Florida fishing guide balances life on the water with fine art at Ringling College exhibit

SARASOTA, Fla. - After living in two separate worlds – fishing rods and art – Tom Stephens decided to combine his two passions to create custom fishing rods, which will be on display in Sarasota.

"You know, art and fishing are two really separate things," Stephens said. "Over time, I realized that people are interested in it just like I am, so some of my fishing clients became some of the best art collectors."  

His work, titled 'Echoes in Color', will be showcased at an alumni exhibition at Sarasota's Ringling College of Art and Design.

The backstory:

Stephens has been a fishing guide for 28 years. Since his work involved a variety of fishing. Stephens decided to start building his own fishing rods 20 years ago. 

"The variables are strength, the length, and everything from the type of guides we use," Stephens said. "I put all these things together, and I came up with something better than anything else I could find on the market."

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Each fishing rod takes around 15–20 hours to complete. Stephens tends to work in batches, focusing on specific parts of the process.

"I put my artistic touch on it with the thread and the color," Stephens said. 

The thread anchors the guides to the blank rods and creates a design on the handles. When completed, it's hard to tell that thread is the main material. 

Dig deeper:

"I just come in here and work on these very spontaneously, and they change overtime," Stephens said as he walked into his art studio. 

Next to Stephens' fishing rod workshop is an art studio. He's been creating art for his entire life. Art was the initial goal in life. He went to school at the Ringling College of Art and Design. His paintings and fishing rods are currently featured in an alumni exhibition at the college titled "Echoes in Color."

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"My paintings are inspired by things that I see around me and just living here in Florida," Stephens said. "Some of them were inspired by the marine environment, some pieces with fish and different things in it and other landscape-type paintings, and then you're going to see some totally abstract work, so I kind of bounce back and forth between those."

What's next:

Stephens stays busy bouncing back and forth between the two worlds. He says as he gets older, that balance is shifting more towards the art side, but he visions that he will be doing both for a long period of time. 

"I'm really kind of a compartmentalized guy with fishing, the rod building, and the artwork all being separate things. Sometimes people are really shocked to find out that I am doing one of these other things."