Quick trip to Paris and Barcelona

In the First week of November, 2019, I took my first trip to Europe. It was strictly for relaxation. Nai and I found a great deal on a trip via Twitter and couldn’t pass it up. I’ve always wanted to go to France since I was a kid. Loved all the french art and even took four years of French lessons, which i’ve completely forgotten since. You don’t realize how much you’ve forgotten until you’re standing at a train station and your train has been rerouted. No wifi and no service i had to cobble together what i knew to read the monitor that told us what train to divert to. Fortunately a bilingual woman was able to translate and help Us get on our way.

The trip started in Barcelona where we mostly took in all the amazing architecture, but also stopped to view the Picasso Museum. We stayed at an airbnb which was in a residential area but a quick train to every thing we wanted to see. We took a couple of long walks to see all the things Nai remember from spanish class and i had never heard of. I wasn’t in work mode so I didn’t take alot of pictures to share I focused on taking it all in observing and absorbing the culture. I’ll be back soon enough for work.

In Paris we stayed on the Champs Elysees, which felt like Hollywood and Times Square frenchified. It was beautiful seeing all the types of people who came to take in Paris. We spent alot of time the first night walking the streets looking for food and finding cool places to come back to the next days because everything was closed. One whole day was just dedicated to rest. The next day we walked from out hotel to the louvre which was just a mile away. Oddly most of the super cool stuff was on the way to the louvre.

The most interesting thing that happened the whole trip occurred as we got off the train to our place in Paris. A young guy drunken and still sipping a beer, comes running toward the opening doors of the train. His friend tried to grab him from behind to slow him down, but the running guy evaded his grasp. As soon as he was out of reach of his friend he disappeared… the doors slowly opened and he was wedged between the train and the platform. His friends hurriedly pulled him out of his precarious position. They then let him know this wasn’t his train.

Looking forward to more adventures and travel in 2020.

Love & Lust LA

My very first solo show. I spent 5 years shooting and trying and planning and failing to put together an exhibition to show my photos. This time everything fell perfectly into place. The event was held February 14-16. I showed 20 images from the book I’m planning to release at the end of the year. Each person was given a rose on arrival. Over the 3 days hundreds of people came to view. I sold out of the zines I printed for in person purchase. Last minute I got a liquor sponsorship from Grey Goose. All of my marketing was done through social media and eventbrite.

The experience taught me a lot. I hadn’t done an event for myself although I hosted an art show for some friends at my first studio in LA. My girlfriend Nai and my cousin jonnell helped me produce the event. All the decor was by Nai. Allowing people to see my work for the first time gave me a great sense of accomplishment and also made me excited for what is to come.

Love & Lust NYC Photo Exhibition

In May of 2019 I hosted my second solo photo exhibition. I held New York Edition of Love & Lust in Brooklyn @ 7 House Gallery. It was ana amazing experience, although it was very stressful to do a show in a place where i knew very few people. My first set of zines got stolen on delivery in Harlem, so if you’re in NYC and some one tries to sell you one of my zines beat they ass for me. Similar to the first show I used eventbrite to share the event and marketed using social media. Over the two days over 100 guests visited the show including artists from Europe and Africa. Friends from Dallas and LA also popped up as well as people i have met on my trips to NY. I tried a new way of mounting the show which was a little more difficult than expected. All prints and mounting was done by myself with some help from Nayamka, who also produced the show with me. This show was a great first event in New York and i look forward to growing my network and showing again there soon.