The 2011 Art Basel Miami Beach brought together all the successes, excesses and shining hopes of the art world. Towards the end of the week, a surprising number of the exhibitors had red dots or empty spaces on their walls. Is it is a sign that the economy is picking up? Or rather could it be that spectacles such as Mr. Brainwash from Bansky’s film, Exit Through the Gift Shop has renewed the idea of art collecting among the younger set? Either way, people were buying this year.

As a working artist holding some shining hopes of my own, it was a magnificent thing to witness. And I wasn’t the only one.

Several Seattle galleries were exhibiting such as SOIL, Platform Gallery, Greg Kucera Gallery and Lawrimore Project, all who said that they were having a good reception this year at Art Basel. While perusing the various satellite shows such as Aqua (run by Seattle artists Jaq Chartier and Dirk Park), Art Miami, Pulse, Scope and NADA, I was surprised by just how many Northwest-based artists we ran into (many of them Artist Trust grant recipients and/or EDGE graduates). Juan Alonso, Francesca Berrini, Jana Brevick, Tim Cross, Lynn DiNino, Kamala Dolphin Kingsley, Cable Griffith, Stephanie Hargrave, Ben Hirskoff, Kelly Lyles, Saya Moriyasu, Nicholas Nyland, Robert Yoder and Ellen Ziegler were all in attendance to see the exhibitions and network.

I am glad that I decided to attend this year as well. I’ve seen so much fantastic art that it will take me months just to process through it all. And I am inspired in more than just the “I must paint” sense—I have returned infused with the confidence of the art world and with an understanding: Art with soul still matters. And there are still plenty of us out there making it.

Visit my Flickr page for a taste of what Art Basel Miami Beach had to offer.