Celebrating the Life Is Art and Discounts for a Cause Launch Party!
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River Of Art
Showcase and Networker

September 18, 6:00pm – 10:00pm
Bar 721
721 Lincoln Ln
Miami Beach, FL 33139
NO COVER (Donations Gratefully Accepted)

Join Life Is Art and many artists and art lovers for a fun evening of networking, art and music. We are featuring several outstanding south Florida artists, so come check out their work. This is a great opportunity to meet and socialize with other artists and art lovers; make new connections, set up potential collaborations; and find new fans.

Robert Kerhonen
Robert will be doing quick sketch portraits at the show!
Robert David Korhonen is a Professional Artist. He has worked in the art industry for 25 years and has countless satisfed customers. Originally from Detroit, he has a BFA degree in Advertising Design and currently runs “Art & Soul Graphics”. He exhibited a talent and interest for drawing as a young child and was encouraged by his parents and teachers. He amazed his high school friends by drawing portraits of rock stars, then after graduating from Detroit’s College for Creative Studies, he entered the local art scene. While honing his drawing and painting skills, he moved into the digital art world, where he utilizes his talents to create fne art and marketing for national digital advertising campaigns and art gallery shows.
“I use computer skills to express myself through my art. I‘ve always been involved in some form of creativity. I began my journey in pencil drawing, then into painting with acrylics, moved on to oils and eventually upgraded into vector art on the computer. I’m especially enjoying this medium. I’ve always tried to put my own “mark” on what-ever I create. I have enjoyed delving into colorful techniques which, I think, lends itself more easily to convey the ideas I have in my head onto a visual medium. I am always looking for subject matter in my surroundings. The oceans, lakes, wildlife and scenic beauty of this Florida landscape provide endless possibilities, as well as the people I encounter in life and through photographs. I try to capture not only what I see, but to draw the viewer into my work and make an interactive experience.”

Anne Marie Brown
I work in acrylics and watercolors, using bold, bright colors and tropical themes. Work is done on gallery wrapped canvas, with all sides painted and professionally wired. My goal is to uplift spirits with color and form. I belong to many art clubs in the Tri-County South Florida Area and exhibit at outdoor and indoor shows all season, traveling north in the summer and exhibiting there as well. I do any size or shape on a commission basis. I am a DJ/VJ at Club Trapeze in Fort Lauderdale (Tamarac) and the Starlite Lounge in Pompano. I have my own setup and have videos for most songs.

Jennifer Maria
Art is my perpetual oasis. From childhood, I’ve escaped into a self-made utopia and manifested bits & pieces of it onto paper through visual expression. I drew and painted before unearthing photography as another medium of revelation. Through my artistic evolution, I’ve begun to integrate the surreal and the absolute with my camera.
The “Luscious” series is a reflection of my infatuation with food, sensuality and visual aesthetic. It is an ongoing exploration of the act of consumption through color, detail and texture.
I use a macro lens to create the illusion of being able to jump into those lips were they not already engaged. Each mouth is drenched in color- I alternate between applying the make-up myself & engaging the expertise of professional make-up artists.
When surrounded by and sometimes filled with sorrow and vexation, it soothes me to submerse myself in color- to strip down and bask in beauty and sensuality. This is a side of myself that I no longer try to oppress- instead I finally embrace it as one of the things that I cherish about being human.
It is my desire that you, my audience, also immerse and indulge yourself in this series. Many thanks to each participant of this creation, my supporters and most of all to my beloved mother who taught me to be true to myself and to materialize my dreams.

Mitchell Owen Shulman (MIOWSHU)
I am a South Florida born “creative native”. My passion for animals and my love of the sea brings out work which shows and enhances the beauty in our natural world. I try to create eye-catching pieces, which are fun, colorful and inspirational.

Paul A. Vitello, B.F.A.
As an artist working within the confines of modern artist temperament, it is not my intention to repeat the past, therefore, anyone viewing my work, with its 19th century influences, should regard these works in the light of passion for the technique of the old masters with their influences manifested in my paintings.
It is my aim to merge both the past and present into a new image of subtle complicities of color and design. My landscapes try to involve the viewer in a surrealistic world. Although they appear real to some degree, they are only dream worlds.
In my watercolor portraiture, light and dark opaque colors are rarely used giving me no preconceptions of how to express my intentions. This leaves me free to create my own style. Using dark backgrounds illuminated by a strong key light, my models are set a part from the luxury surrounding them. They are by color, light, and design a part of the painting, and yet they do not enjoy their confinement, nor can they escape their surroundings.
“Where the Dreams of Yesterday Meet the Visions of Tomorrow” ©

“Renda Hitz Hearts”
Carpet Art by Renda Writer and Billy Hitz
The “Renda Hitz Hearts” project is the ultimate story of making lemonade out of lemons. Friends and fellow poets, Renda Writer and Billy Hitz came up with the idea for this project on the night of August 3rd, 2011.
Both men were kind of down on their luck, but nowhere near giving up hope. Renda was living out of his car and crashing on friends’ couches. He called up Billy to see if he could crash for the night. Billy was living in a foreclosed house with no air conditioning, getting ready to declare bankruptcy, applying for food stamps, and looking for a job. The two men sat and discussed their troubles, and the underlying optimism that would get them out of their sticky situations, over a plate of baked ziti, when the discussion turned toward what Billy would do with all of the stuff in his house when it would be put up for auction.
It was then that he took Renda out to the garage to show him just how much stuff he had. As a carpet installer, Billy had several thousand feet of rolled up carpet in the garage, as well as a prototype heart shaped rug in his living room, which he had made several years earlier. The wheels started turning. Renda put two and two together and then suggested that he and Billy carve out some more hearts from all the unused carpet in the garage. They could make a business out of it. It would be a great way to make art while cleaning out his garage and recycling the carpet. Billy was very much down with the idea. Renda followed up with, “Let’s do it right now.”
The two poet artists looking for a way to spread the love and make some money decided to start right then and there, at around midnight. They worked pretty much through the night and all day the next day, creating uniquely original pieces of heart-themed art, and the rest is history. Love is everywhere. We cut rugs like we’re dancin’. Our hearts are not perfect. They don’t have to be. Have a heart. Buy a piece.