Bradley Arthur apprenticed for the metal sculptor Hugh Dumont in Coconut Grove, Florida, in 1970. His work with found objects developed into award-winning assemblages that used common materials in simple and original ways.
Arthur graduated from the College of Fine Arts at the University of South Florida, Tampa in 1975. He attended Sarah Lawrence College's Lacoste School of the Arts in Provence, France in 1977. During his studies there he met and later apprenticed for the Japanese master stonecarver Yasuo Mizui, in Paris. He worked with Mizui on a 30-ton limestone monument located at a University in Nancy, France.
The following few summers he studied in Pietrasanta, Italy and worked in bronze and the marble studio of Silvero Paoli.
Arthur's first New York City exhibition was in 1978. In 1979 he established a studio in a Historical Landmark loft building on Thomas Street in Tribeca in Lower Manhattan. In 1983 he was a guest lecturer at the Center for the Arts at New York Law School and worked closely with its director Gustave Harrow, the renowned artists' rights attorney.
They worked on Copyright and Artist Authorship Rights issues and litigations. His experiences working with Harrow and the judiciary brought the use of "words as art" and symbols into new perceptions and deeper levels. During this period words and how words are used and misused became a focus of Arthurs' work.
The 1990 solo exhibition titled "Steel Ideas" debuted his early WORDZWORKX® sculpture at the Brad Cooper Gallery in Tampa, Florida. Also in 1990, Arthur completed a major commission for the Miami Jewish Home and Hospital for the Aged at Douglas Gardens in Miami, Florida. A life-size bronze symbol of a family of intertwined figures titled "Generations", this work explores the theme of interdependency and connections using figurative and abstract organic forms.
In 2001 Arthur won two public art commissions from Hillsborough County to use the collected guns from Cease-fire of Tampa, a gun buy back program in collaboration with the Sheriff's Office. The first work "Components of Public Safety I" was recently installed in Ybor City. It is sited in front of the Sheriff's Operation Center headquarters. "Components of Public Safety II, Fallen Hero" is located on Gunn Highway in front of the Sheriff's District 3 office at the new Citrus Park Mall, in Tampa, Florida.
For the 2008 Deep Carnivale, their theme was The People of Old Ybor City.
For this year's festival, Children's Future Hillsborough and its partner agencies are presenting "kid friendly" activity tables and activities where children learn about the culture of other counties.
Everything from limbo dancing to singing to quick and easy craft projects will illustrate children's activities in Mexico, Africa, the Bahamas, India and Germany.
Also making an appearance will be Bess The Book Bus, the Parent Guide and the Girl Scouts. Children's Future Hillsborough is funded in part by the Children's Board of Hillsborough County.
The historic Don Vicente Inn is offering a special room and breakfast package to Deep Carnivale guests. The beautifully restored Inn is located only a short stroll from the HCC-Ybor campus and most Deep Carnivale events.
The $150 per night package includes a standard room, free breakfast, and free parking during the festival, plus free admission to the private Author's Reception on Friday, September 11, free admission to the Three Birds celebration on Sunday, September 13, and a chance to mingle with other Deep Carnivale special guests who will be staying at the hotel.
Call the Inn at 813-241-4545 now, since the boutique hotel has only 12 rooms available in this special package.
Editor David Warner of Creative Loafing said some kind and encouraging words on page 26 of the August 26, 2009, issue. Partial quote, "At a moment when ignorance is being aggressively defended, Deep Carnivale still respects our intelligence. Imagine that."
Some call it nano-fiction, micro-fiction, twitfic, or twiction. It’s fiction written in 140 characters and in this age of short attention spans, believe it or not, the Internet service Twitter.com is gaining attention.
Sally Bosco will present a half-hour workshop during Deep Carnivale on "How to Write Twitter Flash Fiction".
Ernesto Piloto-Marquez, artist, sculptor and extraordinary pastry chef, will be busy at the 2009 Deep Carnivale. In addition to mounting an exhibit of his paintings and collages, he also will create a chocolate sculpture of Rodin's David sitting on a book and pondering...something. A snack, perhaps.
For a chance to view (and nibble at) Ernesto's sweet masterpiece, you must purchase a $10.00 ticket to Deep Carnivale's Meet the Authors reception 6 to 9pm Friday, September 11, at the Don Vicente Inn in Ybor City.
Sami Ahmed, keyboard and guitar player for the Tampa band Hypnophonics will perform at the Meet the Authors reception 6 to 9pm Friday, September 11, at the Don Vicente Inn in Ybor City. There are $10.00 tickets still available to this event.
The Irritable Tribe of Poets, a collective of performing poets and instrumentalists based in Tampa, will be featured performers at the 2009 Deep Carnivale.
The Tribe is an improvisation-oriented ensemble, actively mixing jazz, rock, funk and world-music textures with sundry styles of poetry.
Author and New York Times reporter John Leland will be the keynote speaker at the 2009 Deep Carnivale.
Leland is a self-diagnosed professor of hipness, having authored the 2004 book, "Hip: The History",
about the country's preoccupation with what is (and is not) "hip", and his 2007 book "Why Kerouac Matters"
about the ultimate hipster Jack Kerouac.
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Esther Martinez, in a story at The Florida Book Review" says she knows "Deep Carnivale will be 'A Celebration of Words' and not a Bourbon Street bacchanal."
"But logophile that I am, I reason I’ll get drunk on language. With over 70 writers and artists scheduled [for the 2008 Carnivale] to perform or read from their works, my beaded necklaces will be strung with verse. I imagine haiku shooters..."
"It is just before 10am when I arrive at the corner of Palm Avenue and 14th Street—Deep Carnivale ground zero. About a dozen vendor tables are lined up around the Hillsborough Community College courtyard where a band of teenagers [Next Exit] are setting up their instruments.
"The vendor tables sell books by local writers, HCC publications and baked goods. I grab a Cuban favorite, papa rellena, a potato stuffed with savory ground beef. Belly satisfied, I cross the street and enter the historic Circulo Cubano. A nearly 100 year old neo-classical building of ionic columns and marble staircases, it served as the Cuban Social Club and remains the oldest building of its kind in the country."
"When I look back over 2008, my visit to the second edition of Deep Carnivale was a
highlight. You and your staff did a great job and I loved being part of it, again.
I am sure there will be bigger festivals to come. But maybe not better!!!"
– Darrell House,
children's book author and 2008 Deep Carnivale presenter.