SCAD at Mana Miami

I feel ya...an installation and visual response inspired by 20 years of the musical Outkast history. 

Exploring fashion, film, performance and painting through three artists. Wonderful Kalen gave us a tour. My AP students will  be stopping by for a lesson by head of painting department. Outside there were gravel beds bordering the building... all small square cut rocks, wish I had a picture...perhaps a Paula Wallace touch?

Footsteps to Freedom

On display at 2121 NW 2nd Ave

They hover, rising in the air

Tally Marks

The organizers, Amy Zambrano on left

This installation utilizes the war-torn combat boots of our soldiers, sent in from the front lines, transformed by artists from all over the country. On display through out Art Basel, this exhibit is intended to remind us all of the need to support our military, as well as raise funds to show them love. Ipadsforsoldiers.org aims to send ipads so that soldiers can have books to read, visual contact with loved ones back home, and even access therapeutic programs to help traumatic stress syndrome. It is a 501c3 and 100% of the money goes directly to the ipads...no administrative deductions! Boots will be showcased at various venues, hopefully at military bases and veteran halls across the country.

boots in the sand- Lisa's boot by the wall

Me and Ralph Avallone and my boot

Palm on the sole

My boot

with Lisa Collandrea

Ralph Avallone, a war vet who "didn't sleep for 4 years" upon his return home is now secretary general of the green energy Council. He announced that the president's administration has been convinced that our dependence on foreign oil is a national risk and so by the year 2021 all our military bases here and across the globe will be fueled sustainably (solar and wind). He said that for every fuel oil transport at least one soldier dies. (And he noted in private to me that every single day an average of 22 vets in America commit suicide). Where is the support? This project aims to provide a little...

love the "private party" access!

well I can put on my resume, my first art show at Miami Basel fair week. I am proud that it serves a higher purpose as well.

Racing with luck between Wynwood and South beach

Is it a flat tire????
No just a loose bumper. Great!
We are a lucky troupe of artists!!!

Meet my girlfriends at Design Miami before the torrential rains open! Lucky lucky night.

Army Boot Show tonight!

7pm in Wynwood
2121 NW 2nd Ave.

Walk in these boots!
I will post pictures later!

Feet feats on a day in the art world.

My feet held me up today, all day, as I strode through artist studios, satellite fairs, galleries, and even a high-end late night pop-up fashion party around Basel.

large spaces of the Mana Miami Fair

Box of chocolates at ArtMiami fair

There was so much to see- lots of humor and wit. Truly, seeing all the artwork on the streets and in the warehouses and under the tents and in the stores was like indulging in a great box of chocolates. It's everywhere and it feels inspired. I enjoyed seeing Alexander Calder's work everywhere too... he must be this year's darling.

There is such a playfulness to his approach to art. I want to be like him. I am so glad I got the day off of work to see everything... it filled my well and my notebook with ideas and people to dream about.

These walls are reserved and waiting for action

All over Wynwood Miami, walls are being measured, taped off, guarded and staked. While the muralists eye them from across the street, their assistants or men with truck beds loaded with compressors hire themselves out to do the prep work. Lifts and wheeled ladders can be seen down every street. There are carts and crates of paint cans on the sidewalks. Tempera bottles crushed in the gutters. Friends park awkwardly and open their trunks, casually exposing coolers of beers. Pedestrian gawkers walk down the middle of the roads. Music plays. Police cruisers park in the shade on the meridian of NW 5th avenue.
All work seems slow, and waiting, timing itself to meet the rush of the crowd of art lovers here for the Basel Convention center and the 23 satellite fairs, with simultaneous orgy of musical events and gastronomic pop up sensations. These painters want to be caught in the act!

This artist has been painting this same section of the wall for the last four years. Every year it is a new image. He has been painting walls since the 1980's and comments on how much has changed. When he started...

 

he was part of a gang and he risked his life painting walls. Now he has been invited to paint the very walls he would have been arrested or shot at before. The change serves him fine. He has aged and has kids now. The image this year is inspired by a hero from his kid's Latino literature. Though certainly friendly and forthright, he is not waiting to paint for an audience. He has to be home by the end of the day, and yet he has another wall to paint around the corner that is being prepped ahead for him.

The mural above is a half day's work. It can be seen by highway 95 (northbound).

Swooning over lost opportunity

OH MY GOODNESSS...there I was today, at the wynwood walls and across a cord was SWOON. She was contemplating her new mural. She had two young female assistants and... I wasn't sure and I felt too slow to yell out. I SHOULD HAVE. I should have just asked, "are you Swoon?". Then I could have told her that I love her work. ARGH. I am always too shy, too slow... melting into the crowd. Darn it.
Here she is...

I am too polite (says Michael)