkabout, which takes the name of my most
recent series of paintings, I present a body of work that highlights my
passion for manual work and detail, but also frees me from previous
visual and emotional constraints.

This Painting: It’s a Lovely World

This painting is the result of immersing myself in music and just
following its lead of rhythm, color and space. I see this world from
above and within, rather than as if I would walk… since I am dancing!

It’s a Lovely World

Details

Artist name: Robert Doyon
Title of Art: It’s a Lovely World
Medium: Acrylic & Mixed Media on Gatorboard

Dimensions: 30” x 47”

Maro Lorimer

Biography

I spent my childhood on the bay, barrier islands
and beaches of Bellport on eastern Long Island,
NY. The love I have for the coastal environment
has stayed with me for life and is evident in my
paintings. After graduating from Brown University
I moved to Vail, Colorado. There, I focused on
watercolor painting and backcountry mountain
sports. Since my move to Anna Maria Island in
1999, my work has been represented there, at
the Studio at Gulf and Pine and at Sarasota’s Art
Uptown Gallery.

Artist’s Statement

In all my work, I am focused on sensations of space, solitude and serenity
that are disappearing from daily life but can still be felt on the water. I paint
entirely from my memories and imagination, inspired by summers of sailing
my small boat as a child: by the past thrill of being connected to the wind
and water through windsurfing in Hawaii, New Zealand and other dramatic
locations; and by my daily walks along the Gulf.

This Painting: Way Across the Bay

I am especially delighted to have a piece of my art shown in the Mayflower
Dining Room. Way Across the Bay demonstrates the simplicity of most of
my paintings. There are endless ways to paint the elements of water, land
and sky without getting into details. I think that by focusing only on these
fundamentals, I can express my awe for the natural world at a deeper level.

Around Campus

Three more of Maro’s paintings are on view in Colony 22’s card room.

Way Across the Bay

Details

Artist name: Maro Lorimer
Title of Art: Way Across the Bay

Medium: Acrylic
Dimensions: 48” x 36”

Paul Mathisen

Biography

I was born in Lakewood, Ohio, and my
family moved frequently all over the world.
I was introduced to the world of painting
and ceramics at boarding school in Duchess
County, New York, and studied Creative Arts
at Bradford College in Bradford, Mass. and
Art History at Massachusetts College of Art
in Boston. My inspiration comes from artists
Jackson Pollock, Helen Frankenthaler and
Ron Ehlrich.

Artist’s Statement

By altering the landscape with ambiguous shapes and images, it’s
like a dream in which you never touch the ground. In my work, I
invite the viewer into a visual world of color, form and imagination
that is completely unexpected. Over time, I have achieved the ability
to release and gain control over my materials that allows the art to
become itself. When I paint, I have a dialogue with color.

This Painting: Blue and Yellow Make Green

This painting is a jumping off point for all my creative thoughts and
ideas. Contemplating color combinations in abstract paintings unifies
form, color, texture and shape, thereby unifying the composition.

Blue and Yellow
Make Green

Details

Artist name: Paul Mathisen
Title of Art: Blue and Yellow Make Green
Medium: Acrylic Spray Paint on Handmade Board

Dimensions: 43” x 60”

Laine Nixon

Biography

Laine grew up in Oklahoma, then left for
college at the University of Tennessee where
she earned a Bachelor of Science in math,
then a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting
from the University of South Florida. Her
work is in the collections of RBC Wealth
Management, SRQ Media and Hillsborough
Community College.

Artist’s Statement

At home in Oklahoma, I found refuge in the magnificent sunsets
and storms of the Great Plains. There I discovered my love of the
purely aesthetic, abstract, wordless experience that I express through
my artwork. I work in various media, and I focus on color, pattern
and strict systems to develop work that is above all abstract, yet still
warm and accessible.

This Collage: Assent

The Assent series began as a small experiment using the vast
quantity of color studies that had accumulated in my studio. I cut
them into strips and arranged them, looking for visual balance and
allowing the empty spaces between them to become part of the work.
The title “Assent” is another word for agreement. It reveals my
belief in making an active choice about what we keep, crop, edit or
omit; in other words, the choice to create harmony.

Assent

Details

Artist name: Laine Nixon
Title of Art: Assent
Medium: Collage

Dimensions: 60” x 41”

Judy Lyons Schneider

Biography

Born in NYC and educated at the Art Students
League and NYU, Judy Lyons Schneider has
been actively involved with the making of art
for more years than she’d like to acknowledge.
An advocate for the visual arts, Ms.
Schneider is heavily involved with Women
Contemporary Artists, the Petticoat Painters,
the International Society of Experimental
Artists, and, local art centers. “I have been
making art since I was a very young girl,” she
said. “Now a salt-and-pepper-haired woman, I am
still making art. It’s an essential part of my life.”

Artist’s Statement

Inspired by the natural world and its human inhabitants — I see
them through a somewhat abstract lens. When I’m out in the world,
my camera is my sketchbook. In my studio, I find it exciting to
alternate and mix mediums. My work, be it collage, photography,
encaustics, painting or printmaking is almost always layered, both in
technique and meaning.

This Collage: Into the Cosmos

The origin of this collage is the prayer flags of Tibet. It is believed,
I was told, that as newly printed prayer flags are hung, the elements
remove the messages and they are absorbed into the cosmos. A
beautiful thought!

Into the Cosmos

Details

Artist name: Judy Lyons Schneider
Title of Art: Into the Cosmos
Medium: Collage
Dimensions: 41” x 31½”

David Steiner

Biography

David received a Bachelor of Arts in art history
from Colorado State University in Fort Collins. This
included an overseas study program in Vienna,
Austria, in 1979. He and his wife Tre Michel have
owned and operated State of the Arts Gallery in
Sarasota since 2004. His work is represented in
many commercial/public installations, executive
collections and private collections.

Artist’s Statement

My art career has evolved over nearly 30 years, and my extensive
knowledge and passion for art history has influenced my work — stylistic
changes are my trademark. My works are often the reflection of 4,000 years
of art history.

This Painting: Anasazi Compass

The Anasazi is a civilization that arose as early as 1500 BC. Their
descendants are today’s Pueblo Indians and the Hopi, who currently live
in 20 communities along the Rio Grande in New Mexico and in northern
Arizona.

Throughout my art career, I have been fascinated by ancient civilizations.
After some initial research, I became fascinated with their astronomical
endeavors and this is where the “compass” comes in. The painting is
reminiscent of desert colors and inscriptions found on the walls of the
archaeological sites.

Around Campus

Another of David’s paintings hangs in Colony 6 across from the elevators.

Anasazi Compass

Details

Artist name: David Steiner
Title of Art: Anasazi Compass

Medium: Oil
Dimensions: 50” x 62”

Tom Stephens

Biography

Tom Stephens was born in Cocoa Beach,
FL and earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts at
the Ringling School of Art & Design. He has
participated in many group shows since 2006,
and has had solo exhibitions annually in
Sarasota since 2007.
Stephens’ work is in corporate and public
collections, including those of the National
Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration,
Morgan Stanley, Ringling College of Art
& Design, as well as more than 85 private
collections in the USA and abroad.

Artist’s Statement

My pieces are all process paintings. I’ll start them with no
preconceived notion of the final image. I just dive into the canvas,
get to work and keep working. I’ll go through a developing process
of adding different layers of paint and fine-tuning the color and
composition. I’ll respond to what’s happening with the paint, maybe
build things up in the foreground and leave the background alone.
An implied space emerges and then I’ll continue to develop it.
When the space feels complete, I stop.

These Paintings: Southern Girl No. 3 & No. 4

The Southern Girl title is a reference to a bromeliad of the same
name, with some of its colors in these two paintings. The Southern
Girl paintings are part of a larger landscape series I painted in 2013.

Southern Girl No. 3

Details

Artist name: Tom Stephens
Title of Art:

Southern Girl No. 3
Medium: Acrylic & Oil

Dimensions: 48” x 46”

Southern Girl No. 4

Details

Artist name: Tom Stephens
Title of Art:

Southern Girl No. 4
Medium: Acrylic & Oil

Dimensions: 46” x 48”

Akiko Sugiyama

Biography

Akiko was born in Japan shortly after WWII
and educated at the Women’s College of Fine
Arts in Tokyo. She graduated with a Bachelor
of Arts in oil painting and moved to the U.S. in
1974. One day, she was painting watercolors on
onion-skin paper and tossing rejects onto the
floor — sunshine caught the twisted paper and
the texture inspired her.

Since then she has been creating works of art
with paper and other materials such as wire,
wax, gold leaves, dried leaves and whatever else she
finds that captures her fancy. She is married and
lives and creates in Ormand Beach, FL.

Artist’s Statement

“A plain flat sheet of paper is the starting point of expressing my mood
or satisfying a sculptural urge,” Sugiyama says.

Her work is a blend of Eastern and Western aesthetics and she makes a
deliberate effort to form multitudes of hand-colored and hand-cut paper
pieces into subtle designs that are meant to convey the more enduring
human aspects of life. Even when the artist explains how she rolls, twists,
paints, textures, stripes, sews, wraps and spins the papers she collects
from all over the world, we still say “paper!”

Around Campus

Two smaller pieces of Akiko’s works are sitting on top of the recently
built internal mailboxes opposite the concierge desk in the Tower Lobby.

The Weaver’s Stretch

Details

Artist name: Akiko Sugiyama
Title of Art: The Weaver’s Stretch

Medium: Mixed Media
Dimensions: 32½” x 23½”

Kathy Wright

Biography

Kathy Wright is a visual artist based
in Sarasota. With a Bachelor of Arts in
architecture from the Georgia Institute
of Technology and an Master of Arts in
architecture from Harvard University’s
Graduate School of Design, Kathy worked
for several years in the architecture field in
London and Atlanta. Among other honors,
Wright has participated in the Art in
Embassies Program at the U.S. Department
of State in Sophia, Bulgaria.

Artist’s Statement

As process and the dynamism of nature are preeminent, I find my
paintings like the landscape itself, are in a continual state of flux.
They are a glimpse of my dynamic connection to the environment at
a given moment in time.

This Painting: Everglades River of Grass

This is an imagined view of the Everglades River of Grass as I
have moved away from a pictorial depiction of the landscape and
taken on a more abstract and expressive quality. In searching for a
language closer to the essence of the park, the painting tends toward
a certain form of simplification. The water peeks through, sometimes
glistening, but mostly shifting with the grasses and reflecting back
fragments of the sky.

Everglades
River of Grass

Details

Artist name: Kathy Wright
Title of Art: Everglades River of Grass

Medium: Acrylic
Dimensions: 48” x 84”

Art is unquestionably one of the purest
and highest elements in human happiness.
It trains the mind through the eye, and the
eye through the mind. As the sun colours

flowers, so does art colour life.
— John Lubbock



Published by The Plymouth Harbor Foundation
Funded by the Ruth Carmichael Art Collection Fund

2021