Winter Garden unveils "Dog Days of Summer" art exhibit

When Anya Kaleshefski Cox’s husband was diagnosed with throat cancer, she sought peace in painting. 

The movements of the brush, the colors and the ability to focus on making the personalities of the dogs she paints come to life on canvas has helped her keep her sanity. 

Kaleshefski Cox’s dog, Tooka, always ends up in the pool at their home, so she thought it would be cute to paint him in the pool, especially with him wearing his sunglasses. 

Tooka has been a crucial supporter for Kaleshefski Cox as he has been there for her while her husband, Tim Cox, has been going through treatment as well as in the last two years of her taking care of her father, Ralph Kaleshefski, who died in 2022. 

“He’s saved me,” Kaleshefski Cox said of Tooka. “That and painting.”

With Tooka by her side, Kaleshefski Cox proudly stayed by her painting of him in a pool as it hung on the wall across from the elevators in Winter Garden City Hall during the launch paw-ty of the “Dog Days of Summer” art exhibit Friday, July 10. 

The exhibit will be on display through Friday, July 31.

Ulti-mutt exhibit

Every two years, the city of Winter Garden plans and curates its own art exhibit as part of its Art in Public Places Gallery, where the city conducts its own artist call for a specific theme. 

While walking into work one-and-one-half years ago, Donna Corbus, the sustainability and community liaison for the city, saw people walking four dogs, which sparked an idea. 

Dog days of summer.

It became the theme for this year’s art exhibit, but to take it a step further, hosting a launch party that allowed dogs into Winter Garden City Hall to join their artists for the exhibit. 

City hall was filled with artists and their furry friends as well as friends and family to take in the art from people of all ages and all walks of life. 

While the humans enjoyed eating hot dogs, the doggos slurped up ice cream, bringing smiles and laughter. 

Outside, dogs were walking and splashing around the splash pads, with a lifeguard carefully watching over them. There also was a photo opportunity for the pet owners and their furry friends. 

Corbus and her team received more than 100 submissions, with some artists submitting as many as three pieces of work. She said the city typically receives 30, the number presented in the “Dog Days of Summer” exhibit. Corbus asked the judges to select a wide range of ages and abilities, from amateur artists to professionals, to be reflective of the community.

Anyone who wasn’t accepted in the exhibit could bring a 4-by-6-inch or smaller photo of their dog to have on the “Dogs of Winter Garden” board. 

“I’m really glad Winter Garden is embracing art,” Kaleshefski Cox said. “It’s really important for everybody, kids as well, to be involved. It’s the only thing that’s left of the culture, the only remains we have of anything of anybody that came before us. … And by viewing nice things, it’s an experience. It’s not just visual, but it’s the story that the photograph or acrylic tells you. It’s how it makes you feel. It’s an image that speaks volumes without words.”

Art tells a story

Every piece of art in the “Dog Days of Summer” exhibit tells a story, whether it’s capturing the personality of a beloved pet or capturing a moment with their loyal companions. 

Every morning, 24-year-old Amelia Wolf wakes up and heads to the kitchen for breakfast with her black Labrador, Tucker, close behind. They enjoy breakfast together before Wolf goes on with the rest of her day.

Those mornings together inspired Wolf to create “Big Breakfast,” her ink perspective piece of Tucker in the kitchen waiting to be fed.

Wolf has been attending Seminole State College and the University of Central Florida to major in visual arts management. She has experience working with ink, watercolor, colored pencil and more. 

She likes being able to add personal elements, such as Tucker, to her work. She brought to life his hunger and excitement for breakfast. 

On another wall in the exhibit, 14-year-old Dasie Cruz has her painting of her dog, Mochi. 

Cruz always has loved art and has worked with clay, sold earrings she made out of clay and has continued learning more about her passion as she’s attended classes at Montverde Academy.

One of her projects at Montverde was to focus on an animal, so she worked hard to capture Mochi’s playful-yet-sometimes-lazy personality, the pup who loves to cuddle and constantly is sticking his tongue out. 

For John Pucci, his artwork was inspired by a moment in the park. 

He retrieved pup cups for his dogs, Murphy and Whiskey, and took in the moment as they dove into the cups. He knew instantly he had to paint the moment. He appreciated the dogs’ facial expressions and thought the moment captured their friendly nature.

Pucci said he was proud of how the artwork came out, with his ability to capture the texture of their coats with a new medium he was trying, gouache, which is an opaque water-medium paint that allows the artist to layer light colors over dark ones. 

Creative expression

The passion for art can be sparked at any point in someone’s life. 

For some such as Cruz, the art bug bit when she was little. For others such as Pucci, the dive into art came with retirement. And for some such as Kaleshefski Cox, the artists were born into it.

Kaleshefski Cox’s parents were professional artists. Ralph Kaleshefski was an artist at Disney and helped with creating Epcot and Tokyo Disneyland while her mother, Martha Rochester, was an art teacher at Maxey Elementary School. Kaleshefski Cox created the art history course at Lakeview Middle School.

“I’ve always appreciated art,” she said. “I grew up in an art environment, and I’ve just really kind of just started picking up painting. My mom was a painter, my dad was a sculptor. It’s in my blood, you could say.”

Many artists said they appreciate the ability to express themselves creatively in their work, capturing emotions and telling a story. While working on art, they find it’s their time to be calm and at peace, they appreciate the learning process, with some pieces meeting their standards and others not quite being what they expected. 

For many, the “Dog Days of Summer” exhibit was an opportunity to combine their love for art with their love of animals. 

Kathie Camara typically creates portraits and seascapes and after someone offered her a kiln, she explored art through glass. The exhibit was the time for her to present her glass art of Waffles, a dog, with pride. She paints on the glass, being able to play with the colors and glass. 

Most important, the artists relish the reactions from people viewing their work, especially those who commission the piece or are gifted it. 

The purpose behind the art becomes simple: make others happy.