Artcrawl has got a Posse

New work by Chuy Benitez for our Artcrawl flyers!

Outake shots from around the neighborhood coming soon...

Come Out and Play

Down at the Sculpture department of University of Houston, the Association of Student Sculptors and the Art History Association present the first Film Night of the semester with a short film by new faculty member Cory Wagner, a performance by Nancy Douthey and Deep Throat on the big screen!

Beer and snacks, good conversation for all! If you are in the U of H art or art history department come out and meet your peers from across campus, and the same goes for you sculptors! Artists from across Houston interested in getting to know some of the young crowd working at the University come out and play!


Thursday, November 8th
starts at 6:30pm at the Sculpture Annex, University of Houston
just south of the corner of Wheeler and Cullen, next to the bayou
call the Art History Association at 832-724-9464 for more information or directions.

A Short Conversation with William Betts

Verge of Certainty, 2004

What common denominator links your diverse raw imagery? Between the abstract digital images that make up the stripe paintings, surveillance photographs for the dot paintings and most recently your Moiré random patterning; what brings you to choose your original subjects?

There is always a common denominator to a body of work, seeing it just depends on how far back you are standing. Each of my investigations is initially based on personal experiences as perceived through transformative technologies. One evolves out of the other and the lineage is quite clear to me.

For example, the stripe paintings began as an effort to paint the blurred images I photographed looking out of moving car windows taken while driving cross country. The Traffic Cam paintings pick up that thread as seen through the surveillance work. The surveillance work came about after seeing images of the London bombers all over the news. Having lived in London and traveled the same tube stops, I felt quite shaken by the events and began the series in response. The Moiré paintings are based solely on technical possibilities I observed while making the stripe paintings; the random dot patterns evolved from early experiments applying drips of paint while working with random color generators. They're all connected.

Skinhead, 2007

Where does the rigidity of your process come from? Does the fabrication of your artwork dictate your expression?

The rigidity of the process comes from the equipment. It can really be quite dangerous, so you have to be necessarily rigorous or the consequences can be severe. I do like the structure of the process. If anything, I see a circular influence between the fabrication and the expression. This framework allows me to examine and understand things in a defined space.

M-0309, 2007

There seems to be parity between what the image was and what it could be. Does technology focus your ambiguity?

The systems were designed to be a transparent process. That was the goal at least, but I think they inevitably have the effect of eroding specifics- which I kind of like. Over time one learns the degree to which erosion and any potential shifting occurs, and the ability to apply it in a deliberate fashion becomes recycled into the process.

Software controlled linear motion machines are a basic tool of much of your work, how do its computer languages and specific limitations help limit alternatives?

All of my work is fundamentally digital in nature. As long as I continue to work in that manner, I really do not feel any constraints. Programming languages really do not constrain, they provide another layer of alternatives. Beyond the programming itself, the process has its own language there is a great deal of expressive latitude once the grammar is understood. Technology provides me with location, specifically and accurately, and the action I execute in a specific event is really what I am interested in- applying paint or what have you.

Do you feel a curatorial element in your artistic practice? By removing your 'hand' from the art making, is your position in relation to painting open to more choices?

Over a body of work a relationship to one’s choices becomes obvious; they narrow the viewer's position regardless of the artist's intent. I do think there is a curatorial element to my practice but it is only over a very narrow horizon. I view my relationship with the work less as a critique and more as champion pushing from the inside.

How do you view the difference between artist and artisan?

The differences are based on economic intent, not on tools or methods.

Given the theoretical lack of authorship in post modernism, in what ways is your personality and demeanor invested in your paintings?

I develop the conceptual framework, select and refine images, determine variables, select colors, mix paint and oversee the technical process. Inevitably these activities reflect my personality and demeanor simply by the choices of which processes and methods I use to make my work. These are not arbitrary inputs; they are the sum of my investment- the reality of the finished work.

Where are you going next with your practice?

If I knew that I would be doing it already.

Shellout

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Diverseworks Drawings

Devendra Banhart – Some Drawings
November 9 - December 15, 2007

Devendra Banhart by Mitch Meseke

Opening reception: Friday, November 9, 6-8pm

"Known mostly for his catalogue of folk music songs that some have described as “psychedelic,” Devendra Banhart is a San Francisco-based artist and musician whose small, fine-line ink drawings combine strange and sometimes beastly human and animal figures, ornamental framing devices, abstract symbols and bits of language to create oddly charming works that defy definition. Intimate and hypnotic, Banhart’s works on paper share affinities to Tantric diagrams and Indian narratives, giving rise to fantastic private worlds."

Looks like James Surls to me, and that's cool, man...

houston swap, subscribe!

NO BUSH, Wendy Tremayne and Marina Potok, 2003

Coming in the spring, the upcoming local Swap-O-Rama-Rama! Houston artist Mary Keene is currently planning for the swap to take place around Valentines day in Downtown. Sign up for the mailing list to stay posted!

SIGN UP HERE!:: houstonswap-subscribe@gaiatreehouse.com

Wendy Tremayne's decentralized project Swap-O-Rama-Rama is a clothing swap and series of do-it-yourself workshops in which communities explores creative reuse through the recycling of used clothing.

Here's a few tips on what to bring...

* clothes you bought and never wore

* small stuff you bought while thinking "I'll fit in to this one day"

* tragic shopping mistakes

* well worn and loved items that have exceeded their stay in the closet

* unloved gifts that you held on to out of obligation

Bring: Clothes in season: jackets, wallets, hats, pants,shirts, skirts, shoes, gloves, belts, accessories, jewelry, sunglasses, bags, costumes, lingere, pjs etc. Only clothes please!

Do Not Bring: books, bikes, vases, lamps etc... If you cant wear it, dont bring it!

Quantity is not important. Come with a little or a lot, whatever you got.

Swap-O-Rama-Rama is for boys, girls, men, women.

Good to Know

Bloggers- or anyone else- are unable to be sued by governments for libel! Galveston County article HERE. Feel free to be cheeky to city, county, state, and federal governments.

Friendzgiving 2007

Friendzgiving 2007

The Young Republic (check out their collaborative blog!) is pleased to announce their 4th annual event "Friendzgiving." Continuing the conceptual idea of art events based on holidays, Friendzgiving is a time for friends, artists, writers and associates from around Texas to come together to cook and share a Thanksgiving dinner. While doing so, participants will make traditional Thanksgiving crafts, decorated pilgrim hats and turkey hands. The event will take place at the joanna Gallery, a gallery in a converted house with a full kitchen.

Friendzgiving dinner will be held on November 15th. The gallery opening on the 17th will display crafts made from the event, including video of the preparation and eating of the dinner. Leftovers will be served.

Each dinner participant has a dish to complete. No participant should spend more than $10 on ingredients.

Dinner menu:
Turkey
Stuffing
Cranberry sauce (jellied and fresh)
Mashed potatoes
Sweet potatoes
Green bean casserole
Rolls
Pumpkin pie

Participants include:
Daniel Adame (stuffing)
Seth Alverson (turkey team)
Elaine Bradford (pie team)
Rachel Cook (sweet potatoes team)
Katie Haught (stuffing)
Cody Ledvina (rolls)
Lindsay Kayser (sweet potatoes team)
Gene Morgan (turkey team)
JoAnn Park (mashed potatoes team)
Brian Rod (green bean casserole)
Jenny Schlief (mashed potatoes team)
Gina Sonderegger (pie team)
Raymond Uhlir (turkey team)
Laura White (cranberry sauce)
Eric Zimmerman (green bean casserole)

It is the stated goal of the Young Republic to promote progressive thoughts and artistic expressions, and through the malleability of organizational frameworks in fresh and exciting ways. The conceptual structure of the Young Republic is not entirely dissimilar from the art that it promotes, changing to fit into the same progressive mind frame of the artists it exhibits. All coordinated events are prepared in hopes of creating a forum for the exchange of creative and invigorating discussion through performative events rooted in visual culture and the major fine arts.

Another Artcrawl Show!

Saturday, November 17
2-9 pm
FREE

MAIN GALLERY
CSAW artist exhibition

BIG SPACE
Mass Distraction
Sponsored by the Association of Student Sculptors (UH).
Juried and curated by Meredith Goldsmith.

Meredith Goldsmith, mass distraction jurior, (second-year resident) received her MA in visual criticism from California College of Arts in 2005 and her BA in art history from California State University at Chico in 2001. She has written articles and reviews for ArtLies, X-tra Magazine, Artweek, Oakland Tribune, Mesh Magazine, Bridge Magazine, Ten by Ten, and Art Papers. She has curated exhibitions at PLAySPACE Gallery, San Francisco.

Not Forgotten

Rachel Cook is leaving glasstire.com and Kelly Klaasmeyer is the new Articles Editor... Cook will be staying in Texas for the near future and looks to get back to making artwork again. The Houston native has been living in Austin for the past year, and takes the time to keep up with Houston art jetting back and forth down 290. Check out the hornet's nest Rachel stirred up after curating an exhibit in Wichita Falls this summer HERE.

"I spent three years at Glasstire and now I think it is time for
someone else to push the site forward."
Look out Kelly, them's some big expectations!

Worth It?

Kamakazi Films and Breathing in the Now Productions will be holding a casting call for the philosophical, dark romantic comedy '12 Minutes to Heaven' this Saturday November 10, 2007 from 10 am to 2pm. We are looking for dedicated and creative female actresses between ages 18 to 28 of all races. Please prepare a 1 to 5 minute monologue. There will also be a cold reading from the screenplay. Everyone involved in the production will receive film credit and a DVD for demo purposes. The film will be going to various festivals in 2008.

For more info and a synopsis of the film check out www.myspace.com/eternaltherapy

Auditions will be held at

33 Lyerly
Suite B7
Houston, TX 77022

For more information and to view a screenplay contact us at

(832)585-3116
Kamakazifilms@yahoo.com

Thank you,
Evan and Lauren

Rockin'

this should especially be good since a lot of the artists are printmakers as well,
look for good silkscreens from DUAL and maybe some monoprints from YAR!