History
of
Patio Paradise Fountains
“Joey enjoys playing in the sand box”, so said my St. Thomas, Virgin Island, nursery school report card. In those years I recall taking my mother’s pizza pans and old boxes of pizza mix and taking great pride in making beautiful sand and mud pizzas from the different soils to be found near our home. In the 1970’s I learned masonry techniques like simulated stone and brick working as a plasterer/stucco mason. My favorite type of simulated stone to work on was simulated Coquina rock on homes and businesses. Large shells are pressed into the stucco material and/or small shell is thrown on the surface and either a cutter tool is used to make rock shapes or the entire surface is left solid; either way it’s called simulated Coquina.
At the same time, I started a gardening hobby in my backyard in Deland, FL. I made my first humble attempt at creating a small portable Coquina fountain. In this old photo from around 1974, you can barely see it on the left side of the pond. It was functional, but that is about all I could say about it. As often happens, I grew tired of working for someone else, and longed for a more fulfilling career.
A friend admired my little backyard oasis and just begged me to recreate it for her along with a waterfall or fountain. In the photo above, you see me hard at work on Mrs. Martin’s fountain. My daughters, Brandy and Amber, are playing in the foreground.
This time, the beautiful result was a pleasant surprise to everyone. Here I am about a year later, doing a bit of general maintenance for Mrs. Martin.
Next, I built a fountain out of real coquina in my own backyard, seen here with the wooden bridge. When I was scavenging for the stone to make this fountain, I had the Epiphany I refer to in the short story Gaudi and Whitman. Regularly swimming in the Florida springs, such as Blue Springs State Park in Orange City, were part of my Inspiration, as well. The same year I built my first real coquina fountain, I took a trip with my family out West to places like the Grand Canyon, Colorado Springs, The Garden of the God’s, Bryce Canyon, The Tetons, and of course, Yellowstone. I noticed that the books I bought to remember our trip all described the beautiful rock formations as the product of erosion, mainly from water. Something clicked. I remembered the beautiful Coquina rock from the East Coast of Florida, that is often sculpted into beautiful shapes by the effects of erosion in the surf. Thus was born the concept of Patio Paradise Fountains: hand sculpted fountains resembling naturally eroded Coquina rocks. (For more information about the effects of erosion in the surf on Coquina, Click here . This link is to the website of Washington Oaks State Gardens in Florida. In the first couple of paragraphs they give a good description of how Coquina rock formed.)
With a lot of trial and error, I made my first and then several more portable, tabletop fountains. My first sale in March of 1984, shown to left, was to a small florist in Sanford, FL.
Here are Bandy and Amber with the fountain in Mr. McCalister’s shop.
This lead to my first big break. At Mr. McCalister’s suggestion, I was invited to rent three fountains to the Florida State Florist Association for their annual meeting. Thanks Mr. McCalister. If you look close, you might be able to make out my first three small fountains that are placed around the white bird cage in this photo.
Here, above, is a close-up of my very first Patio Paradise fountain next to the bird cage. WOW! I discovered that I could design for professional designers and that they LIKED my work!!
My friends told me “You should display your fountains down on Park Avenue in Winter Park”. I had my second break when Mrs. Talbot, the owner of a delightful little shop, “OuiBits” that then existed on Park Avenue, said “Yes, you can put a little fountain in my window.” To date, I have sold to more than sixty-five Florists in the Southeast. Things just snowballed over the years. Oriental restaurants really seem to appreciate accenting their decor with my unique water features. Then came premier gardening shops around the South, who are pleased to display and sell my fountains for the enjoyment of their customers. Along the way, I have enjoyed displaying my work at home shows and garden shows.
I lived in Sanford from 1988 to 1998. I moved to Tampa in 1998 and had a studio in Pinellas Park for three years. Then I moved my studio to South Seminole Heights in Tampa. Photos are in a carousel on my Previous Displays page. I hoped to stay there for a while and build a retail following, but the owner decided to sell the studio location to Cappy’s Pizza (their kitchen is where I made fountains for several years; particularly memorable was my Turks and Caicos Fountain); so in March 2006, I temporarily moved to Orange City. However, because of an accident that totaled my van and injured my back, I decided to return to Tampa in November 2007. I had a studio on Hale Ave. in Tampa for a couple of years. I began doing the art and craft show circuit around Florida. In 2009 I did shows in Myrtle Beach, SC, Banner Elk and Asheville, NC, Cape May and Stone Harbor, NJ. I met John Ferguson in New Jersey and together we moved to Safety Harbor, FL, in 2010. See photos of my display garden in Safety Harbor (photo carousel). In 2016 we moved to Tarpon Springs, Fl. Photos of my Fountain Garden can be seen here. For about 12 years I did art and craft shows several times a year, mainly in the Villages, FL. In October 2018 I created social media sites on both YouTube and Facebook; with videos of my work. The videos and lots of pictures can be seen on my Photos/Videos page. In the Spring of 2019 I had to stop doing my shows due to health reasons, mostly my bad back. I am still able to make fountains and as of March 15, 2020 I have opened a shop on Etsy.com, PatioParadiseByJoe.