Saturday 12th May 2007. Miami, Florida.

All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows...Pablo Picasso.

After breakfast at Einstein Bros I spent the morning at an education fair.

This afternoon Wendy and I headed over to Vizcaya, the winter home of International Harvester vice president James Deering.

The company manufactured farming equipment worldwide, and...there was money in threshing machines...He already had a Chicago mansion, a Paris townhouse and an apartment in New York City.

The lifestyle that was lived out in this home has all but vanished in America. Here we are returning to the glory days of the billionaire American industrialists who despite all their wealth and modern day success longed for the cultural highs of European sophistication.

For example the Adam-style library, with its dominant fireplace, was based on the work of George III's architect, Robert Adam. Another resplendent representation here comes in the form of the Empire period...remember, with Europe at war, the Empire Period was reflected by the darker art that harked to the days of ancient Rome, Greece and Egypt. This is in contrast to the equally historically accurate Rococo period rooms.

Built between 1914 and 1916, Vizcaya (the house was named after a Basque province off the coast of Spain) was designed in the style of the European estates that Deering had visited. The design though was adapted to suit the sub-tropical climate of South Florida.

The estate originally consisted of 180 acres and included an area designed to resemble a Northern Italian village with a dairy, poultry house, stable, greenhouse, machine shop, paint and carpentry workshops and staff quarters...Working for Mr Deering though could not have been easy, he rarely entertained in the evening and he insisted that all staff were in bed by 10pm.

The house and garden are the creation of three separate architects. F. Burrall Hoffman designed the buildings, Diego Suarez laid out the gardens and Paul Chalfin supervised the artistic detailing on every aspect of the project.

Between them they created an estate that looked as if a family had lived here for 400 years with every generation adding its own period furnishings. This was achieved in great part with the furnishings, light fixtures, doors and fireplaces that were purchased by Deering on his shopping expeditions through Europe.

As a result the house contains one of the finest collections of 16th through 19th century decorative European arts, yet it remains comfortable in scale. The house was indeed built with all the modern conveniences of the early 2oth century including central heating, an automatic electric telephone switchboard, two elevators, refrigeration, a central vacuuming system and a fire control system; amasing when you think that so much of South Florida was still natural swamp in this period.

After Deering's death in 1925 a minimal staff maintained the house. The hurricane of 1926, which devastated much of Miami, severely damaged the house its surrounding grounds and formal gardens.

In 1952 Miami-Dade County purchased Vizcaya and opened it as a historic house museum. Extensive restoration has brought the villa and the remaining acres of gardens back to the way they appeared in Deering's day; once again home to the finest Italian Renaissance garden (i.e. consisting of rock, greenery and water...no flowers) in the United States.

The bayfront estate with its Venetian waterfront that includes a barge which you would pole over too by gondola, was chosen as the meeting place for the historic Summit of the Americas in 1994 where the 34 leaders of the Western Hemisphere met with President Clinton. It was also the setting for the 1987 meeting of President Reagan and Pope John Paul II and the visit in 1991 of HM The Queen.

It seems impossible to believe today, but one tenth of the population of Miami were involved in the building of this house during its two year construction along with the European artists and artisans who were brought over to ensure the highest quality finish.

And...it would be remiss not to mention the use in the buildings construction of local fossilised coral rock on which South Florida is built.

Our next stop is Monty's in Coconut Grove for fish and cocktails before we head on to the Raw food Market.

From fabulous wealth to the ghetto...Like so many places Coconut Grove is an area of contrasts. Wendy and I visit Charles Ave, just a block or two away from the high-end shopping district and sitting in the middle of fabulous homes on either side. This street was home to the first black community on the South Florida mainland which began here in the late 1880's when blacks, primarily from the Bahamas came via Key West to work here at the Peacock Inn.

Their first hand experience with tropical plants and building materials proved invaluable to the building of Coconut Grove. Besides private homes, the early buildings included the Odd Fellows Hall which served as a community centre and library. In 1895 they built the Macedonia Baptist Church which is the home of the oldest black congregation in the area and then came the A.M.E. Methodist Church which housed the community's first school...

BUT away from all this wonderful history I face the issue that this remains a black area and an area of poverty whilst all around it the area has grown into one of fabulous wealth???

The Organic Raw Food market proves to be one of trendy people paying inflated prices for food.

From the Art Design district to cracktown to Wynwood...

Tonight Wendy, Miriam and I head out to the Design District for an art walk around the galleries. We have a wonderful time yet it seems ridiculous that here I am relatively broke at this point in my life and yet shopping for original art works...yet as Wendy put it, what I do have is a greater understanding of the art, its interpretation and the technicalities that most of the others here swigging the free booze.

It was so Miami Vice as we drove down the back streets enroute to Wynwood amongst the crack-houses and their populous. It is great having a guide like Miriam who knows these streets like the back of her hand...and I am sure we must look like dealers with our Hispanic driver in the expensive SUV.

I don't think Wendy or Miriam could believe it when I headed off down an alley to photograph a crack ho dancing completely spaced out in the middle of this industrial street to the thumping vibe of a nearby warehouse club. it took quite a few attempts but she did not seem to mind...and that was sad, just seeing people so removed from the world because of drugs.

The Wynwood Art District is an association of art institutions, museums, galleries, collections, studios and alternative art spaces. Tonight I enjoy the Gallery Walk that happens here on the second Saturday of every month.

We spend a great deal of time at designcrib where the objective of the artists is to design and build a "lifestyle experience" through the collaboration of diverse creative disciplines.

The Lifestyle experience is born through the creation of defined spaces within the gallery that are true representations of a unique way in which artists are inspired to merge their creations to compliment each others work in each environment. The 3000 square feet are divided up in to 5 uniquely defined spaces where each area is a creative display and combination of visual art, fashion, furniture and design.

Its a very young art scene in Miami and its certainly all about the vibe, the party, the image and oh...the art. What was refreshing about the designcrib was that it was innovative and it had genuinely creative and well produced pieces that were about the art as much as everything else.

Miriam bought a beautiful piece from deluz dezign where I modelled a few pieces for the girls and...maybe one day I'll be back. This collaboration of cousins Jillian Renee Riley and Kaley Sturko brings a fresh face to the world of fashion with hand crafted originals. www.deluzdezign.com

We round off the night with dinner...it is now 1am...with Johnny (who has just closed his restaurant for the night), Miriam, Wendy and I dining at Hiro's Yakko-San in North Miami.