Artist Brian Butler Invites You to Turn a Beach Towel Into Art

The bright lights wrapped around the base of a nearby palm tree illuminate artist Brian Butler as he sits in the shadows of an empty storefront downtown. The illustrator rests his back on a panel filled with stickers and tags from various local artists and vandals.

Much like the art on the walls around him, Butler hopes to inspire the community at large to tap into their creativity and turn an ordinary beach towel into a work of art. It's a simple call to action for all of Miami: Bring your own customized beach towel to the sands along Ninth Street and Ocean Drive on Saturday, December 7, and participate in the Beach Towel Art Show.

"It's a totally community-driven thing, and I've been touching upon the different creative nodes throughout Miami's art scene," says Butler of the grassroots effort.

The Miami-based artist is tapping into his extended network of creatives to curate some entertainment throughout the day. He's working with Dale Zine to offer some customizable frisbees. The creators of LoHi Magazine will be on site with suntan stencils for beachgoers. Vida Sofia of Raw Figs is organizing a site-specific, mark-making exercise featuring the ocean water.
He's also working with the folks at Subtropic Film Fest to document the whole experience, and the Miami Art Society will be on site with its own photoshoot experiment.

"Shout out to all these nodes throughout Miami that are already doing community building, and in this instance, I'm just kind of poking them to do something in tandem. This is very much a we-project," says Butler of his partners.

The idea for the Beach Towel Art Show is incredibly wholesome; the only goal is community building. In our city, when it's easy to get lost in the madness of Miami Art Week, Butler just wants to inspire a little joy.

"I wanted to put that prompt out there to encourage people to just make cool stuff," he adds.

Butler says he was initially inspired to organize the pop-up after the success of another recent endeavor. "I've been doing portrait swap events called "Everybody Draws Everybody" throughout the country for a little while now," says the Massachusetts-born artist. "What's cool about these events is that when they're done, people don't just split; they actually talk. It's a big icebreaker. I garnered a lot of pleasure from rallying people for these events that it inspired me to do more."
When it comes to the art on your towel, Butler wants you to let your freak flag fly. Nothing is off-limits, and everything is welcome.

Butler describes various approaches artists can take when creating their beach towels. One is an easy print-on-demand option — upload an image, and boom, towel done. Another avenue is to paint on your towel yourself. In this case, Butler recommends aerosol since acrylic paint can get crunchy.

"And for those super latecomers that maybe don't hear about this until the day of, I would encourage beach towel cosplay," Butler says as he tilts his head back in a proud nod. He excitedly explains how beachgoers can grab a Scarface towel from a local gift shop and come dressed as Tony Montana himself or one of his victims.

"I hope people will challenge what a beach towel could be," says the artist with a little twinkle in his eye. "That's where the fun comes from. I hope people get a little weird and just have fun with it."

Beach Towel Art Show. 2 to 5 p.m. Saturday, December 7, on the sands of Ninth Street and Ocean Drive, Miami Beach; instagram.com/beachtowelartshow.