Click the link below to watch a Fox 26 broadcast for "Children at Risk", and "Eye Candy"

http://www.myfoxhouston.com/dpp/entertainment/100301-eye-candy-children-at-risk

Gena & Anne's old Hollywood/art gallery soiree Posted by Ariel · Real offbeat weddings 7 Jul 2009

The offbeat bride: Gena, Environmental Planner Her offbeat partner: Anne, Art Teacher Location & date of wedding: Heights Art Gallery in Houston, Texas, What made our wedding offbeat: Well, for starters we are lesbians, which is not necessarily offbeat, but it certainly is in the State of Texas! After being together for 7 years, we decided that we wanted to celebrate our commitment with our friends and family. Anne and I paid for the whole shebang, so we tried to save wherever possible. It was important to us for the wedding to celebrate our local neighborhood and be as environmentally conscious as possible. We found a beautiful art gallery less than a mile from our house in the quaint neighborhood in Houston called the Heights. This was the first wedding to be held in the art gallery, and the owners were more than happy to accommodate our every request. We imagined a cocktail reception with plenty to drink and delicious food to eat. We chose one of our favorite local restaurants, Tafia that encourages folks to “eat where their food lives.” One of Anne’s co-workers is a member of a 3-piece jazz band, so we hired them to provide the music for the night. With good food, good music, good people surrounded by amazing art, we had just the mood and atmosphere we were hoping for. We had several activities to entertain our guests. We had someone in charge of a photo guest book to capture a photo of every guest in attendance. We had markers set out on tables for our guests to write on the floor (the gallery is covered with writing and drawings from patrons). Our biggest challenge: As is all too common in gay weddings, we had some family members that weren't supportive of our nuptials. Fortunately, we had plenty of supportive friends to make up for their absence. This did create a hiccup when we were trying to decide the walking down the aisle bit. Our compromise was for Anne and I to walk down the aisle hand in hand (it eliminated the need to have bouquets!) and have the parents that were there walk in behind us to show support. This way, one of us wasn't left parent-less. We were on a pretty tight budget, but really wanted to stick to our vision for the event. One thing we were worried about was the expense of alcohol (our friends can drink!). Fortunately, our venue allowed us to bring in our own alcohol. And, Anne's brother was driving in from New Mexico, so we had him bring down a car-full of two buck chuck from Trader Joe's. That combined with beer and Italian soda from a wholesale shop here in Houston made it affordable…and we didn't have to compromise our vision. We couldn't agree on whether or not we should have programs. We thought it was important to recognize folks who were key in our wedding, but also thought all that paper was wasteful. Our compromise was to print programs to incorporate into our centerpieces, so we only needed one per table. My favorite moment: There are so many! After getting dressed and getting everything/everyone organized to head out to the gallery, Anne and I were able to head out back in the courtyard to spend some time alone after a day of busy prepping and a night full of fun. Anne and I wrote our own vows and hadn't shown them to each other ahead of time. The moment we were finally able to share them, in front of our family and friends, was one I will never forget. Also, the number of guests that thanked us for what we had done. It was amazing to be in a gallery full of such love and support, in a state that is so against gay marriage. The exit! Our friends created a sea full of bubbles for us to leave and celebrate our first night together as a married couple. We headed out to a bed and breakfast in our neighborhood where friends had arranged a special treat of chocolate covered strawberries and champagne to be waiting for us. We joined them all the next morning for brunch. My offbeat advice: Don't be limited by anything! A perk of having a lesbian wedding in Texas is that there was really no tradition to follow, and no one expected us to. Get to know your vendors. We really wanted our friends to be able to have fun and relax at our wedding, but we also didn't want a bunch of strangers 'working' for us. We met our jazz band for dinner to talk about music and life. We spent an afternoon strolling through antique shops with our photographer, her husband and their daughter. Having these moments made our day even better when all of the elements combined. And, we made new friends in the process. Be creative. Ask yourself if you really need to do some thing a certain way. It's difficult with all of these images of 'traditional weddings' have been put in our heads through movies, media, books, etc. to really think outside of the box. I found wonderful ideas through Offbeat Bride and other blogs. People notice, remember and are inspired when you do things in a unique way far more often than when you just follow the same old process as everyone else who has gotten married before you. Don't forget to talk to your partner. It's an event for the two of you and should reflect you both! Lots of conflict can be avoided if you are both included in the planning! Vendor/Shopping links: I can't give enough props to our fantastic photographer, Tracy Chadwick. She was affordable, passionate and created the photographic memories we wanted. She photographs only in Houston, TX. I loved our food! It was local, organic, fresh, and the caterers took care of EVERYTHING. I just had to taste it, pick it out and show up. They also recycled all of our waste for us! The catering was done through Tafia. For anyone looking for a Houston venue, I highly recommend Gallery M Squared. The owners were there for us the whole night, and never said no to any of our ideas. They helped with decorations, and even let us tape an aisle on the gallery floor - it's still there. Not to mention the gallery was beautiful.

002 Green Issue Jan. 09









 

‘Cotton, Oil and Clay’ paintings, ceramics offered at Gallery M2

By: Virginia Billeaud Anderson

“Graves at my command have waked their sleepers, opened and let’ em forth, by my so potent art.” Through the words of Prospero, Shakespeare articulates his love of art. His most powerful metaphor, to call the dead from their graves, suggests art’s vitality. Nothing surpasses the awesomeness of artistic imagination.

Obsession with artistic materials is part of the creative urge. So drawn to manipulating paint and clay are some artists, they choose studio life despite its isolation, loneliness and economic hardships. Society’s 401K -slanted expectations and scrutiny ostracize them further.

The reward for courageous struggle and self-expression is a precious artwork. Renowned art historian Albert Elsen summed up this outrageous schema with words echoing those of Shakespeare. “Art,” said Elsen, “remains like an act of love, a potent gesture of life, a fist clenched against death.”

You have the opportunity to view the immensely satisfying work of two artists who are being driven by their passion down the difficult path of the studio artist in “Cotton, Oil and Clay,” an exhibition of Tod Bailey’s paintings and Shane Tidmore’s ceramics at Gallery M2 on 19th Street in the Heights.

Both artists reveal by their work a deeply felt search. Bailey’s is inner. Dreamscape visions forged with frenzied brushwork signify complex internal states. Tidmore seeks to find his place in the art world. How does one propel elevated training and skill in an ancient technique, the millennia old wood-kiln ceramics-making tradition, into contemporary commercial expression?

Emotional turbulence is Bailey’s starting point. Pain, anger, fear and desire are reconfigured on canvas as vibrant and enigmatic forms. Take for example “Jackson’s Pantry,” a striking mixed media rendering of dissonantly hued biomorphic shapes. A closer look reveals eyes and other body parts dismembered in De Kooning style fragmentation, an allusion to the psychologically fractured self. Emotional fragility is penetrated and translated in this work with heart wrenching eloquence.

“My work depicts feelings,” Bailey said. “as directly and bluntly as possible.” Getting his personal “stuff” out on canvas, he explains, means it doesn’t have to stay in his gut.

Artists naturally support each other. Tidmore, having entered Houston’s artsy scene only a few years before Bailey, encouraged this collaboration as a professional salute. Though its dumb title referencing each dude’s materials and loosely suggesting the Dallas area oil and cotton industry near where each guy studied implies artistic synergy, the exhibition is solely a gesture of respect between ceramicist and painter.

“Some of Tod’s pieces,” said Tidmore, “make me want to paint on the pots instead of kiln firing the surfaces.”

After completing graduate studies Tidmore spent several years studying wood firing techniques in South Korea and Japan. He mastered the centuries old tradition of modifying vessel surfaces without applied glazes. The astonishing tonal and textural surface variations that result from the natural firing process blew him away.

Again, how does a ceramicist who has been seduced by ancient techniques and with infrequent access to wood burning kilns thrive is a city dominated by weird contemporary expression? He teaches ceramics at Glassell. He also works with designers and decorators but creativity-smothering commission work can be less than satisfying. And he spends studio time manipulating glazes to achieve, with modern gas kilns, the devilish surface rewards of wood firing.

To make more “modern” vessels, Tidmore animates them with designs culled from life. Examples are triangular geometric shapes based on Corpus Christi beach bikini bottoms, and, the frieze patterns based on caravans of Hurricane Ike emergency vehicles. He is also inspired by “certain passages in Tod’s paintings.” Further, he hand shapes irregular forms. Tidmore is currently creating an edgy series from casts of body parts.

Don’t think his multi-layered gas-fired glaze vessels are not beautiful. They are eerily so. But he remains caught between a love of natural firing and achieving the contemporary aesthetic necessary for commercial success.

Tidmore is building a traditional wood kiln in “the country” where he purchased land. He intends to make the 25 foot brick oven available to other ceramicists.

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“Cotton, Oil and Clay”

An exhibition of Tod Bailey’s paintings and Shane Tidmore’s ceramics is at Gallery M2 on 19th Street in the Heights through Nov. 16 and an opening reception is Oct. 25 from 7 to 10 p.m. An artist talk is Nov. 7 at 7 p.m. See www.GalleryMSquared.com.

Gallery M2 to host multimedia reception Saturday

Gallery M2, 325 West 19th, will host the show In the Belly of a Dollar through July 8.

A reception honoring artists Patrick Medrano and Katy Anderson is set for Saturday from 7-11 p.m. featuring rhythm and blues musician Mr. Jimmy Dotson.

Medrano and Anderson will also talk about their plans for the Fodice Foundation to save a historic building and fast track the arts to East Texas. The show is being underwritten by Tom and Mary Rollins and supported by Dr. Carolyn Farb.

For more information, check out the Gallery M2 Web site at
http://www.m2-houston.com or call 713-861-6070.

Gallery M2 turning on Light

Gallery M2 will feature the show Light through July 29th at its shop, 325 W. 19th Street.

The second annual themed show at Gallery M2, Light was again chosen as the theme. Any aspect of the theme of light could be explored and changing tenses and meaning was encouraged.

Out of 175 entries received, 65 works were chosen. Artists whose work will be on view in Light include Juan Carlos Arredondo, Janette Arsement, Marcela Garcia Bonini, Blake Cordova, Ruben Coy, Kevin Cromwell, Sue Donaldson, Nathaniel Donnett, Ron Ferguson, Sandy Gardner, John Gardosik, Helena Gijsbers van Wijk, Margo Green, Jill Griffith, Jake Hellback, Vicki Hessemer, Margaret Howell, John Hyde, Jill Ivins, Ross Irwin, Jude Johnson, Harold Joiner, Mary Ann Lucas, Gracie Marks, Van McFarland, William Miller, Jacqui Morrison, Thuy Thi Cam Nguyen, Bob Pahika, Jenny Pascual, Melinda Patrick, Lindsay Peyton, Kevin Peterson, Ray Phillips, Jessica Plauche, Ebony Porter, Caryn Rock, Mark Roland, Adine Rotman, Leslie Roznovsky, B.H. Schamberger, Ezequiel Selis, Micah Simmons, Blakeley Smith, Dustin Smith, Richard Steele, Kelly Swinney, Michael Kahlil Taylor, Christian Waldron and Deasa Wexler.

"As juror I must confess the task of choosing what to accept and what to reject was not an easy one," explained Gallery M2 owner Max Boyd Harrison. "Much thought went into every work entered and I found it necessary to visit each work over a three-day period, so a wide range of styles, media, and concepts would be represented. The end result is a show that allows each of us a chance to examine creativity from many angles."

According to Harrison, the chosen works reflect the theme on many levels and will give the viewer an opportunity to think about what is being presented with a new perspective.

For more information, call 713-861-6070 or e-mail m2-houston@sbcglobal.net A new vision of Houston, through 42 lenses

Exhibition holds photos bound to show even life-long Houstonians a part of the city they've never seen

By Caitlin Cuppernull

Media Credit: Courtesy of Houstonist Photographer Elaine Mesker-Garcia focuses on Houston in her personal work and is drawn to the city's architecture and nature. "Hobby Airport Tower at Dusk" will be on view in 600 sq mi: Photos from Houston

Media Credit: Courtesy of Houstonist Randall Murrow's "Meat" is one of approximately 60 photographs that make up the exhibition

University student artwork showcasedA University art student has recently been placed in the same category as professional artists. Senior Kara Frank was chosen by adjunct assistant professor of art Marie Weichman to show her artwork in the M2 art studio owned by Max Boyd Harrison. Weichman is the curator for the M2 show entitled “Uncommon Freedom.”

Frank said her mother has taken her to art museums and exhibits all her life to expose her to art, but only after she came to the University did she become an artist. “Two years ago I took Weichman’s ceramics class, and I fell in love with the process of art and the intellectual side of art,” Frank said. “I never thought I had an artistic bone in my body until she started teaching me.” Frank said if it weren’t for Weichman, she ouldn’t be an artist.

“Weichman has the ability to take people who don’t think they have artistic ability and find it within those students,” Frank said. “I have that same philosophy that everyone has artistic ability – it’s just a matter of tapping into it.” Weichman said she picked Frank to be in the show because she shows “promise” as an artist.

“She’s at the point where she is ready to xperience exhibiting her art,” Weichman said. Frank has four pieces displayed in the show: “Hanging Glory,” a hanging ceramics piece composed of white squares, “Communion with rt,” also ceramics in conjunction with sticks, and two untitled prints. All pieces are for sale.

Weichman said Frank’s art can be described in one word: organic. “Her art is strong and conceptual,” Weichman said. “It’s very viewer-friendly.” Harrison described Frank’s art as “fresh and energetic, because she incorporates natural elements into her art. It’s very alive.” Harrison said his favorite piece of hers is “Communion with Art.”

“I love the simple line of it,” he said. “It has an elegance to it, but it’s raw at the same time.” Frank said the shadow on the wall cast by “Hanging Glory,” which resembles Jesus on the cross, was unintentional but works well with the piece. “‘Hanging Glory’ is a representation of God’s glory and how the church hangs him on the shelf,” she said. “We as a church tend to pin God to the wall and take him down when we want to use him.”

Frank said she does everything from minimalist sculptures to naturalist, primitive art. She said her main drive is to make people see God as an artist and the beauty God has created for us by joining together art and nature. “So many times we take for granted the things around us in nature, whether it’s a tree that is changing with the season or an acorn that has fallen on the ground,” she said. “Most people would think it is just garbage or unimportant, but I try to take the same things we see every day and put it in my art.”

Frank said many people are shocked by her work because it is original and new. “Most people are used to just seeing ceramic pots, so when they see my work they are shocked because they didn’t know that ceramic arts can be outside of pottery and put into a sculptural form,” she said. “My art is very eclectic.”

The exhibition is free and open to the public Wednesdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. and Sundays from noon-5 p.m. until Nov. 13. The artists in the show will host a free reception with refreshments Nov. 5 from 7-10 p.m.

For more information and a map to the studio, visit http://www.GalleryMSquared.com.

Consulate General Houston Henrik Ibsen celebrations in Houston

Date: 10/19/2006   Type: Lectures, Painting, Visual Arts   Location: Texas The Norwegian Consulate General and the Norwegian American Foundation cordially invite you to the 2006 Ibsen art exhibits in Houston, featuring the official Ministry of Foreign Affairs exhibit "To be a poet is to see - Ibsen in our time" and "Ibsen Art Exhibit" 3/14/2007 :: 2006 marks the 100th anniversary of the death of the great Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. From October 19th to 29th an Ibsen Art Exhibit will be shown at the M2 Gallery, 325 West 19th Street, the Heights, Houston. The exhibit, which is a collaboration between the Norwegian American Foundation and the Norwegian Consulate General in Houston, will feature 6 Norwegian artists with paintings and lithographs inspired by Ibsen plays. Some of the works will be for sale. The official Ibsen anniversary exhibit “To be a Poet is to see – Ibsen in our Time”, will be on display at the M2 Gallery at the same time. On October 26th Toril Moi, Professor of Literature at Duke University and an expert on Ibsen’s works will hold a lecture in the Gallery. Refreshments will be served and admission is free. The lecture will start at 7 p.m. For more information, please go to the websites listed below, or contact the Norwegian Consulate General in Houston. Royal Norwegian Consulate General 2777 Allen Parkway, Suite 1185 Houston, TX 77019-2123 Tel: 713 521 2900 Fax: 713 521 9648 e-mail: cg.houston@mfa.no