Donald Diddams
The Art of Digital Art
The Mall at University Town Center
A new enclosed shopping mall has been built here in Sarasota. All over the country malls are struggling, being re-purposed or abandoned. But here a new one just opened. It is big. It is new. It is filled with things from other places. They call it “University Town Center”. It is near University Parkway, and in the center of a very large parking lot,…
Remains to Remind Us
Fort Desoto sits on Mullet Key, guarding the entrance to Tampa Bay in Florida. Mullet Key and several other low lying keys are now Fort Desoto County Park visited for its fishing, camping, and miles of sandy beaches, in addition to its history. The fort itself was built in response to the Spanish American War of 1898 to defend Tampa Bay from intruders. While…
Shipping News
Do you ever think about the thousands of ships sailing the sea? The visuals from these two small container ports — and a bit of the ocean in between them — are as interesting as the statistics about this hidden industry. For example, did you know that there are over 100,000 ships plying the oceans of the world carrying nearly everything we consume —…
Veterans Day, 2013
It was Veterans Day, and in the park where the speeches were given, stood the Salvation Army truck — symbol of the only real help many veterans will receive. The parades and other patriotic events offer little for many who they supposedly honor. Instead, the parades seem to glorify wars past, promote the jingoism of war, and praise the children destined to become the…
A Rising Asphalt Sea
Mostly empty, its parking lot free of cars, this suburban mall is in foreclosure. But do not worry. Plenty of money was made, and the risks and debt shifted off onto others. And for the shoppers, the good news is that an even larger new mall will soon be built nearby, where another chunk of woods and wetlands will slip beneath the rising asphalt…
An Obama Event
Regardless of one’s political persuasion, there is something to be said for experiencing a major campaign event. This one last June in Tampa was held in a community college gymnasium with a standing-room-only crowd. It seemed there were more people waiting in line than the place could ever hold. The press of humanity, the excitement and energy in the room, the warm up acts,…
The Cross
The cross is one of humanity’s more ancient and ubiquitous symbols. An early interpretation was as a representation of the intersection between the divine (the vertical line) and the earthly (the horizontal line). In modern times this has been trivialized in our use of the cross on road signs to signify an intersection of roads ahead. The cross has also represented the division of…
Unconditional Surrender
Public art on a grand scale often garners attention, both good and bad. The 25 foot tall “Unconditional Surrender” by Seward Johnson along the bayfront in downtown Sarasota is no exception. There has been plenty of controversy since it first arrived here in 2005, with some calling it tacky, inappropriate and out of place along beautiful Sarasota Bay. Also known informally as “The Kiss,”…
Donald Diddams 