The Team
Grand Opening Exhibition Artists
Artists are members of the First Coast Cultural Center
Susanne Schuenke
Painter
German American artist Dr. Susanne Schuenke is an Internationally shown, award-winning, and published professional fine art painter. She works in oil and watercolor and resides since 1991 in Ponte Vedra, FL.
Growing up with both parents being artists, her education in art began in early childhood. She studied at the University of Cologne, Germany, and at the Westfield and University College London, UK. She received her M.A. and Ph.D. History of Art, (major), Archaeology and Anthropology (minors) from the University of Cologne.
The artist exhibits her work internationally in galleries, art shows, and museums; the canvases hang in private, corporate, and public collections. A monumental 14 ½ feet-wide painting embellishes the Davis Lobby at the Mayo Clinic Jacksonville; a historical topic (Berlin Airlift) belongs to the Air Force Art Collection, Denver, with a copy hanging in the American Embassy, Berlin.
In 2020 Who’s Who in America listed her in the division “Top Artists.” One of her masterpieces is included in the book Women in Art – the Great Female Artists from the Middle Ages to the Modern Era (Reinhard Fuchs, Vienna 2013). Besides being a fine art painter, the artist is also a scholar. She co-authored the book Echo of The Unconscious in Painting - A Case Study that won the Silver Medal of the Benjamin Franklin Book Award 2020 (IBPA, California). In 2019, the ROWITA Award (Recognizing Outstanding Women In The Arts) acknowledged Dr. Schuenke’s lifelong engagement in the arts.
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Eloy Castroverde
Photographer
Eloy Castroverde is a freelance nature and wildlife photographer based in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. Originally from Havana, Cuba, he immigrated to the U.S. at an early age. Having lived in a few different countries he moved back to Florida after a successful career in the corporate world. As a photographer, he loves exploring remote places and the challenge of creating a great image when he can not control the subject or the weather.
While he shoots extensively throughout Florida, his photography trips have taken him across the U.S. including Alaska and countries such as: Canada, Costa Rica, Panama, Honduras, Ecuador, Brazil, Japan, Iceland, Slovenia, the Falkland Islands, the Galapagos Islands, Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda. Eloy's work has been featured in art galleries in Jacksonville and the beaches area and published in local magazines. He was voted best photographer in Ponte Vedra in 2019 in the Ponte Vedra Recorder's Best of the Best of Ponte Vedra.
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Theresa Rykaczewski
Painter
Program & Curatorial Director: Theresa Rykaczewski
About Theresa Rykaczewski
Celebrated for her contemporary impressionistic style of bold impasto landscapes and occasional figurative works, Theresa's artwork transfixes the viewer through a dynamic sense of color and atmosphere that explores what it means to connect to nature during our highly saturated digital age.
Theresa Rykaczewski is an American painter and non-profit gallery director in Atlantic Beach, Florida at Word Revolt Art Gallery. Rykaczewski holds an MFA from Jacksonville University in painting, graduating as a member of Phi Kappa Phi where she is proud to serve as an Adjunct Professor of Art, as well as a BFA degree from the University of Missouri St. Louis with honors and a minor in art history.
Theresa has been painting and teaching art classes for the last ten years including community-based and professional skills workshops, university and museum lectures. Theresa has exhibited in over 40 juried exhibitions and curated over 35 exhibitions, with a penchant for contemporary art, history, and cultivating a vibrant arts community.
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Megan Reid
Several Mediums
Originally born in Potsdam, Germany, Megan Reid has lived all over the United States and now calls the bold city of Jacksonville [Beach], Florida home. She received her degree from Jacksonville University with a double concentration in Ceramics and Glass. She is passionate about the arts and is a practicing visual artist in several medias.
Megan's art is a reflection of the natural biomes surrounding her with influences from contemporary and modern interior design. She is also a registered yoga teacher and says that the meditative practice helps to further inspire her pieces.
Megan Reid is extremely thankful for her opportunities in the arts and is an advocate for giving back to the community and the Earth. Megan works with the not-for-profit Cultural Center at Ponte Vedra Beach and is a volunteer with local beach cleanup efforts.
"The arts are especially crucial during this pandemic and era of a throwaway lifestyle to uplift morale and usher in a new way of life. Through my work, I am proud to serve the artists and community."
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Enrique Mora
Painter
Artist Enrique Mora is a rare talent with a natural sense for what is beauty and what is art. This use of passionate colors and voluptuous shapes has led to a unique interpretation of the female form. His artwork frequently focuses on the many roles of women: as mother, caretaker, wife, friend, fighter, and lover. Whether hearts painting wind-blown hair, a pouting set of ruby red lips, or a wistful glance, viewers are quickly captivated by his welcoming images and bold use of color.
Growing up in the Caribbean, Mora was exposed to the lavish colors of a lush island surrounded by a vast deep blue sea. Not only did the aesthetics of the island serve to influence Mora, but also his Puerto Rican heritage, which is full of color and passion. Today, Mora continues to live close to the ocean which is a major influence in his work. He commutes between Neptune Beach, FL, and Miami, the location of Studio Mora in the Miami Design District. Artist statement:
I have always felt the calling of my fate to be a painter. I frequently focus on human forms, figures interacting, single figures, couples…. I also am drawn to love as a subject - the love between a couple, mother & child, family, women are a particularly strong symbolic element in my paintings and the colors in my paintings reflect the vibrancy of my Caribbean roots.
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Ellen Diamond
Painter
Ellen Diamond is a Contemporary Impressionist focusing on subjects that represent her European travels and the vistas of North Florida Beaches, Marshes and the beautiful St. Johns River.
She was raised in a family where art was very much the part of her everyday life. Her dad was a society portrait painter and he trained her until she was old enough to study at the Brooklyn Museum Art School and Pratt Institute. She graduated from New York University studying art and education.
Mayo Clinic and many years and can be seen throughout their halls and offices. Ellen teaches and offers workshops for the Ponte Vedra Cultural Center.
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