AUSTIN ART TALK - Brian Daly - Part 1 - Rendered

Sometimes it can take a lot to ask for help. Artist Brian Daly realized nineteen months ago that even though he had already survived hitting bottom a few times before, this time might be his last. Through years of ups and downs, Brian acquired the skills to create almost anything as a fabricator while also from a young age continuing to further his drafting and artistic talents.

In this first part of two episodes, he shares in vivid detail, reminiscent of his drawings, the epic and tumultuous journey he has been on, up until getting clean and sober and focusing his energy and recovery into his art. The paper and ink drawings he creates as a literal meditation, are beautiful and precise in their rendering, allowing him to share a glimpse of his inner world, imagination, and lifelong fascination with tools and the mechanics of objects.

The second part of our conversation, Episode 98, goes into more detail about his current life and artistic practice.

Meet Kevin

So I’ve been spending a lot more time on YouTube lately. One personality that I have been following since I’ve been getting more interested in the stock market is this guy Kevin. He’s a multimillionaire who lives in California with his wife and two kids. He got his start in real estate and built up his wealth to the point now where has over 20 million dollars invested in the market. He’s very transparent about his trades and shares all the details.

Every weekday during the open and close of the stock market he does live commentary and it can get quite entertaining. For only being 29 he sure seems to have a lot of what seem like pretty interesting and intelligent insights about a lot of things. Kevin also posts other reaction videos and news and ofter live streams other events related to money and the government. Check him out!

He’s inspired me to focus some energy on creating my own YouTube channel. Not that I think I can make $500,000 a month in ad revenues like him, but I do think I can start with my podcast audio and eventually get to creating new videos and interviews specifically for that platform. Should be fun. We will see!

AUSTIN ART TALK | Nick Schnitzer - Creating Our Future

Nick Schnitzer is very passionate about art and helping artists thrive. That's in addition to his love of architecture, woodworking, teaching and mentoring young people, travel, his family, and most of all living an aware, considerate, humble, and generative life. He's a talented and capable craftsperson who can design and create almost anything he puts his mind and body into doing.

His public art and exhibitions often highlight environmental and political challenges and strive to build community and connect people and ideas, all towards the very important goal of improving lives and raising the awareness of issues in our culture and society that need more energy and attention. Important work!

I love Nick's energy, focus, integrity, and the way he strives to improve himself and those around him. He has a big heart and it's very obvious in the interview. Please enjoy!

“Let’s continue to make beautiful things. Let’s respect ourselves and think about the future. Let’s make some money. Let’s be generous with our money. Let’s protect ourselves and the planet. Let’s be more responsible. Let’s be more grateful.”
— Nick Schnitzer

AUSTIN ART TALK | Joyce Howell - Expressing The Abstract

As an adult, after working many jobs in the business world and raising her daughters' artist Joyce Howell decided to go back to school to study art and eventually achieved her master's degree. She started out painting in a very representational style but in graduate school found the encouragement and a strong desire to create abstract works that expressed more of her internal reality and how she processed everything in her world.

For the last almost 25 years Joyce has been committed to her studio practice and has participated in many solo and group exhibitions. She creates colorful and often atmospheric abstract paintings that without a doubt contribute to the joy and beauty experienced through art that we all need in our lives and our homes.

Mujer Pintada, 2021, oil on canvas, 42x42 inches

Mujer Pintada, 2021, oil on canvas, 42x42 inches

She has been represented in Austin by Wally Workman Gallery for over 10 years! Be sure to make an appointment and see her work in person.

Joyce Howell: Solo Show
March 6-27, 2021

Wally Workman Gallery

"Howell’s palette is informed by nature and its flux between calm and chaos. She describes it as an ongoing conversation. Each color and the mark by which it is applied to the canvas informs the next. Colors give the impression of physical weight. Colors become instruments, much as in a musical composition. As the work progresses, the painting becomes a collaborative, a dialogue between Howell and the canvas. This is her 8th solo show with the gallery."

Bucky Miller | Slow Season @ grayDUCK Gallery

What a joy it was to meet Bucky Miller when I went to grayDUCK Gallery this week to record an interview with him and Jill the gallery owner, and also photograph the exhibition. He is a delightfully charming and interesting person and I really like his photography. Some of the images remind me of my own work and there are also images I would never have thought to capture that are really beautiful. Have a listen to the short conversation and then make an appointment and have a look for yourself!

Exhibition Dates: February 26 – March 28, 2021

“Bucky Miller is an artist, writer, and a recipient of the Aaron Siskind Foundation Individual Photographer’s Fellowship. His work has been shown in solo exhibitions at spaces such as the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston as well as in numerous group exhibitions. His first self-published book, The Picture of the Afghan Hound, was selected as one of Photo-eye’s best photobooks of 2016. Miller’s work has also been featured in publications like n+1, Der Greif, The Believer, and Glasstire. He has an MFA from the University of Texas at Austin and a BFA from Arizona State University. He also resided in London as part of an exchange with the Royal College of Art program in sculpture. In 2018 he attended the Recycled Artist in Residency program in Philadelphia, PA. Bucky is from Phoenix, AZ but currently lives in Houston, TX.”

Transplant Sale at JBG

It’s quite amazing to me that the farm where I work was still able to have a transplant sale just one week after the crazy winter storm we had here in Texas. Someone had to brave the cold and ice to visit the greenhouses and keep all of the plants watered and warm. Amazing! A lot of hard work went into preparing for this event. Here are a few images from last weekend. I always like to try to capture kids shopping with their parents. They are cute and are it seems starting off life on the right foot, with gardening!

One Red Balloon

Quite often after doing deliveries for the farm where I work, I’ll go for a walk in a nearby fallow field to decompress from the day and get some steps and fresh air. Last week on my walk far in the distance I saw something odd and out of place. Once I was close enough I realized what it was. Mind you this field is fairly out in the middle of nowhere. In the expanse of this recently plowed 15-acre plot of land was a very red metallic and mostly uninflated balloon tethered to another completely flat birthday balloon with ribbon and frilly fabric attached.

It was a curious little scene and it made me wonder how far it had traveled from the hand that possibly lost control of it and watched the cheery pair float off into the distance. They chose to land in this far-off field, a final resting place. The intention of bringing joy to some lucky recipient lost to me and the dirt.

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Austin Enneagram - Virtues

Check out this new episode I produced for Elizabeth Chapin and Leigh Jackson’s Austin Enneagram podcast. Helping people capture and create their podcast is fun but it’s extra nice when I get to learn something that I can apply to my life in the process!

This one-on-one with hosts Elizabeth Chapin and Leigh Jackson goes in-depth to explore and help us understand the specific virtue of each Enneagram type. They share and combine perspectives from many resources while relating their own realizations and personal experiences to paint a picture of the higher nature and essence of each type.

Elizabeth and Leigh have been apprentices of Enneagram master Suzanne Stabile. Their goal is to share this practical and transformational tool with others in a way that is narrative, inclusive, and accessible. Have a listen to Episode 1-10 if you haven’t, to get an introduction to the 9 types and an overview of the Enneagram.

  • Type 6 specifics - 42:50

  • Type 7 specifics - 52:09

  • Type 8 specifics - 1:02:18

  • Type 9 specifics - 1:08:44

  • Type 1 specifics - 1:17:26

  • What are virtues?

  • Type 2 specifics - 09:21

  • Type 3 specifics - 19:46

  • Type 4 specifics - 25:22

  • Type 5 specifics - 32:58

“I think it’s kind of our essence or when we are present. When we do the work and personality stands down in a way. That space where we live into what is really true. ”
— Leigh

AUSTIN ART TALK | Valerie Chaussonnet - The Joy Of Life & Art

The podcast guest this week has had such an interesting and diverse life. Artist Valerie Chaussonnet now works full time as an artist and teacher but previously spent a big part of her life as an anthropologist, studying Russian, and raising her two sons. Now her two primary mediums are watercolor and sculptures made from raw pieces of welded steel. A lifetime of influences in the realm of art and many diverse cultures all culminates now in the stories she tells with her colorful paintings and spirited sculptures. I love the joy Valerie brings to life and I’m inspired by her adventurous, playful, and rich way of life. Please enjoy this very fun interview!

“For us, as artists, the pandemic certainly economically was hard for many people but I think we are probably better equipped because can we invent something that has not been done before. If somebody is used to having a routine and a certain structure and not used to inventing their life it’s harder when something like this hits. For us it’s like OK, it’s this, let’s see what we can do with it. Let’s learn something new and create something different.”
— Valerie Chaussonnet

Perseverance

Something happened last week and it wasn’t the Texas snowpocalypse, which I thankfully got through without any big issues. A new rover was sent to and placed on the planet Mars and I just can’t get over how impressive the whole operation has been up to this point. The fact that human beings have the intellect and technological know-how to launch something into space with the precision for it to travel almost 300 million miles and only miss its landing target by 5 meters is just mind-blowing to me. Can you believe it!?

It just gives me hope for the future and that is definitely something we need right now. I’m not at all saying I think we should leave earth and figure out a way to live on Mars or some other planet. Maybe it’s the sci-fi fan in me or my daydreams about what or who exists out there beyond our solar system. Watching the landing live was very moving and exciting. What it must feel like for the people who have been working on this project for 10 years! The fruition of all that hard work and innovation, and it is just getting started. Now the rover will start exploring the ancient river basin where it now lives and will hopefully send back some amazing new information and images. It will also be taking samples of soil and rock to be retrieved at some point in the future.

Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech

Out of the 1000’s of free images that NASA has shared so far I chose some of my favorites and did some color correction since a lot of what they’ve posted is not processed and many have a very odd color cast. You can see in the above graphic what was planned and images below of how it actually looked. I was going to describe what happened but I think I will just encourage you to visit Nasa.gov and all of the great articles about the rover to learn more. The bottom line is I’m in awe and super excited.

Images Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech at https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/multimedia/raw-images/

What's The Story?

This is not intended to be a good picture. It’s somewhat of a crime scene photo. Maybe. Have you ever come across something like this that really makes you wonder what the hell happened?

Was the bag stolen and this is the spot where the thief decided to rifle through their haul? Is that person homeless, on drugs, desperate, in a lot of pain? Maybe a couple had a fight and one of them out of spite dumped these belongings onto the ground and left them there.

I see four different types of alcohol, so that was probably involved. There are quite a few makeup brushes and mechanical pencils. Did they intend to draw or possibly write? There’s a Christmas card that could have come with that $50 Visa gift card. Maybe Sherlock Holmes could figure out the mystery with these clues but I’m just not sure.

When I see something like this I can’t help but stop and think about the circumstances that would lead to a person just leaving all of these things on the edge of a mall parking lot. These possessions belonged to a flesh and blood human being once. It’s nothing shocking but as I meditate on this person and their life all I can do is guess at what they are going through. I hope they are OK.

The French Art Of Not Giving A Sh*t

In lieu of releasing my Austin Art Talk podcast interview with Valerie Chaussonnet today I am sharing at little info about a book I recently listened to. The interview will come out instead next Wednesday when life is hopefully back to normal and the snow has thawed. When I first started listening to this book I knew nothing about it. Sometimes that is a good thing. I definitely was not expecting it to be a book about meditation. That is not what it is all about, but Midal does base his grounded attitude and mindful approach on a consistent practice. Hard to say if being French has anything to do with it, but I’m sure it cant hurt. Seems to me to really be about accepting reality and not striving and struggling so much with life. Loving what is, as Byron Kaite would say.

Here is some text used to promote the book that summarizes things much better than I ever could. And there is my favorite quote that talks about artists at the end.

Midal gives listeners permission to: 

  • Stop obeying - you are intelligent

  • Stop being calm - be at peace

  • Stop wanting to be perfect - accept life's storms

  • Stop rationalizing - let things be

  • Stop comparing - be you

  • Stop being ashamed - be vulnerable

  • Stop tormenting yourself - become your own best friend

  • Stop wanting to love - be benevolent

One of the world's leading teachers of meditation and mindfulness, Midal offers us a new solution to the perennial problem of our too-much, too-fast modern life. It's OK, he urges us, to say no. It's fine to quit the things that don't fulfill you. It's necessary, in fact, to give ourselves a break and say, simply, c'est la vie. 

In The French Art of Not Giving a Sh*t, Midal gives each of us permission to stop doing the things that don't make us happy...so we have room in our lives for the things that do. “

©2017 Fabrice Midal (P)2017 Hachette Audio

“When I was teaching photography at the University of Paris, my students and I used to go to exhibitions by great photographers. The main point was to show them that looking at a picture and appreciating it means allowing yourself to be moved by it and in a sense to let it look at you. It means no longer wanting to understand, analyze, reflect. I’ve learned a lot from being in contact with artists, poets, musicians, and painters. For them not giving a shit seems such an obvious move. They say that’s where their real talent lies. Something no amount of effort could produce. Because no one can decide through will power alone to create a great work of art. They know how to listen to the voice speaking inside them. They know how to abandon something, to give themselves over to something they can’t invent. In reality the greatest effort an artist can make is to learn how to listen to this gift. The point is, stop giving a shit.”

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Austin Winter Storm

With record low temperatures, 6 or more inches of snow, and many without power, there is not much to do but stay home and ride out this arctic blast. It’s been damn cold for Texas.

Last time this happened a little over a month ago it was not nearly as bad so I ventured out to drive to a cemetery and snap some photos. Definitely a more interesting location to photograph than the neighborhood where I live.

Still, I needed to stretch my legs today so here are some not so impressive images from my walk. It’s all about the practice of looking, especially in what you might consider fairly mundane locations and circumstances. If that is the biggest challenge I end up facing in this moment, I’m hugely grateful.