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November 22-23 all over East Austin
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There are two notable things that jump out about artist Marian Taylor right away: number one, she is self-taught and number two, she is pediatric oncology nurse. She turned to painting to deal with the intensity and emotion of an incredibly demanding profession. Rather than take a class or head back to school, Taylor just picked up a brush and found a great degree solace in the painting process. Soon she was churning out work after work, including oil, acrylic, spray paint, and charcoal on canvas, wood, and cardboard. Her canvases reveal something more than an enjoyable hobby, however. They provide the viewer a glimpse into how art can heal, comfort, and communicate. As she states, “The life and death battles and the strength of the human soul I witness are transformed onto canvas. Each of my paintings is deeply layered to tell a story.”
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What's that you say? You missed Adreon Henry's One Line Drawing's exhibit last month? Well son, that was a foolish, foolish thing to do, but don't beat yourself up about it too much. You are being given a mulligan, and you better swing yourself hard and fast towards Super! Alright! Studios this weekend, as this time you only get two days to check out Henry's new work during the East Austin Studio Tour.
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Most ceramic materials are brittle, hard and full of tiny little holes, not unlike our cold, cold hearts (just kidding). The challenge of working in ceramics is to overcome these faults and make something that can stand the test of time. Zoe Comings aims for that goal and exceeds it by not only creating lasting structures, but also lasting beauty. Experience some of her work this weekend during the East Austin Studio Tour. Zoe's studio is part of the Pump Project, which is located at 702 Shady Lane.
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We're eagerly preparing for this weekend's East Austin Studio Tour; we're plotting our destinations on the map and figuring just how much new artwork can fit in our homes. Although the studio tours don't begin until Saturday, the event kicks off on Friday evening with the Official E.A.S.T. Pre-Party. The party starts at 7pm at the Bolm Warehouses (5305 Bolm Road) and is being hosted by E.A.S.T. organizers from Big Medium studios in collaboration with Bay 6 Gallery. Attendees can pick up an official Tour Guide, snack on refreshments, and enjoy music and dancing courtesy of DJ Anthony Romero. The green-thumbs over at Big Red Sun (1102 E. Cesar Chavez) are also hosting an E.A.S.T. kick off party on Friday from 6:30-9pm. The nursery is celebrating the opening of Judy Paul's new exhibit at the store with art, wine, and a fire in the fire pit.
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Enterprising and adorable, Barber has created a fancy-pants empire out of her kitchen, which you can visit this weekend during the East Austin Studio Tour. Located at 1402-A Kirkwood Rd, Barber's studio is also her home (#141 on the E.A.S.T. map), and is sure to be a real charmer.
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With a mind that seems predisposed towards the tangential and an effortlessly breezy artistic tone, j.haley (sometimes he likes to leave the space out as a response to our internet driven world) creates treasure out of trash, while simultaneously running a million miles an hour and goofing off. These are completely baseless observations, but we just get the feeling that he is either really crazy or highly hilarious. Or both. We're going to find out when we visit his studio, which is part of The Pump Project (#60 on the E.A.S.T. map) at 702 Shady Ln. Until then, you can catch our general drift from the email exchange that follows....
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Screen doors are a fixture of the South, and after a summer like we just had, it's little wonder why. A handful of stylish Central Texans are luck enough to have a custom screen door designed and constructed by Susan Wallace. While a screen may seem like a silly item to invest in, Wallace's sleek construction and creative designs propel the utilitarian door into the realm of functional art. While her screens can be seen at various private residences around town, Wallace has also created sculptural work with the aluminum banding that she uses to create her grillwork. Her large Tree of Life is installed in the lobby of UT's Department of Psychology Building.
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It's not often that we are struck utterly dumb by the sheer force of someone's talent, and it's also not often that we can literally feel the green in our eyes spread to the rest of our body as vines of envy take root. But that is exactly how we felt when we first encountered the work of artist Emilie Houssart. When viewing some of her studies of the human body, our brains were almost tricked into thinking that the person depicted by the stroke of a brush was actually standing before us, and that we could almost detect the warmth of their skin. Far be it from us to gush over someone so, but the girl is good.
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Austin artist Ian Shults is nothing if not democratic when it comes to his paintings. Accomplished in the realist tradition of painting, he has produced provocative images that are beautifully executed with vibrant color, rich detail, and precision of line. In a bit of a departure, for this year’s East Austin Studio Tour, he will debut a new series of paintings more impressionistic in nature that showcase looser brushwork and a more subdued palette. Rather than focus on subjects of conventional beauty, his subjects inhabit darker realms, literally and symbolically. As his website states, “Ian Shults takes no prisoners in the art world, mostly because it's a slimy place filled with scofflaws, hoodlums, and hangers-on. Shults' paintings forge fine art and the profane to tell sordid tales of debauchery with a sly sense of humor.” With skillful technique, Schults, creates intriguing subjects with a generous does of allure and their own odd sense of beauty.
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Texture, pattern and harmony populate every inch of the natural world that surround us. Most of the time we do not stop to consider how beautiful the shape of a microscopic organism may be, even as we are breathing it into our own lungs. On an extraordinarily visible scale, Chris Levack has taken tiny pieces of the ether, and produced poetically graceful sculptures that somehow manage, again, to blend in seamlessly with our surroundings.
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We believe in the ridiculous and for that reason are drawn to things that take a fairly well know icon and turn it into something more interesting, more hilarious, than what we knew before. Jacob Borshard does exactly that. His work is an amalgamation of images that we all recognize placed within a context that is completely absurd, creating a colorful landscape where both our childish and adult minds can frolic.
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Austin artist Debra Broz wears many hats. When she is not working on her art, she is a professional ceramics restorer, writer and co-editor for local contemporary art magazine, Cantanker, and manager of the Pump Project Art Complex, where she also has a studio. As an artist she moves elegantly between painting, drawing, collage, and writing. A lover of words as much as the visual arts, Broz will often include small bits of text in her works. The words are lyrical and unassuming, hovering in a corner or floating in space, waiting for you to notice. In this context, the fragments juxtaposed with the images act as suggestions or open-ended ideas, ultimately encouraging the viewer to draw his or her own meaning. For this year’s East Austin Studio Tour, she will present a new series of self-portraits that are at once surreal and ethereal, but also grounded and deeply personal, and always engaging.
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In the multifaceted vastness of this weekend's East Austin Studio Tour, Morgan Sorne is his own prism. His talent spans the artistic spectrum, but it's his visual art, along with incorporated poetry, that will call viewers into his studio this weekend.
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There is a certain permanence that comes with the word "concrete." Coming from the Latin "concretus" meaning hard or hardened, concrete carries with it a connotation of weight and longevity. Such is the case of the material that the word represents, a medium from which artist Larry Isgur coaxes seemingly delicate curves and buttresses, harnessing the fortitude of it's strength to create installations that appreciate not only form, but function.
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There is a lot of talk about upcycling, reusing and recycling in the world of art these days. Utilizing found materials in sculptures, collages and other pieces has always been popular method of art creation. For artist and jewelry designer Christine Terrell of Adaptive reUse, taking scraps of metal and discarded tin containers and repurposing them as necklaces, cufflinks and belt buckles is a passion.
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The Decoder Ring Design Concern is a giant among the visual communication world that happens to be based in our humble little town. We've long enjoyed the multidisiplinary studio's fine art prints and screenprinted rock and roll posters, but a perusal through their online portfolio speaks to how ubiquitous and powerful the Decoder Ring design team is. They've done the CD packaging for some of our favorite albums, designed Shiner billboards, developed the SXSW logo, and even made Whataburger look retro-cool. Decoder Ring recently moved all of their design and production to an East Side studio space, and are consequently opening their doors to participants in this year's East Austin Studio Tour. In accordance to their penchant for team work, the Decoder Ring designers all took turns in answering some questions for Austinist.
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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. 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).
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The 7th annual East Austin Studio Tour will take place on November 22nd and 23rd. The free event serves as a comprehensive open house for studios and work spaces through out the East Side. This year, more than 150 studios are participating in the tour, allowing interested appreciators of the arts see how talented craftspeople create their work. Many of the EAST studios have art for sale and all offer a unique behind the scenes glimpse into the creative process. Over the next few weeks, we'll be posting artist interviews and profiles of a few of the participating studios.
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