Kristine Meek, owner-director of Harmon-Meek Gallery in Naples, has a long-standing passion for art. “I believe paintings and sculpture have a way of speaking to a person and even picking their owners,” says Meek. “Art is very personal.” The gallery was established in 1964 and grew into a family business that has been passed down from her parents, William and Barbara. Her sister, Juliana, directs a second gallery, Harmon Meek | modern.
1. Great escape: I’d love to repeat the trip to Svalbard with my sister. We stayed in an old Soviet spy station (Isfjord Radio) that had been renovated. There were only six guests, a private chef, sled dogs, guides, and rifles in case of a polar bear attack.
2. Best local cultural attraction: Naples Train Depot. I love watching my dad take his grandson to see the very train car he took to college from Naples nearly 50 years ago.
3. Favorite piece of art: A lithograph by Adolf Dehn called Circus from 1945. It hung next to my childhood bed and I stared at the acrobats, elephants, and circus characters to fall asleep. It wasn’t until I was an adult that I learned it is a political statement with Adolf Hitler’s head on a platter in the foreground. Coincidentally, it currently hangs in my bedroom.
4. Favorite store: Audrey’s of Naples has a back room with clothes organized by decade, and I feel like I am going through a Hollywood wardrobe department. I love the beautiful hats, too.
5. What few people know about her: I have a fear of heights but did a skydive from 14,000 feet in Australia while studying abroad. I also traveled to all 50 states before I was 18 and hope to give my son the same experience.
6. Beauty product she can’t live without: Laura Mercier eye shadows. My 2-year-old son once grabbed my eye shadows from my bathroom and threw them across the room in a tantrum; I nearly put him up for adoption!
7. Bucket list topper: I want to take my son, John, and partner, Andrew, to Sogndal, Norway, to meet my distant cousins who still live on the farm my great-grandmother left a century ago.
8. Go-to place for dessert: Preston’s Steak House for chocolate layer cake. Clayton’s wife makes a cake worth saving room for, even after their delicious steak.
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