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Kelly Reark: An island Renaissance Woman
Kelly Reark is what one would call a “Renaissance Woman.” Her infectious smile and open personality are apparent whenever she is introduced to someone new, but there’s more to the Gasparilla Properties Realtor than meets the eye.
Many in Boca Grande have seen Kelly dressed in her professional best while selling property around the island, but she feels just as comfortable crouching down beside a 5-foot by 11-foot concrete slab, sweating and painting sea creatures on the sea wall of Royal Palm Marina where she is participating in an artist’s contest.
The girl who was known as “the weird one with the snakes” when she was a child has grown into a woman whose life experiences range from fishing in the Dixie Chicken to studying giant squid, from painting sea life to hunting hogs. Whether she’s holding a paintbrush or an AR-15, selling paintings or selling million-dollar homes, she is always happy.
And, as an added bonus, she can outshoot, outfish, outhunt and outsell most of those people who called her weird, too.
Kelly was born in Miami, but was less than a year old when the family moved to Avon Park in central Florida. They finally settled in nearby Sebring and her parents, Mike and Kay, opened the Wild Turkey Tavern that is still in operation today.
As a young girl, she and her younger brother, Sean, would accompany their dad on hunting and fishing trips. Mike Reark has been a fishing captain and hunting guide for as long as she can remember, and she was raised with a complete affinity for the outdoors.
Her love of animals started early, and though she was focused on learning as much as she could about the native animals of Florida, she always thought she would become an artist.
So when Kelly went to college at the University of Miami (the alma mater of four grandparents and her father as well), she originally majored in art and marine biology. That was, until a fateful day came and she heard tragic news on the television.
A coelacanth had been found alive.
“When I was young all I wanted to do was move to New Zealand and work on a research vessel,” she said. “I loved learning about giant squid and coelacanth. I always said if there was a living coelacanth, I was going to be the one who would find it. When I was in college I heard they actually found one. I was cursing the world that day.”
Kelly ended up with a degree in art and psychology, and laughs to think it really might have been a “major” setback when she heard about her discovery being discovered by someone else. It was more along the lines of her chemistry not mixing well with, well … chemistry.
“I will admit, I had trouble in school choosing between art and marine biology,” she explained. “The real reason I switched from marine biology to psychology was because chemistry and I didn’t really mix well. I just couldn’t get through it. But I have wanted to be an artist since I was a child and I still want to do it full-time as an adult. If it made me a full-time income, I probably would. I think that tie to marine biology, though, is what keeps me painting all the nature in Florida. It’s a way for me to capture what I love, and to make people happy at the same time. I really love making people happy.”
After college Kelly spent a year with a graphic design company, creating mass-marketed T-shirt and sportswear designs. She worked with some big names such as Caesar’s Palace and Six Flags, but while the designs were hers her creative capacity was limited and the genre wasn’t really her cup of tea. She was living in Coral Gables at the time, her apartment lease was just about up and she wasn’t sure which direction she wanted her life to take.
Until a fated tarpon fishing trip and Nat Italiano came her way.
“I came to Boca Grande to go tarpon fishing with my dad,” she explained. “We were sitting at a picnic table and I was hemming and hawing about what I wanted to do. I remember we went out fishing, came back, and that was when I met Nat. I had mentioned that I was looking for something different to do and he said he needed a secretary. I have always loved this place and wanted to stay.”
In 2002 Kelly took residence in the apartment above what was Loons on a Limb. Dubbed by her as “the greatest apartment ever,” she relished her short walk down the alley to work and embraced the total island lifestyle.
She was 21 at the time, she was ambitious, and after four years of working with Italiano Insurance she had moved up from secretary to insurance agent. The time came to settle down, though, so she purchased a house in Grove City and still lives there today with two Argentine boa snakes, Gandalf and Sarabi, and a cat named Moxie who is scared of birds.
Kelly decided to enter the world of real estate after leaving Italiano Insurance. She passed her real estate exam and went to work as Carol Stewart’s assistant at Gasparilla Properties. She learned the business from Carol while still getting a salary, and Kelly said it was truly a gift to be able to do so.
“To start out in Boca Grande with such a great company, it was amazing,” she said. “I’ve been there now since 2006, and when it was time for me to branch out on my own I had an office full of people who were great friends and have supported me all the way.”
In her four years as a Realtor, Kelly has achieved the Rookie Realtor of the Year award, her e-PRO certification, her Trans-national Referral Certification, and she is currently working on her Accredited Buyer’s Representative designation. She is also the secretary of the Englewood Area Board of Realtors.
Her love of animals has always been very prevalent in her life. Growing up with gators, raccoons, and pretty much any wild thing that the family happened across, she remembers how her dad used to turn old television consoles into snake cages. They were scattered throughout the family living room, and she spent many hours watching them.
Hence, the title of “the weird girl with the snakes.”
Between that and a minor skirmish with a boy in middle school that resulted in him having several cracked ribs, Kelly laughs when she remembers her reputation at school.
“I didn’t think I would ever get a date,” she said. “Between cracking that guys’ ribs and having a huge, burly dad with lots of guns it wasn’t until high school I really went out with anyone.”
One man that couldn’t be scared away so easily is David Borza. He is Kelly’s boyfriend of more than a year, who she met in Venice through friends.
“We were instant friends and just couldn’t get away from each other,” she laughed. “I think that’s the best way to put it.”
Kelly’s interest in fishing and hunting started early, and she found she had a strong affinity for shooting. At the range, though, Kelly found her place and she still goes to the range when she can.
“I started going to the range in about fifth grade,” she said. “I think that was also the year that my science project was focused on what caliber bullet could penetrate different materials the furthest. So I used all different types of materials and different types of bullets, and I shot through things like layered newspapers, hay and ballistics gel with various handguns, my dad’s turkey shotgun and a couple of others. I always loved BB guns, too. My brother and I used to sit around the pool and just plink at things.”
Kelly has found a new way to become involved with some high-profile fishing tournaments as well. She creates works of art and donates them for the charity auctions that go hand in hand with tournaments. In 2004 Kelly started doing bigger exhibitions with her art and started meeting some of the most popular marine artists in the country.
“I would love to do more art to give to charities,” she said. “I donate to a lot of children’s charities, because I feel if you give them a good start in life there’s no limit to what they can do later in life.”
That’s why one of Kelly’s pieces, showcasing a tarpon, a snook and a redfish, is for sale at The Temp. She said that 60 percent of the price fetched for the work titled “Reel Dreams” would go to Lillian Bay Beatty, a baby with strong island ties who suffers from a tumor in her throat and neck.
More than a dozen pieces of Kelly’s art are currently being displayed at The Temp, and they are all for sale.
The piece of art that Kelly was working on at Royal Palm Marina is an underwater scene featuring everything from tarpon to turtles. She is just one of 18 artists who will have their murals judged on July 4, and the winner gets $1,000. Whether she wins or not, she said, her work will be displayed there for a year and that’s what matters.
“Winning would just be a total bonus,” she said. “The only thing I’ve really ever drawn on this scale was a fish on a pool deck. It wasn’t an entire mural like this is, and it wasn’t 11 feet long and 5 feet tall.”
Kelly said she loves working on the island, and matching buyers with properties, sharing with new people how incredible Boca Grande is, and enhancing her Realtor services as much as she can. Once she leaves the office, though, if she isn’t painting she’s tooling around the waters of Boca in her Hewes shallow water boat called the Dixie Chicken, or out on the Salty Cracker fishing with her dad.
“Sometimes I wonder if I’ve spent more time on land or the water,” she said. “I know I love it out here, and there’s something to be said about catching a fish, then painting it, then eating it.”
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