FIND ARTIST TARA O'NEILL in tiny, mitten-size, Goodland, one of just a handful of working fishing villages remaining on Florida's Gulf Coast. Born the ninth of ten robust children to an Irish immigrant father and grammatically fussy mother, art gave Tara a private deliverance from chaos, and a voice to be heard over bedlam. The tropical palette of her childhood continues to significantly affect Tara's work. Although most noted for her vivid oil paintings, she has admirably proved her hand at drawing, photography, print-making, assemblage sculpture, carpentry, bartending, and referring to herself in third-person.

      BEFORE EARNING baccalaureates in both Fine Arts (studio) and English (creative writing) from University of South Florida, Tara had formal studies in art at Northern Virginia Community College, Fairfax, VA; Plymouth State College, New Hampshire; Brookes College at Oxford, England; museum workshops in Dublin, Ireland and Florence, Italy. She has also studied informally in Central America, the Caribbean Islands, the western (U.S.) high desert, and several places quite off the map. (The Artist strongly recommends the Scottish Highlands for cobalt blues, apple greens, and exquisite whisky.)

     EXHIBITIONS and Public Works include: Von Liebig Art Center; St. Augustine Art Association; Blue Mangrove Gallery; Marco Island Executive Airport; Hillsborough Public Library Fine Arts Gallery; Tampa Museum of Art; USF Conremporary Art Museum; Leadership Marco Wet Paint Live!; Marco Island Center for the Arts; Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Center; Goodland Post Office Mural Project; Naples' Gators Galore and Gators Galore Encore public sculpture project and Marco Island's Dolphin Debut; presenter at Tommie Barfield Elementary School Artist and Writers Workshop. In 2000 Tara was awarded the Marco Island Chamber of Commerce's Beautification Award for an 85' x 22' mural that sailed across the Island's water tank and more recently the Arts Afire Flame Award for individual contribution to art in the community by the City of Marco Island Arts Advisory Board.

MEMBERSHIPS:
     United Arts Council of Collier County
     Marco Island Art League, Center for the Arts, Gallery Committee Chairperson
     Naples Art Association, Von Liebig Art Center
     Naples ArtCrafters
     Marco Island Foundation for the Arts
     Marco Island Area Chamber of Commerce
     Goodland Civic Association
     Phi Kappa Phi