Eco-friendly artist Jade Masters' former pop-up gallery and lounge had a focus on both LGBTQ art and manifesting inner peace. The 36-year-old Florida native is planning an upcoming event with the same ethos -- Mind, Body, & Soul -- but at a different spot in Wilton Manors, the Train Station. Held at an actual gym owned by Allison Parnell, this is an atypical setting for a unique art exhibition.
Masters promises to feed all of your senses and parts with organic chow from Food Islands Organics and Mama Juice, kava from Kavasutra, live painting, fitness demonstrations, and some environmentally conscious art all to the sounds of Es Oh and DJ Gemini. Appealing to a mixed crowd, Masters wants to bring people from all walks of life together for a healthy event inspired by her various passions and spiritual outlook on life.
And, according to the artist, this is the last chance to see her artwork on display in her home state before she moves to North Carolina to help run Banner Haven Bed and Breakfast for the next two years before finally settling in Asheville.
New Times: Can you tell me a little about the Mind, Body, & Soul event?
Jade Masters: Basically what it is, is I'm trying to, with assistance from DxE introduce all the elements of what feeds us and what nourishes us and creates passion for our mind, body, and soul. I'm trying to work with different aspects of passion and create a space where people will get to experience different things that they might not been able to experience on their own because they live very much inside the box.
That's the reason why I'm working with Allison Parnell, the owner of the Train Station. She mostly works with bodybuilders and it's great that they're very passionate about their body and their physique and that sort of stuff, but that's just one aspect. It's like what are the other ways that we can feed that piece of you inside so that whatever you're trying to achieve in your life doesn't feel like so much of a challenge. It feels more like a get to.
So that's where we're bringing in some of the more spiritual aspects of healthy living with yoga, meditation, qigong and those type of aspects of health and then bringing out the health food to get people more aware of healthy choices they could be making in their life, and that's why we've got the organic food truck coming in and then other drink choices. We have Kavasutra who's going to be there, which is always an alternative to having a beer. I'm just trying to bridge a lot of gaps that I feel are between people who are essentially all after the same goal.
How did you get involved with the spiritual aspect?
I've always been a fairly spiritual person, and I just kind of follow a little bit more of a Buddhist path. I was raised Christian, so I was always raised with really good morals but I kind of just took a twist on a different religion and kind of formed my own, I guess guidelines to living my life. I found a lot of joy and great peace and success with it. So that's why I try to introduce so many different lifestyles together because I definitely feel that a blend makes things more balanced.
How did you go from studying photography to owning an art gallery?
Well actually, I studied art in Tampa at the International Academy of Design and Technology, and that is where I pretty much learned how to fine tune sketching, painting, that sort of stuff and push my boundaries. Then when I moved back down to South Florida I wanted to use photography because a lot of the paintings I like to do are of live people. So I initially just wanted to learn the basics of photography so I would be able to photograph the models the way I wanted to in the positions that I want so that I could go back with those images and create a painting. So that's how that came about.
And then owning my own gallery, that came about because as an artist displaying in different galleries in the Tri-County area, it was just very expensive. Not only did they charge you for the space but they also charge you a 50-60% fee when you did sell a piece. So what it boils down to, I was making pennies for my art pieces. That's why I came up with the concept of having a more urban gallery, and I had it in the warehouse district. Instead of having employees, I had interns and I also made it a co-op so in order for people to get even more discounted rates for hanging things up in my space all they had to do is volunteer their time. I was basically the lowest priced gallery in the city.
How long have you been painting?
I've been painting for about seven years, and I've always been artsy.
Can you tell me a little bit about the kind of art that you make?
I like to paint mostly images of the female form. I also like to do spiritual, Zen style artwork, as well. I'll do Buddhas that sort of thing. But mainly I'm focused on the female body and showcasing different curves and pregnancies and showing how a woman's body is always beautiful. But my main thing is, I work with recycled material. I go dumpster diving for my glass that I use, a lot of the wood that I get. So I try to use items that would be going into our landfill and give them a new life and do my part in being eco-friendly.
At this event, you're going to be giving other artists an opportunity to contribute?
Yeah, there's going to be multiple artists there. There are going to be six artists that'll be showing inside the building, Brooke Bourque, Cary Tullos, DxE, Frances Salbarrey, Torche Tiffany Perkins and V Norman. Then we also have a lot of vendors who are artists who are going to be showcasing and doing little mini galleries outside.
Is there anything else you'd like to tell me about the event that I'm leaving out?
Well, we're also going to have live painting. We're going to have classically trained as well as urban street artists that are going to be doing live painting. Again, just the mesh of different worlds coming together all for the sake of passion.
And then a lot of the vendors that we're having are handcrafting vendors so everything is basically along the lines of either coming from the heart, being handmade, or upscale recyclables, keeping in that theme of being eco-friendly.
Jade Masters Mind Body & Soul Art Show. 8 p.m. to midnight, June 28, at the Train Station, 3058 N. Andrews Ave. Wilton Manors. Visit artistjademasters.com.
New Party Rules for Millennials
10 Best Hipster Bars in Broward and Palm Beach Counties
Top 20 Sexiest R&B Songs from the '90s to Today
Ten Best Florida Metal Bands of All Time
Follow @CountyGrind
