Artwork by Ellie Stiefel-Allakhverdiyeva

I love going to the Naples pier and walk the beach, swim in the high tides, and feel the sand between my toes as i collect shells for hours. Sunburned?? Yes.

I was in Florida visiting my parents for spring break and my mom had some paintings of egrets in her guest room. She loves egrets.

My Grandpa Harvey lived on Grey Cloud Island and had large downy woodpeckers and piliated woodpeckers nailed up in his trees. He cut them from plywood into the bird shapes and painted them. He was the only one to have these and it became the “Stiefel” symbol to our family name. When he died, i was given back the woodpecker door knocker i gave him in the 1980’s as a gift. Harvey is hanging inside my apartment on the entryway wall.

I was taking pictures and doing sketches of plants at the Naples Botanical Gardens. Their asian lilly pads were my favorite, but were taken by hurrican Ian.

When i was living in the homeless shelter for 11 months in 2017, i painted these peanuts themed pieces for the hundreds of children living there. It was fall and holidays were coming and the kids were sad and my paintings made hem smile. Their smiles healed my broken soul.I painted for the children.