Perfectly Sculpted

By Jill Duff-Hoppes

Last year, J Life magazine launched a visual-art series to introduce our readers to talented Jewish artists living and working here in Central Florida. We’re continuing that series in 2023, and in this issue, we’d like you to meet two sculptors whose work has been featured in museums, galleries, and public parks throughout our area.

One artist specializes in equine-themed sculptures having been fascinated by horses since childhood. The other artist was inspired by silver-screen beasts early in his career but now creates figurative sculptures that are often imbued with a spiritual message.

Thoroughbred

Mindy Z. Colton was a horse-crazy kid who took her first riding lessons in elementary school. She went on to compete in equestrian shows, own horses, and live for a decade in Lexington, Kentucky – known as the Horse Capital of the World.

Mindy remains passionate about horses but now sculpts the majestic creatures more often than she rides them. She is a prolific, award-winning artist known for her contemporary expressionistic equine sculptures. Mindy’s winsome work can be found in many art venues as well as public and private collections.

“I strive for my works to intrigue the viewer, invite a closer look, and exhibit strength, determination, and vulnerability,” says Mindy in her artist’s statement.

A native of New York City, Mindy came by her love of horses honestly. Her maternal grandfather, who died before she was born, owned training and auction stables in Manhattan. Although her parents didn’t stay in the horse business, they frequently regaled young Mindy with stories about her granddad.

“The horse gene jumped over to me,” says Mindy, who lives in east Orlando with her husband, Paul. “It was my legacy.”

Mindy with Wind Dancer, an equine-themed sculpture on permanent display at UCF.

In addition to a fascination with horses, Mindy showed a talent for art at an early age. Her art-loving parents enrolled her in classes at the Metropolitan Museum of Art when she was five years old. Mindy was accepted into the prestigious High School of Music & Art in NYC (now the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts), from which she graduated at age 16.

She attended Parsons School of Design in NYC and then Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, where she earned a BFA in graphic design and photography. Mindy worked as a graphic designer and illustrator in the academic world for decades, first at the University of Kentucky, then at Kennesaw State University in Georgia, and finally at the University of Central Florida. At UCF, she also earned a master’s degree.

On the side, Mindy exhibited her personal fine art, mostly paintings and illustrations. Her creative focus shifted from 2-D to 3-D works in 1999 when she took a bronze-casting class at Crealdé School of Art in Winter Park. Later, Mindy began experimenting with other materials including aluminum, copper, and mixed media.

Mindy has received numerous grants for her artistic projects and is a member of local, statewide, and national art organizations. She is represented by four galleries including Park Avenue Contemporary Art in Winter Park, and her work is currently included in a group show at Crealdé.

Two of Mindy’s monumental works are public art pieces that are on permanent display in Central Florida. One is a 12-foottall horse titled Renewal, which makes its home at the Lake Concord Sculpture Garden in Casselberry. The other, a towering Pegasus titled Wind Dancer, stands proudly outside UCF’s Burnett Honors College. Mindy’s work is also part of the permanent art collection at Emerald Downs Racetrack in Washington State.

When Mindy created her very first horse sculpture years ago, the artist never imagined she’d still be producing equine-themed art today. “I thought I’d be done by now, but I don’t seem to run out of ideas,” she says. “Each sculpture is different. Part of it is, no matter what you do with a horse, they’re going to be beautiful.”

Horse sculptures by Mindy Colton. To learn more, visit MindyColton.com.

Mastering the Art Game

Jene Omens includes a personal detail on his website that you don’t typically see from artists – his first childhood drawing.

Jene with his whimsical sculpture, Lionel. A version of this piece is on display at a law firm in Altamonte Springs.

When he was four years old, Jene was inspired to draw a mechanical beast after visiting a construction site and reading the classic children’s book, Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel. The imaginative sketch provides a glimpse of what was to come from Jene, who went on to work as a special-effects artist in the film and television industry in Los Angeles, California.

Later, Jene segued into creating video games for EA Sports in Central Florida working on Madden NFL and NASCAR Thunder. Now, he’s a synthetic environment designer creating 3-D flight simulator worlds for pilots.

As creative as all those jobs are, Jene still feels compelled to express his own vision in the fine-art world – namely, with figurative sculptures. His work is sometimes whimsical in nature and at other times spiritual and reflective.

“Art has always been in my blood and my life,” says the 62-year-old Jene, whose father was a cinematographer and film-school professor. “Drawing is OK, but it’s flat, and I like to see dimensionality, which is why I like to sculpt.”

Early on, Jene was inspired by the stop-motion animation of films such as King Kong and the Sinbad series and even made his own puppets and movies. Later, the computer-generated imagery of Jurassic Park convinced Jene to master the latest and greatest software tools, which led him from film and TV to the video-game and training-simulation industries.

With his own art, Jene’s creativity is sparked more by his experiences and surroundings than by monsters on the silver screen. His sculptures have paid tribute to horrific events such as Kristallnacht and the Pulse nightclub shootings in Orlando.

“Part of how I work out emotions is I sculpt,” says Jene, who lives in Maitland with his wife, Sharon. Jene is a member and past president of the Florida Sculptors Guild (FSG) and has worked in a variety of media including bronze, clay, wax, and aluminum. Recently, he has been experimenting with computer modeling and 3-D printing, and one of those pieces is on display at a law firm in Altamonte Springs.

Another of Jene’s sculptures was included in reVision: Seeing by Hand, an FSG exhibit of art designed specifically for the visually impaired community. The traveling exhibit has been featured at the Sculpture House in Casselberry, the Albin Polasek Museum & Sculpture Gardens in Winter Park, and Osceola Arts in Kissimmee. Jene’s work will be part of another FSG exhibit at Osceola Arts this summer.

“My philosophy is to capture a moment in my sculptures that will evoke an emotional response in the viewer,” says Jene. “If I’ve done that, then I’ve succeeded, and it’s not just a piece of metal that’s sitting there. It’s touching somebody in some way.”

The People Behind the Light by Jene Omens has been exhibited at the Holocaust Center in Maitland. To learn more, visit JeneOmens.com.

Story was originally published in print in Spring 2023.