Captiva, FL

North Captiva Island is beautiful bridgeless island off the coast of SW Florida located just one island north of sister islands Sanibel and Captiva. Despite the close proximity to those two well-known destinations, North Captiva Island is barely known by even the longtime residents that live in the surrounding region. The island consists of about 300 homes, 300 vacant lots, a 350 acre state park preserve, miles of gorgeous powdery beaches, four restaurants, and a small resort ( with pools, tennis courts, tropical pool bar, kayaks, playground, etc). The close knit community is very friendly - as are the transient guests who frequently vacation here. Since the island can only be accessed by boat, there are no cars... so everyone scoots around on nice quiet electric golf carts. Despite the lack of cars and crowds, traffic jams on the island do occur frequently... that is when several of the friendly island neighbors or guests meet along the sandy roads for a friendly discussion (or block party?) that can last for hours. Due to the lack of city-like elements, North Captiva has little sound or light pollution. Visitors from the local area are amazed at how bright the stars are. The 350 acre state park is accessible to all who stay on the island. One can hike through the scenic walking trails or walk along the state park beach. There are very few places in Florida where you can live that allows you to walk the beach for two miles withough seeing a house.

North Captiva is a hidden gem that has been undiscovered by the masses. If you are looking for an escape from today's hectic world, check it out!

One of the greatest contemporary artist has joined the Angels... Milton Robert "Bob" Rauschenberg passed at his Captiva home last night, May 12, 2008.

Born Milton Rauschenberg in 1925 in Port Arthur, Texas, and raised a Christian fundamentalist, Rauschenberg wanted to be a minister but gave it up because his church banned dancing.

"I was considered slow," he once said "While my classmates were reading their textbooks, I drew in the margins."

He was drafted into the U.S. Navy during World War II and knew little about art until a chance visit to an art museum where he saw his first painting at age 18. He drew portraits of his fellow sailors for them to send home. When his time in the service was up, Rauschenberg used the GI. Bill to pay his tuition at art school.

Milton Rauschenberg changed his name to Bob in 1947, in a bus station in Kansas City in the middle of the night, choosing his new moniker after " making up his mind that the first person who asked him his name, he would say ‘Bob,' and if that person believed him, it would be Bob from then on." The man who took the ordinary name had not made upon his decision as a reaction to an ordinary life.

He studied painting at the Kansas City Art Institute in 1947. He later took his studies to Black Mountain College in North Carolina, where he studied under master Josef Albers, and alongside contemporary artists such as choreographer Merce Cunningham and musician John Cage. He also studied at the Art Students League in New York City.

Rauschenberg first paintings in the early 1950s comprised a series of all-white and all-black surfaces under laid with wrinkled newspaper. In later works he began making art from what others would consider junk — old soda bottles, traffic barricades, and stuffed birds and calling them "combine" paintings.

One of Rauschenberg's first and most famous combines was entitled "Monogram," a 1959 work consisting of a stuffed angora goat, a tire, a police barrier, the heel of a shoe, a tennis ball, and paint. In Bantam (1954), the juxtaposition of Judy Garland, a gay popular icon, with a photo of the Yankees, a group of masculine men, may reflect tension within the artist. Also interesting formally and perhaps symbolically is the literal piece of gauze glued over Ms. Garland's photograph. While this item may simply be another random element in the formal construction of this collection of objects, I much prefer to think that he is playing with his audience, pasting an obvious allusion (to those familiar anyway) onto his picture under the guise of randomness.

By the mid-1950s, he was also designing sets and costumes for dance companies and window displays for Tiffany and Bonwit Teller.

A painter, photographer, printmaker, choreographer, onstage performer, set designer and, in later years, even a composer, Mr. Rauschenberg defied the traditional idea that an artist stick to one medium or style.

"I like things that are almost souvenirs of a creation, as opposed to being an artwork," he said in a 1997 Harper's Bazaar interview, "because the process is more interesting than completing the stuff."

His own thoughts on death:

"I don't ever want to go," he told Harper's Bazaar in 1997 when asked of his own death. "I don't have a sense of great reality about the next world; my feet are too ugly to wear those golden slippers. But I'm working on my fear of it. And my fear is that something interesting will happen, and I'll miss it. I'm curious, It's very rewarding. I'm still discovering things every day."

If a mans worth is determined by making a difference or leaving this earth a better place then when you arrived...he was a wealthy man whose graciousness provided for many Abused Women and Family through, the Abuse Council and Treatment Center in Ft. Myers, and the creation of the Edison Community College Rauschenberg Museum to name just a few.

The below is an interview with Charlie Rose and Bob Rauschenberg, it begins at about 28 minutes. I suggest if you have time taking a break and listen. The wisdom of this man will change you, and in closing I offer my prayers to his son, Christopher, his family, Darryl Pottorf and the collection of Beautiful friends who he loved so much!