Art Basel Miami 2023 and Me
My friend and fab interior designer Lisa Sutherland invited me to join her at Art Basel Miami. We hopped on the Brightline and headed from West Palm Beach to Miami Beach and got a full dose of art. The best part was meeting Shima Shanti, an incredibly accomplished encaustic fine artist that totally humbled me. Lisa had commissioned Shima for one of her clients and made a point to stop by and see Shima’s exhibit at the Aqua Hotel, which was one of several different venues for art week in Miami.
What a day. It had been a long long time since I’d been around any art or exhibitions and was pleasantly surprised at how my art knowledge surfaced on aspects such as technique, art periods and recognizing famous artists’ work (Picasso, Keith Haring, Alexander Calder) who all had pieces exhibited at Art Basel. It was impossible to see everything—you’d have to spend a week or more there. And honestly, Lisa and I would have done that for just the food. We stopped at a Cuban restaurant, Bella Cuba Restaurant, (throw a stick and you hit one in Miami) and oh em gee. We wanted to live in that restaurant.
Although there was incredible art, one artist really struck me with how she handled light. Emma Webster. Kind of left me a bit speechless when I watched some of her conceptual videos where she talks about her art. Yowzah.
Miami and Miami Beach are something to behold. I was confronted with so much mega-city life that I hadn’t been around for some time. Kind of like I came out of a cocoon and saw the world for the first time…again.
I needed it.
I needed to see art. To be around other artists. To get out of my studio and feel the surge of creativity and possibility created by the world of art.
The finished painting, Soft Shores, 24x36 oil on stretched canvas. Soon to hit my shop online.
My latest painting
Kicked into gear from my day at Art Basel Miami, I was motivated to finish Soft Shores, a 24x36 oil on stretched canvas. I started playing around with doing time-lapse while I was working on it and posting them to Instagram. So if you follow me, you can check them out there.
I’m still getting the hang of being social after my two-year hiatus from putting myself out there. I’m also spending a lot of time thinking about this new focus of helping remote workers (or anyone for that matter) to enhance their creative flow.
I’m so glad you’re along for the journey, as I will be sharing my challenges, insights and choices to hopefully help you in what you’re trying to forward.
Ghosted
Soft Shores was painted over another painting (often referred to as “ghost paintings”). The original started out as a sea turtle painting, but I didn’t like the direction it was going. The reference I used was from Clark Little’s The Art of Waves. Clark is a professional photographer who shoots incredible shoreline photography and captures waves in a way I’ve never seen before.
The photo was of a sea turtle cruising under a breaking wave. Sounds cool, I know, which is why I wanted to do it. But the image was difficult to understand as I was working on it. The way I was approaching it was a literal replication of the photograph, which on its own, was magnificent.
What I loved about this shot was how the water behind the turtle was an explosion of a wave. In front of the turtle was a nearly translucent calmness that was conveyed by the turtle’s apparent calmness. It was such a dichotomy of energy and I was drawn into it.
But I was not satisfied with my portrayal in oil, so I stopped. It’s one thing I’ve learned as an ever-evolving artist is to know when to stop and step away, to stop and start over, or to stop and do something completely different.
I’d never painted over another painting, so I sanded the bumpy surface as best as I could while trying to preserve some of the canvas texture and painted the entire canvas in gesso, a common primer for artists.
So yes, I had a “new” canvas to work on, however, the “ghost” of the strokes that was the early phases of Clark’s sea turtle were still visible, and to some degree, so was the turtle. If you hold Soft Shores up to the light, you may still see my friendly little sea turtle coming through. Here are a few photos of the original sea turtle “ghost” painting:
What’s your ghost?
My story of this painting leads me to this post’s theme: what is your ghost? Where in your past is an experience or series of experiences (patterns) that are holding you back today? Is it time to let go of that ghost so you can move into something new and make real progress?
I have quite a few ghosts in the form of old patterns of belief that were cultivated when I was very young. No need to go into the details here, and if you’ve been following me for a while now, you can probably figure some of them out from previous stories I’ve shared.
Going on this new painting journey of creative flow is bringing many of my “ghosts” to the surface as my painting efforts are like holding Soft Shores up to the light and seeing the past.
Hold your future vision up to the light and see where ghosts may still be present. Isn’t it time to let the ghosts go and start with a fresh canvas? That’s what I’m doing. No more ghost canvases for me. Every canvas will be shrink-wrap new and ready for what’s ahead. Join me. ❤️
