The painter Michael Gordon doesn’t need a space to exhibit and
that’s because his gallery is on the street-side. Just about everyday
he sits in on the sidewalk in front of Brodies Supermarket in downtown Belize
City and hawks his paintings and sculptures from as little as $10 each. But
don’t be fooled by the low prices or the downscale ambience, Michael Gordon
is a major Belizean artist. He’s exhibited in some of the finest contemporary
art galleries over the world. And now he’s come back to the start, the
home of his first formal exhibit over 10 years ago, the image factory. We visited
today.
Jules Vasquez Reporting,
He’s probably the most prolific artist in Belize, Michael Gordon paints
not for fashion or effrontery, he paints because he must.
Michael Gordon, Artist
“Jules how I eat…I can’t stop. I can get better or worse
but I can’t stop.”
And so he draws and he paints portraits, abstracts and suddenly, girls, lots
of girls.
Michael Gordon,
“This time it is like Christmas, a holiday when you see girls shopping.
It is holiday time, school is closed. You get fashion; you see girls with new 
hairstyles and that gives you is fashion. And these things when you stare upon
it, people sometime would look at you like it is lust. If you can draw that
lust off of you, you show a betterment of communication. I paint more because
I left less identical perspective and then I can do two or three and four while
they only do one straight.”
And while some may dismiss Gordon as just a street painter, his works have
shown in galleries in Taiwan, Cuba, Mexico, The Dominican Republic and Spain.
Michael Gordon,
“Jules you see the things within things now, you have to communicate
with people to know what people really are because many people take my style
of painting as something you can’t sell. But what out of it can sell,
the things you have, you have to sell. If you take it and can sell it, you know
you got yourself away.”
And while he knows it’s about selling art, for him it is also a pursuit
of perfection.
Michael Gordon,
“You see the things that are more perfect make that place. The things
that are not that perfect only full up the place as a painting that a painter
makes.”
Jules Vasquez,
So which ones are the perfect ones?
Michael Gordon,
“Well it is yet to be seen.”
The exhibit is open to the public and just as he does on the sidewalk,
Gordon’s Gallery is always open for business.
Email
Print