Look For Decorated Tiny Doors Throughout Sarasota

SARASOTA, FL — A retired schoolteacher has been decorating and installing small fairy doors throughout Sarasota as a way to bring joy to the city’s residents and visitors.

“I just want to put a smile on people’s faces,” Joan Love said.

She launched her whimsical art project, Tiny Doors Sarasota, in 2018.

Love was inspired by a similar movement in Georgia, Tiny Doors Atlanta, which she saw in a CBS "Sunday Morning" story.

“I just loved the concept. It hit home, and I thought Sarasota is so artsy and such a fun community that they need tiny doors,” she said.

Originally from the Toledo, Ohio, area, Love and her husband had long planned to move to Sarasota in their retirement and relocated in 2016.

“We had a snowy day in Ohio, and my husband said, ‘We're moving,’” she said.

As an educator, Love spent much of her career as a computer teacher, working with middle school and college students.

“Now, I don’t do any Microsoft Office unless I have to,” she said. “I always sat in front of a computer when I worked. I did draw a little bit, but when I began thinking about retirement, I started to wonder what I could do.”

She took painting lessons in Toledo and continued her art classes and workshops when she moved to Florida. She’s also become a children’s book author and illustrator, releasing two books in recent years. She’s working on a third title, a kids' book about Sarasota’s landmarks and history.

But Love’s Tiny Doors are her “claim to fame,” she said.

She purchases most of her doors from Minimal World, a doll house and miniatures shop in England, though she recently purchased some from a sculptor boutique in Tuscany, Italy. She paints and designs each door, creating a concept for each one, often inspired by the location where they’ll be installed.

She recalls installing her first Tiny Door in 2018.

“When I first did it, I was very nervous,” Love said. “I thought, ‘Oh, will I be destroying property? Will I get a charge? Can I get in trouble?’”

So she brought a neighbor, who happened to be a retired FBI agent, with her to install the door late at night.

“I figured if they were hauling me off to jail for destroying property, at least he’ll be there to help,” she said.

She has about 15 Tiny Doors throughout the city of Sarasota, everywhere from St. Armands Circle to downtown Sarasota to the Ringling Bridge. And she has plans to decorate and install some new ones in coming weeks.

Once the doors are installed, Love continues to check on and maintain them long-term, decorating them for different holidays and seasons.

“Once a month, I make sure they look OK and the pieces are still there,” she said. “Then it will get a ghost for Halloween, a Christmas tree in December or Santa Claus. It’s going to be soon little red hearts for Valentine’s Day.”

Her favorite part of the project is seeing how the public interacts with her work. She’ll often get positive feedback from people who happen to catch her checking on the Tiny Doors.

But it’s more rewarding when people interact with the doors in other ways, such as when she catches kids playing with them or items are left at the doors.

“At the John Ringling Bridge (door), people leave a lot of little tokens,” Love said. “I once went there and there were 20 little objects in front of the door — a toy car, shells, a token, just really fun little stuff. I’m glad people are noticing and they’re adding to it. Sometimes it just makes me chuckle some of the stuff left.”

It all comes down to touching people’s lives through art, she said. “I’ve been able to just walk by and see the interaction with some adults, mostly children, and it’s about the look on their face, the curiosity. Sometimes they even knock on the door to see if anybody answers it. There’s a joy to looking at something like that.”

People can follow Tiny Doors Sarasota on Instagram to learn more.