Artis Naples Florida

Naples Florida is an exciting place. Twenty five years ago
there were a few double track roads and lots of Everglades just short off the Gulf.
But within this quick span of time, Artis Naples, formerly the Phil,
and the Baker Museum have created an admirable institution for the arts.
Before we drove over to Naples we had to do some shopping in Boca.
That‘s fun of course, but I couldn‘t understand why Lothar wanted yet another
baseball cap.
„I need a red one to look good for the newspaper pictures“.
Okay, I guess that‘s reason enough.
During the 6 week execution of the sculpture, Lothar tirelessly answered
all of the questions of his thousands of visitors.
There‘s a trolley car that drives tourists around Naples, that also
comes by the Baker Museum a couple of times a day.
The driver stopped once to interview Lothar, and returned later with his tourists.
I heard the beginning of his pitch.
„See that guy over there with the red hat, that‘s Lothar Nickel
the famous sculptor from Germany and he‘s making this fantastic
alligator out of marble.
Some other guys came at dusk just to watch, about 6 in the evening.
„What time did you start this morning?“ Eight o‘clock.
„And you worked all day?“ Yes well I had a lunch break for about an hour.
Pause. „You‘re gonna work for me!“
In addition to the children‘s sculpture class Lothar is giving on Saturday mornings,
there are so many visitors, oldies and school kids, bike riders, passersby's,
and people who drive over on purpose to watch the development,
that Lothar is in fact a little worried about meeting the deadline.
Even though he still has a week to go, the „Schnuffel“ is taking his first step
into the Museum to be sold and auctioned off at THE big event of the year,
the Gala dinner.