Capoeira at the Art Walk

Watching capoeira and the crowd that gathered to watch them gave the Art Walk that human element I was talking about. They had music, people, an audience, it was great. It made the Art Walk feel more like a street festival than the typical Art Walk. Congrats for capoeira!

More from the Art Walk

It's great sharing this blog and having two perspectives on what we see throughout the city. The same can be said for the Art Walk. Usually Christina and I are together but sometimes we break off and find things that catch our eye. This past Art Walk was a lot of fun and featured some great art. But I noticed there was more of a human element this time around as well. Here are some pics:

These were really cool but I can't remember which gallery I snapped them in. I love how colorful they are:

This one was a bit more political and timely:


I thought this one was really interesting and neat:
He wasn't part of any display - just hangin' out playing with some rusty dirt. But he was adorable!

Art of the Art Walk - Take Three

Here are some more art walk photos as promised. Can't wait for next week's, the scene is really picking up and the art is still awesome. My favorite of this group is from the Chelsea Gallery where there was a painting of a picnic. If you looked closely, you could see a mini Dee Snider in the middle. Precious.

From Chelsea Gallery:


Check out lil' Dee:


From other galleries:

Street Art - September Artwalk

Here is my first installment from the recent artwalk - street graffiti. It's all pretty awesome:

The HOLLYHOOD Series:

A good message:

The Movie Series:


Gangs of New York? I didn't expect to see Daniel Day Lewis on NW21st - pretty awesome:

A perfect end to a perfect weekend

This was a much-needed weekend. I had to work a couple hours yesterday, but afterwards I hung with el hombre. We chilled out outside on the sidewalk like kids, playing with the cats, walked to the grocery for veggies and ground beef, and made dinner before heading out to the art walk.

ISM was closed, so we wandered around to galleries we haven't been before, and there's alot of new places that I really liked. And it was packed. Last month was dead, but apparently this was the start of the season. I love to see that this thing is so popular because it gives some hope that Miami will become a more cultural city. Anyway, pics to come in a later post.

After the art walk we scoped out a local indie bar for a bit (mainly to get water and AC... it's still HOT at night) before heading over to see the Spam Allstars play.

We completed the weekend by heading with M's cousin down to the keys for tasty lunch at the Islamorada Fish House, then went to feed tarpon (some of those fish were bigger than me!) and then to Tiki Bar to swim in the ocean and get some sun.

All this to come in a massive picture post later. But for now, I leave you with a dingy from a keys trip, a few weeks back

Art Walk - Tomorrow!

The Wynwood Art Walk is tomorrow and I'm super excited! Haven't been in a while and am really looking forward to it. Here are some old pics that I never got around to posting from an Art Walk way back in June:

Hoo-ray for Hollywood - Florida - not the other one

Yesterday, in an attempt to escape the craziness of Miami, I thought it would be a good idea to head north. I was going to trek further but instead thought - hey, I haven't been to Hollywood in like a year, so it's time to see what's going on there. I was mighty surprised in a good way to see that there are way more restaurants and bars and other establishments than I remember, and the beach front was all fixed up with the new Broadwalk and looked all purdy. Hollywood has a smalltown feel yet it has such a mix of ethnicities and randoms that you feel like you are in some small European town/yet know in the back of your mind that you're still in South Fla. I ate at this really good restaurant that was super cheap - I think it's called Chocolada or something - and they feature live music every night which is a plus in my book. And everyone who ran the joint was Eastern European (Romanian I believe). But I did know that they are not from South Fla.

Another thing that is really cool is that Hollywood's really fixed up their small downtown. Upon arrival, you go by the usual boarded up, empty store fronts that are more reminicent of a northern town, but once you enter their strip, it's really nice. Someone in Hollywood is paying attention and is incorporating small parks and gardens for the community, and there are lots of plantings and arty things around. I know they have their own version of the art walk like we have in Midtown, so I may try to go sometime.

My favorite additions are the "tree people" as I call them. These topiary wonders are neat - I didn't see them the first drive down the street, but saw them the second time around. They add some uniqueness to the strip, remind me of Edward Scissorhands, and could cause young children to have nightmares about tree people who might come to life and eat them (I have an overactive imagination). But I liked them in all their untree-like poses. Here are the pics:

The Ballerina:

The Waiter (I thought this was an appropriate tree person to have in South Fla. since there are SO MANY ;):

The sax (saxamaphone) player :

Kudos, Hollywood. Keep it up! I will be visiting again hopefully sometime soon!

Wynwood Art Walk

So my favorite DJ (yeah I know I am biased) and I were down in Wynwood this past weekend for the art walk, and after el hombre got the music set up at one of the galleries, we went strolling around to the other places and I snapped some photos along the way, cause, you know, that's how I roll....



This fence always has some sort of word or message in cups, and I have a fascination with the skull and crossbone theme. I think el capitan blogged a similar photo from a previous art walk.



typical street art (we all know my love for it by now)



Sculpture garden between two warehouse-turned-galleries


amazing. I love this. and it's new....

I love the art walks for a number of reasons. The first being that it shows a slight underbelly of intellectualism in Miami (even if it can be kind of pretentious at times.)
The second is the variety of art that you see. From mixed media to extreme modern to standard paintings, there is a mix, and the galleries tend to switch it up all the time.
The third is the people watching, from indie to ghetto to urban redneck, you see it all. And if someone can explain to me why young indie kids think mustaches are cool, I would greatly appreciate it. Cause I am still on the "mustaches are creepy and gross" bandwagon.

Scenes from the Artwalk - June 2008

I love this: