She's the woman who turned cooking fine cuisine into pop culture, but while she takes a break from "Cooking with the Smoky Mermaid," Angela Gegg isn't using the off season to come up with new recipes, instead, she's devoting time to her other life, as an artist.

While most artists with a few canvasses to hang queue up for limited space in art galleries, Gegg has snagged a sweet gig that will see her paintings, a few dozen of them, line the walls of the Princess Hotel and Casino. For this artist, who's not afraid to cook up a controversy, it's an opportunity to draw reactions from folks who would never go to an art gallery.

Angela Gegg, "Proskha"
"I love the fact that people all over Belize, all over, travelers, anywhere in the world, people who come through this hotel, kids, mothers, brothers, aunts, and uncles can come and see my work. Its not like they are confound to this gallery where they have to go in and take a look at the work, everybody comes to the Princess. To me I am really honored, I am really dumbfounded by the fact that I am able to show my work here and that so many people will be able to be a part of what I create. That's very important for me, for people to understand and see. Again not many people may like my style of work, I don't really care. I want you to look at it and be your own judge. You don't have to like it.

I don't know what reaction I am going to get, hopefully it's a positive one from everybody. This is me, take it or leave it. I don't select things to provoke people. I do purely because it is who I represent and who I am as an artist."

Gegg is warming up for a book launch and an Image Factory solo show in July. You can link to more of her work at Proshka.com.