Most Viewed Stories
- COLUMN: The both of best worlds: Foreign worker’s tragic death hits home
- COPTER CLAMOR: Residents up in arms over proposed helicopter tours near Kelly Plantation
- RON HART: Biden his time and doing Obama’s bidding
- Destin Dog Park wins Community of Excellence Award
- COLUMN: Community parenting and a party in the park
‘HERITAGE ON THE HARBOR:' Young artist captures old Destin with Seafood Festival poster
The community and businesses are answering the call to be Destin Seafood Festival “Power Partners.” Redmond Marine Electronics, Dennis Lichorowic DMD, Affordable Home Insurance, Murphy’s Home Services, Captain Dave’s on the Gulf, Don and June Bolt, Dennis Gagnon and one anonymous donor are officially Power Partners.
The Destin Seafood Festival is seeking 12 more “Power Partners” to assist financially in the installation of new power poles along the Festival’s linear venue on the Destin Harbor. Festival organizers are asking for twenty companies or individuals to donate $1,000 each and become part of the Power 20.
The good news about this $20,000 investment is it is a one-time expense and will become a permanent part of the power structure along the harbor, saving the cost of expensive generators each year. This will also enable the Destin Seafood Festival to continue in its green environmental efforts as the new power poles will be hooked into Gulf Power’s grid system.
Power 20 members will get benefits of their names shown permanently on the power poles, 10 VIP tickets to this year’s Destin Seafood Festival, festival t-shirts and posters. For further information, please email kayphelan@earthlink.net.
The 33rd Annual Destin Seafood Festival, along the Destin harbor, is free this year and will run from September 30 through October 2. Activities will abound with artists on display, extraordinary local food, Gulf seafood cooking demonstrations by well-known area chefs at the Fresh From Florida sponsored outdoor demonstration kitchen, kid’s activities, award-winning Nashville singer/songwriters and great local musicians playing live along the harbor for all-day entertainment.
The event is supported by The Destin Charter Boat Association, The Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association, and Emerald Coast Convention and Visitors Bureau. For further information, call 850-218-0232, or visit on-line at www.DestinSeafoodFestival.org.
After winning the Seafood Festival poster contest nine years in a row, local artist Judy Shillingburg says there are no hard feelings as she passes on the torch to this year’s winner, Toni Dineen. She’s even offered help to prepare the new artist for her Destin debut.
“Toni will have a tent full of artwork and hopefully a very successful show… She has a different style, but she’s a good artist,” Shillingburg told The Log.
Dineen, a Shalimar resident, has been living in the Florida Panhandle for nearly her whole life. She’s an engineer by trade and has only been painting a few years.
“I was never much on the artistic side, but I was always more on the technical side,” she said.
Dineen started dabbling in watercolor after a trip to Hawaii in 2008 for her 10th wedding anniversary. She wanted a painting of a particular church, but couldn’t find it anywhere.
“When we got home, I decided, well, I can do this… and it came out OK. It’s still hanging on the wall.”
Two months later for her birthday her husband bought “Watercolor Painting for Dummies.” She read every page, did every practice assignment and began painting small pieces for friends and family.
“This past May I saw in the paper a call for artists to do the Destin Seafood Festival poster… The theme of the festival is “Heritage on the Harbor…” I have lived here almost all my life, and I remember Destin when it was just a small fishing village and didn’t have any big buildings,” Dineen said.
“Heritage to me was that sign, that wooden sign when you’re coming over the Destin bridge that said ‘Welcome to Destin — World’s Luckiest Fishing Village.’ And it was the old harbor with the Wharf restaurant, and the trees and very little buildings,” she said.
Dineen decided to capture the sleepy fishing town of the 1970s when the boats in the tree-lined harbor included Revielle, Shooting Star and the Finest Kind.
But the most challenging part of the poster process was trying to fit all of her ideas into one painting, and in doing so, Dineen says she actually cluttered it a little bit.
“When I originally submitted that artwork, there was a big captain’s head there,” she said, referring to the spot where the Seafood Festival logo is now located. “When the Charter Boat Association received the poster, they said they loved it, but they weren’t too thrilled with the captain’s head.”
Dineen and the Charter Boat Association agreed that if her poster was selected, that the captain’s head would be removed using a lot of water and replaced with the festival logo.
In June, she was announced the winner. Even though she was the competition, Shillingburg and her husband, Ernie, stepped up to the plate to help the up-and-coming artist.
“People can be leery of new artists, and I didn’t want to see that happen to her,” Shillingburg said, adding that preparing for the festival takes a lot of time and money. “My husband and I felt that she needed the help or she was going to be in trouble.”
Every Saturday, Dineen has been working at the Shillingburg’s Special Touch Gallery in HarborWalk Village printing and creating new artwork for the festival. They have created more than a 1,000 prints to put at her booth, which will be located behind Olin Marler’s and AJ’s Seafood and Oyster Bar.
“Knowing that people think my art is good enough is way better than winning anything,” Dineen said.
As for Shillingburg, she said this will be the last year she plans enter the Seafood Festival poster contest so she can focus her attention on the poster for the Mullet Festival in Niceville.
“I think it’s time for me to quit and turn it over to someone else.”
