New Paintings at Sci Sci in Brickell
Photo of Goran Perovic, manager of Sci Sci, and I today.
I love dancing and Miami is a great place to enjoy lots of different types.
Last week I took my first tango lesson with Diane Castro, who is an excellent teacher who is really articulate and provides a wealth of information about tango. She teaches at the Coconut Grove Ballet Center (2829 Bird Ave., Miami, 33133) every Wed. at 7.30pm – 9pm.
This coming weekend the Salsa Congress is happening in Miami!
I’ve just been changing my website www.MiamiMurals.net and added a bagua map to it;
I’d forgotten how much I used to work to work with energy in friends’ homes in England – I’d clean them out energetically using frankincense, sage and a few other things, and always enjoyed advising how to enhance the energy of a place.
One thing I can’t stand is clutter, it really does my head in and there are good energetic reasons for that. (The untidiness I create when I’m painting is a different thing, it’s a creative chaos and does get cleared away – eventually. I like cool, clean minimalism and try to be very minimalist in painting generally.)
Art really changes the energy of a room. For example I just added my new paintings (see below) to where I live and I love how they’ve upped the energy, made it more inviting and warm.
Everything is energy, and people have suggested to me that I paint things that cheese me off, but I generally don’t because I feel my consciousness comes through my paintings anyhow.
I feel it’s my responsibility to be as conscious as possible and intend to be as positive as I can. That synergy comes through my paintings. The positivity I hope to create is for me a counterbalance to the many crap things that can and do happen in everyday life. What you pay attention to grows.
I’m thrilled that this work is finished, she turned out better than I thought she would – her eyes and lips had been very elusive to me and I found with this painting as with others that the things that looked the simplest to do were the most difficult – the simple black line around the lady I thought would be easy, it wasn’t – not for me anyhow. And as I said, the eyes and lips remained elusive for a long time.
With this picture I found again that being imperfect works for me – it’s not a factually correct, realistic picture, and even something like the black line circumscribing the body but not quite being on the perimeter of the flesh was fun to do for me. I like the feeling of a painting, not it’s exactitude in terms of perceived reality.
There again, my eyesight for small things is not good, so the fact I like to do simplified work is fortunate.
Again, if you’d like to see this painting in better detail just click on the image – your wish is granted!
I had a great time tonight at the Red Bar Gallery where I gave a talk and showed some new paintings – great music, great cocktails, great people. So what’s new?
The news that Red Bar Gallery had been threatened with closure because of 2 of my paintings that were in the window.
When these paintings went in the window several males noted with pleasure that the women looked hungry and aggressive. But some other people – with influence – apparently think them ‘porn’.
Hmmm, so it’s OK for a woman to be naked in a picture and look miserable and totally powerless, like she’s just been raped – which is how a lot of nude women in paintings look – but it’s not OK for her to look like she owns herself, like in my art? Yes, in 2010 that’s how things apparently are for some people. This really sucks.
It freaks me out how acceptable it is for women to be so powerless in ‘art’. The idea of a woman being so broke she gets paid for sitting naked (art ‘model’) or dancing naked (‘dancer’) in front of a pile of pervs is really wierd and unacceptable to me. In my painting ‘Lapdancer’ (now on on show at the Vlada Bar, Miami) the colours I use are unusually miserable for me and suggest what I think of that situation.
Will be taking along some new paintings, wine and cheese supplied by incomparable hosts Red Bar Gallery. SW 10th Street next to Archie’s Pizza in Mary Brickell Village, Miami, very easy to find – see you there!
I’m so excited, I spent tonight working on the painting I’ve promised to reveal at Vlada Bar on the ‘Art Rocks’ opening 8th July, which my paintings open (yes I know, repetition,, but I can’t think of any different words right now – I’m tired from painting!).
One of the things so exciting about working on this painting is that it’ll be revealed to an audience on the opening night, and normally I work on commissions in collusion with clients. Even if they don’t see it until the end, I usually have an audience of one or two (thankfully they’ve all loved my work ’til now).
This time the painting will be revealed to a whole pack of people at once, so I’m really interested to see the reaction.
I’ve already done most of the painting tonight, which is unusual, so I guess I’m really excited about it! Other paintings can take months to be born – my naked woman with a guitar is a case in point; 
Then there’s the one below which it would also be nice to finish before the show.
We’ll see. Lots of things to do.
Vlada Bar is Miami’s best gay bar and I’m delighted to have been chosen to kick off their ‘Art On the Rocks’ series! My show will start on 8th July and I’ll be creating a painting especially for Vlada Bar, to be revealed that evening.
Vlada Bar is a Russian bar specialising in vodka and I’d love to see my ”Moody Blonde’ painting used on a vodka bottle sometime soon. I’ve always thought that image would be just perfect on a vodka bottle, what do you think? Here she is;
