Things are improving in the two months since the last post. Hurricane season has begun and been pretty quiet so far, in contrast to last year when Dennis hit early in July. We have all seen "An Inconvenient Truth" however, and now the inevitability of global warming increases the dread of stronger storms.
Meanwhile, some drenching summer rains have enlivened the trees. The poinciana and gumbo limbo I thought were dead are in leaf! There are niches of deep shade in the yard! The poincianas, which normally celebrate the beginning of summer with glorious outbursts of flaming scarlet blossoms were unable to pull it off this year. A few trees spurted a few flowers, but at least they now have leaves and we can look forward to next year's blooms.
My friend Reen, a steel sculptress, just returned from the Artist Blacksmith's Association of North America conference in Seattle. I admire her tenacity in attending, since her entire studio with lots of heavy, expensive equipment and materials, was flooded to eye-level and salt water is ruthless on steel. She returned inspired, however, and refreshed. She's not sure how she'll rebuild her career, but her drive is back.
My admiration for her is a little wistful, I'll admit. The storm didn't wipe out my means to produce, but other events pulled the rug out from under my artistic life. The gallery where my work was selling well closed in the middle of storm season to make room for the MTV Real World: Key West production and never re-opened for miscellaneous reasons associated with the building's owner. My larger canvases need large walls and those are hard to come by in the littlemost Key West. I haven't unearthed a new gallery so sales came to a screeching halt. See my work at my website: www.lizardlicks.com
That has led to a slump entitled "Why Bother?" that I'm trying to overcome. I need to find a conference somewhere to refresh my attitude, I guess.
So here's a picture of the painting I'm working on now. It's 48" tall, 24" wide. It's a charcoal drawing that I've developed a way to preserve on canvas, then layered with transparent acrylic glazes. It's still under construction, but close to being done.
The second photo is my paintings at Sippin' Internet Cafe on Eaton Street, just off Duval in Key West. The cafe is a great little spot, just down from the new Tropic Theatre. I come here for Cuban coffee and to download files using their broadband.
It's also the venue for poetry slams and other interesting, small-format events.
The scene there attracts a mix of business travelers (or vacationers trying to catch up on what they’re missing) and some intriguing fringe types. During a recent workshop on wireless computing, the place was predominantly keys folks in flip-flops and T-shirts. Then a 50-year-old with a Mohawk haircut trudged in. Just behind him a six-pack of German bikers muscled through the room and clustered around one of the Sippin’ desktop computers. They could have been a pretty intimidating crew, except they were wearing shorts and sandals and their legs were very pale.
