10 Mar Attending SXSW or Not – Two Must-See Spring Art Exhibitions!

SXSW and Spring Break are here, our Airbnb guest from Holland has arrived and I want to inspire you with art. I love going to art openings and art galleries. Art has a way of opening up your mind, sparking creativity, inspiring imagination, and seeing life from a different perspective.  I believe we all need more art in our lives and the Austin area has plenty of it, and at affordable prices too. The above image detail is full of color and texture in the form of tiny square photos taken by artist Thomas Athey.  Wait till you see below the larger image of his fine photography below!

For this week’s Texture Tuesday I want to share with you two fantastic art exhibitions I attended that are still going on right now, through April 5th and May 6th. I went to both of their Opening Receptions, saw incredible art, learned so much and met many wonderful people…great fun!

If you want to take a break from SXSW, art is a great way to escape and dream about all that’s possible in life!

The first art exhibition, FRAGMENTS & FUSION/URBAN BEAUTY , sponsored by the City of Austin, is right smack in the middle of downtown Austin, The Old Bakery Art Gallery, above the historic Old Bakery Emporium. It’s so convenient, you can even pop in there between SXSW events.

There are 3 featured artists: Vickie Flaugher, Laura Sturtz, and Thomas Athey, through April 5th. One of them is a dear friend of mine, Vickie Flaugher, and this is her first exhibition as a photographer. Congratulations Vickie!

Vickie’s a great example of being a multi-talented person with a great eye blossoming into an exhibiting artist.  With a gentle nudge from a friend (Thank you Tommy!) Vickie has started sharing her wonderful photography of Austin.

So if you want a bit of cool funky Austin to take back home or give as a gift, take a look at Vickie’s work as details of Austin are her specialty.  But hurry, cause she already sold five at the opening reception. In fact, below Vickie’s standing in front of one that was taken right off the wall, as she’s replacing them as fast as they sell.

I have my eye on the historic South Lamar bridge photo below (far right) because I love the design, it’s in my hood, and I think Vickie really captured a great shot of this beautiful bridge.

I’ve lived in Austin most my life and knew of the National Registered Landmark, the Old Bakery Emporium, but did not know they created a fantastic art gallery on the 3rd floor of the historic stone building. The front of the gallery has an ongoing exhibition of the history of the building, which is fascinating.  And boy, what a view of the capitol from there! I took a quick shot at dusk below!

I really liked the space and the art stood out beautifully against the stone walls.  I used to work in a restaurant years ago on Congress Avenue with the same kind of interior…in fact it was called The Avenue. Most of the older stone buildings on Congress are narrow shotgun style.  I can’t tell you how many times I walked from one end to the other being a waitress!

Here are two more of Vickie’s friends below….one a painter and another a talented Chef. You never know who you’ll meet an an art opening. My friend Leslie Friedlander, who attended the exhibition with me, ran into 6 of her friends. To us, it kind of felt a little like the old Austin because of seeing people we knew AND being able to find a parking place!

Vickie’s photography work captures details of Austin that you wouldn’t automatically think of.  They’re all framed in black frames and the average price is approximately $150. Very affordable art. Sometimes I like to photograph art out of it’s frame so you can really see the subject matter.  I did this below. Apologies for the glare and distortion from the glass, but I love Vickie’s unique urban perspective of Austin.

Now onto the full image from the detail at the beginning of this post.  The man below is looking at one of Thomas Athey’s “Faces” photographs.  I’ve seen art similar to this, but never learned about the artistic process, and I’ve never seen it up close, or his work.

Each of Thomas’s photographs in this exhibit is made from hundreds of individual photos he’s taken over the years and hand-selected to create his art on an inkjet printer. It was fascinating to hear him discuss his process!

But by no means can I articulate his process, so please check out Thomas’ artist statement HERE and website HERE.  Very intriguing to see his work up close as well as hear everything behind each photo collage. Can you spot on the full image below the detail I highlighted at the beginning of this post?

When I asked where this artist was, someone at the exhibit pointed to the tallest man in the room. Here is Thomas Athey below with one of his “wave” photography collages.  I must confess that when he explained how he placed the aqua wave part on top of the hundreds of tiny square photos he lost me, but this one below was my favorite.

Here’s a detail below of one of his photographic collages, the process he calls Memetics (read HERE to understand his process). So if he’s doing a photograph assemblage of orbs then he uses all his own photographs of circles he’s shot like below. I do not claim to be able to explain his work like he does, but I hope you get the idea.

Thomas’ work has grown from years of taking photographs and then recreating them into a new, more contemporary and unique art form using a computer program.

The third artist in the Old Bakery Gallery exhibition that runs through April 5th, is Laura Sturtz.  What I loved about this particular exhibit was the combination of two different kinds of photography along with Laura’s metal wall art, many of which were stand alone or collage pieces.  Very colorful and rich with texture and in some cases small squares like Thomas’ photographs.

One of my favorite pieces below by Laura Sturtz called “Sun & Sea” made from recycled brass cymbal, recycled copper and patinas.

If you’ve read this far, just hang on a little longer, cause now I’m going to share with you the exciting IMAGINE Art Exhibition for which one of my pieces was selected. At the end of this post you’ll see more fabulous art in different mediums, painting, photography, 3-D and fiber. Read about my artistic process for my accepted entry “La Centinella” (which won Honorable Mention) in this recent blog post “How Small Biz, Textiles, Trim, Belts & Chain Inspire Creativity”.

The 9th IMAGINE Art Exhibition, which runs through May 6th, is presented by Round Rock Arts and features over 192 artists at the Texas State University Round Rock Campus.

Round Rock Arts offers many smaller art exhibits at it’s lovely gallery “Artspace” in the heart of downtown Round Rock, but IMAGINE, is their HUGE annual fundraiser. The above program features artwork by all 182 artists (out of 435 artists who applied) in four categories: paintings, photography, 3-D, and fiber.  On the cover is the 2017 Signature Art “Canyon” by artist Betty Jameson. Here she is below standing by her painting and selling posters from all the previous IMAGINE Art Exhibitions. I was lucky to snag one for this year’s show!

Now onto the event and all the amazing art!  A funny factoid first: While at the prior art exhibition “Fragments and Fusion/Urban Beauty’ at the Old Bakery Gallery, I had run into one of Vickie’s friends, Tommy Cowan, I’d met at an earlier Austin Rodeo fundraiser years ago. Once he remembered who I was, “Oh, you’re the pillow lady!”, as I had donated a large Texas pillow to that fundraiser, I invited Tommy to the IMAGINE event the next night. I had told him I dropped my art off at the Texas State University main building.

Tommy then said oddly, “How’d you like the building?” Well, thankfully I said I thought it was great architecture and loved the layout with the different U-shaped open flooring.  Good thing too, cause Tommy is THE architect who designed and built that building!!!

I had no idea he was a retired architect with tons of buildings all over central Texas and below you see the Texas State University main building all aglow in blue. It truly is a remarkable building as you will see in the upcoming interior photos.

It was pouring rain when my husband David and I drove to Texas State University at Round Rock last Saturday night.  Not really knowing what to expect (as we had never attended IMAGINE), we were greeted by gorgeous architecture, beautiful event decorations, desserts and entertainment, and best of all three floors of fantastic art!

It was a HUGE event bustling with people going up and down the 3 exhibition floors. I really appreciate architecture and I loved the layout and design of the interior of the building.

Here’s the hubs and me below standing next to the glass cabinet in which my work, and other fiber and 3-D art, were displayed.

I have always dreamed of my textile pillow art being displayed in a glass cabinet, and at this art exhibition (which I am honored to be in and win Honorable Mention), my wish finally came true!

Okay, I’m running out of steam here, as you know my blog posts are soooo long, but I have a lot of art to share with you.  But first I want to introduce you to a few special people I met at the IMAGINE Opening Reception.

Below is Vicki Brevell, the hard-working board member of Round Rock Arts who has coordinated the magnificent IMAGINE gala for all nine years.  I’m so glad I got to meet her because this is the last IMAGINE she is chairing….time to turn it over to someone new.  But boy, I must congratulate Vicki because she did an outstanding job!! If any of the prior 8 IMAGINE events were anything like this one, Vicki sure knows how to put on a stellar art gala and exhibition!

My friend and fellow artist, April Sullivan, was also in the show with her turtle yarn painting in the display cabinet with other 3-D pieces. Outside of being an artist herself, April does amazing work as the director of VSA Texas, an non-profit organization that supports and promotes central Texas artists with disabilities. You can see her twin, through the cabinet mirror, taking the picture…and YES, I did get them confused.  I talked to her sister for a minute, thinking all the time it was April. I don’t think I’ve ever met or talked to twins in person! I learned it was a funny common mistake.

I found this tall young gent, Gene Bourgeois, Texas State University’s Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs, talking to my husband and he was kind enough to take his photo with me.  Texas State University was THE perfect place for IMAGINE, as the layout and architecture of the building is so well suited to display over 182 pieces of artwork. What a great host Mr. Bourgeois was!

Next up are 3 award-winners and some new friends from Austin Fiber Artists association which I am member of, thanks to Director Lori Bier who invited me to join at my first Round Rock Arts exhibit last August. (Read about Artists Imagine Red exhibition on my blog HERE).

The IMAGINE art event was so jam packed with guests and there was so much art on view, that I never got to see any of the 3-D art or even know which art won many of the awards for each category.

But I did meet the winner of Honorable Mention in Photography, Steven Ng, and his family, the 1st Place Award Winner in Fiber, Susan Axel Bedsaul, 2nd Place Fiber Winner Marie Welsch and 3rd Place Fiber Arts Winner, Sue Gilliam.

Below is 1st Place Fiber Award Winner, artist Susan Axel Bedsaul, with Round Rock Arts Board Member, Glenda Morrison, giving Susan the blue ribbon.

And as Austin Fiber Artists association director Lori Bier commented in a recent email “I am sooo proud of our group sweeping this (Fiber Arts) category! Great job, everyone!”

Below is the crowd lined up on the 4th floor to see the Award presentations which lasted throughout the evening in four categories: Painting, Photography, 3-D, and Fiber. See Board Member Vicki Brevell posing for a photograph after awarding Susan 1st Place in Fiber along with the Master of Ceremonies, Hollis Bone, on the right.

Okay, it’s not every day I win an award and this is my very first “art” award in my 2nd art exhibition.  I received an Honorable Mention Award worthy of framing, a check for $75, and a wonderful green ribbon.  Surprised and excited is an understatement!!

Now please enjoy below some of the IMAGINE art, all of which is for sale (except one), including award-winning photography, paintings, and fiber artwork.  NOTE:  I photographed many of them specifically without any framing so you can enjoy the detail, colors and texture. (I didn’t get a chance to photograph any of the 3-D).

Congratulations to all the winners (and there were many, 1st, 2nd, 3rd Prize and sometimes 2-3 Honorable Mentions in four categories!) at the amazing 9th Annual Imagine Art Exhibition. To see a complete list of all awards, visit RoundRockArts,org website.

Whether you’re off for Spring Break, here for SXSW, or enjoying a “staycation”, be sure to include some art and see for yourself all 192 pieces at the IMAGINE Art Exhibition at Texas State University Round Rock Campus through May 6th and the photography and metal art at Fragments & Fusion Art Exhibition at Old Bakery Gallery through April 5th. Have a great time at SXSW and please enjoy the beautiful sunny, intermittent rainy, Austin weather!  Till next time, Happy Spring, XO PG

It was wonderful to meet photographer, Holly Hurban, and her husband and son, whose feet are in this above photo titled “A Morning in Vegas”. I particularly love how her son’s feet are in the air lined up with his striking shadow. (Price: $195)

2nd Place Winner in Fiber Art, above piece titled “There’s Going to be a Garden Out There, Someday!” by Marie Welsch.  Incredible detail, color and texture. (Price: $500)

Above colorful and striking abstract painting titled “Wanderlust” by artist Charles Wallis. (Price: $950)

Above 3-D artwork titled “Deeply Torn and Crudely Patched” by artist Carlie Pearson. (Price: $1,000)

Yarn painting above by artist April Sullivan, titled “Turtle”. (Price: $100)

Watercolor by Vicki Brevell, titled “Indelible Memories I”. So many intriguing shapes, patterns, layers and colors. (Price: $800)

Above, Mixed Media piece titled “Mystic Falls” by artist Brad Boyett. I really love his use of color, movement and texture. (Price: $1,400)

Prolific Fiber Artist, Marinda Stewart’s piece above titled “Red”. Amazing detail, texture and beadwork. ($750)

Above Honorable Mention in Paintings, “Cafe” oil, by artist Jane Wells. There are such interesting shapes in every day items such as chairs. I went to Jane’s website and a lot of her work reminds me of Edward Hopper, an artist I have long adored. (Price: NFS)

Above, Honorable Mention Award Winner photograph titled “Keep Calm Go Fishing” by artist Steven Ng. I love black and white photography and this one in person is very calming.  And only when you look at it awhile do you see the bird. Congrats Steven! (Price: $299)

I didn’t take a crystal focused photo, but the texture and color variation in artist Susan Axel Bedsaul’s piece “Birds Together” is simply stunning in person.  Congratulations Susan on winning 1st Prize in Fiber Arts! (Price: $275)

Above, Deborah Main Limited Edition textile pillow art, titled “La Centinella”, featuring layers of vintage French trim, Chinchilla fur and a 1960’s belt. Thank you for recognizing my work with Honorable Mention in Fiber Art. I’m incredibly humbled and honored! (Price: $750)

Above, 1st Place Award Winner in painting, “Sillage” by artist Valerie Bentley. Bold color and arabesque detail in her work. Congrats Valerie! (Price: $650)

Talented Fiber Artist, Marinda Stewart’s piece titled “Our Lady of the Woods”. This piece is a story teller for sure!  (Price: $400)

The two above photos are details of an incredible mixed media piece, 3rd Place Award Winner in 3-D titled “Imagine the Cutting Edge” by artist Glenda Adkinson.  I didn’t get a photo of the whole piece but it was the parts and details that captivated the attention of my husband and myself. Like words in what appeared to be sand, the knives with a mirror behind it. You can see my hubs peaking through. It almost became like an interactive piece of art.  Congratulations Glenda! ($375)

Honorable Mention Award Winner for Fiber Arts, artist Sherri Lipman McCauley‘s piece titled “Black On White”.  Love this abstract and I wanted you to see the close up quilting details. Congrats Sherri! (Price: $975)

3rd Prize Award Winning Acrylic painting “Forest Nap” by artist Margee Halsch. My apologies for it being a bit blurry, but love the swirls of blue and gold in this one. Congratulations Margee! (Price: $375)

Love the color and texture on this 3rd Place Award Winning Fiber Arts piece titled “Fantasy Flowers” by artist Sue Gilliam. Congrats Sue! (Price: $200)

And last but not least, I wanted to mention the two Honorary Chair Artists for IMAGINE, Nelda Sheets and Jean Welty Hestand, both prolific painters involved in art exhibitions and teaching. To see more photos of IMAGINE, please go to Round Rock Arts Facebook HERE.