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)

Graffiti hopes@ Jose de Diego school in Wynwood to hire art teachers

Should this school be shamed and refused funds?

Art starts to fill the corridors and transform the old white walls

On a beautiful morning, on bicycle, touring the Wynwood district to see the walls before the arts fairs start this week, we came across this local school swarming with artists. The story is poignant because Jose de Diego School is a school of almost 600 kids, 45% Latino and 54% black, located on the edge of the thriving arts district, that cannot afford any arts programs. The music and the arts programs have been cut completely for the last five years! They have a room full of 20 dusty keyboards and grand pianos and a closet full of art supplies, but they cannot afford to hire an art or music teacher! Because it is an "F" rated school, the chances of funds is non-existent. Enter the new principal, Dr. April Thompson-Williams, last February, and a young man named Robert de los Rios, creator of Wynwood Map. The principal refuses to be shamed, and Robert has a lot of connections to the artists in the community.

Robert and his mom, a former school teacher, talk to us about the project

This week 36+ artists from the neighborhood and around the world have arrived to paint the courtyards, the walls and hallways, throwing color all over the place.

This is a Sacred Place by LeBo

Their time is donated, their paint is sponsored, the lifts and ladders are on loan, and their hope is large. They paint during school hours and the biggest problem it has created so far is that kids linger outside their classes and ask to try their hand in moving the pigment. And many artists let them help.

These pictures show works in progress. Most of the murals are still being completed. The artists are all donating a smaller work to be auctioned off on December 2nd. Musicians will play and 100% of the funds will go to the principal to personally hire an arts teacher (or two or three).

Before

In process of transformation!

Magnus

Give voice to the arts

 

Can you imagine the joy and pride the students will have once their school resonates with colors and images to transform the mind. The walls will educate and inspire. I applaud the principal and school board for taking a risk, and the neighborhood artists for giving their time, and visionaries like Robert who use art to try and make a difference.

We should all look forward to checking back with the school to see the next chapter where the student's works are being developed...

A few who avoided the malls and came to paint

It has been a really nice day with lots of inspiration. I learned a bit today and am very thankful for the company and the insight into practical steps I have not seen. These are my friends. They make me laugh. They started by saying they could not paint, and were sure they would mess up. Yet within three house they focused and produced lovely, unique and beautiful works of art. Each one is so different!