The historic former Santaella Cigar Factory, better known these days as West Tampa Center for the Arts, threw their first building wide-art event of 2011 last Friday.

The popular non-profit WTCA is known among the art crowd in Tampa for their support of local artists and throwing great parties, and it looks like 2011 won’t be any different.

The exhibition’s title and theme was Sacrsosanct.  For those of you not willing to open another tab and head over to dictionary.com, sacrosanct is defined as something “above and beyond criticism, change, or interference.”  Maida Millan, the director of WTCA, knew that this theme would give the participating artists a lot to work with.

“Kim Adams and I had many discussions on various possibilities for the first building wide show for 2011. The word sacrosanct came up and we fell in love with the meaning of it. Artistically, it challenged each individual artist to internally question the meaning of sacrosanct and make a statement on what they felt was beyond reproach or interference,” said Millan.

Artists were invited to express what they saw as “above and beyond criticism” and the result was a multimedia two-floor event with art full of personal, social and political statements.

The walls of the hallways were covered with some striking and impressive two-dimensional work, including Leslie Elsasser’s "Warrior of Love" (pictured below), made of hand ground pigment, gouache, and 14K gold on handmade paper.  Installations and sculptures  were also among the works present on the first floor, along with food, drinks, and music  provided by DJ Fuego.  The exhibition continued on the second floor with more 2D works, a  video installation and even performance art (a rarity at art shows these days).

As an added  treat, WTCA’s artists opened their studio doors to the public and allowed them to take a glimpse  into their artistic process.

While all the art on display was worthy of praise, special attention was given by many in  attendance to Gallery 209 on the first floor.  The gallery was covered with eye-catching, vibrant  water colors of …  shoes.  Yes, shoes.  But not just any shoes — high-heel shoes.  While this might sound like Paris Hilton’s dream, artist Mark Schwartz has been making high heeled art for decades and transforms heels into an art form.  Now, for you art aficionados out there  wondering “Wait, didn’t Andy Warhol make high heel art too?” You’re right.  What you probably  don’t know is that Schwartz is actually Warhol’s protégé.

Beginning his career in the early 1980s in New York City, Schwartz was handpicked by famous  French shoe designer and inventor of the stiletto heel Roger Vivier to assist him in his shoe  designs.  Vivier was so impressed with his work that he introduced him to his friend Andy Warhol.  Warhol spent the last three years of his life mentoring and exchanging ideas with Schwarts and the result is now seen in the whimsical style of Schwartz’s work.  With its mix of colorful images and stark monochrome, Schwartz’s high heel art is sure to delight both the art and shoe lover alike.

Millan is quick to point out that although it might not be obvious at first, Schwartz’s work went along with the theme of the show.

As Millan stated, “It shows inanimate objects, some in watercolor, some in India ink, filled with a life force.”

To contrast Schwartz’ work, Gallery 209 also showed Alex Torres’ intricate pencil drawings of human faces which seemed to lack any sense of life.

Riding high on the success of Sacrosanct, WTCA has more events planned for the coming year.  Starting in February, they will hold Thursday night painting get-togethers.  Following that in March, The National Council on Education for Ceramic Arts will use WTCA as a venue for their yearly conference.  This is NCECA’s first conference in Tampa and WTCA will include a building wide show for the event.  But if you can’t wait until then, you can still check out WTCA’s Sacrosanct.  The art will stay up for the next three weeks and visitors are welcome to walk around and explore each artist’s take on the concept.

You can learn more about Mark Schwartz and view his work at highheeledart.blogspot.com

This article appears in Jan 20-26, 2011.