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Once again, City Link canvasses South Florida for the people
who have set their inner artists free.
Everybody
has an artist inside them just waiting to come out, my high school art teacher once
said. One school year and many frighteningly bad paintings, drawings and sculptures later
(including one attempted rendering of Neil Young so awful the legendary rocker ended up
looking like an alcoholic Sasquatch), this teacher had no choice but to forever after
amend her words of inspiration: Everybody has an artist inside them just waiting to
come out, she now said. For some of you, its my job to make sure that
doesnt happen.
So,
its with great irony and even greater pleasure that some 13 years later, I once
again find myself editing City Links annual Art Issue. On the following
pages, youll discover that letting ones inner artist out is not always such a
terrible thing. Often, it can be downright awe-inspiring, as is evident by the 54 artists who have appeared on our
Gallery page since the previous Art Issue, as well as the six artists profiled by Candice
Russell in the article Art of the matter.
These
are people who could, if they so desired, not only make Neil Young look like Neil Young,
but make him look better than he ever could in real life. They can, and do, tap into that
creative id that eludes far too many of us and bring back truly astounding creations. From
Charles Mills inspired portraits of jazz musicians and African-American families to
Shannon Englishs creepy doll constructions to Elena Comens dignified,
life-affirming black-and-white photographs of people in Russia, Guatemala and Israel,
theres more talent leaping from the following pages than millionaires from the deck
of the Titanic.
There
will be even more talent on the walls and walking through the Moran Gallery at ArtServe
this Saturday night, when the annual City Link Artfest, featuring the Best of the Gallery
exhibition, returns. Here, youll be able to meet the artists, see their work and
wonder why you cant even so much as scribble out a stick figure. The opening
reception begins at 7 p.m. and the show hangs through Sept. 25. ArtServe is located at
1350 E. Sunrise Blvd., in Fort Lauderdale. For more information, call 954/462-9191 or
954/356-4941. Admission is free. And bring your inner artist. Whether or not hes
allowed out, that is.
Jake Cline
XAVIER
CORTADA
For his work on murals jointly created
with street children, gang members, AIDS victims and others voiceless in mainstream
culture, Cortada won the coveted Millennium International Volunteer Award from the U.S.
State Department. Thats not even the biggest thing that has happened to the Miami
artist this year. Cortada created a mural with participants in the World AIDS Conference
in Durban, South Africa, and 10,000 copies of a poster he designed were distributed.
My art is about trying to help advance pro-social statements, says the
Cuban-American artist, who also recently met the pope. He can be reached at 305/858-1323.
-- Candice Russell |