Aqua Art, Miami 2012

Absolutely the best trip I've ever been on. There was art installations, murals, art fairs spilling over with exhibitions surrounded by beautiful landscapes of warm weather and sandy tropical beaches... oh right, in December! No one sleeps here and I fell right into line with this philosophy. I would take care of art business in the day time, then out and about exploring the town and the super sexy people in the night. Four hour dancing sessions, live murals, bright pink sunrises, it was so good. I loved that there was so much excitement over art as well. People from all around the world flew in to take over Miami, art was so popular for a week. Art should get weeks everywhere all over the world, even small towns in rural areas, at least a few times a year. Bring back the celebration of the imagination!
Here are a few shots of the Aqua Art adventure, and if you're going next year let me know and we can have cocktails together on the beach!

The Beach! Even relaxing on the white sands there was a number of planes trailing messages in the sky, someones addition to the Art Basel experience.

Art Basel interior

Untitled, Art Fair on South Beach

Aqua Art, the best art fair (and also the one I was showing in coincidentally)!



The Autobody Crew, Jackie and her team of Artists



Drinking aqua drinks at Aqua Art, with Natalie Hegert, a writer from ArtSlant and a friend from way back when

My painting, Lust for Life

The view from the balcony

I think we were feeling pretty optimistic, opening might with my fellow artists



"free art"



Stucco and neon, it looks good down here

The Autobody crew out to eat. A truly lovely bunch

The Beach!

Kill Your Idol bar and club where I painted my mural. It was a challenge because I hadn't slept the whole time I was there and then tried to paint it the night before I left, whoa.



But it was painted anyways! I can sleep when I'm dead, right?
A great group of people work here by the way, stop by if you're in the neighborhood.



A drawing I made upon returning from my trip, Santiago from Miami 

 

Making Art, Hearing the Music

Red Devil Lounge Mural, the theme of the piece is temptation.

the left side...

the right side...

     Life works in mysterious ways, and after a long and not so unusual series of meetings I ended up with two new projects around music. One project was a poster I made for musician Roem Baur, and the other was a mural I painted last week for the Red Devil Lounge, a live music venue on Polk Street. I found these projects to be especially exciting because in a loose sense, it's a cross genre collaboration. I wanted to get a sense of what these fellows did, while making Roem's poster I listened to his album over and over (I obviously liked it too, so it wasn't strictly for research), I was trying to get a sense for what he was really expressing as an artist. And while meeting with Jay, not quite as intimately but on a personal level I wanted to understand the character that he wanted to give the club based on his beliefs of what the Red Devil meant to him. It was an enjoyable interchange all the way around and rather than promoting food products, or something else I care for equally as little, I got to spend time thinking about music, and in the end, I got to go see Roem perform and I experienced a show at the Red Devil Lounge, both of which were memorable and a total blast. If you didn't know it already, dancing is good for your soul.

Here's some links if you'd like to know more:
http://www.roembaur.com
http://www.reddevillounge.com/


Roem Baur poster in progress, just the face

 

Roem Baur posters