Our Christmas Tree 2010 - 2011

 Plumbing Tree, galvanized plumbing parts, lava lamps, bubble lights, strings of white lights, seven spinning mechanisms and ornaments, 2010

If you are wondering about the last pic in the previous post, please see the pic above.  This is the Christmas tree sculpture that Rusty created for our home/studio in 2010.  2011 has not been an easy year, and we've enjoyed the tree so much that we have turned it on every night this year when we were home.  We have replaced lights in the lava lamps, and this weekend we will be replacing strings of the white lights that burnt out through the year.  We will also be changing out the ornaments that hang on and around the sculpture to celebrate Christmas 2011.

We may have had some dark moments in the past year, but the light of art has kept shining through.

Rusty Scruby's Works at McMurtrey Gallery's "Holiday Exhibition 2011"

The Ninth King and Realm of Eight

both are playing card constructions, 2011

McMurtrey Gallery generously forwarded these pics of Rusty's works installed in the gallery for this past Saturday night's opening reception. These are the two works that we delivered to the gallery last week that I mentioned in my previous post about Art Palace.  Here are two more installation shots:

pictured to the left: Lance Letscher Atom Smasher and The Ninth Kitchen

both are collage on masonite, 2011

pictured to the right: Sydney Yeager Traces, oil on canvas, 2011

Rusty has given me permission to use these photos that he took of The Ninth King and Realm of Eight in his studio prior to delivery:

the backside/inside of Realm of Eight.  This work was created using Eights of Clubs and Spades.  A ring of black Gatorfoam board has been attached to give the piece added rigidity and to provide a means to hang the work on L pins.

the backside and inside of The Ninth King. A ring of Gatorfoam board has been attached to the bottom for hanging purposes as noted above, as well as a ring inside the "crown" to give stability to the work as it hangs horizontally from the wall.

a side view of The Ninth King as it hangs in Rusty's studio with one of his earlier framed print on Mi Teintes paper works in the background.  The Ninth King was created using red playing cards Nine of Diamonds and Hearts and one band of blue playing cards using King of Hearts.

While creating the "neck" of the open-ended vessel that is The Ninth King, Rusty created a tangential series of works that he has named Playing Card Flowers.  Rusty submitted one of these to The McKinney Avenue Contemporary for their 16th annual Blue Yule Holiday Party.

three Playing Card Flowers

Rusty found other uses for these works as well as enjoying as small sculptures:

Art Market at Art Palace Gallery

Just a bit southeast of downtown Houston in the 3900 block of Main Street sits Isabella Court, a historic Spanish Colonial Revival style apartment building that houses several very hip and happening art galleries and businesses at street level.  Inman Gallery anchors one end with the new Devin Borden Gallery holding down the opposite end. Bryan Miller Gallery, Kinzelman Art Consulting, and Art Palace are holding down the fort in between.

I first visited Art Palace's booth several years ago when they participated in the Aqua Art Fair in Miami, one of my most favorite of the hotel satellite fairs. I attempted to visit Art Palace in 2009 when they were still in Austin, but they were not opened on that summer day and it appears that they were in the process of moving to Houston at that time.  I visited their booth in October during the Texas Contemporary Art Fair. This week I finally had the opportunity to visit the gallery itself, and my timing was perfect.  Their end of the year exhibition opened last week on Black Friday as they presented works by gallery artists with most pieces priced well under $1K and many under $100.

Elaine Bradford Beer Koozie

Pictured above is the first Elaine Bradford to join my collection. It's a modest start, but my finances are a bit lean this year. Bradford first came to my attention as she was named Jurors Choice in the Texas Biennial in 2005.  Since then, I've been seeing her work at art fairs, such as Cirrus Gallery at Aqua Miami in 2005, and reviewed on Glasstire. Bradford has been crocheting sweaters for a wide range of objects over the years; taxidermy animals, trees, rocks, bottles, and more.

 

I was definitely too late to acquire one of these miniature taxidermy deer heads! Her work seems to give a cozy warmth to objects that might not seem to warrant such extensive labor. In an art statement I found online, Bradford states: "The newest work embraces oddity, often full of abnormalities and absurdities. Antlers stretch across rooms, necks extend to the floor, and heads melt together creating these freaks of nurture. It is as though Grandma was playing mad scientist, reincarnating animals into a life of bizarre coziness, nurturing them into oddity. Like a circus sideshow, my sculptures are both sad and amusing, straddling the line between strange reality and comfortable, warm nonsense. Like a simple magic trick, this surreal illusion is all held together by a single strand of yarn."  I hope that I can commission her one day in the future to transform the many dead deer heads I'll probably inherit one day!

These Red and Green Discs, Set of 3 by Debra Barrera were the impetus for my stopping by Art Palace on this day. Debra is the new assistant to the director at McMurtrey Gallery.  We had just dropped off Rusty's new works and in speaking to Barrera I found that she has this work for sale at Art Palace as well as a two person exhibition at Lawndale Art Center.  We were on our way to Lawndale, but stopped in at Art Palace first.

Allison Hunter Portrait of a Dead Bee #4, #5, #6, and #7. Hunter and Rusty were in a group exhibition together in 2008 titled "Stretching the Truth" at the John Michael Kohler Art Center in Wisconsin.  We met her at Rusty's opening last year at the Art Museum of Southeast Texas.  This was a pleasant surprise to encounter her work once again at the Art Mart show.

Dennis Nance Beefside Pillow.  This piece caused me to consider "what if Francis Bacon had made 3D plush art toys".

These silkscreen prints by Michael Sieben were seriously contending for my meager bucks.  Very reasonably priced, colorful and engaging. 

Jason Villegas.  Top Fabric drawings: Michael, MJ, Cash, Andy and Roy. Middle: Self Portrait as Garan and Self Portrait as Hair. Bottom two: Genie #1 and Genie #2. These are all going on my "after re-employment wish list".

High fire works in the background by Chris Campbell and high and low fire works in the foreground by Michael Merritt.  I enjoyed the graphic scraffito images on both of these sets, and I was happy to see ceramics in a gallery show.

A group of watercolor drawings by Daniel Heimbinder.  His works are now added to my "wish list" also.

Tim and Suzette Walker's Vaya con Dios.  They are the owners of Neon Gallery which is on W. Alabama near Montrose in Houston.  This seemed very well priced to me and I am also adding them to my wish list because Rusty and I have discussed having some neon art work made for our kitchen. Someday...

Until then, this seems an appropriate image to end this post and get ready to move on to the next.

PanAmerican ArtProjects at Art Miami 2011

Rusty Scruby's Tree Climbing and Oregon Coast pictured on the inside "L" wall, and William Cannings inflated metal sculptures on the back wall

It's my favorite time of the year!  Art Basel Miami Beach and all the satellite fairs, of course!  I believe there are 18 fairs this year between Miami Beach and Midtown Miami.  Sadly, I am not able to attend this year.  But I am enjoying seeing other people's pics of the fairs.  Paul Klein posted his pics from the big fair, ABMB, this morning on facebook - all blue chip works by world famous artists.

The pics in the this post were taken by PanAmerican ArtProjects of their booth in this years Art Miami fair. The pic above was sent to Rusty's cell phone on Tuesday of this week.  The next two pics were reposted from their facebook page.

Carolina Sardi on the outside wall of PanAmerican ArtProjects' booth

from left to right:

Carolina Sardi Nest Bench, Howard Sherman Guidelines for an Ah-Ah Moment , William Cannings Beachball, Ernesto Fernandez Zalacain Dead End

David Schulze at Farmers and Merchants Gallery

On Sunday, November 6, I rode up to Pilot Point, TX with my good friend David Schulze for his gallery opening at the Farmers and Merchants Gallery.  Pilot Point is about 10 miles northeast of Denton, TX on the eastern shores of Lake Ray Roberts.  The gallery is named for the bank building it now occupies.  A quaint building erected in 1896 that was utilized in the filming of the movie "Bonnie & Clyde".

Many of the original bank amenities are still in place, such as this vault door manufactured by the now defunct Mosler Safe Company of Hamilton, Ohio. Art and antiques now fill every nook and cranny in this charming gallery.

This was a group exhibition.  Several of the artists, such as David, belong to the Outdoor Painters Society.  The exhibition also included pottery by Marty Ray and art works from an estate.

David exhibited his oil on canvas works that depict bucolic scenes around Texas and New Mexico.

  David also showed his Vista Series works which are acrylic on paper that don't represent any actual landscapes but conjure up ideas of dreamy summer time escapes.

I enjoyed seeing these two vessels created by Marty Ray.

There were quite a few of Marty's vessels around the galleries.  Here we see some on the mantel on the far left as well as on the pedestals and tables in the middle.  David's paintings are on the back right wall in this photo.

These paintings by Lin Hampton were some of my faves from among the other painters in the show.  Lin seems to make the light sparkle as she dances with shadows.

Wes Miller, who owns the Farmers and Merchants Gallery, presented hauntingly familiar Texas scenes.  Almost 4 million acres of land which included over 2800 homes burned in Texas from November 2010 to October 2011.

Barbara Maples, North Cheyenne Canyon, print edition of 20

Alexandre Hogue, Cap Rock Ranch

These last two were from an estate.  Both artists were from Texas and worked between the 1930s to the  1960s.

All in all it was a fun day of art in a charming gallery somewhere in North Texas.

Dallas Convention Center Omni Hotel

photo by Rusty Scruby

The new Omni Hotel at the Dallas Convention Center opened this month to much local fanfare. Back in May 2009 we had a city election to approve the City of Dallas building and owning a hotel attached to the convention center.  At the time I was opposed to the City of Dallas owning a hotel.  It seemed to me that there were plenty of large hotels owned by major hoteliers in and near downtown Dallas.  But the majority of voting citizens chose to own a hotel and construction began soon afterwards.  I have since changed my opinion for several reasons.  First, we just experienced the longest and hottest summer on record.  It does make since for visitors to our city to be able to go from their hotel rooms directly to the convention center without ever having to step outside, especially during extremely hellishly hot summers.  I hope that next summer the Mary Kay conventioneers and Texas Teachers who both gather in August every year at the convention center appreciate this new treasure.  Secondly, I absolutely love the rainbow of color that moves horizontally around the outside face of the building.  It adds so much color to the downtown skyline as well as help fill in the gap between Reunion Tower and the more clustered skyscrapers along Commerce, Main and Elm streets.  Reunion Tower is being refitted with new more colorful lights that will debut early in 2012. And finally, I am super impressed that the hotel project chose to include artworks created by more than 150 local artists, one of whom I interviewed for this blog in August of this year. I raise my glass and toast to much success for both Omni Hotel and the City of Dallas on this new venture.

Battersea Power Station and Serpentine Gallery Revisited

There are business trips and vacations that we all take that we remember for the rest of our lives. My trip to London in 2006 for the Frieze Art Fair was one of those times.  And a visit to the Battersea Power Station was the icing on the cake. I love art fairs themselves, but it is many of the side events that have stuck in my head.  And I will cherish these memories forever. This art deco monolith has gained an iconic reputation over the years appearing in the Beatles movie Help!, on Pink Floyd's album cover for Animals, and in countless tourist photos shot from the trains connecting Gatwick Airport and Victoria Station.  The building is now in very bad condition and is not open to the public.  I remember that the (private tour company) bus driver that shuttled us to the Power Station was in just as much awe as those of us on the tour.

We took the tube to Knightsbridge and walked the remainder of the way into Kensington Gardens to arrive at the Serpentine Gallery in time for the breakfast and begin the schedule shown above.

That year, 2006, the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion had been designed by Rem Koolhaas and Cecil Balmond.  It was an inflated translucent structure that floated above the Serpentine's lawn.  It included a frieze designed by Thomas Demand.  We enjoyed some danish and fruit with tea and juice before we wandered into the gallery.

The exhibition up in the Serpentine Gallery was titled Uncertain States of America.  It featured more than 40 artists working in a wide range of media.  A short statement for the exhibition informed us
"The exhibition is not entirely American—influences come from everywhere... In a period where the official political culture of the United States is viewed with great scepticism on the other side of the Atlantic, it seems important to remind ourselves of this complexity. The Uncertain States of America are not only uncertain, they are many."

as written by Daniel Birnbaum, Gunnar Kvaran and Hans Ulrich Obrist.
It is a shame that the USA gained the sympathy of the world after the 9/11 attacks, and then we and our elected officials caused the world to resend that sympathy and goodwill in the years immediately following 9/11.  It made me 'wake up' and pay attention to the global resentments aimed at the US, especially as I was viewing this show far far from home.  And now five years later, I realize that those global attitudes towards the US have not changed and may have grown worse.
At 10:25 we left the gallery and began to queue up to board the motor coaches that would transport us the short journey to the Battersea Power Station.  I sat next to a German woman who had known Hans Ulrich Obrist for many years and she shared many stories with me along the ride.

The bus driver deposited us at the entrance to the Battersea Power Station site.  The Serpentine Gallery re-purposed their 2002 Pavilion that was designed by Toyo Ito with Arup and set it up near the entrance to the BPS site.  This pavilion housed the Tea House by Yauatcha and the UniversalSHOPS.  We had a nice cuppa tea and browsed the wares for sale in the shop for a bit.  But we were anxious to see the main attraction that was quite visible through the large windows of the pavilion.

I actually had chills walking towards the Power Station. I have them again remembering the privilege of being able to step inside!  This is the largest brick structure in Europe.  It is just unbelievably massive. 

The roof of the main part of the building had been removed in the 1990s during one of the first attempts to find a new use for the building.  There was a very nice presentation in a small side room that had a scale model and a video of a more recent plan to redevelop the entire site.  I see, however, that this plan also failed and the current owners owe billions in unrealized loans and property taxes.

At 11a we began to gather in Turbine Hall B to listen to the introductory talk on China Power Station: Part 1 by Julia Peyton-Jones, Kitty Scott, and Hans Ulrich Obrist.  I was awed by Obrist's words.  It is no wonder he was named arts most powerful figure in 2009 and second most in 2010.  Even though he is recognized as a super-curator, it is quite evident that he is an advocate for the artists.  He considers himself, in fact, less a curator and more a utility that allows artists to be themselves. He has been an inspiration to me on my journey as an "art enabler".

After the talk, we made our way up the narrow and crowded stairway to see the video exhibition.

We entered a long dark room that had video screens lining a wall with projections in progress.  I believe another room on another floor had projections on both sides of the main walkway.  There were 22 Chinese artists in the exhibition.  There were a couple of animated and animated reality shorts that I enjoyed.  One of the artists, Ai Weiwei, debuted a video work in this exhibition which focused on a visit to his studio by the Museum of Modern Art's International Council in May of 2006.  We saw 80 dignitaries parade across Weiwei's grey brick courtyard and then enter his studio.  He had hidden cameras beneath shrubs and behind grates.  He edited the film so that we mainly saw only torsos in some shots and only video images of their shoes in other shots. We saw council members looking at artworks on a shelf that would soon would be featured on the cover of the September 2006 New York Sotheby's catalog.

This was my first introduction to Weiwei's work.  I had no idea at the time who he was and certainly had no idea who he was to become.  I love art for that. It is a media that informs us of things and ideas that we don't always immediately recognize as important, but the images, sounds and/or movements get into our heads and stay there for future reference.  Then some catalyst in our current situation ignites a spark that sets our synapses into action and memories come flooding back to mind.

The first and last image were obtained from the world wide web.  All other images and videos belong to Rusty Scruby.