Author: onajide

Thank goodness the art fairs of December are over. I was starting to get hassled for not showing up at a few openings. I am still giving finals, with the last one being tonight in about an hour. I have a web updating job that’s going to pay my real money. A couple of my sponsors on Miamiartexchange.com were trying to get me feature them during the fair. Sorry. I chose work that I thought was good and I could write about pretty quickly. I covered all the major venues and that’s as much as I could do. I didn’t attend a single party although, there were LOTS of them around.

The problem, as age old as it is, is that artists don’t have the luxury to create their work then go out promoting it too. In reality, it takes just as much time to promote the work as it does to create it, if not more. That’s why artists seek out galleries and dealers. And, dealers are not interested in promoting work that isn’t easy to sell, unless they really like the work and see potential in it and or the artist. That is the reason dealers and gallerists take up to a 50% cut of the selling price.

Based on those terms, dealers get very territorial, literally and figuratively. Unless you have a written contract it might be problematic on some level to have another dealer promoting your work. There are advantages and disadvantages to both having and not having a written contract.

Museums don’t normally get into the business of selling artists work but, if you see a wall label that says, “Collection of the artist,” it means the work is most likely for sale. In those situations collectors can probably get work at a lower cost and the artist won’t have to give up a cut of the money.

Commissions, public and private, are a whole different matter. Just the process itself can be taxing enough to make many artists never do it more than once. Public commissions require the artist to do the bidding of many people one would not normally deal with in the creation of ones art.

Anyway, I’ve gone way beyond the art fairs-as-exhibition spaces, and beyond the first week of Decemeber having become the MOST important week for ANY and EVERY artist living in Florida. The faculty of UF even had a exhibition in Miami! Gainesville is 800 miles north of here!

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The first and most important part of the art season has now come and gone. Next is the January events of Art Miami and Palm Beach Contemporary (art fair). Even though they are not on the same level (in terms of sales, collectors, or galleries), they nonetheless are an important part of our art culture. Some locals have already said that those events are a waste of time however, just a few short years ago that is all we had. It’s good that a few people I know made some money this past week selling art (both artists and dealers).

I know many of you are orchid lovers. Check this out coming on PBS this week. Sorry for non-US residents.

“For nine months in 2000, Tom Hart Dyke was a captive of guerrillas who seized him while he was collecting wild orchids in the Colombian rain forest. Now Hart Dyke is at it again in the most orchid-rich and politically unstable part of Papua New Guinea. NOVA investigates an all-consuming passion that for some people is more precious than life itself. Ranging from the scientific to the sociological, Orchid Hunter covers research at the forefront of plant biology. Long of interest to scientists because of their remarkable evolutionary history, orchids are equally exciting to collectors, who have made them a multibillion-dollar industry.”

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/teachers/programs/2915_orchid.html

Antoni Miralda’s sculpture in the Dacra office area.

Art Basel Miami Beach is just its second year has become THE most important art fair on the U.S. east coast. Also here is -Scope fair, a 4 story hotel filled with galleries, and NADA=New Art Dealers Alliance Fair in a vacant commercial bldg. Over in Miami debuting for the event was a new art space, Miami Art Central. And, as shown in the above picture the Miami Design District office of Dacra, the main developer of the area into the hottest gallery district in Miami. Craig Robbins is the principal of Dacra and a great supporter of art and artists.

I spent the entire day and into the evening trekking thru each of the above venues, with the exception of Miami Art Central which is some distant south. I’m working up a report of some kind on the events, art, and activities for Miamiartexchange.com. However, I have a final critique and exam to give this morning. I got a phone call yesterday telling me what “right on time” our Nayland Blake’s recent commentary is as edited on Miamiartexchange.com. Thank you Nayland!

I deleted an entry I didn’t like and am replacing it with an image of two birds of prey that are being rehabilitated and then released into the wild. The red shouldered hawk is named Carolina. I spent too much time talking with the guy that had the birds I forgot to get the owl’s name or gender. This was taken at the beginning of Oct. at Fairchild Tropical Garden. (This is a layered image.)

World AIDS Day = Day Without Art

I set out for another two days of image gathering this past weekend. I set out without a map in hand. I thought I knew exactly where I was going. I was totally off base. I set out Saturday and drove north to Palm Beach County, then west toward Belle Glade but, I knew I had to drive a bit further north. I couldn’t find it. I bought a map only to open it and find it only showed the eastern half of the county. What kind of stupid map makers do that?

I decided to drive to Indiantown and possibly find my true location of Port Mayaca, where Lake Okeechobee and the waterway flowing east to the St. Lucie estuary and the Atlanic. I glanced at a roadside sign and did a U-turn to a place called, Grassy Waters Preserve. I had never heard of it.

Images and more text…

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving Holiday, even if you don’t live in the US. My Canadian friends have their Thanksgiving on a different day but, my warm greetings extends to all.

I have always liked Thanksgiving as a holiday. Lots of love, food, fun, and no gift obligations. Thanksgiving reminds me of my mother and her good cooking. Of course, she was a great cook any day of the week. It also reminds me of nosing around my grandmother’s kitchen watching, listening, tasting, and having a good time playing with cousins, and siblings. Ah, the days of my youth are but a fleeting memory… *smile* Anyone for some apple pie?

I forgot to say I put a nice turkey breast on my smoker. It should be ready in about 3+ hours. It should be moist and delicious. 🙂

To provide you a reference to where my weekend pics were taken, I’m providing an area map. There is a long strip of land along the coast separated from the mainland by the Indian River Lagoon (part of the intercoasal waterway). The coastal islands are divided by Ft. Pierce Inlet. They are North & South Hutchinson Islands. The pier and power boat were taken on the North Causeway where I’ve circled an area. The Savannas is within the rectangular area.

The agricultural citrus growing land along I95 and Florida’s Turnpike going through 3 counties mostly belongs to Becker Groves. Old man Becker, if he’s still alive and working, is a pretty nice southerner and boss. He and his grove managers used to eat where I had a parttime job. They liked Becker and he paid pretty well. Grove workers, well, that’s another issue. I’ve never heard anything bad about Becker but, working in the groves isn’t easy, nor does it pay well. Get an education! (*A note for anyone that hasn’t figured it out yet.) I loved hearing them talking about ‘people from up north,’ ‘trucks,’ and ‘big city folks that think they know so much.’ I used to kid around with ’em and use my southern accent, like when I told one guy, Pete, he wasn’t dressed right, ’cause he didn’t have his name stamped into the back of his belt (like everybody else). I loved the down-home nature of these guys. I’m the same way, down-home.