Christmas pancakes with Batter Blaster

Finally found Batter Blaster in this area so we thought a taste test was in order. So, Christmas morning while everyone was here, we made the pancakes. Batter Blaster comes in a squirt can like whipped cream. It was fun and easy to use. We had a great time and gave them thumbs up!

Holiday Lights

One of the many things I love about the Holidays are all of the lights.

Santa at Irving Art Center

White Rock Artist Tour

Silhouette

View From 69th Floor

View of downtown Dallas from 69th floor with State Fair in background -middle by horizon.

Begging For A Picnic

Trapped Inside

New Mexico Sky

Touring Santa Fe

75 Dollar Gas Fill Up

Car is in shop so was able to borrow car for week - Yeah!! But, then, I needed to fill up - with premium. Ouch.

Colored Pencils

Bromeliad

Leaves

Backlight Clouds

HCG Gallery Opening - July 11

I enjoy the artwork of both Michael Ledoux and Shane Pennington. Their art looks great together, and looks great in the HCG space.

Michael's work is intriquing. He applies resin to certain parts of the painting creating an interesting 3D top layer that mimics the patterns of the painting while seeming invisible when viewed from certain angles. Very cool technique.

Shane donated the proceeds from this artwork (below) to the Contemporary's new building fund. Very cool of him to do that.

He had several other pieces that incorporated small (really, really small) figures. I was admiring the great trees with long roots, that cast really great shadows on the wall, when I realized there were small figures standing on some roots. The little models reminded me of railroad modeling and architechs models. Sure enough, Shane said he used to be into railroad modeling as a kid. The photo below shows the great trees with Shane talking to fans about them.

Michael and Shane's exhibit will be up through July 27. Be sure to check it out.

Benito Huerta at Latino Cultural Center

Benito Huerta's demo at the Latino Cultural Center on velvet painting was great! More photos from the demo here.

He has several velvet paintings in his exhibit which is fabulous! One is on black velvet and one red velvet. Stop by the Latino Cultural Center and check it out.

Wheel

Chair Shadow

Wrought iron chairs and table in front of Cameron Gallery cast interesting shadows.

Grid

Walkway

Cool Thursdays at Dallas Arboretum

Cool Thursdays Concert at Dallas Arboretum featuring the band, Dallas Unlimited.

Notes

Concert At Arboretum

After The Concert

Ramp

Sign

Fern Shadows

Gecko

Brad Oldham Talk at Pan American Art Project

Pan American Art Project hosted a fundraiser for the Video Association of Dallas.
Brad Oldham, artist and product designer, presented a video, “Collaboration, Not Isolation”, a look into the philosophy of collaboration at his company. Very interesting, check it out here.

Brad Oldham

In the spirit of the evening, Brad and his sister, Robin Oldham, a mosaic artist who owns Smashing Times, collaborated on a mosaic piece. They invited everyone to join in and add to the mosaic.

Robin Oldham with collaborative mosaic.

Contemporary Fundraiser at Victory Park

This was a fun event to benefit the Contemporary’s capital building campaign. The shops at the base of the W Dallas Victory Hotel and Residencies contributed 10% of the sales from the evening to the Contemporary. Kenichi Restaurant provided yummy sushi, spring rolls and pot stickers - definitely worth a return trip for lunch or dinner. The shops were all very fabulous with lots of fun must haves. Christopher Martin’s new-ish gallery location is in this block of shops. It is always fun to visit with Christopher and see his latest work.

Christopher Martin

While in the area, I had to check out what was on the giant video screens. Since there was a Stars hockey game, the screens were playing the game and other hockey related videos.

Victory Park Plaza Super Screens.

Also in the area is Gachet Coffee lounge & books that is featuring Julie Richey’s new series of mosaic drops.

Julie Richey Mosaics

Gallery Openings - May 10

Conduit Gallery
Conduit Gallery was the first stop to check out the work of Ellen Berman, Robert Munguia and Briar Bonifacio.

Ellen’s paintings were so realistic. My favorite was Onion Bundle, which looked like the onions were really sitting there ready to be chopped.

Ellen Berman

Briar’s work, in the project room, was an interesting mix of found objects presented as both framed pieces and sculptural pieces. I liked the hand written notes on the wall beside the artwork.

Briar Bonifacio - art and hand written info

Pan American Art Projects
At Pan American Art Projects, Isabelle DuToit had fabulously detailed paintings of birds. They are painted to scale then perched in large-scale spaces, as if seeing them in a window.

Isabelle Du Toit

In the front, there was new work by Rusty Scruby, Charlotte Smith and Ellen Tuchman. It was interesting to see their artwork grouped together. Their work is very different, but they all are working to have the art project off the surface. Very cool!

Rusty Scruby


Charlotte Smith.

Charlotte's art on right, Rusty Scruby's on left.

Brooke Berman Gallery

Brooke Berman, in her new gallery space on Leslie, featured art by John Miller, Lisa Nersesova and Angela Thornton.

I liked Lisa’s use of string to create line drawings pinned directly onto the walls. One of her pieces reminded me of the background of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Lisa indulged me and posed in front of the piece.

Lisa Nersesova

Opening at McKinney Avenue Contemporary

Tracy Hick’s installation, Global Warning: still/LIFE is so great. I had seen some of the frog castings and jars at his studio so it was interesting to see how he assembled the installation. Tracy placed assorted rubberized bottles and castings on glass shelves lighting them so they cast shadows on the floor and ceiling. Delicate like life.

Then, starting in the corner, rubberized tiles with inclusions radiate outward almost encroaching on one of the shelf installations.

Tracy also has an installation in the project room. It was incredible to walk into the room filled with jars containing glowing frog castings. The sad thing is many of these species are now extinct.

Tracy Hicks installation. See more photos here.

Billy Hassell’s exhibit, Field Notes, is in the Square Gallery. His paintings are so colorful and packed with detail. I saw artist Polly Perez standing in front a painting and I did a double take. She was in a short sleeve shirt and the tattoos on her arms just seemed to blend into Billy’s painting. She was such a great sport and let me take several photos. Without a flash, her arms were in the shadows but maybe this will give you an idea.

Polly Perez With Billy Hassell Art

Check these exhibits out, they are up through June 21, 2008.

Message in a Bottle

Booker T. Washington Printmaking Department participated in a print exchange with university students from Durban and Vaal, South Africa for this interesting exhibit and fundraiser at The Crow Collection.

Bottles covered the floor containing numbers that corresponded to prints that were in the exhibit. For twenty dollars, you chose a bottle and got the print matching the number inside.

inter.sect Art Collabrative at the DMA

I had great fun Saturday night at the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) as part of the inter.sect Art Collective. We presented cell phone videos at the Grand opening for the Center for Creative Connections.

The inter.sect Art Collective is a group of artists making films with mobile phones creating visual interpretations that mix words, sound, image, and video. Christie Nielsen sends text message prompts that are inspired by random words she sees, hears or free associates to the members of the Art Collective. Using cell phones, we make short videos interpreting the text prompts and send them to the inter.sect web site. For exhibits, large screens show the cell phone videos that run randomly across the screen, intersecting as they go.

I made this video for the prompt, Follow The Dot. To see more videos check out the inter.sect web site.

In the atrium, a multimedia concert performed by musician and artist Paul Slocum.

Benito Huerta Talk at Latino Cultural Center

Benito Huerta gallery talk

Benito Huerta's gallery talk gave a lot of insight into his use of myth and imagery in his artwork. I really enjoyed learning the connection between several pieces in the current exhibit and several past pieces referencing what he calls the cast of characters. Stephen Vollmer has written a great essay about the cast of characters. It is available at the exhibit, Maestros Tejanos I, which runs through July 19 at the Latino Cultural Center.

Casual Friday at the Symphony

Casual Friday at the Symphony was great fun. The concert was Corigliano: Percussion Concerto. The conductor was Giancarlo Guerrero and Dame Evelyn Glennie, a percussionist, was the guest performer. It was interesting. There were three different sets in front of the orchestra that Dame Evelyn Glennie moved between for the different movements; Wood, Metal and Skin.

After the concert, the lobby was set up for the Light Bites After Concert Reception. The walls were washed with colored lights for a really cool effect.

Shadow of base player taking cell phone photo of piano player.

Light Show

More lights

First 50-Dollar Gasoline Fill Up

Glass Shadows