Steady:

Last Friday, I was invited to live paint at Steady, a monthly event at the Medusa Lounge. It was my first time there so I have no clue as to what to expect and it would be the first time I met the promoters. I figured it would be nice for me to dive into a situation not knowing what to expect, to get out of my comfort zone. When they were warming up the place, I can hear one DJ in the other room spinning old school hip hop. The DJ Amara spun house while JK played live percussion with her. I came up with the sketch and ended up with the piece above.

On the subject of Live Painting:

Now, I know I have been known to do live painting but it's pretty much a hit and miss with me these days. Some days, I am feeling it and other days, I'm not. I took a break from live painting for awhile simply because I haven't been doing a lot of my own personal work.

Live painting, to me, isn't just putting a painter to be part of this four ring circus. I understand that I am part of the ambiance, eye candy, giving something else for people to look at. But it also gives a face to an artist that in the past has always been hidden. It shows them being vulnerable, engaged in the process and to show techniques of what it takes for a piece to come to fruition.

I know for me personally, it had helped my blocks. It's a form of exercise: a fast painting done in a few hours. The time constraints forces me to make decisions faster, to not view mistakes as such and just to work around them, to trust in the strokes and really put all doubt and fears to the side... and for most importantly, to just have fun with it.

and yes, there are good live painters and there are "bad" live painters. Just because a person is a dope artist doesn't mean he/she can performance paint, and just because a person can performance paint means that the personal work of that artists have strong conceptual meaning behind their pieces.

but that is all subject to the viewers discretion.

Currently listening to:

oh and check out DJ Amara's set right here, get a sense of what Steady is about:
Latest tracks by DJ AMARA