Aeling creates large-scale public art at his
MGA Studios in the Warehouse Arts District.
He is president of the Warehouse Arts District
Association. /Photo Carrie Jadus
37 January/February 2020 StPeteLifeMag.com
important to have a partner who
wants you to do the thing that makes
you happy. If you don’t have that
to move ahead on your own.”
(Interesting side note: Jadus, born
in Tampa and a PCCA grad, has
an advanced degree in electrical
engineering and once had an entirely
end, her love of art and creating would
simply not be denied. Of course, Tesla
artistic world and exists on one of the
area’s most popular murals.)
“Mark had come to the Craftsman
House event and I said hello, we
chatted a bit and when I asked about
that Mark was recently single, too.”
Serendipity.
Mark picks up the story: “I thought
her beauty was striking.” (If you
know Carrie, you know this is no
understatement). “And then, there it
was. We had a “moment.” You know,
when there is eye contact that lasts
a bit too long. My heart was beating
a mile a minute.” He texted her the
following day.
Aeling continues: “I arranged to meet
her at an arts event that evening …. I
honestly didn’t expect her to be free
on such short notice. But I had to give
it a shot.”
“I had plans,” Jadus interjects. “But
he either had to cancel or maybe I got
stood up. I really don’t remember, but
somehow, it didn’t matter. I met Mark
that evening and it was our beginning.
I was attracted to Mark’s enthusiasm
for his work, and his appreciation of
mine. That was important to me.”
Then, more serendipity.
“We had only been dating a short
time,” Jadus recalls, “when I got a
commission from Weedon Island
for a huge painting that my studio,
then on MLK in St. Pete, could not
accommodate.”
Aeling was already at his current
location with MGA, a large-scale
sculpture studio that he founded in
1996 in St. Louis. (He is originally from
Colorado.) “There was this huge space
next door,” he says, “and I wanted to
see it used by artists.” Knowing about
Jadus’s inability to work on a 9-foot
painting in her current space, Aeling
invited her to come check out the
available space next to his studio. “It
was huge - over 4,000 square feet,”
said Jadus. “There was no way I could
the relationship. It was hard not to
consider all that could go wrong with
that scenario.”
Together, they came up with a
potential plan to break up the space
into studios that could be rented to
multiple tenants. They budgeted each
step in the renovation and carefully
the leap. “We both knew what was on
the line,” Jadus says. “But somehow
we had a feeling it could work.”
The result was what is now the
wildly successful Soft Water Studios
and gallery. But that was only the
beginning …
Warehouse Arts District
The two artists were merely renters,
and now there was too much to lose
not to come up with an even bigger
plan, one that would ensure a way to
the neighborhood that might force
the building and property, and with
it was time to get creative and create
an entire community for artists and
the arts.
“I enlisted the help of Rob Kapusta,”
says Aeling. “He is nothing short of a
fact is, I had no idea what I was doing,
and I knew he could help.” Aeling
had heard about Duncan McClellan’s
interest in the area and his purchase
of the multi-acre tomato farm factory
ARTS & CULTURE
purchase
factory
Mark Aeling was inspired to recreate Carrie’s lips in
this sculpture made entirely of colored pencils.
/Photo Art Life
/StPeteLifeMag.com