Aurora Dallas 2013 or Aurora Project or Aurora 2013 or Dallas Aurora

Whatever name you prefer to use, Aurora, The Light Of Convergence was a stellar art event with a turnout well above the expected 35,000 people.

Aurora is an art event held one night in the Dallas Arts District that features new media artwork in mediums such as light, digital projection, performance and sound. This year all the Arts District Institutions joined in to make it a 68 acre block party.

This was my second time to be an Aurora artist. I selected a 10 foot square cement plinth to project my project onto, which was titled UP.

UP is composed of 63 photographs taken while hiking the back woods of Yosemite National Park. UP is a simple concept: we spend too much time looking at our hands and feet, and not enough time looking UP. By mirroring the images of treetops and projecting them onto a horizontal surface, this simple shift and change of angle illustrates the otherworld quality of simply looking UP.

Keeping this project very simple is something I learned from my last Aurora encounter. People in crowds never stop for very long, perhaps 3 seconds. In that short amount of time you have to grab them with something that is striking AND recognizable. 

Swirling colors and complex geometric shapes or long slow narratives just get passed by.

With UP, the simplicity is its strength. A photo that is mirrored creates a rorschach test experience. It is what it is but it could be something else as well. The added effect of one image fading into the next so that there is a brief 4 seconds of overlapping taps into the basic human instinct to search out recognizable patterns and solve puzzles. 

The end result is that the crowd stopped. Some people watched the whole 3 minute loop, pointing out to each other what they saw hidden in the trees. 

Here are a few links to Aurora reviews and posts:

UP

Aurora Dallas

Dallas Morning News

Bill McCarthy video
WFAA photos 49 and 50 are my favorites.
FrontRow D Magazine 

Opened For The White Rock Studio Tour

Well, I got so busy with the White Rock Lake Artists Studio Tour I didn't have time to post these photos of my clean and sorted studio.

The studio tour started out pretty slow on Saturday. The humidity was so high that people were covered in sweat and ended up going to only 2 or 3 studios before calling it a day. 

Sunday threatened rain but then turned into a very beautiful day, then people drove up, walked up, peddled up on their bikes. It was strange to be standing in my studio and to see it filled with people.

Happily artwork did find new homes, people signed up for BFS blog, and I reconnected with several art friends.

One unexpected benefit, I got in a lot of practice on my elevator speech. Short and to the point.

So, now I just need to trap a wealthy art patron in an elevator and I'll be set!

Cleaning The Studio For the Studio Tour

Cleaning is a lot like making art, there is always a point, despite all the hard work, when it just looks like crap. That's when you keep pushing, make some decisions, make some changes and then things fall together. Almost like you knew what the hell you were doing from the very beginning.

I am participating in the White Rock Lake Artists Studio Tour this year, that's why I'm cleaning up my studio. It has nothing to do with the fact that the studio has become a pigpen. There's something comfy about dust bunnies, old news papers and clusters of dirty coffee cups. It's like I never moved out of my collage dormitory. Well... now that I think about that dorm room, it was pretty disgusting and now my studio is a pigsty!

So this is my studio after a whole day of cleaning. It looks pretty bad. One thing that always throws me is that in order to clean my studio I also end up cleaning the shed, the kitchen, the office and the living room. It's not just a matter of putting away a few odd tools. There's also piles of books, at least one load of dirty dishes, shoes, furniture, nicknacks, and why the hell is this Christmas wrapping paper doing out?!

Once everything is cleaned and put away I'll start pulling out stacks of artwork and sorting through what I want to show during the tour.

The studio tour is Saturday and Sunday Oct 12th and 13th from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm. There are 45 studios and 5 art centers on the free self guided tour. All are based around White Rock Lake. You could hit most of them in one day on your bicycle!

Here's a link to the MAP

Hope you can drop by, Brad

The Gate Way To The Studio

As the opening day for the White Rock Lake Artists Studio Tour gets closer I'm working on my To Do List. Today that list included cleaning up the yard. As you can see from the photo above we practice a more natural approach to the typical Dallas manicured lawn.

The house built by my parents in 1956 is snuggled under a canopy of pecan trees that keeps everything cool and shaded. The ground is basically overgrowth. We planted a few things like lantana, sage, cacti, and a fig tree. Most everything else was inherited or miraculously sprouted on its own. Not to brag but this summer I mowed twice.

Back to the tour. Thinking about crowd control and traffic patterns. How do we get people from the curb to the studio. Each studio on the tour will have a small yellow sign that says Studio Tour. It's been suggested to hang balloons from it just to make it more visible.

Using a yellow ribbon to act as a guide, we laid out a path that takes everyone from the curb, down the driveway, around the side of the house to the back yard. From there they just follow the sidewalk to the patio, through the beveled glass french doors into the studio.

The studio tour is Saturday and Sunday Oct 12th and 13th from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm. There are 45 studios and 5 art centers on the free self guided tour. All are based around White Rock Lake. You could hit most of them in one day on your bicycle!

Here's a link to the MAP

Hope you can drop by, Brad

White Rock Lake Artists Studio Tour 2013

In 1992 three artists decided to organize a self guided studio tour of artists living in East Dallas. It went off so well they did it agin the next year. 21 years later the White Rock Lake Artists's Studio Tour is a 2 day event that showcases 40 artist's studios and 5 art centers. It covers over 30 art disciplines from kiln formed glass to custom furniture. From incised pottery to photography, and lets not forget painting, printmaking and sculpture.

I live almost in the heart of the WRLAST, and have enjoyed making friends with the artists in my neighborhood. By seeing how they set up their studios I learned a lot about space management and found new sources for supplies. Plus there is something special about seeing artwork and artists in their natural and very personal environments.

A few years back, after much prodding by artists friends I contacted WRLAST about joining the tour. After three years on the waiting list I am finally on the tour!!!

So here's some details:

Tour dates; Oct 12th and 13th

10:00am- 5:00pm
This event is free and open to the public
Studios are located in East Dallas around the White Rock Lake

Here are some links you'll need:
WhiteRock Lake Artist's Studio Tour website
Tour map with PDF download

Tour Map for your iPhone icihere.com

Maps are also available at all the studios on the tour.

It's going to be a great weekend. Drop by and say Hi. Stroll the neighborhood and see some art.

Kansas City Revisited

View from atop the World War monument

I just got back from a very enjoyable weekend spent with my brother and niece in Kansas City. We hit the local hotspots like the Plaza and Westport, plus went off the tourist track to places such as the City Market and the Kansas City Ballet.

Of course with the Kansas City Art Institute as my alma mater, I had to take stroll around campus and see how the old brick and mortar were holding up.

Warwick House at KCAI

Painting Studios at KCAI

I selected KCAI after looking at several other collages including Cooper Union and the Art Institute of Chicago. KCAI is a small school which gives each student more access to teachers. I had my own painting studio space with unofficial 24 hour access and there were no mandatory classes in subjects like economics or foreign languages.

Selfie with Imogene Bruton and Hades

Across the street from KCAI is the Nelson Atkins Museum. It has expanded since I last stopped by so there were lots of new things to see as well as old friends like Ms. Persephone, Thomas Heart Benton's masterpiece.

Looks like Lipchiz's Bather is a bit taken aback by Persephone's clothing optional picnic.

As for myself, I was a bit surprised to respond so favorably to Brad Kahlhamer's  Calder-esque Kachinas. He uses found materials in a manner that taps into handcraft while avoiding assemblage cliches.

On my must see list was a visit to the Steamboat Arabia Museum. The Arabia sank in 1856 just a few miles up the Missouri river from KC.

It was fully loaded with items that were to be sold further up river. Crates of pots and pans, barrels of dinnerware...

...Tobacco products such as clay pipes and wood cylinders of matches...

Here is their conservation studio. It's open to public tours. They've spent 8 years conserving shoes from the Arabia. A truly outstanding collection and exhibit.

On Sunday, the local VW club gathered at the City Market. My family had a VW bus when I was growing up, and I drove a Karmann Ghia while I was attending KCAI. So this rally brought back some buried memories.

The National World War 1 memorial is a prominent feture on the KC skyline. The large National World War One Museum is appropriately entrenched under the monument. The museum with its life sized dioramas of trench war fair and the thousands of artifacts presents the very complex issues of the Great War in a comprehensive manner. The monument itself, a big stone column thrusting upward into the open sky makes it pretty clear what was at the root of the conflict.

I started watching the second season of Downton Abbey, so this museum visit has really filled in the gaps that the TV show can only hint at.

Well, that's my latest adventure. If you click on all the links I've provided it'll almost be like you were there.

5 Preparations For A Successful Studio Visit

As you can see from the photograph, there are a lot of projects underway in the studio, which is great. It's like a cozy cave of self indulgence. But for the uninitiated visiter it's visual chaos, bordering on a  hoarder's hovel.

This week I have a studio visits lined up with Heyd Fontenot from CentralTrak. I personally reached out to him, asking if he would come by my studio to look at a few art projects. The focus of this visit will be on the World Of Nomadic Fungi, a joint project I'm doing with the Nomadic Fungi Institute.

Inviting someone to visit your studio is not to be taken lightly. You are asking them to go out of their way and spend their time indulging your need to have someone look at your artwork. You also have to keep in mind that your time with them is limited, somewhere between 1 and no longer than 2 hours. So, part of presenting yourself as a professional artist means having the artwork and the topics of discussion organized.

As a lot of you know, I spent last year cruising around on the Queasy Tugboat. This visit with Heyd is the first conversation I have had about my artwork with a respected art professional in quite sometime. I'll admit I'm having some anxiety and loosing a little sleep. To combat the jitters I made the following To Do List for myself:

1. Select/edit the artwork I want to focus on. Arrange it so that the visitor can see it without too much competing visual clutter. It should be mainly finished work, but a few works in progress mixed in is a good thing. The finished work is after all my product, what I will be showing to the public. And the works in progress show that I have new and exciting things coming up soon.

2. Decide what are the important topics I want to discuss. I am well aware that once I get started talking I can ramble on and on about art, art concepts, artists and the art world in general, and never get around to talking about MY artwork. So make a list that I can refer back to if/when we get too far off topic.

3. Next, I invited this person because they have skills and talents that are relative to what I am doing in the studio. So, create another list, this one focusing on their special skills and experiences. Make sure to incorporate this list into relative questions; You have experience working with alternative exhibit spaces, How do you approach people/businesses about setting up an exhibit in their space?

4. Talking is dry work, and listing sometimes requires a cool beverage to make things easier to swallow. Think about a gallery opening without wine and cheese. People simply don't linger when their hands are empty. Make sure there are beverages to offer;  wine, beer, lemonade, sparkling water.

5. Lastly, burn a CD with an up to date CV and good images of my artwork. Don't forget to give it to him before he leaves!

Well, looks like I have everything covered. I should sleep like a baby tonight.... Wait a minute,  I haven't even started cleaning up the studio!