Jessie Henson @ Texas State!

Flyer designed by Jessica Kreinhop.

So excited that my dear friend, Jessie Henson, 

will be giving a lecture at Texas State as a visiting artist on Monday!

The Queen of Punk and Poetry

 Tony Shanahan, who plays with Patti Smith on Banga, 

backed her up on guitar and piano. 

A vision.

My hands and mouth and ears and eyes were surging with a force to find expression as I left the Paramount the other night.  Patti Smith's down-to-earth and brilliant performance made me want to make something.  She read from Just Kids in between songs, and somehow managed to pick out the passages that touched me the most when I read it.  Her humor and smile and light were mesmerizing.  Her voice was the rock and the river.  And, she spit on stage, like the Queen of Punk can and should.

Bikes and Beer @ Tour de Fat

Found

Found painting in a parking garage,

one strange night in September.

Downtown, across from Antone's,

Chris Robinson Brotherhood.

An owl on stage smoking incense.

Katie Bell @ Okay Mountain

Yesterday was a nice day for abstraction.  Day Dusting, an exhibition by Katie Bell at Okay Mountain, is a celebration of materiality and experimentation that alludes to a mysterious interiority through the use of interior building materials, such as laminant, linoleum, plaster, vertical blinds, and paint.  Perhaps that is too obvious an interpretation on my part, but I can't help but think about the private interior space that is the site of all the choices that the artist makes in order to push this work out into a public space.

Now What It Never Was

Anne Riley

Nick Griffin, Philip Harrell, Anne Riley

Nick Griffin, Philip Harrell, Anne Riley

Philip Harrell

Now What It Never Was, an exhibition at UT's Visual Arts Center that closed yesterday, was a show about abstraction and painting, although I think I glimpsed something that said, "this is not a show about painting."  Did I see that on a wall text?  Whatever it was or wasn't, the painterly abstract mark coyly asserts itself in the works of Nick Griffin, Philip Harrell and Anne Riley.  I was most drawn to the collaborative works, where visual decisions become anonymous.  

Colby Bird @ Texas State University

In the gallery next to Tucker's work at Texas State, is a show entitled House Lamps by Colby Bird.  All of the students in my 2D Design class agreed that it is beautiful.  It consists of 100 handmade lamps from found objects and found materials that light your way back and forth along a path, emphasizing the glowing wholeness of the room as much as each inventively designed lamp.  There is a great interview with the artist by Katie Geha in Glasstire, where Bird talks about the comfort he found in going to the studio each day to make one of these lamps.

Both of these shows are worth the trip down to San Marcos!

W. Tucker @ Texas State University

We had a spirited debate about W. Tucker's show, to stand in a boat that floats at The University Galleries at Texas State, in my 2D Design class a couple weeks ago.  Tucker makes drawings and paintings directly on the gallery wall and on weathered surfaces like old doors.  His imagery is childlike, in this case primarily depicting line drawings of figures and boats.  He makes his markings with his non-dominant hand, which was unknown to the class when we talked about it.  Tucker writes, "The use of my left hand allows me to draw in an unpracticed manner, and often rescues me from over thinking the work."

About half the class was really frustrated by what they perceived was a lack of skill or refusal to use one's skill, and the other half was very curious about the choices the artist made and the layers of meaning embedded in his seemingly innocent approach.  It did for us what good art should do: inspire dialogue.