Artist in Bokeelia says half the fun is finding his house
Jeff Abbott has been creating life-sized three dimensional art at his home in Bokeelia and all around the island for more than 20 years now. He was an art major in college at the University of South Florida, but said he had to put his passion on the back burner to go to work. Now that he’s retired, he said he gets to do what he wishes he could have done for a living all along.
“I do paintings and anything figurative. I did one of my dad on his dock in Naples,” Abbott said of his life-sized composites. “I put his clothes on it and everything, kind of as a joke and the neighbors thought it was him still out there and they called and said, your dad’s been out there a really long time, you’d better check on him. I just played along with it. I said, he was in the Army, he’s tough, he can take it,” said Abbott.
Abbott said his late father’s neighbors liked the life-sized dock figurine he’d made of his father because his home on the water was in a no wake zone and the fishing figurine served to slow down the boats as they went past, as they seemed to believe it was a real person.
After growing up and living in Naples, Abbott said he and his wife, Pam, bought a home on Pine Island in anticipation of retirement in 2000 and then moved here permanently around 2004-2005. This art medium gives Abbott something to do, he said, when taking care of his wife, as she is bedridden with multiple sclerosis.
“I can do my work downstairs, and a variety of people come by and a lot of these visitors have become my friends,” Abbott said.
After a trip to Lowe’s and Home Depot, Abbott said he builds a skeleton out of PVC piping and follows it up with spray foam, as is used in insulation. After carving the figures with a hacksaw blade and sculpting his image by sanding it down, he then covers it with paintable silicone rubber, which he said is just caulking from a tube.
Abbott said he likes to encourage kids to stick with artwork, and art programs if that’s their desire.
“Everything is getting computerized these days. I like people to make things with their hands, so I encourage the kids that come to stay with the arts,” Abbott said.
Abbott has been featured, he said, at DAAS COOP, Alliance for the Arts and Arts for ACT, with both his paintings and his people. This whole thing just evolved, he said, adding that he is not trying to sell anything, but enjoys when people find his home, surrounded by his art and bring others to see it as well.
“Once it started, I couldn’t stop it. People would tell other people and then they’d bring their family and friends back and I like it — I’ve met all kinds of cool people, they sign a guestbook, but there’s nothing commercial about it,” Abbott said.
Abbott said half the fun is in finding his home, surrounded by his life-sized three-dimensional artwork, somewhere in Bokeelia.
To see it online visit Jeff Abbott Art on Facebook.