Eurotrip 2008!

Within days both Bill and Amar expressed an interest in coming to visit me in the UK. Thrilled to hear this, I was able to coordinate them to come at the same time which leads to...Eurotrip 2008!

We started off in the lovely Amsterdam. For accommodations we rented a room , a very small room, on a house boat situated on a canal in the center of Amsterdam. Although the quarters were tight this unique experience was one not to be forgotten. Lucas, the captain, made sure we were will taken care of.

Amateur photographer Bill "the thrill" Almond was there to capture some memories..
Our Room..

Amsterdam!






After 6 hours sleep in 3 days the next stop was London.

We were lucky enough to grab second row seats for the Fulham vs Newcastle match at Cottage Craven in Fulham. Built in late 1800's, Cottage Craven is the smallest stadium in the Premiership which, in my opinion, makes it one of the best.


I must take credit for the next two shots:

John Pantsil


Legendary Michael Owen


Not bad after consecutive nights with no sleep!


Another great shot of London courtesy of Bill (more to come!)

Adam Neate's "street exhibit" in London

So! Adam Neate decided that he wanted to do an art show. Instead of hosting this exhibition in a typical art gallery with chilled wine, Adam has decided to take it to the streets by leaving 1000 pieces of his work scattered across London. These pieces are estimated to be worth 1 million pounds in total!

Don't believe me? Read on...

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/as-art-market-bottoms-out-a-painter-gives-his-work-away-for-nothing-1003954.html

To Quote Adam, "Between dusk and dawn teams of distributors are going to leave 1000 pieces of my artwork around London, encompassing the whole city," Neate said. "It's going to be even distribution across the whole of London and not discriminating between areas.

"I've always dreamt of being able to do an entire city in one day and being able to work in the gallery and sell paintings has helped me fund my project that I've wanted to do."

Adam is probably second in popularity to Banksy when it comes to street art in UK.

OK so it sounds cool and all but what's even better is..

Well Guess what??? I FOUND TWO!!!



I'm still in shock! I was simply walking through Brick Lane with my friend Antonia, who I told to keep her eyes peeled "just in case", when some guy jumps out of a van and puts a piece of shrink wrapped art down on a street corner. Toni spotted it and said "what's that??" I responded, "HOLY SH*T!! THAT'S IT!" I ran over to the corner and grabbed it! I then saw this same guy run across the street and leave a second piece leaning up against a street sign. I immediate ran across through traffic and grabbed piece #2 before the guy jumped into a van and sped off.

So random..so fun..people spent the entire night looking for these and I can't believe I am a recipient of 2!!

Adaption / Translation - Jose Parla!

I took a trip down to Elms Lesters Painting room in Central London and caught NY's Jose Parla's first ever solo exhibit in London! The show was pretty remarkable and it was nice to see Jose's work up and personal as I am a huge fan of his art.

For this exhibit Parla used materials from the urban environment including wood, cement, vinyl, paint, wax and ink to create these pieces . The Graffiti influence is what I enjoy most of Parla's work.
Some of the pieces are so huge and densely layered with graffiti that you can only imagine the time it took to complete.

Once again, its the price tag that keeps me away from his work. There was one item for sale and it was one of the smaller pieces going for 13,000 pounds which was just a bit out of my budget!

I did purchase a limited edition book of this show which is very well put together and I'm stoked to have it as part of my collection.

A few pics...enjoy!!
PS. Its worthwhile to click on these pics to look at them in full size!!!











13,000 pounds or $20,000..ugh!


The Grand Finale!



Look at the size of that door!



I've posted this video in previous blogs but will add again...