By Jen Russon
Cindy Silva thinks the world could use a little more hope, happiness, and whimsy.
When she’s not bringing her artistic vision into the products she designs at Basic Fun, a toy company in Boca, she’s home wielding a dazzling color palette and brush.
“I’d love to paint full-time someday. When my daughter was born, I was a stay-at-home mom for a while and did a lot of painting – something I hadn’t done since college.”
The painter’s college days were spent at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. After graduating with a fine arts degree and working as a commercial artist for many years, Silva, her husband Marco, and daughter Renata moved to Heron Bay in Parkland, where they have lived for the last decade.
Silva said the tropical colors of South Florida had been a big influence on her work. The artist’s vision of the toy world, its whimsy, and realistic subjects, often feature a brunette girl who looks a lot like her real-life child.
This is not an accident.
Silva said it’s fair to call her 14-year-old daughter, a ninth-grader at Marjory Stoneman Douglas, her muse. The long-haired brunette is depicted in quite a few paintings – their exceptionally bright colors and windblown beauty used to inspire optimism in the eye of the beholder.
Since Silva opened her show “Eye of the Beholder” at the Coral Springs Museum of Art, many have come through and seen the artist guild member’s two canvases that helped get her selected as the next signature artist at the city’s annual festival of the arts in the spring.
Silva said it was a wonderful surprise to find out she had been chosen, just after her paintings were hung at the museum; they will continue to be offered for public consumption until November 4.
The artist said she loves how personal it feels to have people walk by and admire her work.
“Having been a commercial artist for so many years and worked on things with lots of different artists, it’s so nice to be recognized on my own,” said Silva.
Recognition is precisely what Silva will receive as the 2020 Coral Springs Festival of the Arts Signature Artist.
Her piece Beach Wishes 2, of a girl sitting wistfully by the ocean, will be featured on the event poster and all its literature; she also gets booth space, a stipend, and special billing on the website.
The next Coral Springs Festival of the Arts and Crafts takes place on Saturday, March 21, and Sunday, March 22, at The Walk on University Drive.
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