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Kill the Engine

Okay Mountain E.A.S.T. Tour

The East Austin Studio Tour is a yearly self-guided tour in Austin, Texas where artists from all walks of life open their studio doors to the public.

The East Austin Studio Tour is a yearly self-guided tour in Austin, Texas where artists from all walks of life open their studio doors to the public. The tour includes painters, illustrators, sculptors, landscape architects, woodworkers, furniture designers, conceptual artists, artists who like to glue stuff together, artists concerned with textiles, jewelry designers, photographers, digital artists, videographers, screen printers, glass blowers… you get the idea.

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I co-own an art space/studio space in Austin called Okay Mountain, which seemed like a good place to start the tour.

Okay Mountain is conveniently located at 1619 E. Cesar Chavez St. It's really easy to find, just look for the trash cans next to the funeral home.

Although E.A.S.T. is technically a "self-guided" tour, I thought I'd walk you through our space. If you want to do it yourself just look at the pictures and don't read the words. I have a sneaking suspicion that's what most of you will be doing anyway.

Inside the gallery space at Okay Mountain we're exhibiting work by the four Okay Mountain members who currently live in or near Austin. Including Nathan Green who recently relocated to Dallas, Texas.

Nathan makes abstract images using a variety of techniques and materials—often incorporating common household items into his work. This one looks like wood panelling, paint, and wood glue.

And I'm pretty sure this is a bunch of kitchen sponges glued together.

Yes, it would appear so. This really isn't the best setting for Nathan's work. It's definitely a better viewing experience when you can see his pieces incorporated into an installation or a more immersive show. Go check out his website to get a better idea of what he's doing.

Fifteen drawings by Sterling Allen.

I'm pretty sure all of these are drawn from images found using Google image search.

Sterling worked as a caricature artist at Sea World when he was in high school, and he has one of the quickest, smoothest (error-free) drawing styles of anybody I know. These are all pencil on paper with no eraser needed.

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I wonder what he was searching to find this image? Sterling makes a lot of stuff besides drawings too. If you don't believe me, go look at his portfolio site. See, I told you.

Twenty drawings by Ryan Hennessee.

Ryan is one of those illustrators who can accurately draw anything. Including pizzas and skulls.

Cool decrepit old houses.

And weird old dudes with birdhouse walking sticks. Ryan's drawing output is pretty staggering. If you want to check out a bunch of his other work, check out his site.

I have a bunch of recent (and not so recent) screen prints on display, but I feel like I've promoted my work sufficiently enough with this column not to go into any more detail than that.

In the back of Okay Mountain there are nine separate studio spaces that are occupied by a wide-range of artists. A few of them had their spaces open to the public, but the rest of the studio tenants apparently wanted to create an aura of mystery surrounding their work by shrouding their activities in secrecy. Or maybe they just didn't want a bunch of strangers digging around in their studios. Hard to say. Here's a cool drawing of a shark by Anthony Garza. My shadow ins't part of the drawing, it's just my shadow.

Kevin Munoz' studio space. I'm not going to go into much (any) detail about the rest of the work in the studio because I don't have nearly the amount of intimate knowledge about the studio tenants' work as I do the Okay Mountain Collective members' art, and I don't want to misrepresent their intentions.

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More of Kevin's work can be seen here.

Sarah Milbrath's studio space.

More of Sarah's work can be seen here.

This way to Sophie Roach's studio space.

More of Sophie's work can be seen here.

So that concludes the Okay Mountain E.A.S.T. tour. Next weekend I'll venture further out on the tour and take some photos of spaces that I have no affiliation with. In all truthfulness I just stopped by Okay Mountain yesterday to drop something off and then remembered that my VICE column was due today. Glad I had my camera with me.

Previously - An Interview with Todd Falcon