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.

I’ll Be Showing with Cherrywood Artists at the Vortex During EAST

East Austin Studio Tour 2010

The VORTEX and CHULA

are pleased to announce

an Open Studio and Performance Festival

at The VORTEX for

East Austin Studio Tour 2010

 

When: Saturday and Sunday, November 13-14, 21-22, 2010 11am-6pm.

CircX VorteX, November 14 7pm.

Where: The VORTEX, 2307 Manor Rd.  Austin, TX 78722

Free Admission!

The VORTEX and CHULA present 2 weekends of visual and performing arts for the East Austin Studio Tour.  Each day of the tour, visual artists display their work while performing artists provide demonstrations and performances.  See the full list of daily events at the Vortex website.

The Vortex is Exhibition Space # E28 on the EAST map.

Visual Artists from the Cherrywood Neighborhood include:

Paul Ahern, Cardboard Artist

Stephen Bartolomeo, Painter

Marykathryn Briggs, Photographer, http://www.blurb.com/books/ 1302977

Patricia Chapa, Silkscreen Paintings.

Marilyn Fenn, Painter, marilynfenn.com

Carolyn Green + Katinka Pinka, Mother-daughter team devoted to multi-media collage art, clothing, and accessories from recycled materials, www.katinkapinka.com

Cassandra Ramirez, ceramic artist showing bowls and succulent planters.

Cedar Stevens, hoopster and herbalist, Hoops by Hullaba Loola and Natural Magick Shop

Jeff Woodruff, art jeweler, painter and mobile sculptor, www.metalicity.com

 

Demonstrations and performances each day between 11am and 6pm of EAST include work by Sky Candy Aerial Collective, Drishti Dancers, John Steven, and Tyler, Abigail and Hansel, Nematoades, Haun’s Mill, Los Super Avengers, and Sticky Fingers Fashion Fragrance Show.

CircX VorteX returns with a fall installment at 7pm on November 14.  This Free Circus Arts show features Aerial arts by Sky Candy, Drishti Dancers, live music, and more.  Donations accepted to support the artists and the venue.

 

Chula

For more information contact vortex@vortexrep.org.

www.vortexrep.org

Roky Erickson Performance & Movie

Roky Erickson Performance at 2007 Coachella Valley music and arts festival

We went to see Roky Erikson Friday night at the Paramount.  What an amazing show!  The evening started with a showing of the documentary film on his life, You’re Gonna Miss Me.  It was very heart-wrenching.   It’s makes one wonder how many creative people survive the damage inflicted on them by truly dysfunctional parents (and how many don’t); how many would become creative without being raised in that kind of insanity, and how many wouldn’t… I think both Roky and his younger brother, Sumner, are incredibly brave for displaying the honest tragedy of their upbringing, and the subsequent events, both good and bad.

After the movie, Roky and his current band played an amazingly great set.  It was his birthday performance, and he was totally present — playing and singing fabulously.   Songs like, “Starry Eyes,” “Two-Headed Dog,” and of course, “You’re Gonna Miss Me.”  What a treat!

(Roky was a founding member of the 13th Floor Elevators and pioneer of the psychedelic rock genre.[1])