There was a beautiful handmade tutu in the window of The Sarasota Ballet School in downtown Sarasota. Every time we passed by it, William said, “I should do something with that.” So, one day he photographed it through the glass. The painting he did of it took liberties with the window itself, and he ended up using a façade from another building. We have the painting, entitled School of Dance, in our home…still in progress and left unsigned. View the painting here www.williamwolk.com.

One evening we had some friends for dinner and they admired the painting and said that, in their view, someone from The Sarasota Ballet should see it. Then they called back and asked if they could bring a ballet volunteer over. They, in turn, asked if they could come back with, Mary Anne Servian, the Associate Director of The Sarasota Ballet. She asked if she could come back with Iain Webb, the Ballet’s director. We had great fun entertaining all of these wonderful people.

All of this resulted in William being given access to some spectacular ballerinas and some absolutely gorgeous costumes. I have seen very little of him since. He is painting furiously and I can’t wait to share this new work with you as soon as he finishes some pieces. The Sarasota Ballet will be sponsoring some exhibitions of this new work; a percentage of which will be donated to the ballet.

Marie Wolk