ArtsiPhartsi For A New Era

With a big smile and open arms, I welcome you to ArtsiPhartsi for a new era. It's still your home for fine contemporary crafts but now we have a wonderful website so you can browse and buy crafts from your home, office or on the go and a beautiful new art gallery attached to our bungalow home at 4002 S. MacDill Avenue in Tampa. A garden space for parties and events will be added soon to showcase sculpture and outdoor art for your home.

Is There A Place For Us?

Creating Artsi for a new generation has been a long and interesting journey. We are buying things we love in an entirely new ways online. We see the world on the small screens of our cell phones. I asked myself "Is a beautiful gallery filled with exceptional artists from all over the United States something people still want?" These artists often sell their works online....do you even need to see their work in person? I'll never forget when I saw Steven Wilson's breathtaking masterpiece, Empress Tarot, for the first time. It was lovely from a distance but I still wrestled with the price until I walked closer and examined it. Empress Tarot is made with thousands of handmade embroidery stitches, a work of art so beautiful and imaginative it took my breath away. And I knew immediately I wanted to bring this type of beauty and quality to you, my fabulous clients.

My Artsi Journey

Many of you have followed my journey since 1991 when I opened a small gallery on MacDill near Bay to Bay Boulevard.. It was beloved, packed to the gills with treasures from over 500 artisans. As a Niche Award winner as the Must See Gallery in the US., it became successful far beyond my wildest imagination. In 1998, I bought the beautiful two-story gingerbread home on Kennedy Blvd, once owned by the famous baseball player Dizzy Dean. It was painstakingly crafted with red heart pine and mahogany, a perfect location for handcrafted works of art, and allowed me to expand to serve a growing market.

Balanced Life

In 2007, to spend more time with my extraordinary husband, Harry, and our growing family, I closed the Kennedy Gallery. That gave me the time to travel, join community boards and give back to the amazing Tampa Bay community in ways that were just not possible with a full-time business. Speaking of Harry, may each of you find your soulmate -- in our case a 45-year love story that continues just as strong today. None of my business success would have been possible without his love and support. He has walked beside me every step of the way as my best friend and wisest counselor.

When The Heart Speaks

After closing the Gallery for ten years, my heart kept longing for my deepest passion -- working with incredible artists and amazing customers. Throughout the ten years, customers kept asking me to help them find beautiful art and I stayed in touch with artists I had loved for years.

And so that is how this new journey began.

Welcome to my blog, Carmen's Nuggets

In my regular blog posts, I will cover the artists in the gallery and new arrivals so you can stand beside me as we uncrate the latest artworks. I'll talk about how I select the art and artists for ArtsiPhartsi, how I travel the country to curate a selection of fine crafts so you don't have to and share the joy of discovery when I find a new artist that I think will interest and inspire you. It will include the adventures of my rescue bulldogs, Bullet and Lulu. I truly believe art lovers are also animal lovers -- we love to hear your stories too!