Just can’t do it. I left the bait to stay tuned in the last post and now I have no time to think straight and I can’t separate all that I saw and did at Art Basel-Miami Beach. Many others who really did know what they were doing and where they were going said it better than I could have anyway.
Matthew Langley and Edward Winkleman are two who have blogs to read about what they saw there. These people also are in the “network” and know the art crowd. I’m just a painter going around with my jaw dropped looking. Of all the shows, I think I really enjoyed Flow and Bridge (located next to each other in the Catalina Hotel) the most………but what the heck, they were the main shows I saw where the galleries were a bit more approachable. The guys at the ABMB were so far in the stratosphere above me for me to feel like I was in a museum with a cattle car feel. I spent the WHOLE first day there. ( they need to open earlier than noon….I can’t stay up all night).
With so much going (holiday time you know) on since I returned, I’m officially abandoning the idea of making any contribution to the gazillion other blogs on Miami. I know something will seep out sometime down the line but it will be old news by then.
I’m just hoping the old news influence will in some way affect how I feel about my career as an artist……..not by emulating some of hype but just by having experienced it.(I don’t think this might make any sense)………oh well, how many artists make sense to anyone else but themselves???
Good thing our group had a place out in East Little Havana to go to get away from some of it in the late evening.
I think your "take" on the event is more the norm for artists like us… the work-a-day bunch just trying to find a little approval and respect for what we do. What you saw there (in cattle car mode… I didn't miss that part!) was a taste of very rich cuisine, not something to immerse yourself in on a regular basis, but still fun to experience once in awhile. I wouldn't search too hard for elements of it to show up in your work… if it happens, it will just be fun to recognize where it came from. KJ
LOL….I don't know where that cattle car comment came from. Just came out as I typed. It is apt though if you've noted the "maze" of booths and also ever watched cattle being placed in a not unlike maze of fencing for innoculations.Cattle car like frenzy to buy at some places I heard.
I never really plan or edit much of what I write on the blog so what comes out of the keyboard is loaded as I go.
I had a thought in mind before I went to Miami for my next works so I kept seeing insigts into other work that is traveling a little of the same road. No one else might notice this as it's my interpretation. I even talked to a gallerist (can't remember which one) and she agreed that something is "out there" sometimes that artists pick up on all around the same time without know that the others are doing something similar. Spooky, huh!
My take on things too Cheryl – there's no telling where or when impressions and influences will bubble up to the surface. Meanwhile, I'm enjoying reading blogs such as the ones you mention. It's fun hearing it from other perspectives.