Divine Artist (3)

- Art.

- Art?!? Not LOVE?!? [see the beginning of the interview to understand this tease]

- Haha! The thing is I LOVE Art!

- How do you see the differences between North America and Latin America, I mean, your view, through your glass?
- Miami is a great mix: Latin America, North America and Europe, and they all get along. And, well, with this I guess we consider the interview done!
- Is there anything else you would like to add, to convey to people?
- All artists have to get used to being alone. It is very important.

- Why?

- It is very difficult to find a person who understands your lifestyle.
- Well, another artist maybe?
- Yeah, but, it is still difficult. You have to jump with no parachute.
- No way… that is what someone close and dear to me used to tell me: that I was planning too much on jumping WITH a parachute and should learn how to jump without one.
- Right, but the key is that you need to get enlightenment, that “Aha!”. Once you experience revelation, only then, you can jump.

However, since divine has no beginning and no end, he immediately added....

On work:
“”Work” is something that you do not like to do, that’s why you get paid! Painting and writing is a gift, it’s a vocation. When you die, your art remains. It may take me seven days –or whatever it takes me because I do not push myself- to finish this painting, but it will last for years and years, even after I die. The same happens with what you write.”

On diving into yourself:
- Alberto, I was supposed to go to India, in a spiritual retreat, to learn how to master meditation…. Instead I stayed a couple of months in New York and Miami, against my will, but I accepted fate. And I decided to have my own retreat here in Miami… I had all the elements.
- Of course! You DO have all the elements! Do you know Yogananda story?
- No.
- When he was a kid, he wanted to go to the Himalayas so badly that he would run away from his home. Until one day, his parents brought a Guru home, in desperation because of the kid’s attitude. The Guru asked him: why are you running away from home all the time? Because I want to go in retreat in the Himalayas, master meditation. What for? Why do you want to go to the mountains, if the mountains can come to you? (i.e., he could learn meditation without going into the Himalayas). Bring what you are looking for to you. And, the same with you.

- Exactly, Alberto! And that is what my good friend told me too, after sharing my decision of ‘having my retreat in Miami’- she said: “Fortunately, you are not the type of person who HAS to go to Katmandu in order to dive into herself!”

On Time and Yoga:

I practice Raya Yoga, i.e., the yoga of kings. However, kings in India are not those with spare fortune, but those with spare time, those rich in time.

And now yes it was the end of the first interview. Until our paths cross again. Or until love and work determine the next destination for each of us…

Divine Artist (2)

- [Long silence] I do not know! I have never made myself that question. I was born an artist! It is like fate: it maybe takes some more time for some people to discover it, but you are born an artist! Some discover it early in their lives and some others when they are 80.
- What do you seek with your art?
- I seek positivity, that people feel positive.
- Do you believe you achieve your goal?
- Yes, I do achieve it because people who buy my art tell me that their homes have become more peaceful, that it is as if the paintings were alive. And, generally people who buy once, they come for more.
- What would you say is your clientele?
- Locals and tourists.
- Isn’t it ironic that you are just by a restaurant/club called “Tantra”?
- YES! The fact that it’s a club, it’s fantastic because my loud music does not bother them. No complaints.
- How do people react when they walk by such a display on this quiet block: Tibetan flag (wich i see you do not have it today! You only have that Tibetan flag painted on wood), gigantic OM, vibrant exhibit of your art –some pieces provocative-, music, incense?
- They LOVE it! [while I was sitting on his stool chatting with him while he was bringing his most recent inspiration to life in full color, a few people walked by and would greet him as you would an old friend or a good neighbor].

Entrance to Alberto's house-studio-background of his front-yard, where he sets up an eclectic display to the senses.

- Can you live on this in this country, in this city? Can you live (pay your bills) doing what you love?
- Yes, if you live a simple life. I do not eat out, or go out for drinks. And last time I went to a club, was five years ago. It is super expensive and also, the most interesting people I meet is here, not in a club. And I do not buy clothes often. If you are good at what you do, you have to be patient and you can make it. During some time in my life I was a part-time hair-stylist and part-time painter. Being a coiffeur went very well, hand-in-hand with being a painter. Ten years ago, I decided to paint full-time.
- Hinduism and Buddhism are not the same. How do you mix them? What is people’s reaction? Any negativism or people feeling offended?
- No, I never had a negative experience because of my images. People do appreciate my art for what it is. For me, Hinduism and Buddhism are the same, they take you to the same destination: compassion, understanding, love.

- Have you ever been back to your home-country (Venezuela)?
- I have twenty years of not going.
- Would you like to go back?
- I do not know. I have no idea of where I will retire. It has to be somewhere tropical and international/cosmopolitan.
- Hmmm…. Sounds like Miami!
- Yeah, but it is becoming too expensive. Particularly the lease. We’ll see where it takes me…
- Who?

Divine Artist (1)

Like all artists, there are no schedules.
Like all what is divine, it is there, but not always easy to access for mere humans.

- So, Maria, where are you going to live? What’s next?
- I have NOOO idea. Job will tell.
- Job?? Not love?!?
- Ahhh…. Tell me, Alberto, what made you start painting?
- I have been painting for thirty years. I liked it since school. My best marks were always in Arts. A professor told me once: you have potential; there are two ways of becoming an artist: (1) go to school; (2) travel and discover different cultures and techniques. And I took up the second path. I traveled the world for ten years: California, Hawaii, New York, Europe, Africa, india. I lived in Paris for five years, until I got tired of the cold and ten years ago I moved to South Beach.
- Why the mostly present topic of Eastern philosophies and religions, considering you are a Latin, Western, in Espanyola Way, in Miami?!
- Painters have four stages in their lives: (1) Experimenting. (2) Perfecting. (3) Making money from their art. (3) Discovering spirituality in their art. I am in the latter now. This is where one remains because there are no further stages. Many painters however never get to this last stage. I have been painting about Hinduism and Buddhism for the past seven years. Buddhism to me is not a religion, but a civilized and complete lifestyle.
- How do you get inspired? Where from?
- I paint depending on how I feel. One day I wake up and say: I will paint the seven chakras on a surf board. Before I used to paint images (like the one with the multicolor fish) with puntillismo, but I do not paint any more images or abstract, only religious. I continue using puntillismo but just as another technique. It is very relaxing, almost like meditating: you are focused and relaxed at the same time.

 Follow the black line and you will discover the image (what Alberto does no more).What he still does: Puntillism.

- Do you know if the Tibet knows about your existence?
- No, I don’t. And I do not care.
- How is a day in your life?
- They are all different! No Plans!
- Has any Buddhist/Tibetan/Hindu ever seen your art? What was their feedback? What was their reaction?
- Yes. I did an exhibit once in Miami where a Tibetan Ripoche came. He loved my art. I asked him: “What do you think that I should do (with my life)?” And the Ripoche said: “Continue painting.”

What Alberto does (lowest row: Buddhas) and what he does no more (two other paintings). The linking thread, aside from the vibrant colors: Puntillism.

- Do you feel the ‘financial crisis’ in your life, in your art?
- Yes, a bit. But if people like a piece of art (particularly if Buddhist or Hindu), they buy. Moreover, there is now a new wave: people are becoming more open to Buddhist and Hindu philosophies, people are meditating and practicing yoga much more… There is a wave and my art is up to date with that wave.
- If you were not an artist, what would you be?

An Intriguing House: Tibet in Miami?

One morning while walking back home, I passed by a house with a huge Tibetan flag in the front. I was somehow surprised (this is not Toronto or San Francisco or New York where the Asian communities are vast), particularly to find this flag in a touristy part of the city, and a very Spanish one too. However, there were no signs or anything that would tell you what was that small house about.


One afternoon, I accidentally took the same path –I could not remember the exact location of this house- and to my surprise, the house was not only open: there was soothing Eastern music playing, hypnotizing incense burning, and a vibrant display of art! A total feast for the senses. I stopped in my mix of curiosity and amazement, and in no time a man came to greet me. He is the artist! That’s what it is all about: this is his house-studio, and the afternoons or evenings usually between Thursday and Sunday, he opens his house and in the front yard exhibits his art, sometimes he is painting also, sometimes he is just hanging out with friends over a beer or glass of wine, enjoying the evening and the crowd. In his very Latin and very Buddhist welcoming, he immediately invited me to join him in his wine. But I passed. We talked for a while.

Another afternoon, he was hanging out with friends:
Alberto, would you mind being in my blog?
No, but not today darling, we are celebrating that Uruguay won (a game of the World Cup). Call me and come over the weekend.
OK.

I walked by another afternoon. No luck- closed.
I walked by yet another afternoon. He was hanging out with friends, his art in full exhibit.
Not today darling, we are celebrating that Uruguay lost. But call me, maybe the weekend.

I called him, that Sunday around lunch time.
Darling, we are about to watch the final, with Spain. And if Spain wins, this will be a big party! [sure, if you read my postings of “Some Spanish Salt” and “Spanishly Salt-Free” of ten days ago, you will understand my disconnect!]

The World Cup was over…. So I called him to see if I could drop by: my dear, we are going to the beach with friends. Sorry, this is the life of an artist: no schedule, just play it by ear, go with the flow. What can I tell you? Just come by whenever you can and see if I am around.

And so, my last weekend in the city, on my way to a party, I decided to take a chance and take that path instead of another road. And, BINGO! Now the thing was, if he would be in an ‘interview mode’ day….

"Listening" to Architecture: Female Charm and Spanish Soul

Female Charm Immortalized in Bricks: Elaine and Elizabeth

Unavoidable Spanish Soul, in and out of Espanyola Way:

"Listening to Architecture": If Devil is in Details.... Angels are as well!

"Listening" to Architecture: Art Deco Dixit

         Not just 'combing surf'!

When "old" meets "new".

Palette of pastels... just enhancing Nature's own.

The "secret garden". Like from a fairy tale, the entrance to an iconic, revamped secret.A white huge jewelery box, wrapped with a ribbon of greenery, keeping enchanting sense-teasers inside.   

Iconic revamped 'secret'.

Another icon on Collins Ave.

                                            Which is the icon here?

Not so iconic, not so "Collins Ave", yet colorful art-deco statements at every corner!

“Listening” to Architecture -Intro-

Final countdown of my stay in ‘my boxes’!

I have had the pleasure of sharing with you Nature, anecdotes with certain characters, thoughts… As you may have seen in previous entries to my blog in former locations, to me architecture is just one more of the elements that defines the vibe of a place at the same time that it speaks of its people, both historically and presently…

Here, my take on ‘my boxes’ from the perspective of man-made, man-maintained and man-remade aesthetics. Enjoy!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The "W"... a statement in the midst of Art Deco.

Art Deco on Collins Ave... top hotels then, and now.

Words would be Redundant

Sunset by the Canal. Saturday July 17th.