On December 11, I had the pleasure of attending the 9th Annual Party and Clothing Drive hosted by Kevin Powell. Powell, of "Real World season 1 fame, has done a more than his share of community building using innovative methods such as this annual event which allows the movers and shakers of New York to give back and network amongst one another. Along with the homey/manager Timothy "Prolific" Jones, we set out on a fun evening of networking and hob knobbing with other artists throughout various walks of life and several art forms. 

I must say, for a night of below freezing temperatures, this was the place to be. For the admission fee of a minimum one piece of decent conditioned clothing, we rocked out at Tribeca Cinemas where there was dancing in one room, comedy in another, an X Box gaming room, and of course the performance room, which also included a Live Art Battle.

I could use this write-up to tell you about all the performers who tore the stage down (shout outs to my new friend Arin Maya, my Kentucky, now Queens homey Lacresha Berry, Charan P, Len Xiang, host Jessica Care Moore, and of course the lovely, Grammy nominated Maya Azucena, and countless others who's names escape me.) But I won't. I could talk about all the beautiful people (particularly the women.) But I won't. I'm going to use this opportunity to talk about the crazy ass Art Battle that went down.

So....there we are (myself, Prolific, and the rest of the audience members) watching some soulful sounds on stage. Jessica Care Moore brings up the gentleman who was the curator of the Live Art Battle. He gives the audience the details of the competition along with the names of each of the four artist. Those interested move to the opposite side of the room to watch these artist take blank canvas' and make something out of nothing (pun always intended!) on spot. The 1st dude was a gentleman by the name of Andre Trenier. He seems to be the only one painting an abstract work.

Now, I've never prided myself on being a good interpreter of visual art, so I didn't want to pass judgement. But I'd be lying if I told you that in my mind I was thinking "he's not going to win!" But after he filled the entire canvas with red's, green's, blue's, yellow's, and pretty much every color of the spectrum, he stopped and took a step back. Then he took a phone call on his Treo. I'm thinking wtf is he doing??? Then, he starts taking paper towel to the canvas and blending the colors even more. Then (this is where it gets crazy) he starts looking back into the crowd behind him. And once again, I'm thinking wtf is he doing?!?!?!?! So after looking in the audience about four times and looking back at his body of work, I finally realized that he was doing the most gangsta (slang for good!) thing I may have ever seen in my 20 some years of existence.....he started painting the image of this FINE woman who was two people to the right of me!!!! So now I'm all messed up in the game. Not only was I thrown by what he was doing, but to look at her and see how bad she was (not bad meaning bad, bad meaning good).

So I interviewed the woman of mystery....Miss Tamala Baldwin. She informed me that while she did initially think that Andre was painting her, she wasn't exactly 100% sure, especially considering that there were "so many other beautiful women in the crowd." Tamala told me that she was quite flattered to be the muse of an artist and that SHE WOULD LOVE IF ANYONE WOULD CONTRIBUTE TO THE "TAMALA BUYING ANDRE'S PICTURE" fund, as it will be auctioned off sometime in January. If you are wanting to donate to Tamala's fund, the link to her blog is above. You can find her contact info there. You can also read her first person commentary on what it felt like to be a live inspiration.

Scroll to the bottom and you will see my story board of how I saw this masterpiece unfold right before my eyes. The commentary is my own and in no way represents the people in the photos!!!

-Soon

Andre's Calling his homey up for some suggestions

"Yeah son!!! You can throw this competition in the bag!!!!"

Andre spots his muse

Magic being made right before the crowds eyes

The artist and his muse pose for the camera

The 2nd artists' work of art

The 3rd artists' work

The winning piece. I couldn't get directly in front to get

a good picture.