Yesterday, my deputy food frakker, Julia, and I rode our bikes around East Austin, participating in the East Austin Studio Tour.
Now, I wouldn’t mitigate the art-enjoyment experience by taking pictures of people’s actual artwork and posting them on my blog, but I would like to share with you some of the little spaces and environments we visited.
There were tiny little studios, there were nearly derelict houses, posh yuppie mansions, industrial spaces, and converted warehouses. It was as much fun to walk through all the out of the way pieces of real estate as it was to look at the art.
This was the first place we stopped, the Austin Metal Authority.
This place had pretzels, M&Ms, a keg, and a picture of kid holding up a stringer of bream.
In one corner of Super! Alright!, through the kitchen, behind the server stack, and in the closet, was this room with a couple of easy chairs and an old-fashioned slide projector on two-second automatic.
Most of the pictures in the slideshow were roller girls. It also had a series of photos where a naked tattooed girl shaved a pierced naked guy on a barber chair.
This was a converted shopfront that had a warren of closet-sized painters’ studios.
And a dog.
This East Side home had been converted into private studio spaces. This pile of art supplies might have once been a kitchen pantry.
The inside of this home had been completely gutted. Paintings hung from bare studs. Pieces of plywood lay over the gaps in the floor that opened right onto the crawlspace.
The Decoder Ring Design Concern does "seriograph" printing, whatever that is. More importantly they have a huge property, filled with a jungle of exotic plants and hidden pathways.
Needless to say, the children had almost as much fun exploring the grounds as I did.
This studio/gallery space was in a huge complex of art studios that might have once been a public school.
The studio tenant came back as we were swiping his pretzels and bottled water, so we had to pretend to look at his art.
There was another slideshow projector, this one in an antique camper trailer.
The slides were all vintage photos of life in West Texas. The iPod sound system played non-stop novelty cowboy songs.
Nearby, we saw this sign. You will want to read the first paragraph in its entirety.
The warehouse space dominated by the Sustainable Waves people (who do great work BTW) had this re-assuring sign:
Julia is well on her way!
Back in one of the sheds, we found this art exhibit called "The Womb."
Here I am, obediently following the written instructions.
Inside it was warm and soft. The kaleidoscopic display soothed my mind.
There was a brief moment of discomfort as the tube projected from the sculpture’s wall and inserted into my stomach, but I quickly forgot about that. From time to time, people have knocked on the lid, but they go away after a while. I anticipate some problems when the laptop battery runs down, but by then I don’t think I’ll need human artifacts. Things are just a lot happier and simpler in here.
