Cut Your Arm Off

2011 marked the 10-year anniversary of the East Austin Studio Tour (E.A.S.T.), a yearly event where artists (East of Interstate 35) open their studio doors to the public and invite them to come inside and snoop around for a bit. The thing I love the most about E.A.S.T. is that the event is super inclusive and not just relegated to the visual arts (drawing, painting, etc.) You can check out what a landscape architect's studio looks like, or a custom furniture maker's, or a screen-printer's, jewelry maker's, graphic designer's, ceramic maker's, or even an experimental audio electronics person's. It's cool to be able to step into little spheres where everything is foreign.

This year there were 200 stops on the tour. Pretty overwhelming. My participation was somewhat limited due to my workload and dad obligations, but I still managed to see a few cool zones. I started off at Okay Mountain Studios because that's where my personal studio is located. Actually I didn't really start anything there. I was just already there so I preemptively took some photos. We just finished building out the front of our studio space so that it can serve as a gallery. The work we were exhibiting was created by members of the Okay Mountain Collective. The photo above is Sterling Allen's work.

Shapes and colors.

And colors and shapes. Sterling has a really good eye. Check out this rad collection of camera phone photos if you don't believe me. See, told you.

Carlos Rosales-Silva

I guarantee if this was made available to teenagers as a t-shirt graphic… basically lots of money would happen to somebody.

Which one do you prefer?

Nathan Green. One of my favorite painters/peoples.

He tried to explain to me why there was a rock attached to this piece but I wasn't smart enough to understand what he was saying, so I just nodded my head and stared at his face while he was talking.

Ryan Hennessee took The DaVinci Code and scrambled all the words and then reprinted the book. I talked to him about the meaning behind this piece and he explained that he hates riddles and puzzles and also thinks The DaVinci Code is a stupid book. Ryan is awesome.

He also took a super shitty super inexpensive IKEA table and antiqued it.

So good. In his words, "There's just no reason why this would ever actually exist."

The first piece of art I saw that wasn't OKMTN affiliated was this sculpture that was right down the street from our building at the Willow House.

They were in the process of reinforcing the internal supports so that the sculpture could support itself without the help of the chair. I'm actually in the process of doing the same thing right now. Swimsuit season is going to be here before we know it.

I got to check out my buddy Paul Fucik's new design studio: Arts and Recreation. Great name, by the way. If I were a client and came into a building like this I would feel pretty secure in my decision to hire these guys. Good looks.

Always simple,

and super.

They were exhibiting some cool wood collages by Michalovic Wood Art.

And some great hand-painted cardboard signs by Joe Swec. I concur.

Nice touches.

A few weeks ago I wrote about The Monster Show at Domy Books and included this image by Abi Daniel. I noticed that her studio was on the tour and I wanted to check out some of her other work.

I love getting to see preliminary sketches.

Some people just know how to make lines look good.

Some people just know how to make awesome little paintings too.

Wanna check out a lumber company?

Sure.

I'm sure this machine does something awesome. Like cut your arm off if you don't know what you're doing.

Found my graffiti name at a lumber mill. Is "Trash" already taken?

Realized my buddy Aldo had studio space in this spot.

A Duck Toy to terrify your child. Hey, your child is going to be terrified as soon as they can read the news anyway.

Seeing tool sets like this make me wish I knew how to build stuff. My art tools pretty much look like what you buy a kindergartener for his first day of school. I wish there was a class in college that taught you how to be a man.

Wait, I know that thing. The preliminary model for the public sculpture that lives at Austin's downtown skatepark. I love the Lone Star beer can accents.

Good job, Chris Levack. You created a sculpture that is totally interactive. Most public sculptures just sit there and bore/annoy/confuse people.

The last thing that I saw on the tour was my favorite. My friend Nicole Blair had an art show for her brother Chris Cody (pictured.) Here's Chris' description of the show: "This art is called 'My Town' and my place is in Austin Texas of my art and I hope to enjoy my art I did. I want you have fun to see my art of my town and I hope you like it."

I liked it.

Actually, I loved it.

I wish my house looked like this.

I heard Chris explain that this cupcake was chocolate with rainbow icing. That's got to be the best kind.

Seriously beautiful.

I bought this drawing. Chris told me that the guy on the right lives in the house on the left and that the middle section is a fireplace. I asked him what the round shape was in the middle of the page and he told me that to him, it's a diamond. It kind of makes my heart hurt how awesome this drawing is.

Movie Review: I didn't have time to watch a movie this week but I'll make up for it by reviewing something awesome next week. Something like Up in Smoke or Real Genius. Happy Thanksgiving, turkeys.

Previously - Dreams Destroyed

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