EAST Interview: EAST Organizer and Big Medium Artist Shea Little

On November 22 and 23, artists and studios in East Austin will open their doors and welcome the community into their spaces to showcase a stunning degree of local talent. Now in its seventh year, the casual, homegrown event known as the East Austin Studio Tour includes over 200 individual artists (at 150 studios and galleries) working in a variety of mediums with an astonishing array of materials. Throughout the weekend, you can see a bevy of new and current work by painters, sculptors, ceramicists, photographers, jewelry makers, and metal and mixed media artists, among many others. Make sure to stop by Blue Genie Art Industries just to see the mind-blowing things that can be done with Styrofoam. EAST not only provides an opportunity to see what Austin artists are working on, but the chance to talk one-on-one with them in their environment. Much of the artwork is for sale during the two-day event at wonderfully reasonable prices, so your chances are high for finding really cool and unique holiday gifts before everyone else.

The Austinist talked with one of the organizers and co-founders, Shea Little, about the history of EAST and this year's tour. Little co-founded and co-organizes the event with Jana Swec and Joseph Phillips. All of these talented individuals are also artists with Big Medium (formerly Bolm Studios).

Where did the idea for EAST come from, and how has it grown?

Little: We moved into our warehouse (formerly Bolm Studios, now Big Medium) in 2003 and quickly met a lot of other artists on the East side, we got to talking with a few friends about how we should all open our doors one weekend and tell all our friends to come out and see our work and see the other studios too. It started as a real informal networking idea with friends that snowballed into a full on studio tour.

What’s the mission and why is EAST different than going to galleries around town to see art?

Little: Our basic mission is to encourage creative dialogue among artists and their peers, as well as between artists and their city. The studio tour is a great opportunity for a wide spectrum of people to engage with artists and artisans on many different levels, the enormous selection of artists, mediums, styles and techniques has something for everyone and it's a great way to explore Austin. One of my favorite aspects of the tour is getting to talk with an artist in comfortable surroundings—the white walled environment of a gallery space isn't always the best place to strike up a conversation with an artist. I think being in the artist's space takes away a lot of the formality that is inherent in most gallery settings and gives the artist's work more of a context. The studio tour is also a great opportunity to support working artists, which means supporting local businesses.

The interview continues after the jump.