Miami Madness- Day 3- Friday Dec2

Friday Jane and I sleep in again, and then spend the morning talking...going through some pretty serious issues, looking at love and relationships, past lives and present, finances and dreams and deep-rooted fears. She's going through some rough stuff...:(. tears then meditation. After a while we gathered ourselves up to go drink in a bit of nurturing sunshine at the beach to fuel our day.

Slowww start but eventually we make it to -scope. Michael Sellinger is at the door thankfully and let's us in. We find Seth asleep (or practically) on a big white chair in the lobby and tease him a bit before moving on. Started up on the 5th floor and made our way down. I only made it to the 3rd floor in the time it took Jane to see the whole thing. *sigh* Enjoying talking with Kasia Kay (sweeet installation of little birds in her room made me smile). Also talking with Patrick Heide, liking many artworks there...subtle, text based, obsessive. some made by mechanical typewriter.., others reminding me of my readings series but in drawing. Awesome video works by Erin O'Hara(?) in 'Curator's Office Gallery'- morphing fractalized animations of food that seemed so....much like life evolving...fascinating to watch . But my absolute favorite yet again (I fell in love with these at -scopeNY) were works by Ruud van Empel. You'd really have to see them in person to get the eerieness of them...digital collage that is so crisp and so...odd surreal too perfect...the EYES...I can only think of the next stage of digital avatars and the strange future we are entering. The new series I loved but can't find any pics online.( read more )

Miami Madness- Day4- Dec3- Aqua and The Setai

Ok so of course I slept in a weeee bit more after that night. ;) Jane and I took our late morning beach moments. Odd how we ended up at the exact beach spot I was at over..10 years ago...multicolored lifeguard hut and outdoor showers bringing me back...back to a strange other time...first awkward adventure travelling with a much older man...my first collector and the delusion of a trip with 'no strings attached'. Feeling trapped, confused and complicated in a beautiful new place I just wanted to explore, trying to balance my situation and assert myself, failing miserably. Shake off the reverie, I'm here now with Jane, on my own terms, as an artist, older, wiser. I go back to the hotel and shower and change.

Went back to Frisbee for a while. Sara happier to see us all...Seth and I and Bill sitting on the bed are now her 'children' and she is the Mom Gallery and she is laughing and we are happy to see her more relaxed and in a good mood. A woman walks in with a dramatic air about her, sexy in low slung jeans with a belt lightly around her bare waist, short hair in a turban, tall and confident. She's talking with Sara in a theatre voice and telling us all about a cabaret performance she does that she'd like us to see. Sara is inspired and begs her to sing for us right then and there and after a few protests she does...saying oh but you MUST see it with the lights and the costumes and...;)greatfun...she gives a link to her website (ivalyou.com and makes us all promise to come see her perform in NY.
I go through some other rooms looking at the art, meet David Shaw, and we are trying to remember where we might know eachother from. Can't.
Then we are finally off to check out the Aqua Art Fair. ( read more )

Miami Madness- Day 5- Dec.4

Last day of the fairs...I'm hacking and coughing in the morning feeling pretty miserable. Decide not to push it and I let Jane go to the beach solo while I relax and get ready slowly to get to Frisbee on time (thought this was my 'working' day at the room). Got there and Seth was drawing on the bed...Bill and I talked a bit but Sara seemed to want us all outoutOUT. (I guess so she could focus on trying to sell? she seemed nervous..but wasn't I suPPOSED to be there?) Ok, so finally we left... Seth and I taking off to check out the Containers on the beach. We run into Bethany Bristow and I'm excited to hear all about her recent travels around Asia- she went ALL OVER, including my number 2 travel destination wishlist: Angkor Wat. *le sigh*. Images of the mysterious roottreetemples floating in my mind...

On to the containers...of course I can't keep up at all with Seth's pace so I fall behind again. Jane is there but done as well...so they go off separately to see the main ArtBasel fair. I'm blown away by 2 containers: one is Richard Dupont's eerily distorted human figures, seems your eyes are playing tricks on you because they are so perfectly done and so...wrong. Then my absolute favorite (no surprise) is Herwig Weiser's interactive piece utilizing ferrofluids and magnetic shavings which are landscapes you can manipulate with frequency modulations.. Hello science museum/ cymatics /DJ-fun.... oh how I loved. The drawings were pure gorgeousness as well, colorful technical mechanical diagrams mmmhmmmm!

Afterwards I couldn't get a hold of either Jane or Seth and I just didn't have the energy to go to Basel. The clouds were turning colors above me and I slipped into a mood that had me prefer to go walking, feeling oddly charged and ghostlike. I ended up at the cybercafe, took a latte and a session, topped up my cell phone. As I'm leaving, jane is right there, having just sit down at one of the computers. Odd.:) I leave her to go back to the hotel and get my stuff to take back my artworks. Meet back at Frisbee to do that and it feels sort of sad and depressing, anti-climatic.
Sara and Bill talking of going to a closing party for ArtBasel, Seth wanting to sleep, i don't know what I want... Walking back ot my hotel my mood starts to crash...I'm sensitive to a certain something in the air...and my eyes find the sad parts of the environment easily...the crack addict bent over the sewer grate. Back at the room I'm near tears and frustrated with myself for feeling this way...something not right, but I'm not sure what it is. Jane is supportive and thinks it is all my financial worries crashing in after expecting a few sales....perhaps. We decide to go to Lincoln road for pizza (lots of toppings at Pizza Rustica and a good people watching relaxing spot). Time to let go, we toast to laughter and forgetting (milan kundera) and just plain enjoying life. Promise ourselves to go dancing and get it all out. We get airbrushed tattoos on our arms and walk on to find the 'Fuck Art/Let's Dance' party that seemed it would match our mood. Drank too much and watched Jane and Seth dancing. sweet. blur. sweet. managed to keep myself in check (ok...barely) but I was toast. the 'emergency mohito mini bottle' I had kept in my bag made it's way into one of my drinks,increasing the potency by 10. kindof dumb but kindof needed. Jane went back to the hotel and I talked with sweetSeth out on a stoop for a while, taking in the lights of the warm miami I would have to leave tomorrow...

Leaving Miami Dec5

And so it was Monday...and it was over. Jane ran to get her last taste of the beach, I lingered and showered and packed at the hotel...had myself a nice breakfast sandwich at Raffi's. Off to the airport we go but we are bumped off our flight (no room for our luggage?!) and have to wait on standby for the next one. I am totallyTotallyTOTALLY exhausted. Finally we're on and I alternate between sleep and coughing for the duration of the flight.
Brent picks us up in NY, handsome thoughtful sweetheart that I remember, waiting with warm car and our winter coats and mittens.
My Hugo.
We go for green food at sonoma grill (after sustaining myself on empanadas and mohitos for about a week some spinach was definitely needed). Then glorious sleeeeep in my own bed.
Now back home I am doing my best to recuperate (lost my voice and have this chest cold) and to process all I took in. Getting it all on here (LJ) was a big part of the plan...creating a place to store the links and memories...and now I feel a bit lighter... The processing of the Boston Conference still awaits me (still feels so BIG and unapproachable, *sigh*)...and tomorrow I turn a year older....how fast it goes...