Coconut Grove Peacock Tour Launch is this Saturday... May 29th from 5 pm to 11 pm. Great chance to meet your local artists!

On Saturday, not only will you get to meet the artists who created the peacocks for the Coconut Grove Peacock Tour like Cara Nusinov, Eileen Seitz and Sauma (featured above) and see their beautifully painted peacocks, you will also get to enjoy a tropical evening under the stars with fabulous music by Fire Brigade, dancing with DJ Boogieman George, delicious food from Potions in Motion and The Fresh Market and yes... of course, refreshing drinks.

Last month, I worked in a shared studio to create a peacock in Coconut Grove, Florida much like the Chicago Cow Parade for my sponsor: The Fresh Market. After my peacock has a six month stay in front of their store, it will be up for auction to benefit Shake-A-Leg. Many other charities will also benefit from the peacock tour headed by Heather Bettner of Prince Media Development (featured above next to me). So, if you have a space for a five foot sculpture, here's your chance to support local art and help a charity all while beautifying your space. I will post the auction date and details at a later date...

The best part of the peacock tour has been all the wonderful artists and people I had a chance to meet while working in our shared studio at the Shoppes of Mayfair which would have otherwise been another vacant retail space. Here are just a few of the artists I was lucky enough to work beside...

Eileen Seitz, who is well known in Coconut Grove for her exquisite tropical watercolor paintings helped out by painting not one, but two peacocks.

Sauma, who not only is a magnificent painter he is currently organizing the Gables Hispanic Cultural Festival coming this September 25th which will feature many Hispanic artists.

Andrea Karahalios Ruggeri, who travels the world to paint intricate, elegant murals, painted her peacock for the Hampton Inn.

And, Dan Bondoff who usually works in pastels featuring charming landscapes and cityscapes worked in oils to created his peacock for Shell Lumber were just a few of the artists I got to know while we worked side by side.

To allow artists to use vacant retail space is good business for everyone. People love to see artists while they are working and just by painting together in the same space we attracted many visitors and tourists. When the doors were locked people were banging on the doors to get in! I hope that other communities and businesses realize just how much art can revitalize vacant storefronts while providing a much needed outlet and studio space for local artists.

Most of us are now well aware of how important it is to buy local food as a way of reducing our carbon footprint. The next step, at a local level, is to know your neighborhood artists and support art in your community as a green initiative. Plus, when you know an artist personally the art becomes even more of an enriched experience when you get the chance to talk to the artist about their work and why they created it. I have met a lot of the artists on the peacock tour and I can assure you that they are all very approachable, welcoming and would love to talk to you Saturday night. Hope to see you there!

Please follow my blog to learn more about local artists...

Sometimes you need to reinvent the wheel or in this case the rubber band...

About three years ago, I came across bright colored animal shape rubber bands. I thought they were fabulous and quickly brought them to my office to see how our clients could use them to promote themselves. I was thinking of all sorts of ways to use them, but everyone at my office said, "sure they are cute, but so what it's still just a rubber band". So, I brought them back home and stuffed them in my drawer with all the other sketchbooks I fill with all my ideas and there they sat until last week.

Last week, my 9 year-old son asked where the animal rubber band were. There were only a few left, so I gave them to him. He told me all the kids were wearing them and trading them at school. Now they were available in all sorts of shapes, colors, and some even glowed in the dark and had scents! When my son told all his friends that the animal shaped rubber band had been in his house for years, none of his friends believed him so I decided to find out more about the designers and where they originated.

The first animal rubber bands were designed by Y. Ohashi and M. Haneda in Tokyo Japan who established a design firm called Passkey Design. in 2002. The reason they came up with the animal rubber bands was to keep people from throwing away a rubber band after a one time use. They though if people became attached to the rubber bands they were less likely to throw it away... brilliant!

Featured above in the center (turtle and pig), are the rubber bands I originally purchased in 2007 they came in a box along with with a ducks, cats, dogs, and rabbits. They were the second round of shape designs, the first being zoo animals. However, they were much smaller then the rubber bands now selling that nicely fit around a wrist.

I am so glad to see that the stores can't keep these items on the shelf. Proving that there is always a market for good design. So happy it has green intentions...

Wynwood Art Walk in May

Last night I was so happy to see that there still is a good crowd of people going to the Wynwood Art Walk this late in the season. Here are a few of the people I met...

Danilo Gonzalez is a multi-media artists who paints and creates sculptures in his studio in the back of his gallery. The wire sculpture that he is photographed with above is interactive and changeable. When I talked to him about the piece, he uncoiled the sculpture to create different shapes allowing me to move the sculpture as well.

Danilo was very open and told me stories about his work and how he once convinced a sponsor to allow him to purchase all the toy guns and weapons in one toy store as a demonstration against violence with the idea of how the shelves can be empty and bare one day and then completely filled with toy weapons the next in an endless circle of excess.

Dennise Rodriguez (who prefers to be called Den) is a fiber artist working with felt by sewing and hand stitching to create soft, touchable sculptures. Her work is happy, bright, playful and colorful. I was so delighted that she brought her sewing machine to the Fabrika Art Space for all of us to see how she works. Seeing her process and her materials helps me to understand her more as an artist, so I really appreciate that she made the extra effort to bring along all her supplies and equipment to include us on her artistic journey.

Lastly, I got a chance to meet Mary Ann Cohen and her husband Rich, gallery owners of MAC ART Group. Currently on exhibit, is a very impressive body of work by Tico Torres, drummer for Bon Jovi, which includes a wall mural called: "My Cuba" as well as other paintings and sculptures by other artists. However, my favorite paintings they exhibited were created by Maxim Lipzer, an abstract expressionist who lives and works in Argentina... beautiful!

Young artist Juan Travieso is someone to watch...

I went to The New World School of the Art's gallery, ArtSceen, in Wynwood to find the work from Juan Travieso to be absolutely stunning. He has all the elements of good and marketable design that I look for: vibrant color, pattern and the understanding of the power of white space which he uses to create a look all his own.

Usually I have to seek out the artist when I go to an event or during an opening. Lucklly, Juan saw me looking at his work and taking notes and he introduced himself to me! I love meeting artists and talking to them about their work because whenever I purchase art, the art is as important to me as the artist. I have to like the artist, their vision and their work equally in order to have their work in my home or to recommend them to someone else.

When I was talking to Juan, I thought just the gouache paintings were his. Then he started talking about his sculptures... Wow! I was so delighted to discover that this hugh sculpture featured below was his work as well.

This sculpture is made with cardboard, some of which are upcycled. There are 21 pieces that fit together (like a puzzle) that are attached to the wall. Juan told me that his inspiration for this piece came from his life as a boy. In Cuba, he had very little and he longed for toys that he saw on television, but could not have.

After meeting Juan, I got an email letter from him because he went to my website to check out my art. He told me he was inspired by my upcycled work and he plans to use even more upcyled materials in his future works! Here is a few excerpts from his letter "...basically what I plan on doing is start to paint on recycled and biodegradable materials so that there is no harm done on the environment. In addition the subject matter of my upcoming pieces will consist of environmental issues that will affect society in the near future. ...I have already started gathering wood from construction sites that will be thrown away and with it I will build the frames for my pieces."

I'm not sure where his next exhibit will be, but I do know that he his working on doing 20 outdoor sculptures to be installed in Japan. So, if you are like me and can't wait to see what Juan creates next... just follow his blog.

Meet local artist Natasha Duwin

I met Natasha Duwin at her current show Rapture at Artformz in Wynwood. I was immediately drawn to her work and I was so happy that I got a chance to talk to her. She was very open and eager to explain her work. She told me that the beautiful pieces feature above were about the construction of female identity. The base of these pieces are very structured, made of hard brittle wire symbolizing how culture and society dictate how women should behave. I loved how she used a vintage boa to represent a timeline for women. The feather portion speaks to us about the journey of women that insolently were made from an upcycled 1950's ostrich feather boa that was carefully dismantled and then painstakingly she split each feather to attach it to the pieces.

Natasha has a studio in the Artist-in-Residence at ArtCenter South Florida on Lincoln Road. There she uses weaving, embroidery, needlework, tapestry, quilting, lace, textiles and other traditional women’s work that are usually described as weak, ineffectual to produce representations of the essence of women that are strong, fragile, forceful, pliant, rigid, aggressive and inviting.

Tawnie Sliva: Upcycling Goes to the Circus

When I first walked into the Butter Gallery in Wynwood last night, I was delighted to see artist Tawnie Sliva using so many different materials, colors and techniques: felt for the graphic signage pieces, plastic bags for the sculptures and drawings on paper.

Of course, I was most excited to see the fabulous use of reclaimed plastic bags. All the sculptures had fans discretely placed to keep the sculptures inflated.

It was interesting to see the intricate sewing of the clothing on the sculptures as well as his successful use of of such a thin plastic material to make such powerful statements with so much emotion.

I had to search around to find Tawnie because somehow I thought he was a she. When Tawnie was pointed out to me in a group of very large muscular men, I was a bit intimated to go up an introduce myself. But to my delight, Tawnie was very kind and charming. He happily moved to another room so I could get a better photo in front of one of his pieces. I look forward to learning more about Tawnie. He's from Missouri and is a bit hard to find, however he is on facebook, hopefully he will set up a fan page soon...

Secrets to Success: Feed the Lion

Last night I was invited to the opening of the new Sushi Maki on Miami Avenue and 10th Street. I was very curious to see why, in our recession, this sushi restaurant could be so successful. While other business and restaurants in our community are closing, Abe Ng keeps opening and opening and opening...

You can find Sushi Maki partnering all over the community. They are in Whole Foods, in both Miami and Fort Lauderdale airports and they are not afraid to partner with unlikely restaurants from different cultures like this joint venture with Dolores Lolita, a Spanish restaurant (they even share the kitchen).

While I was at the opening, I realized Abe had all the key ingredients for success. His entire family was there, his minister was there to bless the restaurant and the food, community leaders were there to support him, his commitment to a healthy eating lifestyle was echoed by his outreach to Miami Children's Hosptial, and he stayed true to his roots and heritage by inviting traditional Chinese (yes, Abe is Chinese-American not Japenese) lion dancers and drummers to perform on the street for us.

Whenever I am photographing, I usually like to look at people who are behind the scenes. I saw this man beaming with excitement and pride behind a nearby palm. I thought he was one of their happy friendly chefs, but no, later I was introduced... Meet Abe's father, Alan Ng, proprietor of Canton Chinese Restaurants.

After the sushi roll cutting, the lions arrived! I learned from this little girl how to feed the lions (giving red envelopes filled with luck money to the dancers as a way to give back). Lions in the Chinese tradition bear little resemblance to actual lions. At first I thought they were dragons. But because lions are not native to china, ancient Chinese did not know what they actually looked like. They could only imagine what they looked like from travelers' descriptions. Chinese artists drew from their imaginations to form these beautiful creatures. In China, the lion signifies good luck, happiness, courage and strength.

All and all it was a fabulous Wednesday night downtown. So, the secrets to Sushi Maki's success are very simple and basic; just have fabulous food, great friendly service, don't be afraid to partner with people from other cultures, reach out to the community, make every one feel like family, have faith to see opportunity in a depressed economy and never forget to feed the lion.