Craftastic Event: Glam, Glitter & Gore, Oct. 23

We're teaming up with local artist Jennifer Cunningham to present a super-fun, seasonal art, fashion & shopping extravaganza! It will be on Saturday, Oct. 23, with a variety of activities going on throughout the day and night. However, you can see the Glam, Glitter & Gore art installation by Jennifer & a slew of other awesome resident artists at Starving Art Studios/EAT during the whole month of October.

Starting at noon, the indoor artist market, food trailers and outdoor art & craft vendors will all be open to the public. There will be family-friendly craft projects, face painting, and various other fall festival activities going on.

From 6-10pm we'll have evening programming for the adults, including a closing reception for the in-house artist exhibition, drinks, live music by Auroravore, Tai Collins & others TBD, a costume contest, photo booths & more! The main attraction will be a fabulous fashion show featuring collaborative collections by Jennifer Cunningham, Anslee Connell & Megan Summerville.

Wearable and visual art will be available for sale in all sorts of shapes, sizes, and price ranges, so come on out & support a fantastic array of local artists all in one spot! We'll also be celebrating the birthdays of Beth H. (that's me!), Beth A. and Sue Zola (Austin's acclaimed glitter art diva) with fun and fabulous surprises!

For more info, check out Jennifer's Austin Wearable Art Examiner article and the Facebook event page. Hope to see you all there!

Inspiring Places: The Blanton Museum of Art

Re-posted from Crafty Mishmash, 8/22/10.

I recently visited the Matisse as Printmaker exhibit at The Blanton and fell in love. I hadn't set foot in this lovely little gem of a museum on The University of Texas campus since I was an art student at UT, and I'm really glad I've rediscovered it.

This collection of etchings, lino-cuts, lithographs & other prints by Henri Matisse was phenomenal! I've been a big admirer of his work since I first saw his Woman in a Purple Coat at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston on a high school field trip. Getting a long look at that wondrous painting up close & personal had a powerful effect on me and influenced my decision to pursue an art degree.

What has always astounded me about Matisse's work is his extremely adept handling of line. He had an uncanny ability to capture the essence of his subject matter with a few perfectly placed, wonderfully expressive lines. Matisse's magical way with line holds true for all of his artwork, be it a seemingly simple painting of lemons in a bowl or one of his colorful paper collages, but I find it especially lovely in the portraits he drew.

His Young Woman Contemplating a Goldfish Bowl (below), one of a series of etchings of women gazing at goldfish in a bowl, really knocked me out. I love the little details: the curls of hair, the overlapped hands and the way the ladies' chins rest on them, and of course the shapes of the goldfish themselves, all suggested by a few carefully observed lines. These lines by Matisse never seem over-worked. He placed them confidently & gracefully, without regard to perfection, which imparts so much energy and expressive character to his work.

Unfortunately, the Matisse as Printmaker exhibit at The Blanton is now closed & will soon be heading up to Canada for a showing at the Art Gallery of Alberta. But The Blanton has tons more to offer! They have very impressive & renowned permanent collections as well as an ongoing variety of temporary exhibitions.

And get this, admission is free every Thursday! How great is that? Get on over to The Blanton & treat your eyes to some fabulous art! Find all the details on their Visit page.

Young Woman Contemplating a Goldfish Bowl