Beautiful Mistake

Photographer Robert Petrillo from Sarasota and poet Gianna Russo from Tampa collaborated on this project for Art in Common Places completed as a collaboration in the fall of 2022. This is the first time our curators chose two projects from the same team.

Robert’s Statement: An avid photographer, Robert said that beauty is found everywhere, even in mud puddles after a storm. “The first time I saw an Art in Common Places broadside I wanted to somehow become a part of the community,” wrote Robert. “With the agreed upon topic of “Everyday Beauty” I noticed more and more the quality of light in the morning; reflections on water; foliage in summer’s full bloom; oak trees; flowers in a windowsill; and all the little things I say I want to photograph but never do.”

Gianna’s Statement: “My poem “The City Made a Beautiful Mistake” was inspired by new streetlights that were installed in my neighborhood during the pandemic. They cast a purple light.  As the poem notes, the purple color was a mistake created when a yellow filter was left out, leaving only a red and a blue filter for the light, thus purple. I was spending a lot of time at home and taking nightly walks. I found them delightful, mystical and magical. However, a number of folks in the city hated them and the city began replacing them. A Tampa photographer, Selina Roman, began seeking out these streetlights and making photos of whatever they illuminated. In an article about her project, she said of our city officials who were promising to have the lights replaced, “Do they know they’ve created these beautiful moments around town?”  That spoke to me: when Robert and I decided on the theme of everyday beauty, I knew I had to finally write about the streetlights.”