East Austin Studio Tour

Went around to some of the open studios today on the east side. Big turnout - tons of people at every location I visited. Happily, ran into Laurel Daniel from Plein Air Austin at the Pump Project, which was hosting about 15 or 20 artists. She is truly a lovely person, very warm and friendly. Always makes the effort to connect people, encourage people.

My favorite artists at this location were Matt Wester, who had beautifully crafted and thoughtful paintings based on photos he took as a journalist in the Middle East, and Mark Johnson, whose space was too crowded for me to stay as long as I really wanted to, but whose works fascinated me. There were several pieces that seemed to be about letters, words, codes. It's just totally coincidental (swear) that both of these artists were tall and handsome and articulate. Heh heh.

Also enjoyed the paintings of Doug Weber.

Was also quite intrigued by the paintings of Rebecca Bennett, who Laurel introduced me to. Her works look like landscapes but she said that was not her source. Her colors were very saturated and shiny. So I intend go read up on her on her web site.

Then moved on to Blue Genie, where I spotted this:

From nov22_2008

It is, of course, a white-spandex clad superhero dude riding a giant Jackelope.