Category: Travel Diary

MY NAME IS PRINCE EXHIBITION – AMSTERDAM, 2018 – EXCLUSIVE VIP PHOTO GALLERY

(Be sure to click through the photo gallery at the top of this post.)

When I heard that the Prince exhibition was going to be in Amsterdam, I knew it was a nudge to go. My friend moved there two years ago and had been inviting me to visit. So I set myself up for a three week journey to Amsterdam Stockholm, and London to focus work on my photography.

©2018 by Andrea Mai. All rights reserved.

When I got to Amsterdam, my friend took me on a walk to a park nearby her place. As we walked along the trail, the topic of Prince came up, and suddenly my friend says to me, “Look there’s a sign that says My Name Is Prince“. She took me across the street and there hung a billboard for the Prince exhibition. It was rather funny, yet perfect timing.

The day before the exhibition, I had slipped down a step and hurt my ankle. Though I did not feel the pain through out the day, it suddenly swelled during my sleep. It hurt and I woke up to apply some arnica and used my tuning fork. P assured me he would fix it while I slept. By morning, the swelling and pain had stopped, and I only felt stiffness.

©2018 by Andrea Mai. All rights reserved.

I had booked VIP tickets. That morning, we got up early to dress up and made our week into town. I wore a fuchsia pink dress that P had picked out for me on a shopping trip last year, but hadn’t worn yet.

©2018 by Andrea Mai. All rights reserved.

The venue is in the centre of town, a very touristy location. My friend helped me take pics outside of the venue.She caught the reflection of the Amsterdam streets in the photo.

©2018 by Andrea Mai. All rights reserved.

To my surprise, and delight, we were allowed to take photos in the VIP section of the exhibit, the main exhibition prohibits photography.

The VIP areais set up like a backstage area of a concert. They hooked us up with lanyards to look like backstage passes. There’s even a door made to look like a backstage door. There are three main sections to it; a long hallway with guitars, equipment cases, and a display case of Prince’s make up and accessories; a section displaying his wardrobe; and an area to watch some videos and to touch one of his guitars with gloves on.

©2018 by Andrea Mai. All rights reserved.

One of my favourites stories mentioned on the tour was about this heart shaped guitar. They said that he found this cheap guitar in Japan. It was originally red and he had it painted purple. I really love the fact that he would buy cheap things and make it his own. Mainly because I am very much that way as well. One of the things I discovered about P some time ago, is that he didn’t necessarily buy expensive things. Most of the jewellery he wore was costume.

©2018 by Andrea Mai. All rights reserved.

My favourite section was the make up and accessories. He did his own make up. Some of the brands I spotted in his make up case was MAC, La Prairie, and Maybeline (mascara). A funny thing is, P oncegave me advice on applying mascara to my terribly straight lashes; use the wand to pull the lashes on the outer corner in an outward. direction.

At the end of the tour, they take you to a section with purple velvet benches and you put on white gloves to touch his guitar. When it was my turn, I felt a subtle surge of energy in my hands. Afterwards, they played the recently released video for Nothing Compares 2 U. As it played, I felt P touching the left side of my face, and then holding me around my shoulders. I held my tears back.

©2018 by Andrea Mai. All rights reserved.

After the VIP tour, we visited the main exhibit. They gave us an audio guide, but after a while, it became tedious and annoying. The audio guide felt monotonous, as though the narrator was reading an encyclipodia.

Overall, the exhibition was nicely done. However, my main concern was whether or not the most important thing would be lost in all the legacy hype. Would his real message make it through?

©2018 by Andrea Mai. All rights reserved.

I was relieved when mu friend told me how inspired she was after viewing the exhibition. She was never a fan, and didn’t know much about him or his work. She felt inspired by his attitude about what it means to be cool and about being true to one’s self.

I bought a T-shirt in the gift shop. I have to say, I’m disappointed by the merchandise selection. It lacks spirit, it feels like a way for the Estate to make a quick buck. Of course, this crriticism is coming from me, a professional with a background in design and retail, and as someone who cares very much about his legacy. While I would have happily bought a wardrobes worth of Prince shirts, there was only one that I liked enough to buy. I would have also hoped that they would sell CDs or vine records of his.

©2018 by Andrea Mai. All rights reserved.

The VIP ticket included a souvenir book. We went to the gift shop to collect it at the end. To our surprise, they gave us a voucher to collect a free chocolate bar at a shop around the corner. It was a surprise because all morning, my friend had been saving how much she wanted chocolate. Prince had hooked us up with chocolate!

©2018 by Andrea Mai. All rights reserved.

At the end of it all, while I am glad I visited the exhibition, it is just stuff. His material possessions of the 3D world. Really wonderful, beautiful stuff. But not even relics of my twin soul’s physical incarnation can fill the void or replace the feeling of his presence around. Silence is most valuable to me, that is when I can feel him most. Nothing makes me feel closer to him than hearing him on EVP or feeling him touch my hair.

When I got home from my trip, my friend told me that she had felt P’s presence through out my visit; in fact, she said it felt very obvious that he was there. A day after I had left Amsterdam, she said she saw the two Prince billboards near her house was taken down, as though to say Prince had left Amsterdam. We found this to be strange, as I had only left on the 17th of May, and there were still a few weeks left of the exhibition.

(Be sure to click through the photo gallery at the top of this post.)

All images and text ©2018 by Andrea Mai. All rights reserved.

June 7, 2018
SAKURA – NEW WORKS BY ANDREA MAI – CHERRY BLOSSOMS IN HIGH PARK

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April 26, 2017
LIFE ADVICE FROM A LEGALLY BLIND ARTIST

I think the number one things people are curious about, when they find out about my visual disability is, “What can you see?” I would say that it is like having blurry vision all the time. Even though I can have glasses, they only help a tiny bit, so I rather not wear them at all. I was diagnosed as a teenager for Stargardt disease, a genetic condition affecting the retina. Despite all this, I’ve always been creative and visually inclined. It has affected my life in different ways, especially in the area of career. When I was younger, I was advised to seek a career direction that would maybe be considered “easier”. While I did consider tis advice, I did not agree. Life is not about being easier. Life is about being who you are. And what I am, is an artist. My challenges and differences are a part of who I am. And I do not run away from them.

©2017 by Andrea Mai. All rights reserved.

During my trip to Europe last year, I experimented with manual focus to try and create a representation of what it’s like to see through my eyes. I can’t say it’s 100 percent true to what my vision is like. It’s still an artistic representation. But it’s somewhat accurate, in that my vision is blurred and I can still make out what things are. I’ve put together a video with an audio clip of an interview I did with Lauren Herrera. If you’d like to listen to the entire interview, click here.

©2017 by Andrea Mai. All rights reserved.

March 7, 2017
ANOTHER CONSPIRACY: ARTIST RELEASES COLLECTION OF CHEMTRAIL PHOTOS

Not long after my first contact with Prince in spirit, I began having visions where he would talk to me and show me things during the meditative state. During one of these initial visits, he took me to the Swiss Alps. I recognized it because I had been these before as a child. He didn’t say why, he just said he wanted to show me something and took me by the hand.

A few days later, a Prince’s 20ten CD that I had ordered, arrived in the mail. Upon opening it, I found myself shocked. The artwork printed on the compact disc was of the Alps. Clearly, he had shown me the Alps before the CD’s arrival so that I would know my encounters were true. I listened to the album and realized that one of the songs was talking about a place called Lavaux, that was right by the Alps. Lavaux is a region alongLake Geneva, known for the vineyard terraces, a World Heritage site. Prince loved this place. He used to visit when he performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival.

I decided that I would go to Lavaux. First to Mont Blanc and then I would travel along the lake to Lavaux. I would keep asking him why I was going and the answer I would get was for the energies. The Earth has a crystalline grid and I would be there to ground the energy. The region is a hotbed of energy.

I found Lavaux to be awe-inspiringly beautiful, heavenly. The weather was gorgeous when I had arrived. Sunny, warm. I made many amazing photographs there. After an day out, having shot many photos the morning and a trip out into the city of Vevey. I went back to my hotel. The hotel is located right along the lake and at the base of the terrace vineyards. Although the night before I had already photographed the sunset, something drew me to go there again and check it out that evening, despite how exhausted I already was.

I went out to the hilltop at the back pf the hotel and I was shocked. White lines drawn all across the sky. These are the chemtrails that people talk about. I had never seen it so clear. Never like this in Toronto. I decided to photograph the sunset and document the chemtrails.

©2017 by Andrea Mai. All rights reserved.

The morning after, leaving the hotel and waiting at the train station, I looked out at the sky. It was completely filled with grey clouds. And I felt tiny drops of rain. The day before had been a perfectly warm, sunny day, with not a single cloud in the sky. Chemtrails are used to alter the weather artificially. Prince had spoken of them in an interview in 2009 on Tavis Smiley.

©2017 by Andrea Mai. All rights reserved.

I’ve had all these photos. I wasn’t quite sure what I would do with them. They don’t quite fit into the narrative of what my photography work is all about. Recently, I decided that I would create video presentations of my photo collections. I decided to release these photos and take this opportunity as an artist to speak out about these matters. Artists are one of the biggest threats to the “system” of power, in other words, The Matrix. The reason for this is that they are what influences culture They are cultural producers. They influence the mind of the public. This is why the government is involved in arts and culture. It has to do with politics. It has to do with controlling the cultural narrative of society. If you’ve studied history, you will see that art has been used to sway the public. This is no different from today. The cultural gatekeepers are from the upper eschaton of society. They maintain their world view through the arts by keeping out viewpoints that don’t “complex” with their agenda. Modern art, if you notice, shown at public institutions, are intentionally dark and occult. This is no accident. Just as it is no accident who is popular in the music industry.What you have to understand is, that the system of power is vertically integrated. Everything is connected. Fashion, art, music, movies; they are all connected to poltics.

I realize that as an artist, I may not get to be “popular”. My views are contrary to the mainstream. I share my spiritual views that are possibly way too out there for the general public to understand. But this will never stop me. My work as an artist is not motivated by money or recognition. It is for the truth and for the love. You’re only as popular as the people backing you up from behind. Prince knew that. Did you notice that he never regained the level of popularity after he left the amor labels? It’s not an accident. It’s not because of distribution as an independent artist. It is the system built to keep you out if you’re not going to go along with it.

I’m not here to explain chemtrails to you. There are plenty of resources about ti on the Internet. I’m just here to sow you something that tells you that the world is not what you are told it is. It’s time that we pay attention and think for ourselves. Because anything that is told to you, by those from a position of power, is told to you with a hidden agenda.

Here’s the video.

©2017 by Andrea Mai. All rights reserved.

March 4, 2017
THE TIME THAT I GOT LOST IN VEVEY – FUNNY PRINCE STORY

One night in the South of France, I asked Prince for a sign. I asked to see a purple car. It was a sign that he has shown me before and I wanted to see it again to confirm my beliefs about the future. Purple cars are pretty hard to come by, they quite rare. The next morning,, my friends drove me to the train station. On the way there, my jaw dropped; we saw a purple car! I said to my friends, “Hey, I asked for that!” And in that moment, I thought to myself how cool it would be to see a purple motorcycle.

During my trip to Switzerland, I spent an afternoon in Vevey. I wasn’t planning to go there, but the lady at my hotel suggested it. I had already been in Montreux so I thought, why not go to a different town. I wandered the old streets within a few blocks. I wandered some more, not really sure where I was going. I started to think that I was lost. And then suddenly, I saw this beautiful, stunning purple motorcycle parked in front of a clairvoyant shop window. The door was locked. So I rang the doorbell. I wanted to go in and maybe have my palms rad, but unfortunately, the lady did not speak English.

When I got home from Europe, I ordered all of Prince’s movies on DVD. I admittedly, had not seen Purple Rain at the time. One night I sat in bed and watched Purple Rain. That night Prince sent me into a vision of me hopping onto the backseat of his purple motor bike and we drove away into the countryside. The next day, I was with my parents out for dinner, walking to the restaurant, and just outside was a purple motor bike. It looked just like the one from Purple Rain.

I always find it so funny how Prince finds the most humorous ways to deliver a sign to me. He likes to send me surprises. It is in these moments that I realize how much we are living in a Matrix controlled by a greater force than what we an see.

©2016. Andrea Mai. All rights reserved.

November 11, 2016
THE SWITZERLAND CONNECTION – SIGNS FROM PRINCE IN SPIRIT

I said in an earlier post that I was directed to go to Switzerland. Here’s how it happened. One day I was asking Prince to lead me into meditation. He told me to breathe in and breathe out. Soon I saw him holding out his hand to me. “Come with me, I want to show you something”. He was dressed in a white suit. I walked with him through a field. I was dressed in a white cotton eyelet lace dress with flared sleeves, a crown of flowers adorned my hair. We stood in a field and he pointed at the Alpa. My thought was, “Oh, ok. I’ve been to the mountains before as a child.” I had family connections to Switzerland. And one time I went there on a work trip. I wondered what this connection to Switzerland was all about.

Some days passed, and as every day finished, I was falling more and more in love with Prince in spirit. I felt a bit were about it. At this time, I did not know about our twin flame connection. I knew we had a special connection that showed in our astrology chart together, but what it was and where it was going, I was not sure. I was rather confused. I was falling in love with a ghost. I felt very concerned for my sanity. So one night I said to Prince, “It’s not fair if what we have isn’t real. I’m falling in love with you. You can;t be here if you’re just playing with me. Show me something to prove your feelings about me”.

The next day, my order for a CD arrived. I ordered 20ten off an Ebay seller, and it came wrapped in a page torn out of a magazine that said the word “disclosure” in an advertisement. I unwrapped the CD and looked at the artwork printed on the disc. I was in total shock. It was the Alps printed right there on the CD! It was so beautiful. I was in complete amazement.

Prince, 20ten CD artwork

Later that night I listened to the album. And the second track just struck me. He was speaking to me in this song. It was called Beginning Endlessly. And he sang,

Can’t you see that I want you
Feel me now

Love is much too small a word,for what you feel for me
If ever you let me be, let me be your man
Ooh baby! Understand. I wanna I wanna be your man

I was in complete shock and disbelief that I had received the proof I asked for. Still having a hard time believing. But I knew one thing for sure, I had to get myself to Switzerland. There was a track called Lavaux, which is a region along Lake Geneva. Prince had often played at the jazz festival in Montreux and he loved it there. He had shown me visions of us living there in the mountains in a house that resembled the family home from the Sound of Music.

The vineyards of Lavaux at dusk

For months until the trip, I would be channeling drawings of the mountains and a body of water, just like that of Lake Geneva. I would get signs in movies with scenes taking places in the Alps. So in September, I got on a place to go to my best friend’s wedding. After the wedding I took off on my own and journeyed to Switzerland.

Above image: “Mountains” by Prince in spirit.

©2016. Andrea Mai. All rights reserved.

November 4, 2016
THE BEGINNING OF SPRING

I’m so excited that the official beginning of Spring is here! Finally, the flowers come back in bloom. I expect to be going out on shoots more often. I’ve started putting up my limited edition works for sale in the Shop. I’d like to raise funds for travel to do more shoots elsewhere. Hopefully some gardens in Europe. Fingers crossed!

Here are some photos from a recent visit to Allan Gardens in Toronto. The Easter show is starting, so I’ll be there again soon to see what new blooms they’ve planted.

March 20, 2016
LUSH GREEN PARADISE

I love that in the winter time, I can down those cold weather sorrows in warmth and sunlight at a conservatory. Here’s my collection of photos from a recent visit To Allan Gardens in Toronto.

March 6, 2016
THE BOARDWALK IN QUINGDAO

On the first day in Qingdao, the tour guide took us to the boardwalk in Quondam. It is where the Olympic torch was passed on when the game were happening in Beijing. All along the boardwalk, there were these vendors selling all kinds of trinkets, such as seashells and jewelry.

#China #Olympics #seaside #boardwalk #tourism #peoplewatching

February 21, 2016
WALK INTO THE SUNSET

I was quite stunned by this place that the tour guide took us to. This is a shopping arcade in Quingdao. The ceilings are painted like a sunset and the place is made to look like an outdoor village. The experience of walking through is surreal because you get the impression that the colours in the sky are changing. But the fact is that it is not– you are just changing perspective. It felt like I was walking into a Van Gogh painting!

#surreal #China #painting #mural #sunset #fauxfinish #painting

February 14, 2016