Bhakti Baxter - visual artist

Bhakti Baxter photo by Anthony Spinello

 

By Jose Ortiz | Photo by Anthony Spinello11/23/2011

Bhakti Baxter
Visual artist
Age: 32
Hometown: Miami
Website: federicaschiavo.com
 
What is your take on Miami as a place to hone one’s craft?
Miami has space, room to experiment, and most of all it’s a place to enjoy the outdoors while living in a city where art can be made and relationships between people strengthened.

Where do you draw inspiration from?
Everything. Seriously. Inter-connectivity is a major subject driving my investigations.
 
What mediums do you work in?
Mediums in my sculptural practice are currently arrived at through process and experimentation vs. conception/execution strategies. It’s interesting to me how things make their way into a piece, be it a found or rearranged material that has been altered in some way. Quotidian objects such as furniture or mangled metal on the street can take on new dimensions and meanings and become more than their originally intended purpose when x object was manufactured.

Which is your favorite medium?
Light.
 
What painters or artists excite you?
John McAllister and Allison Shulnik are two contemporary painters I enjoy, but I’m more into the color play a Josef Albers’ homage to the square paintings or the movement in one of Cezanne’s landscapes.

What is your definition of success?
Success is finding a way to consistently do what you love while providing some sort of service.

Where do you drink?
Lesters or Mamushkas
 
What do you do on Sundays?
BBQ

What do most people assume about you that is wrong?
That I don’t speak Spanish
 
If you could choose another profession or career, what would it be?
Archeologist

In the past five years, what is a positive change you’ve seen around town?
I admire the cyclists that have grown in number and taken over certain routes of our streets.

Is there anything you would like to say?
Every chance we have to go to a gallery, studio, or museum, it can be an opportunity (thanks to the hard working artist) to reflect upon things as a species. Art can be a chance to find meaning. Art has the power to engage and compel one another to consider or propose an alternative to formulaic, market driven use of images.