During cocktail hour, an exhibition of original artwork was for sale inside the Gallery of Celebrity Artists within the armory. Costumed as mimes, zebras and living art, performance artists from the Palm Beach Principle Players and Gold Coast Theatre Company entertained and interacted with guests. Participants also included painters, sculptors, mixed media artists and photographers such as Judith Murat Grubman, Helmut Koller and Stephania Conrad. Bruce Sutka of Sutka Productions International not only painted vibrantly colored celestial skyscapes on guests' shirts and pants, but also artistically orchestrated the visual production for the evening. Beside turning each other into living works of art, guests danced to cross-over pop, disco and Latin infused music played by DJ Bobby Stoner, and feasted on fabulous food from Cristofaro's Catering.
"I wanted everyone to feel as though they were both the artist and the art," said Sutka. His vision became clear as patrons sat at tables topped with white-washed decorative picture moldings, which were used as centerpieces. To seated guests peering through the frames, the festivities appeared as though they were works of art, but then again, looking through the frame from the other side, the guests became the art. The illusion and fantasy was a twist to reality but the message was evident. It's all about perception.
—Jose Gomez
