LO-LO-LO-LOLA: Kym O’Donnell’s “Lola,” from the “Cloudland” series, hand-colored gelatin silver print. Credit: K. O'Donnell/ Para Gallery

As Mitzi Gordon pointed out in 2016, Kym O’Donnell’s signature hand-painted photographs and ephemera are crafted into lovingly composed mementos of theaters, fairgrounds, and graveyards.

The Tampa artist who studied under Suzanne Camp Crosby at Hillsborough Community College in Ybor City would’ve turned 54 last fall—but she passed last November after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

O’Donnell, who operated Para Gallery in the V.M. Ybor neighborhood of Ybor City, lived an analog life, and her friends are coming together for hugs and a concert after others celebrate her life on Sunday morning in Dunedin. The gig will feature a reunion of Handshake Squad, voted “Best Experimental Band” by this publication in 1999 and 2001 (when it was still called Weekly Planet).

There’s no cover for the musical tribute to Kym O’Donnell happening at Tampa Shuffle on Sunday, Feb. 9.

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This article appears in Feb 6-12, 2025.