Touring the East Austin Studio Tour 2013: The Art Post

Foster Talge at The Art Post EAST 2013
Foster Talge at The Art Post EAST 2014

The East Austin Studio Tour is one of my favorite events of the year. Some years, I open my studio to the public, and other years I don’t. In the years when I open my studio, it’s great to see visitors’ reactions to my own work, to meet new people, visit with friends who come by and sell a little work.

During the years when I take a break from opening my studio, like this year, it is fantastic to be able to get out and see so much good art in just two weekends, all on my side of town. I love it all, whether it’s visiting individual artists’ studios, group studios, or galleries. I particularly enjoy just seeing — in the paint, if you will the great variety of excellent work, but it’s also wonderful to meet artists who are new to me, and chat with old friends.

1960 Isetta at The Art Post EAST 2014
1960 Isetta at The Art Post EAST 2014

Last weekend, my husband and I got an early start on day one at The Art Post, a great rambling Quonset hut type compound on East Cesar Chavez.  The first thing we came across was a very tall guy climbing out of a very tiny red 1960 Isetta — a 4-wheeled car that opens on the front — with the steering wheel attached to that front door!  Very cool.

We continued on to a string of small studios to our left, which contained wonderful oil portraits by Sara Vanderbeek, including one of Chuck Close that I absolutely love; some very fun drawings by Carolina Villareal (be sure to read some of the text or titles on her drawings); and ocean paintings covered with painted plexiglass for a different experience by Lucy MacQueen.

I go to the Art Post mainly to see what Court Lurie has been up to lately, and of course, she never disappoints.  I always enjoy her paintings, and I loved seeing her new prints, which truly spoke to me.  But dang me, I forgot to take pictures!  So check out her site, the EAST site, or the Art Post website to see some of her work.

I’ve included a slideshow below of all the non-fuzzy pictures that I remembered to take while I was there.  I didn’t manage to snap pics of all the artists’ work, nor did I even manage to get to see the work or the studios of all the artists (don’t ask me why; I certainly meant to), but of those I saw, here are a few at the Art Post that I highly recommend checking out (visit the Art Post website or the EAST site to see who I missed; you might not want to miss them!):

Tina Schweiger at The Art Post EAST 2014
Tina Schweiger at The Art Post EAST 2014

Tina Schweiger — love her multi-part paintings!

 

 

 

 

Kristy Darnell Battani
Kristy Darnell Battani

Kristy Darnell Battani — large and small encaustics and some very cool large works made from the pages of books.

 

 

 

 

 

Kelsey Jenkinson
Kelsey Jenkinson

Kelsey Jenkinson — very beautifully rendered paintings of bees and other living creatures, and she’s a real sweetheart, too.

 

 

 

Scott Saunders
Scott Saunders

Scott Saunders — gorgeous, intricate, complex-yet-simple(!) sculptures made of thin wood and other materials, with a tech edge to them.

 

 

Foster Talge at The Art Post EAST 2014
Foster Talge at The Art Post EAST 2014

Foster Talge — his constructed trees need to be experienced!!!  I simply love this new one, a willow-like tree sculpture made with lots and lots of hanging chains.

 

 

Jason Webb
Jason Webb

Jason Webb — exquisitely drawn acrylic paintings of collections of things and the detritus of modern city life.  Plus, he had some great beer on offer last weekend.

 

 

 

Nimer Aleck II at The Art Post EAST 2014
Nimer Aleck II at The Art Post EAST 2014

Nimer Aleck II — OK, I’m into tools, so his hand-made hammers really fascinated me: huge hammers, tiny hammers, double-headed hammers, hammer-chuks, a collection of hammers with longer and longer handles.

 

 

 

 

Paul Clarence Oglesby Jr and Casey Warr at The Art Post EAST 2014
Paul Clarence Oglesby Jr and Casey Warr at The Art Post EAST 2014

Paul Clarence Oglesby, Jr. — very cool, totemic white sculptures in the courtyards.

We also made it to Pump Project, Canopy, and Blue Genie on Saturday, all of which I recommend.  On Sunday, we had only a couple hours, so we squeezed in Flatbed Press, which was awesome, Tiny Park Gallery, and the UP Collective.  I hope to blog on these later.  I forgot how long it takes to write these posts!

This weekend, we hope to make it a lot of individual studios of painters, and to some of the artists at the group studios that we missed.

And if you’d like to see all the photos I shot at EAST 2013 so far, here’s a link to a gallery of all the images: EAST-2013.

East Austin Studio Tour 2012 – Day One

EAST 2012

Today my friend Jill and I spent about 5 hours visiting all the painting studios (and more) at Pump Project, Pump Project Satellite, and the Bolm Road complex (which includes Big Medium, Pigoata Studios, and Bay6 Gallery and Studios).   What an amazing amount of wonderful art, and as always, it’s so fun to see old friends and meet new ones.

Specifically, here are links to the studios we visited:

Big Medium
Bay6 Gallery and Studios
Pump Project
Pump Project Satellite

Here is a gallery of images from today’s art outing:

*Artist images: I tried to identify the artist whose work is in the photos, but not all paintings had artist info cards.  Feel free to let me know if something needs to be corrected.

East Austin Studio Tour 2010, Part Three

Sculpture "Plucky" by Dominique Vyborny at the Pump Project Arts Complex during E.A.S.T. 2010
Sculpture “Plucky” by Dominique Vyborny at the Pump Project Arts Complex during E.A.S.T. 2010

Full Day of Visiting Artist Studios, Last Day of E.A.S.T.

I decided to spend the final day of EAST visiting more artists’ studios rather than hanging around The Vortex.  If you came to see me at The Vortex yesterday, my apologies for not being there; if you’d like to see more of my paintings, you can always schedule a private visit at my home studio; just contact me and we’ll set something up.

Robbie Ortiz - Seated Woman
Robbie Ortiz – Seated Woman

I started at neighbor Robbie Ortiz’s studio, where he and fellow painter Stephen Schwake were showing their work.  Robbie does some amazing cubistic paintings and drawings; visit his website at: RobbieOrtiz.com.

Stephen does large paintings and drawings influenced by “80’s skateboard graphics, hot rods, science, stained glass, American roots music, mid-century modern design, art history, and World War II fighter planes.”  His site is StephenSchwake.com.

Court Lurie - Aspects
Court Lurie – Aspects

Next, I headed down to the Artpost, where I visited with Court Lurie for a bit.  I really love her abstract paintings! Court is very deservedly a rising star in the Austin art world.

See her work at: CourtLurie.com.

I popped my head into a few other studios; there’s a glass artist named Nicholas Dertrien who is doing some pretty amazing blown glass sculpture of the human body, some complete with (what I think are) internal organs.

I also peeked at the work of sculptors/installation artists Scott Proctor and Marianne McGrath.

Jan Roset - Monkey Brain #5
Jan Roset – Monkey Brain #5

Then I headed over to the Pump Project Arts Complex, where I visited with fabulous abstract painter, Jan Roset, portrait painter Nicole Jeffords, and lightbox sculptor Brooke Gassiot.

Also poked my head into the studios of Alicia Hartzell, Amber Kappes, Erika Jaeggli, Mark Johnson, Katherine Sheehan, Leanne Venier, Darvin Jones, Paul Alix (illustrator, very funny guy), Scott Ewen, Audrey Lopata (awesome kids illustrator), and Lana Waldrep.

Keva Richardson - Raindrops and Grass
Keva Richardson – Raindrops and Grass

Then I drove up to the Pump Project Satellite, where I met painter Keva Richardson (love her work), and visited with good friend Jill Alo at Women Printmakers of Austin, where I also ran into friend and fellow encaustic artist Maggie Jordan.  Popped into Damon Arhos studio, too.

Then I walked down to Big Medium (the folks that started all this), viewed the show at the gallery, visited with encaustic painter Kristy Darnell Battani, abstract painter Rebecca Bennett, and said Hi to Judy Paul above the crowd that always surrounds her. 🙂

Rebecca Bennett - painting
Rebecca Bennett – painting

Stopped in to see Daphne Holland’s new work, and chatted with Juan Moreno, two more encaustic artists from Texas Wax.  Stopped into Bay6 Studio, where I talked to Kevin Kuhn briefly (he’s taken over the Texas Wax website, bless his heart), and Sharon Kyle Kuhn, the encaustic artist who started the Austin Chapter of Texas Wax.

Jennifer Chenoweth - Red Zip
Jennifer Chenoweth – Red Zip

By this time, it was after 5:30, and I still had at least 6 more artists on my must-see list but knew I only had time for one more.  So I zipped over to Jennifer Chenoweth‘s to see her new work and the work of Virginia Fleck.  Her work is always so interesting, and her home itself is an amazing work of art! Good call: Jennifer very kindly packed up a bowl of her delicious chicken pesole to take with me after my very brief visit.

And that, my friends, was my whirlwind one day tour of EAST 2010 (seeing only about 1/10th of the artists participating this year).

View some photos from the ArtPost and the Pump Project Arts Complex in this gallery.

See also part one: Participating as an Artist at The Vortex
and part two: EAST Artists Tour

East Austin Studio Tour 2010, Part Two

Sculpture by Hank Waddell and paintings by Shawn Camp at Shawn Camp's studio during E.A.S.T. 2010

Sculpture by Hank Waddell and paintings by Shawn Camp at Shawn Camp’s studio during E.A.S.T. 2010

An artist is not an isolated system. In order to survive he has to interact continuously with the world around him… Theoretically there are no limits to his involvement.— Hans Haacke

EAST Artists Tour

This year, for the first time, artists were able to visit other artists’s studios on a few weeknights in the week between the two EAST public tour weekends.  This is a really great development!  A major drawback of being a participating artist in EAST these past years has always been that you’re stuck at your own studio and can’t get out to see new work, new artists, new spaces, new ideas, and visit with your artist friends.  It was one of the main reasons why I didn’t open my studio last year, and instead spent the time visiting as many artists and studios as I could comfortably squeeze in.

The folks who organized this actually pulled it off more or less at the last moment, so I think that not all the artists were even aware of it.  I found out too late to make it during the first two nights, but managed to get to three artist’s studios on the third night.

Jennifer Balkan Poof!, 2010, 30" x 30", oil on birch with map fragments and ink
Jennifer Balkan Poof!, 2010, 30″ x 30″, oil on birch with map fragments and ink

First, I got to visit with neighbor and painter extraordinaire Jennifer Balkan.  Jennifer is a very painterly figurative painter who often uses bits of maps in her work (and she’s really, really nice!).  I saw her work during the very first EAST Tour that I visited—maybe it was #2 in 2004 (when there were only 51 locations)—and I was blown away by her work then.

Jennifer just gets better and better, and her work is currently included in this great invitational “Women Painting Women” show at Robert Lange Studio in Charleston.  You can see the show and read the articles from American Art Collector, ArtMag, & Art See at: Robert Lange Studio, and you can visit her website and see more of her work and info at: JenniferBalkan.com.

Ines Batllo - "Under" - oils on board
Ines Batllo – “Under” – oils on board

Next, I visited with neighbor, friend and painter Ines Batllo in her wonderful new studio.  Ines is a Catalan painter whose paintings in oil and encaustic are skillful, deep, and full of soul.  She’s doing some very interesting three-dimensional work with encaustic.  She and I were having such a great conversation that I forgot to take any photos there, but you can view her work online at: inespaintings.com.

Shawn Camp - oil on canvas
Shawn Camp – oil on canvas

 

My last visit of the evening was to Shawn Camp’s studio, with Shawn Camp’s paintings and Hank Waddell’s sculptures.

Shawn’s paintings are so luscious; they are very thick with gorgeous paint, and I just want to roll in them (like in the movie “What Dreams May Come”).  His work also references the landscape from an aerial perspective.  I first saw Shawn’s work at the Davis Gallery in 2006, when he showed with the awesome sculptor Caprice Pierucci, and I just fell in love Shawn’s work at that time (and Caprice’s!).

Well, I fell heads over heels in love with one particular little painting of Shawn’s this night, and so, soon I will be able to look at it every day.  Yes!  I am buying a small painting from Shawn, and I could hardly be more excited!  (EAST folks, take note: The EAST Artists Tour is definitely worth it for artist and artist alike!).  🙂

See more of Shawn’s gorgeous paintings at ShawnCamp.net.

Sculptor Hank Waddell’s work is very cool, and so is he.  He uses a lot of construction materials in his work, makes beautiful and intriguing sculptures in wood, bamboo, metal, foam and more.  He also creates some very cool (and affordable) lead airplanes, and is always, always surprising.  Hank was one of the very few artists chosen for the 24th “New American Talent” at Arthouse’s Jones Center.  The work was selected by New American Talent juror, Hamza Walker, Curator and Director of Education, The Renaissance SocietyThe University of Chicago.”

I met Hank when he was president of the Texas Society of Sculptors, and I was taking over as webmaster.  We’ve both since moved on from our positions at TSOS, but we have stayed friends, and I designed his newest website.  To see Hank’s fantastic and fun work, visit his site at: HankWaddell.com.

View a small gallery of images from the EAST Artists Tour.

See also part three: Full Day of Visiting Artist Studios, Last Day of E.A.S.T.
and part one: Participating as an Artist at The Vortex

East Austin Studio Tour 2010, Part One

The Drishti Dancers performing at The Vortex, East Austin Studio Tour 2010
The Drishti Dancers performing at The Vortex, East Austin Studio Tour 2010

Participating as an Artist at The Vortex

This year’s East Austin Studio Tour was great, as always!  I had my paintings up at The Vortex, and hung out there for 3 of the 4 days of the tour.  Sold some work, met some people, visited with friends, and had a good time enjoying the other events at The Vortex (belly dancing, hula-hooping, musical performances, aerial dancing, trapeze).  Oh, I didn’t participate in any of those; I merely enjoyed watching them.

The Nematoads play at The Vortex, E.A.S.T. 2010
The Nematoads play at The Vortex, E.A.S.T. 2010

One of the several musical highlights for me was a 60’s style surf band called the Nematoads.  Think The Ventures, only really fast!  They are a 5-piece band with a fabulous drummer, bass, guitar and a horn section.  They played a very high-energy rock-n-roll set, and were pretty awesome.  The crowd loved them; they had hula-hoopers out there hooping it up through their whole set.

To find out more about the Nematoads, read their blurb from the Austin Chronicle’s Musicians’ Register.

View a gallery of images from EAST at The Vortex here.

See also part two: EAST Artists Tour
and part three: Full Day of Visiting Artist Studios, Last Day of E.A.S.T.

Final Weekend of the East Austin Studio Tour

"My Alien Friend" Oil on Canvas 6" x 6" © 2009 Marilyn Fenn
“My Alien Friend” Oil on Canvas 6″ x 6″ © 2009 Marilyn Fenn

Tomorrow and Sunday are the final two days of E.A.S.T.  If you love art, or just want to see some of the coolest things happening in Austin, this is the place to be!  Visit the East Austin Studio Tour website to find which artists will be where.  You may still be able to find a gorgeous printed catalog and map, but you can also view the catalog online.

One of the coolest features on this year’s EAST website is the ability to create your own tour (because let’s face it, there is no way you could visit all 300 artists, 150 studios, 28 exhibition spaces, 19 happenings, and all the furthermores in 2 days, or even 4, in case you’d already started last weekend).  Go to the EAST website and click on the link for “Your E.A.S.T.,” then start searching and adding artists, studios, and exhibition spaces.   I quickly made a very tiny list, which you can view here, though it leaves out whole great groups of artists. Sorry, I was a bit bleary-eyed, and unfortunately, it seems you can’t add to the list, once you finalize it.  Drat!  In fact, I left out the exhibition space where I will be this weekend!

The Vortex at 2307 Manor Rd.
The Vortex at 2307 Manor Rd.

I will be at The Vortex again tomorrow, from 11am-6pm: Exhibition Space #E28, 2307 Manor Road–a large Theatre and yard located just east of the dry cleaners at Cherrywood/Chestnut and Manor.  It’s deep back behind the parking lot that’s to the south of

I should be there Sunday, too, though I’m not making any promises. I’m not sure I can stand to hang around that long, and I’d sure love to visit some other artists! (So do let me know in advance if you are planning to come to visit me on Sunday; otherwise…you can always call me after the tour if you’d like to visit my studio.

Seven New Paintings (to be shown at EAST)

"Be Bop a Re Bop" Acrylic on Canvas 12" x 12" © 2010 Marilyn Fenn
“Be Bop a Re Bop” Acrylic on Canvas 12″ x 12″ © 2010 Marilyn Fenn

I haven’t posted much new work so far this year (!), but here are seven of my most recent paintings on canvas (on 1.5″ gallery-wrap canvas, with painted edges, to be exact).

The first one, “Be Bop a Re Bop,” was probably done in April. I painted out everything that didn’t belong.

Running Pops
Running Pops, Oil on Canvas, 24″ x 24″, © 2010 Marilyn Fenn

The second painting shown here was even more of an exploration of painting materials and techniques, and the painting came before the title (which is almost always the way I work). The title for it, “Running Pops,” was inspired by a wild type of passion flower that volunteered in our backyard this summer; a flower that grew like crazy over other plants. Hanging from the vines were dozens of wonderful little round buds that eventually became either flowers or red fruit, and they look a lot like these shapes.

Your Molecular Structure is Looking Mighty Fine Today
Your Molecular Structure is Looking Mighty Fine Today, Oil on canvas, 20″ x 20″, © 2010 Marilyn Fenn
Whazzup
Whazzup?, Oil on canvas, 12″ x 12″, © 2010 Marilyn Fenn

This painting is still in progress, though it is unlikely to change dramatically.

A Hole in the Web
A Hole in the Web, Oil on canvas, 12″ x 12″, © 2010 Marilyn Fenn

This painting is also still in progress; it now has a new title.

Luminous Future
Luminous Future, Oil on canvas, 20″ x 20″, © 2010 Marilyn Fenn

Now with a new title, I love what’s happening in this space.

Because Somebody Has to be Fabulous!
Because Somebody Has to be Fabulous!, Oil on canvas, 20″ x 20″, © 2010 Marilyn Fenn

😀

I still have a few more in progress. If I finish them in time, I’ll have them with me at EAST over the next 2 weekends, as well as nearly 40-50 small paintings and works on paper. Join me and nine other Cherrywood artists at the Vortex, 2307 Manor Rd. Sat & Sun, 11am – 6pm. The Vortex is also planning lots of fun events for children and adults. Check out the schedule, map, etc. on the Vortex website.