'All I've ever done': 94-year-old former Lakeland artist's work on display at Polk Museum

Paul Catala
·4 min read
Hollyhocks/1996 by Chryssie Bilder Tavrides at the Polk Museum of Art in Lakeland Fl Tuesday January 24,2023.Chryssie Bilder Tavrides, a 94-year-old artist who used to do portraits for everyone in Lakeland, but has also a large cache of other work.Ernst Peters/The Ledger
Hollyhocks/1996 by Chryssie Bilder Tavrides at the Polk Museum of Art in Lakeland Fl Tuesday January 24,2023.Chryssie Bilder Tavrides, a 94-year-old artist who used to do portraits for everyone in Lakeland, but has also a large cache of other work.Ernst Peters/The Ledger

LAKELAND – In the 1980s and 1990s, Chryssie Tavrides did a myriad of portraits of children across Lakeland and beyond. In addition, she created exacting images of the area’s prominent residents, including Publix founder George Jenkins and his 14 grandchildren.

Currently on exhibition at the Polk Museum of Art at Florida Southern College through April 16 is “An Artist’s Journey: The Lifeworks of Chrissy Bilder Tavrides.”

Now 94, Tavrides has had a career of more than 70 years as a professional artist, specializing in a spectrum of materials and techniques, including acrylic, charcoal, stone lithography and mixed-media. In addition to original works, some of her portraits are also on display. She will be at the museum on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. for a meet and greet with the public.

Speaking from her home in Bradenton, Tavrides said she was a young girl in Chicago when she first got the artist spark and said that’s “all I’ve done, all my life.”

Chryssie Bilder Tavrides, a former Lakeland resident, has her life works on display at the Polk Museum of Art through April 16.
Chryssie Bilder Tavrides, a former Lakeland resident, has her life works on display at the Polk Museum of Art through April 16.

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That spark ignited. At 10, she began Saturday art classes at a school affiliated with the Art Institute of Chicago. She eventually received a bachelor degree in fine arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1952 and went to work doing children’s textbook illustrations.

“I just kept on; I never had another thought. It’s all I’ve ever done. And I can keep doing this, I don’t ever have to stop,” she said.

Green Bag 1995 by Chryssie Bilder Tavrides at the Polk Museum of Art in Lakeland Fl Tuesday January 24,2023.Chryssie Bilder Tavrides, a 94-year-old artist who used to do portraits for everyone in Lakeland, but has also a large cache of other work.Ernst Peters/The Ledger
Green Bag 1995 by Chryssie Bilder Tavrides at the Polk Museum of Art in Lakeland Fl Tuesday January 24,2023.Chryssie Bilder Tavrides, a 94-year-old artist who used to do portraits for everyone in Lakeland, but has also a large cache of other work.Ernst Peters/The Ledger

After moving to Lakeland in 1969 with her late husband James and her children — Cynthia and Matthew (both deceased), George Tavrides and Lelia Tavrides — she kept her job doing illustrations for publishers in Chicago.

Those illustrations led to working in other mediums and art genres, with influences from her father, A. K. Bilder, a commercial artist, and French impressionists Edgar Degas (1834-1917) and Claude Monet (1840-1926).

Those influences, mixed with Tavrides’ personal perspectives, are all encompassed in her Polk Museum gallery exhibit, she said. Known for teaching figure drawing at the Polk Museum while she was living in Lakeland, she was asked by Laura Putnam, manager of exhibitions, to show some of her works.

Chryssie Bilder Tavrides spent several years creating portraits in Lakeland. Now 94, her life works are on display at the Polk Museum of Art through April 16
Chryssie Bilder Tavrides spent several years creating portraits in Lakeland. Now 94, her life works are on display at the Polk Museum of Art through April 16

Alex Rich, the museum's executive director and chief curator, said a Tavrides art showcase was “a moment too long in the waiting.”

“A local artist, she has burnished her artistic credentials for decades and decades, and we love that she can finally get the attention and praise for her art she deserves,” he said by email. “Tavrides' work is personal and personable, exhibiting not merely her creative talents in media from paint to charcoal, but also her eye for rendering relatable impressionistic figures."

Tavrides said about 22 pieces in varied mediums are on display. She said museum staff did an outstanding job selecting artwork.

Mr.George 1990 by Chryssie Bilder Tavrides at the Polk Museum of Art in Lakeland Fl Tuesday January 24,2023.Chryssie Bilder Tavrides, a 94-year-old artist who used to do portraits for everyone in Lakeland, but has also a large cache of other work.Ernst Peters/The Ledger
Mr.George 1990 by Chryssie Bilder Tavrides at the Polk Museum of Art in Lakeland Fl Tuesday January 24,2023.Chryssie Bilder Tavrides, a 94-year-old artist who used to do portraits for everyone in Lakeland, but has also a large cache of other work.Ernst Peters/The Ledger

“My work is so varied, I wanted to make sure they picked pieces that hung well together color-wise and everything else. They did a wonderful job,” she said. “I’m pleased with what they did.”

In addition to impressionistic paintings and portraits, Tavrides is also adept in stone lithography and worked in Sao Paulo, Brazil, during the early 1990s to join artists already established in the area.

Tavrides said there’s no retiring for her and she wants visitors to her show to just “relate and enjoy” what she has produced.

“I’m not trying to lecture or anything like that. In my paintings, I’ve done each one very individually; I don’t have any kind of pattern that I follow. Each piece has been done and approached personally with no plan,” she said. “I think it’s a matter that (guests) should be able to relate to something and just really to enjoy it. That’s all.”

"He Drums Lubolo 2005," a quilt by Lauren Austin at the Polk Museum of Art. Austin's quilts are one of three temporary exhibits on display now at the museum.
"He Drums Lubolo 2005," a quilt by Lauren Austin at the Polk Museum of Art. Austin's quilts are one of three temporary exhibits on display now at the museum.

In addition to the Tavrides showcase, the Polk Museum has three other exhibits currently up: "Edward Hopper and Guy Pène du Bois: Painting the Real," featuring 65 works from major museum and private collections, which took four years to materialize, Rich said. There’s also the quilt-work of fiber artist Lauren Austin on display.

Edward Hopper and Guy Pene du Bois: Painting in The Real exhibit at the Polk Museum of Art.
Edward Hopper and Guy Pene du Bois: Painting in The Real exhibit at the Polk Museum of Art.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: An Artist’s Journey: The Lifeworks of Chrissy Bilder Tavrides.

WHEN: Through April 16; Tuesday to Saturday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Sunday, 1 to 5 p.m. Meet and greet is Saturday, Jan. 28, at 10:30 a.m.

WHERE: Polk Museum of Art at Florida Southern College, 800 E. Palmetto St., Lakeland

COST: Free

INFO: 863-688-7743; www.polkmuseumofart.org/exhibitions/

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Former Lakeland artist Chryssie Tavrides' work displayed at Polk Museum