This past Friday I had the distinct pleasure of taking over the @upriseartnyc Instagram, inundating their fine followers with pictures from a day in the life of me! It was super great to get to share my process through pictures.
Huge THANK YOU to the incredibly talented Courtney Chavanell for her photo assist on some of these, a real gem that girl!
This past week I whisked myself off to New York City for a quick and busy trip to create a site-specific installation for Uprise Art at the Norwood Club in Chelsea. So much fun to get to stretch out in the beautiful architecture of the early Victorian architecture of Norwood. My first installation work in another state and certainly my first install in a house listed on both the National Register of Historic Places and the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission.
Check out these gorgeous pics of my upriseXnorwood installation by photographer Sam Teich, courtesy of Uprise Art. Wish this place was closer than NYC so I could hang out and look at all the beautiful artwork on a regular basis! Speaking of NYC, this week is the Affordable Art Fair and my work will be up there at Uprise's booth B-1! If you're in the area, pop over and say hello to the Uprise team for me.
I have recently been working on fluffing up my resume with exciting forthcoming projects and the insertion of a beefier new publications section that will include DRUMROLL please...the exciting new book I'm in coming soon to bookstores!
This September the book Collage: Contemporary Artists Hunt and Gather, Cut and Paste, Mash Up and Transform will be available to the public and I am super giddy to get my hands on one. Thanks to Danielle Krysa aka The Jealous Curator for all her hard work and her unwavering support for all of us Collage artists, but especially thank you for keeping us all up-to-date on the soon to be available new book that we've made together. Until its arrival, I've been working on my website and resume to reflect all the exciting things to come. During this time of clerical upkeep, I have apprehensively searched the internet, trepidatiously googling my own name to see what pops up. With amazement and a little embarrassment, I have found lovely little blog posts from all over the world written with such genuine affection and admiration, that after a few I had to take a break for fear of taking myself and the internet too seriously.
One such blog post that the creators Ariel Torres and Sean Collins were so kind to email me about was especially beautiful. Their newly launched site CHROMATIC WATCH is just getting off the ground and has a poetic take on artists and their work. I especially loved their use of "sun, fruit, face" as descriptive words for my paintings. Thank you to Danielle, Ariel and Sean for making me and so many other artists feel so great about the work that we do! It's amazing how excellent people like you, perfect strangers often times only held together by only the portal of the computer screen, could care so much about making a connection through art.
Thrilled to announce that I'm the newest artist on Uprise Art! I first heard about Tze Chun's entrepreneurial vision flipping through Marie Claire last November while waiting for my nails to dry and I thought to myself, Wow! This lady has a vision! Oh, and that her outfit was sassy and looked exactly like someone I'd want as a friend.
Flash forward only a few weeks after that and I received the loveliest email from Christina Lawrence—a curatorial coordinator at Uprise—asking about my work and if I'd consider joining their team. Uprise Art is an online gallery with the aim to demystify the act of collecting and make acquiring original artwork accessible to anyone with the desire to own something that they truly love. What I have enjoyed most about working with them so far is their genuinely positive attitude and helpfulness. I immediately felt confident that Tze and her team wanted me to be a part of the process and actually loved my work and wanted to share it with more people. Fingers crossed that everything goes well, but I can already tell that this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship! Check out this superb interview with Tze in The Everygirl and please take a peek at the other truly talented artists on their roster, they all are fantastic and I am truly delighted to be in such great company!
Image via The Every Girl
I just had a delightful studio visit with one of my favorite Austin photographers, Elizabeth Chiles. We discussed many things from Lavender Vanilla donuts to why not going to art openings won't kill you but forcing yourself to go to one just might. It was a wonderful Sunday morning and ended in a terrific artwork exchange where we both walked away with a new piece to add to our collection. It also reminded me of how important having conversations in your studio can be. It is a space not unlike your living room, intimate and snug, and the topic surely starts out about artwork and studio practice, but can equally end up being about any number of things. Sometimes the pressure to perform as an artist can stifle honest and easy dialogue, but I can say for now I have been very lucky to have eager and curious visitors open to answers like "I'm actually not quite sure why I did that." For instance, over the summer I visited with Adrienne Breaux from CultureMap Austin and we had a great interaction diving into the history of why I began making art and what kind of artwork I am interested in making now. It was a great article and even months later, I am struck by how spot on some of her observations were. After this weekend's visit I believe I am hooked and now want to host impromptu tea parties at my studio just to see what kind of tête-à-tête I can experience!
As promised, here is the scoop on my upcoming plans to jet set to Oaxaca for three whole weeks this summer! I was excitedly accepted to attend a short residency program to learn about natural pigments and paper and cloth dying techniques through the Arquetopia Oaxaca program. Arquetopia is a nonprofit foundation promoting development, social transformation and productivity through artistic, cultural, and educational programs. They are experienced in negotiation and reinvestment of resources for local arts development in Mexico and pair international artists with local artists for a truly rewarding exchange of information, skills and community.
During my Arquetopia residency, I will use my time to learn the skilled craft of cultivating natural dyes from the landscape and ecosystem of Southern Mexico from a wealth of talented local artists. I hope to integrate a richer material nature into my work and provide an intersection of my current abstract painting practice with that of a long-standing Mexican tradition. In tandem with learning these skills, I am also hoping to use this opportunity to explore my identity as a second generation Mexican American and begin investigating the incorporation of these ancestral traditions into my contemporary practice.
It has been 6 years since I last visited Mexico and I can't wait to be surrounded by the sounds, smells, colors and food that stole my heart back in 2004 when I first studied there. More pictures will certainly follow but in the meantime, I am desperately trying to find my acento again so I can at least order a taco without embarassing myself. Ah, the plight of a second generation Tejana!
Thrilled to be included on one of my favorite blogs today! Design for Mankind gives advice for tackling the sometimes muddy intersection between one's creative mind and the real world. Not only tackle it but how to wow it with grace and style! Erin Loechner and her team put together a dynamic and visually stimulating blog chock full of beautiful things and inspirations for greatness. Summed up in her own words Loechner describes her blog as, an ongoing dinner party conversation with me and the people/objects/ideas that inspire me from a variety of mediums: art, fashion, design, science, technology, history. Come, sit at my table. I’d love to have you.
I was pleased as punch to be invited to her party! BTW Her Instagram feed is pretty great, too.
Sweet article in Houston's Modern Luxury magazine from Houston arts writer, Dan Oko, gets into the groovier aspects of my artmaking practice.
Great news! Thank you to artist and writer, Danny Olda, for the mention in this weekend's Beautiful Decay blog. I loved his careful consideration to the material I use and the method in which I tackle composition, so very thoughtful.
LOOK! Super flattered, thanks The Jealous Curator for making me smile this morning!
Oh wow! Andy Campbell, art lecturer at Texas State University and current Art History Phd student at The University of Texas, wrote a sweet interview article with me in the local paper. This hilarious candid shot pretty much sums up my summer studio vibe this year .
You can find a little interview with me written up in this month's local glossy mag, Tribeza.