Antonio Pessoa After Midnight Going out,wandering about downtown,walking around and maybe pay Louise Ragot a visit,always that dimlit place,Ragot's Art Deco looking den,of what once breathed like life and love,however now it's just a dimlit den of sorts. Delightful art clocks,Pop Art paintings and the old record player handsomely showcased in the solid wood and veneer cabinet.Fancy! At Ragot's there's always the chance of hearing the door bell ring and one of her After Midnight friends showing up for a free psychotherapy session. Urgent cognitive- behaviour techniques with the After Midnight intervention secret resources of Lady Ragot. Besides the Pop Art small size paintings of her art collection,five oils on canvas signed Antonio Pessoa,(A Pessoa!),among a carefully curated selection of elegantly framed Nude Art photography. It's the new city,the Now town,the After Midnight twilight zone,the time of the eternal open relationships,the kinky preferences network,tasteful mysterious moves,and "professional" lifestyle...bizarre and sometimes even stimulating! Oh my God,the artist told me,that night at 5:30 a.m. he stumbled upon Nadine,a silent night angel,blonde and freezing and dressed to kill.Smashing!She didn't have much to say,so he told me with that peculiar smile on his face.She was like three personalities in one or at least he thought so or maybe that's what she pretended,in a silent ultimate effort to make him believe that behind the apparently dull looking doll there might as well be the inner special one.Give me a break! Furthermore the four things she told him she liked actually sounded absolutely unspeakable.So what?What did he expect? After Midnight,the weird designed ride! When yoy think you actually can do whatever you want...I suppose something the artist always wanted to believe was true. And then,what?The Chinese Restaurant! Pessoa goes in,there's nobody in the big exotic room but the cook...it's almost 6 a.m. and he tells him "Too late,we close,no,we no see girl of yours,no more ask please..." Another bar,and he told me later what had just crossed his mind.True love!Sometimes you know it the instant you see it across the bar.However,and I truly believe him,there was no one there but the same old bald wrinkled bartender. Really amazing,inspiring awesome surrealism. After all,it seems After Midnight's twilight zone can set his imagination free.Blind faith,I told him,because thinking is hard.However,the artist was already aware of it... Time goes by. So here comes the night,here comes the night once again,the After Midnight express entering the Twilight Zone one more time. Tonight ( must be Wednesday,Thursday...or even Friday...who cares...),James Babel,one of the artist's regular art dealers is off to Madrid with no paintings in and no joy,Boris Dainville is breaking no news from London town and Louise Ragot is nowhere to be seen,let alone reached. Antonio Pessoa tells me over the phone about his "nerve-shattering" negotiations (in a manner of speaking ) with Maxwell Armstrong and Sylvia Abbot. He tells me sometimes he feels he would be better off living in the tropical Canary Islands for good,after telling the whole godforsaken art business to get lost. I know he is just overreacting ,he says it but doesn't mean it...or at least deep down inside I still don't believe he has reached that point of absolute detachment to actually say goodbye,so long,I've had it,that dit it and flip- flop and fly away. He tells me yesterday night he didn't feel like going off to bed,so he went out for another After Midnight real-life explorer delicious Let's- see-what-Happens ride on his own. After a while driving around he goes to the Meditation Center,managed by Bala Mani,an indian art collector,a wealthy prematurely retired businessman from New Delhi who decided to spend the rest of his life providing others with the wisdom and knowledge of Universal Awareness and Silent Meditation. One of the After Midnight available spots the artist loves the most. Open twenty four hours a day,it provides emotional- support for anyone willing to experience the mindfullness well-being with the powerful inspiring easy-to-do methods of deep spiritual relaxation and cosmic insight. Martin Faber introduces Bala Mani to the artist back in 2004,during his second art show in Chicago,IL.However only in the past two years Antonio Pessoa becomes seriously involved and emotionally ready and motivated to fully commit himself to the wonderful universe of inner-self discovery through meditation daily sessions and self-disciplined rituals. Bala Mani also becomes one of the artist's regular clients,acquiring on a monthly basis a significant amount of his latest New Era contemporary artworks,furthermore coming up with the concept Timeless Time,which indeed turned out to become the title of Pessoa's most recent art productions. Antonio Pessoa reaches his Universal Awareness inner-self discovery, Supreme Meditation interest,passion and commitment apotheosis,thereby giving birth to amazing contemporary fine art wonders such as "Night Gospel", "Living Joy" , "The Belief Generator" , "Spiritual Light " , "Free" , "Night Wits " , "Intuition " , "Mind Explorer ", "Perception "...just to mention a few. It makes perfect sense the obvious association of Bala Mani with the artist's subject mutation,definitely for much better,very particularly in visual abstract neo-surrealistic quality. In spite of the fact that After Midnight doesn't substantially belong to the fine art series of Spiritual Enlightenment - oriented Oeuvre,yet,it is nevertheless inspired by a similar persistent response at this highly emotional relation with life...or in this particular painting...with nightlife metamorphic sensorial metaphysics,definitely the role of a wandering poet across the perceptive mystery of the night time city outdoors. It's Saturday Night,the Queen of nightlife,and tonight I keep the artist company,while we talk about his latest artworks. Actually,I have little interest in the After Midnight scene,but my main motivation is to be as much as possible with the artist,my friend and my work's leading role actor. Being thirty two years older than him doesn't seem to be important.It never did and it never will.On the contrary,our chemistry is incresingly reaching perfection. We have some chinese for starters,that same exotic restaurant downtown,at a specific time when we are the only "innocent bystanders",enjoying our privacy and talking mainly about art and life.In the mean time we both seem to be making the most of the great cuisine selection randomly displayed all over the round table. Spring rolls,Shu Mai dumplings with pork ans shrimp,Egg Custard tarts,Chicken Chop Suey,Zodiac noodles,Won Ton soup,Har Gau...Wow!!!! It seems that the restaurant's owner whole family (but the cook...) are starring at us from the far end of the insence smelling exoctic temple.They don't laugh,they don't smile,they don't talk...just standing still starring at us with this blank,emotionless expression on their marble skin faces.Fair enough.I love the Oriental way,so does Pessoa. Antonio Pessoa is definitely a different man after midnight hour.In my opinion the city's nightlife provides him with an alternate outlook of existence metaphysics.More non-material,rather sensual,abandonely relaxed,almost deliciously blue-mooded in his glamorous lonesome way.A peculiar contrast but true.