Decorating Ideas in Miami Beach

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Elaine Pasekoff and Derek Hewitt purchased several condos in a high rise in Miami Beach. They are a short walk to the beach and the balconys of the condos offer an amazing view looking south towards Miami. The first condo they decorated was in an African theme. Derek’s mom did a large painting of an elephant for the spot above the couch in the living room. Crown moldings, a fresh paint job and a carefully planned window seat gave the place an old world feel. Patterns for draperies and pillow covers make the place feel like an African retreat. Over dinner at Smith and Wollensky, the interior designer offered more options and insights.

Another condo was given a French flavor. Elaine hits antiques fairs to find French knick knacks. Whereas the African suite was filled with warm earth tones, the provincial French suite has a cool blue tone throughout. Elaine found a series of French paintings that incorporated three layers of glass. The foreground elements are on the top glass layer, then middle ground items are on the middle sheet of glass and the background elements are on the lowest level.  This gives the paintings a simple parallax that hints at depth. This is easy to accomplish and I’m considering trying it out with some of my sketches. Elaine and Derek are generous and open the second condo as a guest room when Terry and I swarm down to Miami for Art Basel.

Positions

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All the guests who had gathered in Miami Beach for Elaine Pasekoff‘s birthday went down to the convention center together. There were eight of us packed into two cars. Admission to Art Basel in the convention center is expensive. As we all stood in line for tickets, Terry realized that there was a group rate discount for ten people. The couple behind us in line joined us to get in on the deal. With the discount, the ticket price was $26.

I wasn’t allowed to enter the exhibit hall with my art supply bag. I had to check it. I pulled out one sketchbook and stuffed it in my belt and pulled my shirt over it. My pallet went in my front pocket along with one brush. When we got in, my plan was to immediately settle somewhere and get a sketch done. I quickly was drawn to this astro turf lawn with undulating hills. It came complete with fake trees and there were always people sprawled out and relaxing. This little corner in the vast sea of gallery exhibitors was called “Positions.” This area was a platform for galleries spotlighting a single emerging artist with one existing project. Visitors could discover ambitious new artists from all over the globe.

With the sketch done, I texted Terry and searched the maze of galleries to find her. This year  Art Basel had more Representational art as opposed to abstract art. A New York gallery had a wall full of paintings by Edward Hoppers. Terry had the premise that since the economy is picking up, that galleries are pulling out great art works because they feel they can get the proper price for them. She asked the gallery owner about this but was told,”If you have a Hopper, you sell the Hopper.” I joked that last years show was all about hair and mirrors. Literally every other piece used human hair in some way or a mirror. This year however I was delighted with much of the work that I say. Execution matched concept.

After a few hours of seeing endless art and getting lost, gallery burn out sets in. Elaine and her friends went out to lunch while Terry and I kept looking. We set a time to meet back at the parking garage. Terry and I got there on time, but the rest of the group lingered at lunch. Terry and I decided to get lunch ourselves and then take the bus back to the condo. This gave us a chance to visit another satellite fair that had nothing but prints. We paid close attention to how work was framed since I need to frame work soon.

Peeing Man

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The first stop at Art Basel in Miami Beach was to see the public art in Collins Park, a few blocks away from the convention center. The Bass Museum of Art is at the western foot of the park. Terry went inside the museum because she had to pee. She had several cups of coffee with breakfast. I found a shady spot and started to sketch. There were 29 sculptures scattered throughout the park. A few guards sat in shady spots. I had a premonition that I might get kicked out of the park for sketching so I didn’t sit too close to a guard.

“The Peeing Man” by Tom Friedman is stainless steel, cast from a maquette made of crushed aluminum.  Tom Friedman, born in 1965, lives and works in Easthampton
Massachusetts. This sculpture is based on a self portrait of the artist. I was impressed with the length and girth of the streaming hose. The stream of pee glistened in the light. The urine stream measured 142 x 25 x 1 centimeters. I noticed a guard approaching me from my left. He slipped in behind me and looked over my shoulder. Terry said that he was there for the longest time. Soon I relaxed and forgot about him. Periodically people would stop next to the figure to have their picture taken with him. I took a photo of Terry kneeling with her head arched back and her mouth open so it looked like he was peeing in her mouth. It was good clean classless fun.

The most fun sculpture in the park was called “Appearing Rooms” by Jeppe Hein. This was a fountain that would shoot up streams of water that created walls. Terry walked inside and a sheet of water rose up enclosing her inside. It is possible to remain perfectly dry if you time your moves just right. Inside the overall square, more walls would rise up creating four rooms.  One dad walked inside with his fire year old son. They didn’t know about the inner wall streams and the young boy was straddling a wall that caught him off guard, soaking him. The dad yanked his son up quickly to his hip. I never went inside since I didn’t want any watercolors getting soaked. Terry however, had a blast.

Miami Beach

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Every year Terry and I go to Art Basel in Miami Beach. We drove south on December 4th and returned on December 8th. Art Basel showcases the world’s top galleries. I read that over a billion dollars worth of art is sold here in one week. We stay with Terry’s friend Elaine Pasekoff and Derek Hewitt. Elaine is the host of a syndicated radio program called “The Book Report.” The couple have several condos in a high rise overlooking Miami Beach. The first thing I did when we arrived was to grab my sketchbook and take in the dusk view from their balcony.

This week was also Elaine’s birthday so plans were in place for a big Disco blow out of a party. Friends and relatives were all driving into town along with the Art Basel throngs. We all decided to go out to diner at a Cuban Restaurant only a few blocks from the condo. Although I have gotten press passes in the past, I didn’t manage to convince Art Basel management that I was a journalist. For that reason, most of my focus would be on the smaller art fairs that were scattered in large tents all around Miami.

Looking through the Art Basel pamphlet, I ran across a page that I had used to clean off my brush because I had forgotten a rag. It was one of the more abstract and expressive pages in the publication. Dinner with friends and watching the moon rise over the ocean made for a nice end cap to the day.

Pause.itive

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Terry’s friend Elaine Pasekoff from Miami Beach Florida helped organize Pause.itive, the change with attitude. The one day empowering seminars were held on Saturday September 28th at Art Seen Gallery (2215 NW 2nd Avenue, Miami FL). The buildings in the Wynwood Arts District were covered with graffiti. Mercedes Soler. a news anchor from CNN en Espanol was the host. The seminars touched on topics that matter most to women over 35, Like Hypnosis, hormones, fitness and fashion. Presented by physicians and experts the seminars offered empowering honest dialogues about changes that every woman goes through.

Actress Vanessa Elisse stormed into the room and sat in the lone chair facing the audience, “It is hot in here or is it me?” she said. She began a comical discussion about her life changes. It reminded me of Samantha Jones of Sex and the City who gave a talk to a group of women and then said *%$k it”, as she took off her wig and complained about her hot flashes. It took a few minutes to realize that this was an actress rather that a woman who had barged in late to the seminar. It was a quite effective intro.

Of course things heated up when Nilza Kallos turned the discussion Sex and Intimate Relationships. There were props, like a rather sizable vibrator and laughter helped in making the points. She was hilarious and it was encouraging because she knew she was beautiful regardless of how old she was. It also helped that she had an accent like Doctor Ruth. It was the highlight for me and when I realized I was to only guy in the room except the guy behind the TV camera. The dry medical discussions about hormone therapy were a bit too clinical for my taste. It felt like the doctor thought he was speaking to clinicians at some medical conference. Miami seems to always be the birthplace of trendy health initiatives, like the South Beach Diet that later sweep the nation. These hormone balance therapies seem to be the new hot and costly trend. The psychotherapist offered women the encouragement to accept their bodies and life changes, which contrasted the Fashion experts who were razor thin which is hard to maintain after menopause sets in. Terry seemed upset that medical experts were pushing women to pay big money to always strive for the unattainable ideal. In general though the seminar focused on promoting positive views of the inevitable changes in a woman’s life.

Miami Beach Farmers Market

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When visiting Terry’s friend Elaine Pasekoff, I wandered on my own to the Farmers market down the street from the Miami Beach condos. I just found out today, while in France, that Elaine’s sister passed away from Parkinson’s disease. She was far too young. About a dozen tents were set up in the Miami Beach park offering fresh fruit and produce. I sketched from a bus stop which offered shade from the intense Florida heat. We were visiting for Art Basel which is a huge art fair that happens every December. I’m getting excited and making plans to report on Art Basel again this year possibly in partnership with The Daily City. Gears are turning.

I didn’t actually buy anything at the farmers market. I just needed to get a sketch under my belt before joining the assembled entourage on a day’s social outing.  There was some Egyptian looking odelisk in the public park where the market was staged. I believe the market is open the same day each week. Art Basel is a walking marathon and I need to remind myself to schedule a little time each day do just sketch. Last year, convincing the public relations people at Art Basel that I was press was a real chore. This year I hope to get a jump on all the required paper work. Sometimes getting the sketch is the easy part. Getting in is the challenge.

Miami Beach

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Stillman & Birn, a sketchbook manufacturer here in the United States sent me about seven sketchbooks to test out in preparation for NAMTA, an artist materials convention coming to Orlando in May. At that convention, I will be showing people the sketches I did and discussing the books from an artist’s perspective. I have been using, Handbook Artist Journals for the past three years to do all of the sketches on this blog. I have noticed recently that the pens have been making indentations on the Hand Book pages that show up on the back of the page. Since I sketch on both the front and back of the pages, this became a problem. For the past month I have been searching for a better sketchbook, trying Canson and Strathmore books. I just haven’t found the right weight and feel to the books I picked up at Sam Flax. Then out of the blue, I am told by an employee at Sam Flax, that a representative from Stillman & Birn wanted me to test out their sketchbooks..

It was Spring Break at Full Sail where I work part-time and my wife Terry decided to book us on to a cruise ship leaving from Miami and sailing the Caribbean. We drove to Miami Beach where we stayed at Elaine Pasekoff and Derek Hewitt‘s gorgeous condominium. It was a long drive and when we arrived, Elaine and Derek were out at a Passover diner. I went out on the windy ninth floor balcony and looked east towards the beach.

This is the first sketch I did in one of the new Stillman & Birn sketchbooks. I was delighted that I could lay colors down thickly and I loved how vibrant the colors were. I scrubbed some areas violently and with the previous Hand Books, the paper would come up in pieces, thinning the page. With this new sketchbook, I imagine my sketches will become more painterly and I can “work” the sketch with far more abandon. I can’t help but “geek out” about these new sketchbooks. I feel like a kid who has finally found a new indestructible toy.

NADA Art Fair

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The condominium we stayed at was in North Miami Beach and on the last day we went to the Deauville Beach Resort which was the home of the New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA) is a not-for-profit organization devoted to giving support and encouragement to those who work in new contemporary and emerging art; facilitating strong, and meaningful relationships between members; and enhancing the public interaction with contemporary art. NADA Art Fair was founded in 2003. Members include galleries directors, non-profit art spaces, art advisers, curators, writers, museums and other art professionals from around the world.

NADA was only a few blocks from where we were staying. After a quick stop for omelets, we walked along the beach boardwalk till we found the hotel. After three solid days of looking at art, we were all experiencing art burn out. Everything started looking the same. Dealers in one booth explained to us that dealers from Art Basel liked to migrate up north to the NADA Art Fair to see something new and unexpected. He said these dealers might stop back several times that week. As he put it, “We are all learning as we go. There is no rule book.”

After walking through the Napoleon, Richelieu and La Jardin Ballrooms, only one image was engraved into my memory. There was a video playing that showed a giant tortuous grunting as it tried to mount another tortuous. The person in the booth explained that there were only a few of this species left in the Galapagos Islands and they were all males kept together in an enclosure. These males were each over one hundred years old and the last of their species. With all the odds stacked against them these Centenarians were still trying to propagate their species. The shells scraped and clicked as claws lost grip and the dance began again in slow motion. Life finds finds a way.

In the lobby, Grant Peterson lay prostrate in a leather chair, his fedora spooned neatly over his backpack. Like everyone in our party, he was exhausted, having seen enough art to last him another year.