Art Valet: It’s an eventful time in Houston’s Art scene.
“Lauren Luna recently announced that she accepted positions as an art professor at Lone Star and San Jacinto colleges. Luna is known for her Houston skyline paintings and murals.
Luna teamed up with Carla Bisong, owner of Bisong Art Gallery, to form D.R.E.A.M. Affect Foundation. Their goal is to encourage minorities to pursue degrees in the arts by providing scholarships for high school seniors who plan to major in fine arts in college.
Luna and Bisong host an annual art auction featuring local well-known artists to raise money for the chosen student. The Second Annual Scholarship Fundraiser is Saturday, Jan. 18 from 5-8 p.m. at Bisong Art Gallery, 1305 Sterrett St. Visit their website, dreamaffect.org, for information on applying for the scholarship.”
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Art Valet: It’s an eventful time in Houston’s art scene
January 8, 2020 by Mitch Cohen
The Dream Scholarship Art Show.
My high school had a school newspaper that covered all the officially important things. We also had an unofficial paper that circulated with the “real news.”
This week, I thought it would be fun to report on the goings on in the art world in a similar fashion. If you like this, then let me know in an email or comment online.
Martin de Vore, a Humble artist, returned to First Saturday Arts Market this past weekend and painted live while catching up with visiting friends. De Vore uses egg tempera, acrylic and pastel. He was a copy editor under our publisher, Jonathan McElvy, at another newspaper
many years ago.
Holly Nowak, a Kingwood artist well known for her Texas wildlife paintings, snagged available Studio C6 at Winter St. Studios. The space was recently vacated by Diane K. Webb, who plans to continue creating in her new home studio.
Nowak invited fellow artisans Stacy Gresell, Lisa Morales and Chrissy Doolen to join her. Plans for children’s workshops and adult art classes are already in the works. Keep an eye on this dream team. This reminded me of my comment in last week’s column about the migratory habits of artists.
Lauren Luna recently announced that she accepted positions as an art professor at Lone Star and San Jacinto colleges. Luna is known for her Houston skyline paintings and murals.
Luna teamed up with Carla Bisong, owner of Bisong Art Gallery, to form D.R.E.A.M. Affect Foundation. Their goal is to encourage minorities to pursue degrees in the arts by providing scholarships for high school seniors who plan to major in fine arts in college.
Luna and Bisong host an annual art auction featuring local well-known artists to raise money for the chosen student. The Second Annual Scholarship Fundraiser is Saturday, Jan. 18 from 5-8 p.m. at Bisong Art Gallery, 1305 Sterrett St. Visit their website, dreamaffect.org, for information
on applying for the scholarship.
Caroline Truong was awarded an art grant for her mural design by Midtown Management District’s new grants program designed to fund public art and cultural projects within the Midtown area.
“The purpose of the mural is to highlight the Vietnamese community in Houston. Midtown has many Vietnamese-owned businesses and even street signs in Vietnamese,” Truong said. “The mural design will incorporate the southern Vietnamese flag (three stripes), Houston skyline and a boat sailing in the ocean to represent the refugee’s journey to America.”
Truong has been a regular attendee at First Saturday Arts Market. Find out more about her at carolinetruongart.com.
A call for art is wrapping up for the 10″ by 10″ Art Show at Hardy & Nance Street Studios (H&N) that happens Saturday, Jan. 18 from 5-8 p.m. at 902 Hardy St. This is one of those must-see shows. The art is not juried, the artists are all present and there are truly amazing finds. Not to mention the people-watching.
Speaking of H&N, it was there in November that I told you about artist Ronald Llewellyn Jones being the solo featured artist at the H&N Gallery for the 27th Annual ArtCrawl. Jones constructed a fully immersive display that allowed patrons to walk through the art. It was well-received by the public.
At about the same time, it was announced that Jones was one of three recipients of the Zocalo Art In Residence program.
Last week, though, Jones announced on Facebook that his residency was canceled after a failed background check. Glasstire.com broke the story that included comments from Jones, who revealed that he had been incarcerated for more than four years after being convicted of manslaughter and tampering with evidence in 2006, as well as a statement from Ileana Yordan, program director of the Zocalo program.
Background checks aside, the real controversy is the timing of that background check coming in so late in the game. As one friend put it, there is definitely a lost opportunity here. Jones did get to keep a $1,000 stipend. Let’s see what he does next with his art. Follow Jones at ronaldljones.com.
Saturday is artist open studios and The Market at Sawyer Yards. Stop by and visit me before you head over to Holly Nowak and friends’ new studio at 1502 Sawyer St.
Cohen is an artist and founder of First Saturday Arts Market and the Market at Sawyer Yards. Find him at ArtValet.com.
