Two months ago, Chana Raut came to Sarasota. She’d won a lottery visa, giving her a chance to enter the country and work for a shot at permanent citizenship. With hard work and a bit of luck, she’d eventually be able to bring her husband and 7-year-old son to Sarasota too. Until then, they’d wait for her back home in Pangtang, a village in the Sindhupalchok District of central Nepal.

“Everything is gone,” said Raut, now a nail technician at Sarasota Salon and Spa, who found out Saturday that her entire village was destroyed, sliding into the river as the countryside tore itself apart in the throes of an earthquake that has reportedly taken more than 6,000 lives to date. She carries the evidence on her phone, where she pores through photo after photo, tragedy after tragedy, shared on the news or through social media. Her son survived, but Raut lost her brother and sister, her in-laws and her nieces and nephews. For days she had no news of her husband, and just yesterday received word. He was praying in the temple when the quake struck, and the foundation held. He’s OK. “I’m very happy, very relieved,” said Raut. “But still, so many people have died. People don’t have houses or food or water. People are on the street.”

“I will find a way to help,” said Narendra Singh Saud, owner and chef at Curry Station on Washington Boulevard. Saud and his wife came to Sarasota on a similar lottery program four years ago and opened their own restaurant in the past year. He has not returned to Nepal since. “But this time, I have to go,” said Saud, who leaves next week with his wife to return home, where he will attempt to help those in need by serving “at least” 1000 meals per day. His family is safe, this he knows, but their houses and belongings, along with those of many others, have been destroyed. “I’ve seen the news, I’ve seen the videos and I want to help as much as I can,” he said.

Exiting the country through New Jersey and passing through Delhi, Saud will land at an airport near the Nepal border, before finding a bus to Kathmandu and finding a local pilot willing to bring him and a constant flow of supplies to where they are needed most. He can’t trust the government of Nepal to help, he says, so he must do it himself. 

So far, Saud has gathered the funds necessary to carry out his humanitarian mission for a matter of days, not the full month he plans to spend in Nepal, from his own pocket. He’s unsure where the rest of the funding will come from, but does not appear overly concerned with that fact. Maybe the community will rally behind him, maybe they won’t. His bags are packed and he’ll do what he can. For her part, Raut is currently raising money to bring her husband and son from the wreckage of their village to her new home in Sarasota, with an online GoFundMe campaign.  

Pictured: Saud and his grandfather tend vegetables in Nepal in 2011. Courtesy of: Narendra Singh Saud.

Support Chana Raut's Campaign

The whole reaches more than the sum of its parts with the latest multipanel exhibit from Art Uptown Gallery. Entitled “Six Squared,” the exhibit showcases 14 large-scale installations, each composed of smaller, distinct paintings or mixed-media works on a uniform series of 6” x 6” squares of canvas or wood. Presented together, the collected works present themselves simultaneously as a single installation.

The idea for “Six Squared” came from a desire to “play with the dimension idea of artwork – bigger versus smaller,” said Jordan Kelly-Laviolette, gallery coordinator for Art Uptown. “Because each piece is part of a bigger picture, but can all be sold individually as well.”

Nine guest artists join five Art Uptown resident artists, including Jill Krasner, who conceived of the exhibit, bringing their singular styles to this exercise in creative dimensions. Some opt for the abstract, such as Marjorie Hallett, whose vividly colored constructions swirl seamlessly from one panel to the next, despite their disparate creation, and Laura Reed, who adds a layer of geometric patterning to her mixed-media endeavor.

For the subject-oriented, Jacquie Clark injects a bit of humor into the show with her extensive series of canine portraiture, each pooch captured in flowing and detailed watercolor, grinning down from the massive multipanel installation. From Cecile Moran’s delightful purple and gold mini-landscapes to Krasner’s almost-cubist take on the Florida environment and Gail Rubinfeld’s cosmopolitan collages, it’s the myriad styles present that bring it all together.

“It’s really cool how they’re all so drastically different, yet they work together visually,” said Kelly-Loviette, before turning her attention to the individual parts composing each. “They’re very impactful for smaller pieces, what you wouldn’t expect from artwork that small.”

All featured artists will be present at an opening reception for “Six Squared” on May 1 from 6pm-9pm at the gallery. In keeping with the numerical theme of the show, each square sells for $66. The exhibit runs until May 28. 

Pictured: "Abstract Landscapes" by Jill Krasner. Courtesy of: Art Uptown Gallery

For us, walking our dog is simply a "walk." But to your puppy, being a direct descendent of the gray wolf, psychologically, it's really something else. Wolves spend most of their time patrolling their territory, and psychologically, that's how your puppy relates to the walk. For starters, one of the tenets of the walk must be "no indiscriminate sniffing." The walk is about traversing, not tracking. When does she have the opportunity to sniff and so on? When the leader initiates it. (That's supposed to be you!) Release her to sniff and pee if she likes, then we're back on patrol. 

We all see dogs who haven't been properly trained, stopping every couple of minutes leading their owners from bush to post to tree, deciding which way the pack is going, but the walking routine doesn't look like that in a balanced pack. Even a "pack of two." A healthy pack moves, and has a certain momentum. But perhaps the most important aspect of the walk to imprint on your pup is that she mustn't lead. So as you walk together, every time her little body starts to get ahead of your knee, as you continue moving, give her a little sideways tug, as you correct her verbally with "no" or "ahh." This should draw her back toward your leg. Depending on the puppy, this idea of not leading may be challenging to get across, so you must be persistent. Try not to pull her backwards, but rather, sideways, as backwards pressure actually tends to encourage pulling.   

Ultimately, she will learn to heel at your left side, but in the beginning, it doesn't matter which side she's on, so keep things light and allow her to wander from side to side. Just don't let her put her nose on the ground or tarry. More next time.

A native of Louisiana, SRQ Daily Columnist Gregg Flowers owns Dog's Best Friend Dog Training Services here in Sarasota, where he "teaches dogs and trains people." Gregg became fascinated by our relationship with dogs as a boy in the '60s, and by 1985 had developed his own unique style of working with dogs and their humans 

John J. Rattigan closed on the purchase of a 1,176-square-foot medical condo on Bahia Vista Street in Sarasota for $80,000.  Eric Massey, of Michael Saunders and Company, represented the seller. Gail Bowden and Erin Reid, advisors with the downtown Sarasota office of Sperry Van Ness Commercial Advisory Group, represented the buyer. 

Sperry Van Ness Commercial Group

Monarch, a Sarasota-based firm offering integrated wealth management services, has announced the launch of its new brand and website. Revealed in March, the change comes in an effort to position the firm as the wealth management partner of choice for a wide range of clientele, not just ultra-high-net-worth individuals. 

Monarch

U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Sarasota, announced that after months of discussion with the U.S. Postal Service, the Manasota Postal Distribution Center will remain open at least through the end of the year. Buchanan noted that according to recent Area Mail Processing studies, the postal service could save nearly twice as much money annually by transferring mail processing operations from the Fort Myers PDC to Manasota and Tampa as opposed to consolidating the Manasota PDC into the Fort Myers PDC.   

U.S. Postal Service