The Art Issue - May/June 2021

TH E ATLANTI C

May / June 2021 | Issue 50

Coastal Culture | Palm Beach & Broward County

THE ART ISSUE

5.28 / 9P M

5.01 / 4P M LOW GROUND TRIO

UNLIMITED DEVOTION

5.01 / 9P M

5.29 / 4P M

TAST Y VIB RATIONS

5.02 / 4P M

GUAVATRON DUO

5.06 / 9P M

B L AQUE DY NA MITE

5.07 / 9P M

THE ROYAL WE

5.29 / 9P M

E AST HARB OR

6.04 / 4P M

B RET T STASK A

6.04 / 9P M

B OB BY LEE RODGERS TRIO

ROOSEVELT COLLIER

5.08/ 4P M

6.05 / 4P M

VICTORIA CARDONA

5.08 / 9P M

FLOATING B RAINS

5.09 / 4P M

JEFF WHITE

5.14 / 9P M K A MANI

5.15 / 9P M

CINNA MON B ROWN

5.21 / 4P M

B RET T STASK A

5.21 / 9P M

P OCKIT

6.05 / 9P M

ROOSEVELT COLLIER

6.06 / 4P M

B RYCE ALLY N DUO

6.11 / 9P M DR BACON

6.12 / 9P M TAND

6.18 / 4P M

JOEY CALDERAIO

6.18 / 9P M

JACOB TAKOS & THE CONNE CTION W/ SIERRA L ANE

VIRGINIA MAN

5.22 / 4P M

FUSIK

NOU VE AU X HONKIE S

5.22 / 9P M

THE PE OPLE UP STAIRS W/GILLY JUICE

5.23 / 4P M SUPER KIN

5.28 / 4P M

THE RICCA PROJE CT

6.19 / 9P M 6.25 / 4P M

NOU VE AU X HONKIE S

6.25 / 9P M

OF ONE MIND

6.26 / 4P M

DUB B LE JA ME S

6.27 / 9P M

VICTORIA LEIGH

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CONTE NTS

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ALEX WEXLER

Miami based artist merged two talents into a body of work that will permanently be etched in ink. He gives the art of fishing a whole new meaning through his Gyotaku paintings.

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RENEE PHILLIPS

With the goal of giving viewers a new perspective, Renee Phillips lets the Earth’s surface be her muse from a macro and micro level.

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CODY PARKER

Coming onto the art scene almost overnight, Cody Parker is the prime example of realizing a dream you didn’t know you had.

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TROPICAL SMOKEHOUSE

We’ve all heard of Carolina, Texas and Kansas City BBQ. But Florida BBQ? That’s something local chef Rick Mace is really hammering home with his new West Palm joint.

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POMPANO BEACH BREWING CO.

Bangin’ Banjo Brewing took the pandemic on as an opportunity to make a major change. With the addition of a partner, this local staple is back with a new brand.

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RUST & WAX RECORD SHOP

One of the area’s best record shops has made their way into a new home with even more vinyl to choose from.

Cover art by Alex Wexler shot at Mad Studios, Dania Beach 6

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EDITOR Darien Davies

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WRITERS David Rolland Darien Davies Nicole Danna

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Brandon Showers

We believe coastal South Florida is one of the most desirable locations in the world, and we consider it a privilege to highlight and promote everything and everyone that exemplifies our lifestyle. The core of our model is local business partnerships and supporting our community.

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Arts

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S U P P ORT US BY S U P P ORTI NG OU R ADVE RTI S E R S.

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EVE NTS

M AY

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Sunday on the Waterfront feat. Love Alive: The Ultimate Tribute to Heart Mona Lisa Tribe @ Arts Garage — Delray

@ Meyer Amphitheater – WPB

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An Evening with Kevin Smith

@ Old School Square — Delray Beach

Bobby Lee Rogers

17-18 Jimmy Buffet and Coral Reefer Friends

@ Old School Square — Delray

Brian & Brian @ The Irishman — Boca

19

The Flyers @ Johnnie Brown’s — Delray

Rosario Craig Band

20

Old Crow Medicine Show w/ Molly Tuttle

R&B Friday’s

Clematis By Night feat. Marijah &

First Friday Art Walk

St. Paul & The Broken Bones

@ Arts Garage — Delray Beach

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8

Brian & Brian

@ Papa’s Raw Bar — Lighthouse Point

Floating Brains @ Guanabanas — Jupiter

The Smoking Aces

Southern Blood

@ Crazy Uncle Mikes — Boca

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The People Upstairs @ Guanabanas — Jupiter

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The Fat Spliffs

Girlfriend Material

@ Crazy Uncle Mikes — Boca

Jeff White @ Guanabanas — Jupiter (4pm)

Jonathan James

Brian Bolen

23

Low Ground @ Sticky Bun — Deerfield

13-14 Jimmy Buffet and Coral Reefer Friends

@ Old School Square — Delray

25

Casting Crowns Live Drive-In

13

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Martin Sexton @ Old School Square — Delray Yacht Rock Thursdays Set Sail w/ Drift Away

13-16 Pompano Beach Saltwater Shootout

14

Kamani: A Night of Funk and Soul

Kyle Smith

Uproot Hootenanny

@ Crazy Uncle Mikes —Boca

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I Want My 90’s Back feat. Vanilla Ice w/ DJ Johnny Quest, Stevie B., 2 Live Crew & DJ Laz

Guerra Grooves

The People Upstairs

Spider Cherry Band

@ Mathews Brewing — Lake Worth

Sons of a Tradesman

15

Mike Zito Big Blues Band @ Funky Biscuit — Boca

Unlimited Devotion @ Guanabanas — Jupiter

Brothers Within and Tasty Vibrations

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The Petty Hearts

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R.A. The Rugged Man—All My Heroes Are Dead Tour @ Respectable Street — WPB

Uproot Hootenanny

@ Deck 84 (2pm) & Tim Finnegans (6pm) — Delray

Brian & Brian

The Resolvers @ Crazy Uncle Mikes — Boca

The BeachNicks

Sosos @ Sticky Bun — Deerfield

@ Guanabanas — Jupiter

@ Mathews Brewing — Lake Worth @ The Bamboo Room — Lake Worth

@ The Sticky Bun — Deerfield Beach

Clematis By Night

feat. The Derek Mack Band — WPB

@ Guanabanas — Jupiter

@ Papa’s Raw Bar — Lighthouse Point

@ Crazy Uncle Mikes — Boca

@ The Sticky Bun — Deerfield @ Papa’s Raw Bar – Lighthouse Point

@ Old School Square — Delray

The Reggae All-Stars — WPB

@ Old School Square — Delray

Tasty Vibrations

@ Mathews Brewing — Lake Worth @ Crazy Uncle Mikes — Boca

@ The Fish Depot — Boynton Beach @ Papa’s Raw Bar — Lighthouse Point

@ South Florida Fairgrounds

@ Johnnie Brown’s — Delray Beach (last Thursday of every month)

@ Papa’s Raw Bar — Lighthouse Point

@ Mathews Brewing — Lake Worth @ Crazy Uncle Mikes — Boca

@ Blue Pointe Bar and Grill — Tequesta

Denny Laine: Songs and Stories @ Arts Garage – Delray Beach

EVE NTS

JUNE 1 Axcents @ The Fish Depot — Boynton (every Tuesday)

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@ Papa’s Raw Bar — Lighthouse Point Clematis By Night feat. The Flyers — WPB

Taco and Tequila Tuesday

@ Crazy Uncle Mikes — Boca (every Tues.)

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Dr Bacon @ Guanabanas — Jupiter

Justin Enco

12 Tand @ Guanabanas — Jupiter Brian and Brian

2

25% off Crowlers

Kara Grainger @ Arts Garage — Delray

3

The Allman-Betts Band

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Whiskey Wednesday

Clematis By Night feat. The Holidazed — WPB

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Jerry Leeman @ The Fish Depot — Boynton

G Spartacus

@ Papa’s Raw Bar — Lighthouse Point

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Clematis By Night feat. Dee Dee Wilde — WPB

Think & Drink Trivia

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Virginia Man @ Guanabanas — Jupiter West Palm Beach Boat Show

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Roosevelt Collier @ Guanabanas — Jupiter

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Marc Claus

@ Papa’s Raw Bar — Lighthouse Point

Juneteenth Celebration feat. Pat “Mother Blues” Cohen @ Arts Garage — Delray

First Friday Art Walk — Delray Beach

20 Coppertones @ Sticky Bun — Deerfield

4-5

An Evening with Charlie Starr & Benji Shanks @ Funky Biscuit — Boca

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Comedy Night feat. Ricky Glore

Clematis By Night

Burnt Biscuit @ The Fish Depot — Boynton

@ Papa’s Raw Bar — Lighthouse Point @ Mathews Brewing (Every Wed.) — Lake Worth @ Old School Square — Delray

@ Steam Horse Brewing — WPB (every Thurs.)

5 Pockit @ Guanabanas — Jupiter (4pm)

@ Papa’s Raw Bar — Lighthouse Point (1-4)

@ The Sticky Bun — Deerfield

@ South Florida Fairgrounds

@ Crazy Uncle Mikes — Boca

feat. Slip & The Spinouts — WPB

Brian & Brian @ Papa’s Raw Bar — Lighthouse Point (1-4)

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5-6

Cajun Crawfish & Music Festival @ 1260 University Blvd Jupiter

Nouveaux Honkies (4pm) & Of One Mind (9pm) @ Guanabanas — Jupiter

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Hot Tuna, Acoustic

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Dubble James @ Guanabanas — Jupiter (4pm)

Low Ground @ Sticky Bun — Deerfield

Motley Crue w/ Def Leppard, Poison, and Joan Jett & The Blackhearts @ Hard Rock Stadium

Bryce Allyn Duo @ Guanabanas — Jupiter (4pm)

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Crazy Fingers @ Sticky Bun — Deerfield

Victoria Leigh @ Guanabanas — Jupiter

Stoney Boe

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Jam Session @ Arts Garage — Delray

8

All Arts Open Mic Night

12

Walt Rooney

@ Old School Square — Delray

@ Papa’s Raw Bar — Lighthouse Point @ Arts Garage — Delray

3671 N Dixie Hwy, Pompano Beach, FL 33064

954.785.4820 13

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Y

ou could say Miami-based artist, Alex Wexler, was born with a pencil in one hand and a fishing rod in the other.

While many of us can consider ourselves a jack of many trades but a master of none, Wexler has spent years honing each of his talents, finding ease in the natural application of pen and brush on paper, or hook in the water. And while both are certainly two hobbies almost anyone can undertake, mastering each is something altogether different.

Wexler says both share a common thread: both art and fishing is a process that requires an extreme amount of preparation, focus, patience, and attention to detail.

The end result, however, is always a reward.

When his two passions combine, Wexler is able to create something unspeakably unique. His Gyotaku artworks become ethereal recreations of the fish he catches, forever immortalized in their natural beauty, gliding across each sheet of paper in an effortless, endless tide.

“The ocean is my muse,” Wexler said. “While on the water, it inspires me to create. When I go back to my studio and pick up a brush, I am transported back to that moment.”

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t h e a t l a n t i c c u r r e n t . c o m 15

SHORE THING

AN ARTIST IS BORN

Wexler grew up on the shores of New Jersey, where he learned to fish with his father.

Around the time he was old enough to walk, Wexler was drawing. He began crayon in hand at the family dinner table, early sketches that provided entertainment during long meals.

“One of my first childhood memories as a kid was watching him leave with his friends,” Wexler said. “One day, when I was about 6 or 7, I must have been looking especially sad because he decided to take me with him. I went every time after that.”

At 13 years old, Wexler remembers his first trip to the Hudson Canyon, an extension of the Hudson Valley that runs from the shore about 300 miles out to sea. Here, where the continental shelf divides the shallow coastal waters from the deep sea, fishing becomes an art in itself.

“It’s still one of my most memorable days on the water. I’d been looking forward to it for so long,” Wexler said. “Seeing that blue water just blew my mind — the potential of what you could catch.”

Today, Wexler enjoys kite fishing as his main technique, the best way to target that large Pelagic fish found off South Florida’s coastal waters. It allows anglers to fish using a multitude of bait at various depths, often at the edge of the reef, the thin slice of water most fish use as a highway in their migration pattern.

“It’s also a way to fish where you are completely immersed in the experience, constantly adjusting baits or the kite, to really work it right requires extreme focus and determination,” Wexler said. “That leaves a lot of images burnt into my mind that I’ll go back and draw later.”

Those days at sea were more than simply a chance to land a catch. Each moment on the cerulean blue waters allowed him to connect to the beauty around him. Today, those moments become the inspiration for the works he creates, art that pays homage to the emotions and experiences of the open ocean.

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“Today, I love drawing around people — on airplanes, when friends are over. It’s a social experience that’s often inspired by a moment” Wexler said. “Now, when preparing to fish for a particular species, it tends to take up a lot of mental space - constantly checking the weather, checking the gear, prepping more gear, looking at tides, and the moon.”

As Wexler grew older, he was inspired by Guy Harvey, an artist who was able to marry his love of the ocean and art in color. He would study his books, and mimic the curves of the scales and detail of the fins.

“I loved the ocean, and all I wanted to draw was fish,” Wexler said.

In 2012, Wexler left New Jersey to study marine biology at the University of Miami. It wasn’t long, however, before he swapped majors, focusing instead on fine art. Today, his work as the art director for Razorfish in Coconut Grove allows him to use his creative talent in useful ways, but his fine art remains a personal passion.

T H E M A R R I A G E O F T W O TA L E N T S In 2015, Wexler found a way to merge his two passions when he stumbled across Gyotaku, a traditional Japanese art form created from the impressions of fish. Originally used to help fishermen record their catches, is now a technique that, once mastered, yields dynamic accounts of once-living creatures.

“I was always drawing fish, but this was a true way to combine the fishing and the artwork,” says Wexler. “From that day on, I was hooked.”

Wexler uses a direct method, painting the fish with sumi ink and pressing the paper over each scale and fin, creating an impression. To date, he has painted in parking lots and on docks, with people helping to prop fins on blocks as he unfurls giant sheets of paper and preps the fish for painting. After cleaning and drying, the final step is to fan the fins as if set in motion. The idea is to bring the fish to life through art.

The process is quick, yet venerable — a homage to the ocean’s bounty. For that reason, no catch goes uneaten.

“The ultimate goal is eating the fish — and in order to do that you have to work fast,” Wexler said. “When I make the initial prints, I can work almost anywhere, and often have.”

In about an hour, the fish’s essence is captured, and his work is done — for now. The final lines and detail will be eked out over the course of days, weeks, even months down the road. Multiple prints taken from the newly-caught fish allow the artist a myriad of images to describe each fish. They’re finished with precision and patience in Wexler’s home studio.

theatlanticcurrent.com

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THE TECHNIQUE “In all my Gyotaku I try to strike the balance between keeping the raw nature of the original print, but also bringing in enough detail so the piece feels complete,” Wexler said.

Wexler put a lot of thought into the paper he uses, a heavier velum to the traditional rice paper that makes it just pliable enough to encase a massive sailfish, but sturdy enough so the ink won’t bleed and run.

The ink is just as well-planned, one that is water-based to wash from the fish easily, but viscous enough to mark the paper with strong, bold lines.

At home, Wexler begins the slow process of bringing color to the page. A white pencil is used for highlights, turning various hues of blue where it touches the ink from the print. Pens, watercolor, and sometimes oils work together to bring movement to the page, a style he describes as loose and fluid, offering imperfect textures and lines that capture the free and easy spirit of the living fish it represents.

“With the final piece, you can see the size and the girth. It’s memorializing the fish in the same way as taxidermy, but through an artistic lens,” Wexler said. “The idea is to give life to a different dimension.”

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BIZ ART

T H E M O S T M E M O R A B L E C AT C H Wexler began first doing Gyotaku while working part-time several days a week as a ride-along aboard a charter boat. When he wasn’t working, he was fishing aboard his 16-foot Boston Whaler, a boat that’s caught everything from silvery small-scaled bonefish to massive white marlin.

The one that stands out the most, however, is the Atlantic sailfish.

A migratory fish that’s rarely harvested, the sailfish is the preferred sport fish for catch-and-release. For that reason, Wexler will take only one each season, garnering as many prints as he can for a catch that may come only once every few years.

“The scene was a little bit of controlled chaos that day,” said Wexler, who recalls the cold November fishing with his friend Ryan off the coast of Miami in his 16-foot Boston Whaler.

The duo left the dock around 4 a.m., heading to “The Patch,” a small reef cluster that is known to hold baitfish. With a good haul and a steady northwest breeze, they began drifting shallow waters that would carry them offshore. They brought in a 20-pound blackfin tuna, 15-pound King, and 20-pound Mahi-mahi in the first hour, before landing their final catch.

That 7-foot sailfish was a stunning specimen, launching itself out of the water in an effort to break free. Its graceful beauty is now etched in paper, yielding five 93” x 48” prints that recount its final flight from water to sky.

To see it now, Wexler returns to the moment, and the cycle of life becoming art is complete. alexwex.com @alexwex

t h e a t l a n t i c c u r r e n t . c o m 19

THE SCIENCE OF ART

BY DARIEN DAVIES

W

hat is art? Sure, it’s pretty, or striking, possibly frightening, amazing, life-changing, loud or even mute. It’s what you take from it, and where you place your importance or relation to it. While art is many emotions, ideas or purposes, it is certainly all about perception. For self-proclaimed color alchemist, Renee Phillips, she hopes that her art provides us all with a little bit of presence.

“My main goal is to instill some presence in the human race and open their eyes to something new,” said Phillips, who is mom to 4-year-old daughter Olive. “Have them be curious, be inspired, have them have their own visions. The greatest gift that art can give is some perspective and presence.” >> 20

ART

t h e a t l a n t i c c u r r e n t . c o m 21

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BE AN ORIGINAL The daughter of a scientist who grew up in Florida but spent her summers in the Colorado mountains, Phillips has a unique perspective and goal to share with her viewers, and one that didn’t come out of her fine arts and communication degrees from the University of Miami.

“I was always an artist from a very young age. I fortunately had wonderful parents who put me in art school and signed me up for art classes,” Phillips said. “However, I was not inspired in school. I never created an original work of art that was authentically me. It was really uninspiring.”

So, when she and her husband quit their jobs and traveled around the world, she found her eyes opened to new cultures, smells, colors and textures. When she returned to Florida, she caught herself wandering around her childhood art school, the Boca Raton Museum of Art, searching for something. She took a class and found mentor Eydi Lampasona, who taught her how to break the rules of art properly.

“I absolutely loved it. It was the first time in my life that I started creating artwork from somewhere else,” said Phillips, who enjoys the way things move and work. “You had never seen this image before and I created an original piece of art.”

LEARN FROM COLOR That was eight years ago. She started her beautiful scientific journey with sea creatures using mixed media and alchemical techniques, crediting her dad who always had her tinkering with and studying scientific processes. Then, she hit the pavement and bruised her knuckles knocking on the doors of interior design shops to see if they would be willing to have her art on consignment. The answer was a resounding yes, which gave her the confidence to take the next step and sell her artwork for a living.

She moved to Manhattan and considers her residency program as a pivotal point in her art career because she was able to have professional critiques that helped progress her authentic creations at a much quicker pace. From there, she started working in abstract pouring and took three years working in art studios in Chelsea to develop what she hadn’t seen before.

“I had to start studying the properties of paint and writing it down.

Each color wanted to do something different when manipulating wind, water and heat,” said Phillips, who now works out of the Arts Warehouse in Delray Beach. “I wanted the colors to do what they wanted to do. It was my goal to study each color to see what textural characteristics it wanted to do.”

t h e a t l a n t i c c u r r e n t . c o m 23

BE PRESENT As organic as that mindset is, she’s also focusing on the inorganic effect of man’s impact on the planet. She states that this is the first time that a layer of the Earth will include plastics and inorganic materials, so Phillips feels that since the planet is changing because of man’s hands, humans need a different perspective to promote change.

She delves into what’s called “The Overview Effect,” which is a term she said that almost every single astronaut experiences after going into space. It’s described as a cognitive shift in perception and a crazy spiritual experience after seeing Earth from above because they’re neither “here nor there.”

“To really abstractly create visions of Earth’s surface from above to hopefully garner some presence in the view and make [viewers] shift their perspective on life,” said Phillips, when describing her goal as an artist. “It’s a theory in the niche world of space and is such a cool theory. Astronauts have almost all experienced it, but we could all experience it.”

In hours, weeks, months and even years that it takes for her to create her documented, dialed in and distinctive works of art, she’s always hyper-focusing on the big picture. She said that COVID has made it difficult to focus people right now, so it’s important for people to see art and experience new things. She believes that a lot of the visual artists thrive in isolation because they can tune out the noise in order to channel the vision, so it’s a powerful time for all artists.

EARTH AS THE MUSE Her biggest inspiration is the Earth’s surface from a macro and micro level, looking so close as lichen on a rock and as far away as NASA photography and drone imagery. She’s drawn to how land and water come together, especially focusing on man’s shaping of land and water and the impact it has on the planet.

“At this point, I have the foundation of a tool chest of processes.

Color is an ever-evolving learning experience,” Phillips said. “There are colors our eyes can and can’t see, so the combination of working with the process of it and diving into the study of color and how it can be manipulated is my focus. I’ve recently found the physicality of the pouring, spraying paint to be very therapeutic.”

Especially considering she put down the paintbrush after her schooling. It represented to her the connection she didn’t want to art school, which was before she found her true art self.

“I’m a physical person by nature. I like to dance, run and move my body. I don’t like stagnant energy,” said Phillips, who said she only sees her final vision about half the time when she begins an art piece.

“I found that by pouring the paint I found the femininity of my body went into the paint and I wouldn’t see it until it would dry. I pour differently than a man.”

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B E AC H ART

“It’s a very weird sensation to create art because it’s the most connected to a higher power and myself that I will ever feel. To be in the flow,” Phillips said. “It’s the coolest thing that I will experience in this lifetime and what I feel out of it is very grounded. I feel very connected to the Earth and the higher frequencies when I create art.” artistreneephillips.com @reneephillips

t h e a t l a n t i c c u r r e n t . c o m 25

A DREAM REALIZED

BY DAVID ROLLAND

PHOTO: BRANDON SHOWERS 26

ART

G

rowing up in Pittsburgh, Cody Parker always had big dreams, they just involved ice and blades rather than canvas and acrylics.

“I played hockey as a kid,” he recollects while taking a break from working on a mural at his favorite Delray bar, The O.G. “I took some art classes throughout high school and middle school, but I was an athlete. I thought I would make it in the NHL.” When it was apparent that being the next Wayne Gretzky wasn’t in Parker’s future, he decided on a lark to join a friend in moving to South Florida in 2011. It was while interning at a sports agency in Pompano that his artistic present came to fruition. “They wanted someone to paint murals on the wall in their gym. They asked if I knew anyone who could do it. I said I could. I had to rush to get some advice from my friend on how to do it,” Parker said.

Before starting his first commission, Parker took another risk by practicing on an abandoned wall without gaining any permission. “That was my first illegal mural. There was a 10-foot catwalk across >> theatlanticcurrent.com

27

the gym that was blocked by buildings.

No one could see me doing it even in the middle of the day.” He painted a giant likeness of Walter White from his favorite TV show, Breaking Bad, with a line of dialogue that only a street artist could really appreciate: “I did it for me.

I was good at it. I was alive.”

Happy with his rendition of Walter White, Parker found the confidence to paint that gym and hasn’t looked back since. “I started off working in the service industry full time and doing art in my spare time. Then I was able to just work in the bar during weekends and spend 80% of my time working on art,” Parker said.

Parker credits his commission to paint Delray’s Level 2 Nightclub with taking his art career to level three. “I painted the stairwell and all four walls. Both bathrooms had my artwork. It was a great place to take people if they wanted to see what my art was all about,” Parker said.

As Parker gained more experience, he continued to refine his technique.

He designs everything digitally at first so he has a frame of reference before diving into the actual piece. “I do a lot of female portraits because I find them so captivating. Before I get started I look for what I can accent, whether it’s the lips or the eyes or the nails. I try to find where the colors contrast so it

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engages with the viewer right away,” Parker said.

He points people interested in his art to check out his murals at The O.G. or ShearLuck Salon in Delray Beach, or to take the drive to Miami Beach to check out his mural on the second floor of The Faena Bazaar. One of the works he was most proud of, his version of Eleven from Stranger Things on a wall in Wynwood, had recently been painted over. He admits to getting a little teared up when his art gets painted over, but it also provides a certain motivation.

“Yeah, it’s sad. But it was up for three years and it hadn’t been messed with.

If no one puts tags on your piece that’s respect. And when it gets painted over, that’s a sign you have to do something bigger and better,” Parker said.

Part of his getting bigger and better is branching out to other mediums. He considers transitioning from painting mostly on canvas to working more on wood panels. And in an even bigger artistic leap, he plans to start getting into sculpture. “I’ve executed in my head how I would approach it. If a portrait would have 35 lines then I could cut out 35 pieces of wood and have it on stakes. That way you could put the art in your garden or bring it out to the beach. I’m slowly going to ease into doing it, but I’m sitting on a lot of ideas and imagery,” Parker said. >>

t h e a t l a n t i c c u r r e n t . c o m 29

PHOTO: BRANDON SHOWERS

Wherever art takes him, Parker says he’s extremely humbled and grateful to be where he’s at and making a living through his creativity.

“I hope my work can inspire people to tap into their creative side, whether it’s photography or poetry or whatever. I created this career by literally faking it until I made it. So I keep learning and adjusting my technique. I listen to the advice of ‘keep pursuing your dreams and hopefully one day your dreams will find you,’” Parker said.

Parker’s glad to have landed in this dream. While making art has its risks, especially when working on illegal street murals, he’s probably not going to lose any teeth painting like he could in hockey. codyparkerart.com @_code_e 30 ART

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CURRENT | FOOD

TROPICAL SMOKEHOUSE

Florida Barbecue Finds Its Home In West Palm Beach

BY NICOLE DANNA

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F

or anyone who says Florida doesn’t have its own barbecue, there’s a West Palm Beach chef who’s challenging that sentiment.

Former Café Boulud executive chef Rick Mace is channeling his own inner buccaneer at Tropical Smokehouse. The latest addition to the Dixie Highway Corridor restaurant row, the restaurant is a joint venture between Mazie’s co-founder Jason Lakow and the long-time Café Boulud chef, who together pay homage to the culture and foods of the Sunshine State via smoked fare.

Before opening Tropical Smokehouse, Mace said he’d often lament how boring and repetitive American food can be.

PHOTOS: JULIA ROSE/CURRENT MEDIA

“When it comes to cooking in the U.S., so much is homogenized,” he tells The Atlantic Current. “You can find the same products and menu almost anywhere you go. One day, a friend asked me, ‘Isn’t it your job to change that?’ That was the lightbulb moment for me.”

Mace, who moved to Florida in 2014 to helm the kitchen at Café Boulud, grew up on a 100-acre farm in Ohio. For him, barbecue was a part of life.

To make it Florida barbecue, however, his inspiration went straight to the source: the state’s early indigenous population who were among the first to develop their own style of barbecue, smoking

meats and fish on thatched palm fronds balanced over smoldering embers.

At Tropical Smokehouse, diners will find dishes they’d be hardpressed to find anywhere else — or executed by a chef with the resume Mace offers — with regionality that comes into focus with smoked pork, gator and fish.

While the nation’s recent craft barbecue revival has served to highlight the iconic meats and techniques, it hasn’t done justice to the subtle nuances of regional variation, Mace said.

For Florida barbecue, that means looking to the coastal waters rife t h e a t l a n t i c c u r r e n t . c o m 33

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with local catches and heritage breed of pork thought to come from early Spanish settlers in St. Augustine.

The free sailors of the Caribbean Sea during the 17th and 18th centuries, Buccaneers were the landless hunters of wild boars and cattle in the largely uninhabited areas of Tortuga and Hispaniola. The word originates from the French boucan, the grills they used to smoke jerky-like meat — or viande boucanée — for sailors to eat during long trips at sea.

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“All these elements made sense, and my goal was to weave that into a restaurant and showcase that story with food that is not only interesting and unique, but also has a strong sense of place,” Mace said.

After a 20-year career focused on fine dining, Mace said his goal was to get back to his roots and have fun.

“Now, I’m doing what feels like me, and barbecue was always that thing that felt good, homey and me,” Mace said. “Truly good barbecue is so much about patience.”

That’s especially true of his smoked fish, which is what separates this smokehouse from those that focus solely on meats.

The duo didn’t plan to open the restaurant with brisket on the menu, but quickly learned it was something people craved. To remedy that, Mace recently put his own iteration on the menu, which included slow-cooked chicken, turkey, and pork done two ways.

The spotlight, however, is on the kitchen’s hand-built, cabin-style smoker. Crafted by Mace himself, the month-long project that drew a hard line from his time in Boulud’s fancy French kitchen to his own blood, sweat, and tears-inspired barbecue.

Worcestershire sauce and pickle juice, it’s a traditional favorite done right.

with house-made tartar sauce.

Perhaps the most Florida dish on the menu, however, is the gator.

If platter or dip isn’t to your taste, you can also find the smoked fish in the new crispy

Mace says he has a newfound appreciation for harvesting gator as food after helping friends haul in an 11-foot specimen from a night hunting on Lake Okeechobee.

The often tough, chewy white meat initially found its way onto the Tropical Smokehouse menu as fried gator bites, but the chef knew there was a better way to work it.

Like any restaurant, the chef strives for consistency, with each filet of Cobia, Mahi-mahi, or salmon cured overnight with a simple salt and brown sugar rub before it’s cooked low and slow — no more than 175 degrees — for up to several hours. The fish emerges tender and moist enough to flake beneath your fork, kissed with smoke.

Today, it’s served as an Andouille-style sausage, a recipe Mace has developed over the years that renders gator flesh into tender nibs. Mixed with pork belly and cured with flavors of chili, bay leaf, nutmeg, and brown sugar, the sausage is smoked and pan-seared before it’s sliced and served, offered up simply with the house coleslaw and pickles.

“I knew right away that I wanted the fish to be the heart of the menu,” Mace said.

The menu of some 50 items leaves plenty of room to explore, opening with Mace’s ubiquitous TSH Smoked Fish Dip — a marriage of the three fish you’ll find on the menu — a wet dip that ascribes to Mace’s top tenant: it must not break the chip when you dip. Prepared with Duke’s mayo, sweet hot pickles, lime, cilantro, and a hint of

fish sandwich.

A recent addition to the menu, it’s presented as a generous cut of smoked Cobia. Finished in the larger cooker reserved for meats, it offers a depth of smokey flavor before it’s battered and fried and fitted between a Martin’s potato roll

A dulcet ending completes your meal with the chef’s classic key lime pie, a pineapple-studded carrot cake, or the mango-infused cheesecake, while red velvet Whoopie pies deliver that all-American barbecue vibe.

>>

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“To go from a chef in a French kitchen to hands-on handyman of my own barbecue restaurant has been very rewarding,” Mace said.

“We’ve been getting great feedback, and that means people don’t just understand what we’re trying to do here. They’re embracing it.”

3815 S. Dixie Highway, West Palm Beach @tropical_smokehouse 36 F O O D

CURRENT | BEER

P O M PA N O B E AC H B R E W I N G C O.

New Name, Same Bangin’ Beer

BY DARIEN DAVIES 38 B E E R

W

ho doesn’t love beer? Especially when you’re in college. So after two best

friends, Adam Feingold and Matthew Giani, graduated from the University of Florida, where they not only studied books but also home brewing, they decided to take their passion for beer to the next level.

“We always wanted to open a restaurant, and we got into brewing beer during college,” Feingold said. “We knew starting a business from scratch is a big undertaking, and wanted to live closer to family.

Matthew and I grew up in South Florida and still had family and friends here.”

Alas, Bangin’ Banjo Brewing Company was born in Pompano Beach, and doors opened in 2015. The two bootstrapped it and opened on a budget with a three-barrel system. They learned how to run efficiently and started growing, and enjoyed most of their business as a taproom with limited distribution to restaurants.

“Business is high maintenance,” said Enrique Bolanos, now partner.

“You have to focus on staying active and doing a lot of events for a taproom.” >>

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CURRENT | BEER Couple that with both Adam and Matthew getting married and starting families in 2019, and the COVID closures in 2020 that effected taprooms everywhere, they decided to put the business up for sale, which is where Bolanos joined the party.

A home brewer and entrepreneur at heart, Bolanos and his wife made a conscious decision in 2017 to move to South Florida to raise their family, as they were tired of moving every few years for a new job and a better job. It was time for him to go into business for himself. When he saw Bangin’ Banjo for sale, he met with the broker and Adam and Matthew, but instead of a transaction, they made a partnership.

“We realized for me it made sense to invest in the company versus buyout the assets,” Bolanos said.

“So we used the funds to scale up and revamp the space, and we got bigger equipment and a canning line.” And, a brand change.

Since their focus was on distribution, they felt that the current brand didn’t really speak to who they are and what they could offer the community. They didn’t have anyone playing the banjo in the taproom, and it didn’t highlight the fact that they are a local Pompano Beach business, so didn’t feel that it was 100% authentic to who they are.

Rebranding began in late 2020 and Pompano Beach Brewing Company was born in 2021.

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“Part of the magic to craft beer, and what craft drinkers look for, is locality,” Bolanos said. “Bangin’ Banjo never felt local. If we’re going to start distributing and seeing our beer in supermarkets in Miami, Orlando, Tampa and different parts of Florida, we didn’t feel confident that the Bangin’ Banjo brand was going to take us where we wanted to go. So we changed it to Pompano Beach Brewing, which is where we’re from, where we love the community, and where we wanted to pay homage to the community.”

And it’s clear that they are all about the community. While they have achieved their goals for expansion, thanks to the help of a five-vessel, semi-automated system and a new head brewer, William Sada, who is a brewing perfectionist, they are focused on being an asset to the community.

“We are also working hard on who we are and what we stand for. If you’re Pompano Beach Brewing, you run the risk of becoming more generic so we’ve done a lot of work trying to define our values,” Bolanos said. “In addition to making great beer, we’re doing what we can for the community, like hosting first responder events and donating money to charity. That’s what I’m hoping. To be able to grow but to be able to stay true to our values and what’s important to us. Making great beer, contributing to the community, being a gathering place, and being able to scale

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up while staying true to who we are. We’ve been deliberately slow in changing the tap room. It’s just a brand change, we’re still the same people behind the company.”

Thankfully, because their beers have become somewhat of a hidden gem in the Pompano area. If you were able to guzzle their Uncle Vank IPA before they ran out, count your lucky stars. They also have a 14% ABV barrel-aged stout that’s been aged for two years and treated with bananas and peanuts that’ll make even the pilsner drinkers swoon. Yes, and you can even find some hugely popular sours on rotation.

“I think we’ve got a good group of people who are dedicated to making Pompano Beach Brewing the best it can be, and we’ve got a really diverse set of beers that will shine behind our new branding, which promotes local,” said Feingold, whose hope for the future is that they become a staple in the community and continue to brew excellently crafted beers.

With a promise to the community and pints that consistently deliver, the Pompano Beach Brewing future is deliciously bright and hoppy.

3200 N.W. 23rd Ave., #500, Pompano Beach @pompano_beach_brewing_company

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CURRENT | MUSIC

NEW DIGS FOR R U S T & WA X RECORD SHOP

BY DAVID ROLLAND

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hen The Atlantic Current spoke to Melanie and Jesse Feldman last year, the Rust & Wax Record Shop owners spoke of finding a new location. “That spot fell through during the quarantine,” said Jesse, on a recent joint phone call. “But then we found this space and fell in love with it immediately. It had the vibe we were going for. An industrial, rough-around-the-edges feel. Our back wall is 10 feet from the railroad tracks so every few hours you feel the rumble of a train going by. Some people don’t like that, but I love it.”

Now located at 2618 Florida Avenue in West Palm Beach, Rust & Wax Record Shop took advantage of the shutdown to make the new store safe for these COVID times.

“We tried to keep things open with our floor plan. We have nice, high ceilings that allow for more breathing room,” Melanie said. “We require face masks and offer hand sanitizer when you come in, and we never have more than 10 people in the store at any one time.”

walk in and ask for something I’ve never heard of and I find myself in a rabbit hole learning about new music.”

The other changes that the new location allowed for include a whole lot more vinyl on the sales floor.

Ever since their reopening in November 2020, they now offer up to 5,000 different albums for sale at any one time. “We also have more merchandise like turntables, books, and cleaning kits for records. We have access to a walled-in courtyard. Once COVID chills out, we hope to make use of that space for outdoor events,” Melanie said.

Some of the events they fantasize about hosting include concerts, listening parties, and a Sunday soul brunch where they’ll have soul music playing while people munch from a food truck.

Some of their newest musical exploration involves the funk scene in Eastern Europe. “Who knew Russians and Estonians would be top notch at funk? And right now the London jazz scene is unbelievable.

People will talk about the jazz from London right now in 40 years the way they talk about Blue Note jazz albums from New York now.”

When asked what music they would recommend to someone walking into their store right now with $20, they turned the question right back at their interviewer asking me what kind of music I liked. I said my favorites are probably old school indie rock like Pavement or the Pixies, and classic rock like The Beatles.

“I recommend Car Seat Headrest.

They have a lo-fi feel. We’ve seen them live several times and every time they give me chills for days,” Jesse said.

One aspect the couple says hasn’t changed about Rust & Wax is the individualized attention that they give to every customer who walks through the door. “We’re not music snobs in any way. I love soul, funk, rock, and pop, but we dabble in everything,” Jesse said. “We’re always learning and open to learning about new music. Our customers teach us so much. Someone will t h e a t l a n t i c c u r r e n t . c o m 45

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Some of their newest musical exploration involves the funk scene in Eastern Europe.

“Who knew Russians and Estonians would be top notch at funk?”

Melanie added, “We have people who come in with $20 who’ll hit our dollar box and come away with a stack of used records. Or you can get something new for that price.”

And while the pandemic has been tough for everyone in their own way, the Feldmans have noticed they’ve lately had more people coming to their business than ever. “There’s definitely been a spike in sales.

People who weren’t into records at all have now become serious collectors,” Jesse said. “People really miss that musical connection you get from going to concerts.

You can’t get that connection from streaming, but you can get it from a record store.”

2618 Florida Ave.,West Palm Beach @rustandwax

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