Spathalicious: Sat., Sept. 13, 5-10 p.m. at Station NumberThree, 2701 Fifth Ave. S., St. Petersburg, spathose.com.
When Scott Durfee and George Medeiros moved to St. Petersburg eight years ago, they didn’t think twice about decorating their yard with planters and lawn sculptures made from palm tree spathes. With Durfee’s family background in floristry and the couple’s shared interest in home design, gathering up the woody flower pods — a uniquely Florida sight in the eyes of two New Englanders — and handcrafting them into cool things that neighbors admired just seemed natural. At the height of their experimentation, they adorned their front yard with a Christmastime display of painted spathes and gold-and-purple lights and dubbed it “Gay Bethlehem.”
Then in 2008, the recession sapped the couple’s main source of income — renovating and re-selling houses in up-and-coming neighborhoods. Suddenly re-envisioning their future, they realized that possibility lay right outside their front door.
On Saturday night, Durfee and Medeiros will host Spathalicious, a one-night party and exhibition celebrating their art and wearable sculpture brand Spathose, the unconventional innovation that ushered in their unexpected next chapter as artist-entrepreneurs. A retrospective of six years’ worth of work, the show fills Station NumberThree, a converted firehouse in St. Pete’s Warehouse Arts district, with wall-mounted and freestanding spathe sculptures; displays of handmade spathe handbags, neckties and jewelry (for both men and women); and mannequins decked out in head-turning spathe costumes by Durfee and Medeiros that have appeared in local art and fashion shows including the Dunedin Fine Art Center’s Wearable Art, Art Center Sarasota’s iconcept and the Spring of Tampa Bay’s Peace Couture Gala.
Along with the couple’s creations, photographs of the artwork — typically adorning the bods of buff and beautiful models — by local photographers Steven Le, Brian Leighty, Rossie Newson, Fred Pirone, Sophia Renee and John Revisky will be on view. The event, timed to coincide with St. Pete’s monthly art walk, includes food trucks and beverages for sale to benefit the proposed Warehouse Arts Enclave and Venture House, two local projects that aim to generate affordable studio space and housing, respectively, for artists. (On Friday, a private version of the event will be held for the Dalí Museum’s Zodiac members’ group.)
The wonder of Spathose hinges on how Durfee and Medeiros transform palm spathe, a material many people regard as yard junk. In their hands the brown, fibrous husk — Medeiros describes it as “the celery of wood”— gets dried, preserved and painted in earthy and metallic colors. Assembling pieces into wall arrangements and tabletop sculptures was a start, but the couple knew they were onto something distinctive when they bonded two pieces of spathe together to make a clamshell purse. Now they sell such pieces, decorated with handles and embellishments made of industrial materials and found objects, such as cabinet door handles and vintage garter belt fasteners, for designer handbag prices. (The show includes a display of about a dozen handbags from past years as well as a “trunk sale” room of new ones.)
Local demand for the couple’s work also heated up when they began to design elaborate costumes out of spathes and other organic and industrial cast-off materials. After Spathose appeared in several fashion shows, the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, engaged them to create erotic wearable art for a Valentine’s Day event held in conjunction with an exhibition of ancient Egyptian art. Working with models, the couple crafted sexy, Pharaoh-inspired garb including a teal blue spathe loincloth and headdress for a man, and skirts and belly-baring tops for women made from tropical seedpods, spathe and a silver textile used in roofing. Similar Greek and Roman-themed events featuring Spathose outfits followed. (All are on display for Spathalicious.)
When I first heard of Spathose several years ago, I thought Durfee and Medeiros might be a bit nutty. Until I saw the things they actually made with their hands, the spathe concept was lost on me. Now I’d vote them among the most likely to succeed of local artist-entrepreneurs. Earlier this month, they took their concept for an expanded Spathose — more products in more stores (check their website for retailers) — to 1 Million Cups, the St. Pete startups forum, in search of investors. It would take a lot to bring some aspects of their vision to fruition. For example, if demand for Spathose accessories grows, the couple wants to create flexible jobs for other artists who could help handcraft the pieces.
In the meantime, one thing is certain: No one else has done as much to elevate the humble palm spathe as two St. Petersburg artists.
“I swear we’re the only ones doing this, and I’m Googling it when I’m on[line],” Medeiros says.