KOH SAMUI, THAILAND... Heaven on Earth

Thai Massages for 7 US Dollars, Beautiful Sand Beaches, Fresh Coconut Milk from the Shell, and Thai Dishes to die for makes me love Koh Samui.

I'm here for a regatta that my partner, Oskar, is taking part in. To see more about it you can go to www.samuiregatta.com

We are staying on Chaweng Beach, the most popular beach on Koh Samui. Tons of restaurants, top-notch accomodations, and cheap cheap shopping.

Below are some pics of the beach (view from Chaweng North Beach and South Beach) and of main street (Chaweng Beach Road)

"Dreams" featured by Liquitex

Very exciting news... My illustration "Dreams" has been featured for the 2007 Liquitex Holiday Card mailed out to hundreds of their comrades to bring in the new year. Check out the images below!

INFUSION: The Exploration of New Work By Emerging & Established Artists

This past weekend I participated in a group show that fused together the work of emerging and established artists.


The show opened to an impressive 350 visitors!


The event was hosted by Gallery JAC and Francesca Arcilesi Fine Art.


The show was a one-night only event that was held on March 29, 2008 at 814 Broadway, 4th Floor, between 11th & 12th Streets.


For more information you can visit www.galleryjac.com

Featured on Apartment Therapy

A website that I'm involved with, OriginalArtfor99.com , offers original art for 99 dollars, is featured on Apartment Therapy Blog.
One of the pieces that I sold is spot-lighted on the website. Check it out at the link below.

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/artwork/original-art-for-99-043543

Take Down at the Black Crow Cafe

Today I took down my artwork that was hanging at the Black Crow Cafe in downtown Auckland.
My experience was really great with the cafe. The owner, Adrienne, was extremely friendly and accomodating.
I also sold to 2 small canvases to a really sweet couple. The cafe is in a great location, right across the street from Auckland's biggest and most popular art gallery, The Auckland Art Gallery.

Artwork Featured on Foliate Oak

My piece "Bliss" is featured on The Foliate Oak Online Literary Magazine. The Magazine is run by UAM students and mixes Prose, Poetry, and Artwork.
Below is the link to the issue that I'm featured in:

http://www.foliateoak.uamont.edu/february-08/February-08-volume-4-issue-2

Successful opening at The Depot ArtSpace

The opening went very well and I recieved alot of positive feedback in regards to my current body of work.
The curator of the show bought a piece, which i was very happy about. Below are pictures from the evening.

Featured on "Artist of the Day" Blog

Check it out http://artistoftheday.blogspot.com

Suite 3421 in CABARETE Beach now available

Just completed the new website http://www.cabareterental.com for our condo in the Dominican Republic.
Check it out. There are great pictures of the 2 bedroom 2 bath suite along with information on the condo and world famous kite surfing beach.
If your interested in taking a holiday email info@cabareterental.com

Daytrip to HUIA and PIHA

With Oskar's day off from racing we took a daytrip to 2 beaches,Huia and Piha, just an hours drive from Auckland. Huia was recommended to us by a lady at the Takapuna Lakehouse Art Center that has a cottage there and Piha is a world famous surfers beach. The 2 were vastly different even though they were just a half an hour from one another.

Huia is a quiet beach with an extremely shallow bay that allows for a great distance from high to low tide. We walked for about 10 minutes from the high tide line out to the low tide low. Standing in the middle of tideline looking up at the mountains with no one around made me feel very insignificant, small, and in awe of the power of nature. It was a picturesque beach with rain forest covered volcanic mountains as a back drop and would be an ideal beach for an infant or elderly person beacause of its still warm water. The town had one general store, a few scattered cottages, and that was really it.

Piha was more built up (relatively) there were several high end cottages and condos being developed, a surf school, and the swimming there was not for the faint of heart. Only surfers were outside of the lifeguards flags, which were only 25 ft apart(note: no one swims outside of the flags in NZ or AUS, unless you have a death wish). The waves were big and the riptides were strong. I chose to be an observer and watch the surfers catch big swells and the swimmers get tossed.


Picture 1: Huia beach at low tide from the look out point

Picture 2: Looking out into the open ocean from Huia's lookout point

Picture 3: Oskar posing with our sweet Diatsu and his manly soda water

Picture 4: Looking down over Piha from the top of the volcanic mountain

Picture 5: On Piha's black sand beach

Last Leg of the Trip : Takapuna NZ

Only a month left before returning to the States. Oskar and I are in the last leg of our AUS/NZ trip, which lands us in Takapuna, a northern suburb located 20 minutes north of Auckland.

The first week here we had off to get settled in at our apartment and take some daytrips around the north island. The south island would have been nice to do, but we would have had to of flown, which was out.

I've put in some pictures below of; Matakana, )an 1.5 hour drive north east of Auckland), Goat Island (on the east coast north of Matakana), Lake Taupo (3 hours south of Auckland in the center of the island), Lake Rotorua (about 1.5 hours east of Lake Taupo), and finally Raglan ( a surf beach on the west coast). It was a great week off and we got alot of sights in.


Picture 1: This is the view of Downtown Auckland from our apartment building in Takapuna. To the right is The LakeHouse Art Center, where I currently have an exhibit up.


Picture 2: Matakana Market on the weekends. I had some incredible blueberry icecream at one of the shops.


Picture 3: Goat Island with volcanic black sand beaches and tropical fishes. A popular beach to go snorkeling at.


Picture 4: Lake Taupo. Freezing cold fresh water that runs down from the surrounding melting snowcapped mountains.


Picture 5: Sunset at Lake Rotorua. Very warm water that is surrounded by active, steaming, bubbling, geisers.


Picture 6: And finally, one of my favorite beach towns ever Raglan. Turquise water, mountians, beautiful Samoan people and a layed back surfer atmosphere.

Brighton Beach Huts

This little colored houses that line Brighton Beach, a suburb outside of Melbourne, are one of the few things that make this town unique. They are little bather houses that families purchase so that when they come to the beach they can have somewhere to change into their bathers, store their sand toys, or just sit and relax. They measure, on average, about 10ftx10ft in size. Most recently one was bought on Sorrento Beach (a neighbouring beach about an hour south) for a whopping 350,000 dollars. Wow. Nevertheless they do make a beautiful photograph.

Bye Bye Sommers

With the Asia-Pacifics Regatta complete we are leaving Sommers today and heading north to Sanderingham.
Oskar and Kevin finished 7th overall. They had some great and some not so great races. You can see their full results at
http://www.sailmelbourne.com.au/race-results/2008/tornado/SGrp2.htm
The event in Sanderingham is Sail Melbourne and will begin on Monday.

We had a relaxing time in Sommers and really enjoyed the couple, Steph and Barbara, that we stayed with. After all of the hotels we've been staying in lately it was nice to feel like we were at home. Below I have put a picture that Steph took of a bbq that they had prepared for us. Pictured from the right is Barbara, Oskar, Tino (one of the German sailors), Kevin, Rob, Niko (Tino's brother), and me. I've also put in some pics around Sommers, mostly koalas and one of Steph in the garden with the watertower in the back drop.