Gallery 14 Kicks Off Season 19 With a Double Header

Forget the great snowbird migration. Downtown Vero's season really starts with the First Friday Gallery Stroll in October. This year that's October 2, when Gallery 14 opens its 19th season with a two-artist show you won't want to miss.

John H.C. Davis is a Tulane-trained printmaker who carves Florida wildlife into linoleum, in reverse, one gouge at a time. He prints each piece by hand, paints it in acrylic, and then, if that wasn't labor-intensive enough, builds the wooden frame himself. His birds visually pop off the wall like stained glass. He placed second at Vero Beach Art Club's Art by the Sea last year and third this year, and he consistently takes first and second at the Eastern Shore Art Center Outdoor Art Show in Fairhope, Alabama.

Vicki Morrison was a critical care nurse for years before she started painting full time. Her abstracts are fast and loose, mostly yellows and blues, with black lines scratched over the paint. She doesn't plan much. She starts with a feeling about a place and lets that decide whether she reaches for acrylic, oil, or pastel.

Davis maps out every line before he cuts, so seeing his work next to hers is half the fun. It's the same Florida birds, water, and sky, made by two people who could hardly work more differently.

The details: First Friday Gallery Stroll, Friday, Oct. 2, 5–8 p.m., Gallery 14, 1911 14th Ave. The show runs through Oct. 30. Regular hours are Tuesday through Friday 10–5 and Saturday 10–4. More information here.