TEDMED 2013 Live Art

I was recently in Orlando, via Ringling College of Art & Design creating visual facilitation (aka live art) for the 2013 TEDMED simulcasts. The TEDMED presentations were simulcast from Washington D.C. to many locations. Working over the course if three days, I created around 50 original compositions on sheets of large Bristol Board onstage at Neumars Children's Hospital in Orlando, to artistically facilitate the TEDMED talks for Orlando participants. While there, I visited the rooms of a few young women with illnesses, and drew some personalized pictures with autographs for them and their families, in order to hopefully boost their healing, and lighten spirits.

The TEDMED sessions were very enjoyable and an opportunity to create some "fast (but thoughful) artworks", which are a bit different from some of my more highly rendered art. Creating art at this velocity creates a situation where I am constantly challenging myself to innovate in push myself to new levels in visual communication. It all boils down to fast cognating, and mostly speedy cartooning.

It is always interesting to witness the variety of responses folks attending the sessions have to the art, all of which has been overwhelmingly positive, and sometimes hilarious. More often than not, attendees of the sessions call "dibs" on art they like, so they can take the originals home, or to put in their respective offices or workplaces. I take pride in facilitating greater understanding and helping people to learn, think and creatively process new concepts they may not be familiar with, or providing new perspective on familiar topics! Special Thanks to Ringling College of Art & Design for making this year's TEDMED Florida live art elements possible. Art featured here is a bit orange due to low lighting and poor camera quality. The art is based on concepts and topics in the TEDMED simulcast presentations. Art via Ringling College, created by your truly. 

Update: Corexit

The corexit oil spill mural was officially painted over recently on Orange Ave. The building it was painted on apparently changed hands. It lasted quite a while on the wall (around  months), far longer than many of the participating artists murals painted during Going Vertical - Part of the Sarasota Chalk Fest. Some of the other murals only lasted a week or so, being immediately painted over inside the Burns Court district right after the Chalk Fest ended. Alas! Why be attached to such things! More works are yet to manifest! Yet still it is important to note the resistance to murals in Sarasota, as a thriving art-community, in comparison to other places. If we limit ourselves to Flamingos and Palm Tree Art, aren't we missing valuable perspectives, the diversity of which is a noted hallmark of arts cities in general?