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CAPTIVA ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Ilie Ruby
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ILIE RUBY
“Teddy Roosevelt Captures a Giant Ray off Captiva”
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ILIE RUBY
“Captiva Beach Bathers at Blind Pass”
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ILIE RUBY
“Esperanza Woodring — One Woman’s Work”
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ILIE RUBY
“Island Trula”
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The Captiva Island Historical Society (CIHS) is set to host its next program of the season.
“Creativity and the Art of History” will be held on Jan. 14 at 6:30 p.m. at the Captiva Civic Center on Captiva. It will take an intimate look at the island history-centered art of Captiva resident, artist and author Ilie Ruby. The CIHS will provide information from its archives, and Ruby will talk about how the images and data are connected in her creative process.
CIHS Public Relations Director and Board Secretary Kathy Ferrari explained that they learned about a research project that Ruby had been working on for an upcoming historical novel. She had located historical photos from its archives and at the Captiva Memorial Library, as well as from in Fort Myers.
“It just seemed to fit so perfectly well with what the historical society does,” she said.
The program will open with a welcome from board President Tom Libonate.
“The program will feature our directors, Betty Anholt and Brian Holaway,” Ferrari said. “They will discuss the historical significance of those photos that she used, the people in them.”
She reported that Ruby digitally re-enhanced the photos, so they are not the originals.
“She knows about the people in the photos,” Ferrari said. “Some are the first settlers of Captiva.”
Ruby will discuss her art and mixed media that she used.
“Why she chose those paintings and how she interpreted them,” she said. “There’s about a dozen works that she’ll talk about.”
Ferrari noted that Ruby’s creative touch is really amazing.
“She used sand from the beaches where some of these photos took place,” she said, explaining that there is one photo of women bathing in wool suits at Blind Pass in the early 1900s. “So Ilie chose sand and shells from that location — so that’s mixed in with the painting.”
The program ties in with an exhibit of her work, “Language of Angels: Daughters of the Sea and Sky,” which the Captiva Civic Association (CCA) will host from Jan. 8-30 at the Captiva Civic Center.
Florida Trust Wealth Management is the presenting sponsor for the CIHS’s season.
“We’re grateful to our season presenting sponsor,” Ferrari said.
Tickets are $15 per person, with refreshments available.
The community is encouraged to take part.
“This is another opportunity to see the unique flavors of the residents of Captiva and it goes back a century,” she said. “It’s bridging the past and the present, with a modern twist.”
For tickets, visit http://www.captivaislandhistoricalsociety.org/.
For more information, visit online or contact mail@captivaislandhistoricalsociety.org.
Ruby is the author of two novels, “The Language of Trees” and “The Salt God’s Daughter.” Her essays have been published in the New York Times, CNN, AOL and Forward, among others. Ruby’s awards include the Edwin L. Moses Prize for Fiction, a Kerr Foundation Scholarship and Phi Kappa Phi Award for Creative Fiction. She is also a recipient of the Wesleyan Writer’s Conference Davidoff Nonfiction Scholarship and Barbara Kemp Award for Outstanding Teaching and Scholarship.
The CCA will hold an opening reception for its exhibition on Jan. 8 from 5 to 7 p.m.
The event is free, but RSVPs are required at https://ccacaptiva.org/.
The Captiva Civic Center is at 11550 Chapin Lane, Captiva.
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IF YOU GO
What
Creativity and the Art of History
When
Jan. 14 at 6:30 p.m.
Where
Captiva Civic Center, 11550 Chapin Lane, Captiva
Details
Tickets are $15