Attention artists! Just in case you didn’t know already you can become the latest sensation in the post modern art world by simply doing illegal acts and become the talk of the town and the public enemy of your local police department. But for all your troubles the payoff is a career in the post modern art & entertainment world exhibiting in the most highly publisized galleries and major museums around the world.
Forget spending years apon years locked away in a studio you barely can afford and stealing art supplies,eating peanut butter sandwiches for dinner alone just to perfect your style or make a statement,or at least comment on our social short commings.
Those days appear to be long gone and a thing of the past in this nouveau chic street movement thats got all the elements of a cops & robber,bad guy gone good,westside story and boy gets girl hollywood blockbuster movie rolled up into a career as you can handle.
And the best part of it is that its our reality according to those art institutions who subscribe to creating talent insted of stumbling apon it in a eureeka moment or actually looking for it.

This all didn’t just happen over night of course, it took years to develope and you can’t just single out certain artists or people to blame. We must except the fact that we don’t have time for the deep shit anymore,we just want to be entertained and we are willing to except sub-standard talent and admire risk taking as an badge of honor with a dab of idol making.

Well this is peak summer season and all I can say is that I have servived not going out of my mind due to personal circumstances. Going into detail would insure that knowbody read my blog again so I will spare you the anguish.
Not many stories to report on at this point but I must mention the thrill of having Lebran James head to Miami to play with the Miami Heat next season.

artist/president of Red Balloon Studio

Today is a day of  acknowledgement of a geat person and friend Mr.Keith A. Haring. A man who approached his art career with a passion and honesty unlike anyone I have ever encountered to this day.I will never forget our conversations we had about life and the persuit of a career as an artist.I remember he told me on the first day we met that we met for a reason,I kind of questioned it then but I now know he was right.I have memories that are now historic and I’m able to share stories about a person who died far to young and a talent that didn’t reach its full potential. I continue my own persuit of artistic maturity in the name of my wild-n-crazy guy friend Keith A.Haring.His spirit lives through the art he has left for us to enjoy.

This past weekend an exhibition of some of Keith’s sculptures opened at Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton,New Jersey and will be on view until September.I can’t wait to visit the exhibition I remember seeing the maquettes for some of them in his New York studio back in 1987 when I use to visit him.

for information about the exhibition visit www.groundsforsculpture.org

2010 Character Approved Awards honoree Kehinde Wiley
“What a sensational honor to have this artist and his statement be documented for all to hear and see,and to bare witness to what it feels like being African American in this world.He has given us a true visual gift and a much needed makeover as far as self-image that speaks volumes of which I do not need to explain,he does it quite exquisitly and poignatly illustrating the sentiment every African American visitor to a museum  or gallery must feel. These visual facts must cross the minds of other people who attend these same institutions or, is that the art that they are gazing apon have such a power that you’re to overlook this antropological oversight? Simply and visually stateting that African Americans shouldn’t exsist or be recognized for positive influence and image? Kinda makes you Humm!

Pink Race Riot 1963

The year was 1963 just four months before the author (I) was born and something was happening of great importance in our country besides my own birth.
In Birmingham Alabama a peaceful civil rights demonstration was brutally interrupted by local police with fire hoses and German Sheppard attack dogs on people who just wanted to be treated like human beings.
This incident illustrated how resistant the United States Government was towards the movement lead by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and I think seeing these paintings were really the first time I became aware the problems I would face growing up in America because I didn’t know how to read obviously being born in the same year.
I didn’t see these paintings until 1968 when the media was focusing on the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as well as the attempted murder of Andy Warhol in his factory studio in New York that same year and I find the paintings and the events closely related because both men were of a non violent nature and were extremely religious in their own right.
During my research of the Race Riot paintings I found know one critic or journalist willing to associate the two men in the same context and probably because of Andy Warhol’s seemingly deadpan non emotional public approach that didn’t show any emotion and the visual art community’s effort to never mix the two subjects for fear of exposing their own short commings on racial equality.
Obviously he cared enough to create these controversial works for everybody to see there own history and remember that violence doesn’t solve anybody’s problems it reflects it. Andy knew what was right and he’s still  teaching us lessons to this day. He died February 22, 1987 on a Sunday.

Lately I have been attacked by something that seems to transfer itself from person to person. I could give it a name but that would seem too redundant as I continue to fight my own battles out there in the trenches of life. This is not a complaint but a message to the wise who feel as I do when your struggling to live you life as peaceful as possible.

I have developed a rather thick skin over the years to shield my heart and protect me so I can continue to follow my path to success without derailier from such forces. I composed a poem two years ago that can help anyone who feels threatened and I think it works very well for those dark days ahead.watch?v=QQ4JfLruPcc

Last Friday night was the opening of a group show that I got included in along with some of my Trenton based artist friends as well as my Philadelphia artist friends down in Millville, New Jersey at the Riverfront Renaissance Art Center on High Street. In the past nine years this town surly sets the example of what can be accomplished with a few creative minds and a commitment to making things better. When I last exhibited my work in Millville three years ago it seemed like the town was gearing up for a change, and now that change has come by way of art galleries and swank eateries that line the main street. Although I was busy with socializing at the opening of my exhibition and watching my friend Leon Rainbow paint outside the gallery I noticed that there was a hellava lot more people enjoying the festive atmosphere that ran the whole  entire stretch of the main street.

I only wish the folks in Trenton would take a trip down to this quaint little town that has more going on for itself than the capital city could imagine to have and take some notes.

This exhibition has gotten more press than I have ever experienced in a single week and its a shame that the artist living in or around Trenton have to go somewhere else to get recognized for their talent.

To read more about the exhibition just click on these links http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/press/cumberland/article_ccd6ca56-a9e5-524d-8f11-7dcf57967956.html

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/press/cumberland/article_0b6921d8-a65b-11de-b0ef-001cc4c03286.html

and see what I’m talking about.

My next exhibition is coming up real soon…like next week. This is a two man show that was originally my annual solo exhibition held at Smile Gallery in Philadelphia, PA hence the name Popadelphia. If you want to see my latest works of art then this is your opportunity to come and check out some of my most recent.

The gallery is located at 105 South 22nd Street above the thai fusion eatery that is a part of the whole experience when you visit the gallery. Opening reception is scheduled for September 11th and starts at 6:00pm until 9:00pm. I hope to see you there.

< For those of you who don't check in regularly with the retail side of this website, I would like to Inform you of the new designs that are created from my custom toys. I have blown them up and stretched them out onto nice clothes that you can rock showing your support of the new direction I have taken my clothing line from the very simplistic Red Balloon design to my offshoots under the KaMo brand.
If you don't have a piece of mine yet then you owe yourself a treat and the clothes are a lot less expensive than trying to purchase one of my original canvases or custom designer toy sculptures which will be on display next month at Smile Gallery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and is scheduled to open on September 11,2009 through to October.