by Gabriel Duque

Art is not a lonely pursuit for Miami-based Brian Butler. From his ongoing Everybody Draw Everybody portrait swaps to his Beach Towel Art Show during Miami Art Week, Butler can be found creating and showing work while encouraging others to join the party.

“The art of play has been a central theme to my work,” says the PureHoney artist of the month and founder of The Upper Hand Art, his studio in Miami. “I’ve always been attracted to gatherings of creative people. I love Mardi Gras and seeing the homemade costumes. I want to build that appetite for the weird and creative. The weirder things get, the more fun.”

At last year’s Beach Towel Art Show in Miami Beach, 67 artists showed off more than 80 towel creations. The beach towel shindig returns to the shore on December 6, and anyone at any skill level can participate. “I encourage homemade stuff; that’s always the most fun,” Butler says. “One of my favorites from last year was Vida Sofia’s. She crafted a booty and made it the pillow at the top of the towel.”

Butler’s open-call credo is “choose your own adventure,” and people have responded. Some beachy creatives quilt their towel art from scratch. Others assemble what Butler affectionately calls “Frankenstein” creations in mixed media. Some go the design-and-print route. “There’s print-on-demand websites online but those are becoming less affordable with poorer turnaround times,” Butler observes. “On the one hand, that’s a shame. On the other hand, it poses an opportunity to do more homemade stuff.”

The beach towel exhibition won’t be the only draw on December 6. “The first beach art show was a conglomeration of all the different Miami creatives, nodes working in unison,” Butler says. “Dale Zine Shop made frisbees for people to play with on the beach. Raw Figs brought a roll of backdrop paper, and people were jumping in the water and then rolling around or doing footprint art.”

LoHi Magazine brought a message, “Miami Heals Everything,” to draw on people’s bare skin. “They were supposed to be sunburned stencils but we realized it takes too long,” Butler says with a laugh. Subtropic Film Fest and Throwbacks provided analog film and 8mm cameras. “We had a handful of people documenting stuff,” Butler says.

Documentation is the work is something that Butler has been doing his entire career. “I’m charmed by the past,” he says. “When I was still in art school, I played every miniature golf course in Massachusetts. It was in response to noticing that all these miniature golf courses were closing and I wanted to archive them. At the end I turned a gallery into playable miniature golf.”

This drive to meet others, create, and memorialize the process defines his practice. Akin to the lighthearted fun one has while playing miniature golf — because even pros need to work on their short game — Butler strives to create moments like these wherever he is.

Consider his ongoing series of Everybody Draw Everybody swap meets. “I’ve done a little shy of 40 of those,” Butler says. “If I’m painting a mural somewhere, I’ll try to stay an extra day or two and do one of these events and meet people in the community.

“It’s posted on Eventbrite and open to all skill levels. I’d say 20 percent of attendees are people searching for stuff to do. It’s social rock-and-roll,” he says. Visitors might know the venue but “don’t particularly fancy themselves to be artists; they come as adventurous people,” Butler adds.

What happens next is catalytic. “Cliques start cross-pollinating at the event,” Butler says. “Because I’m a foreign actor and I’m not attached to the local politics of the scene, it attracts a lot of different flavors of people and they do this very vulnerable thing of drawing each other in three minutes.”

“It’s silly,” Butler says approvingly. “The products are wild because there’s not enough time, even if you’re professional, to do one. We all share the drawings at the end. People forge new friendships and it’s been really rad to help forge these new connections across places I’m not even a part of.”

The second Beach Towel Art Show happens 2-5pm Saturday, December 6 at the 9th Street Beach in Miami Beach. Visit Brian Butler at theupperhandart.com ~ Kelli Bodle

Related…
MIZNER PARK AMP: Brian Butler’s Ode to Boca Mural Unveiling in partnership w O’Cinema.
The vibrant, site-specific artwork transforms the Amphitheater’s iconic stage doors, drawing inspiration from poems and reflections gathered through the City’s Ode to Boca initiative. These community-submitted words and memories will also be displayed throughout the venue during the event. Meet the artist and enjoy activities including Poems on Demand, giveaways, Centennial merchandise, and refreshments for purchase.