On Saturday I participated in the
Saturday Art Anarchy Art Market at
Frame Craft Lampros Gallery in The Woodlands. The event will happen every Saturday from 10 - 3 and is a great opportunity to see work by regional artists, both outside under the tents, and inside the gallery as well. This weekend was special because it was the 25th anniversary of Frame Craft being in business -- congrats to Peter and Vicki Lampros and the staff!
And here's Vicki now with her work! Not just a gallery co-owner, but a very creative lady and accomplished painter, as maybe you can tell by the work showing in this photograph. Her subject matter ranged from figural to nonobjective, showing a strong sense of color and painterly quality, with the figural pieces especially having a spiritual presence that is hard to define.
In between paintings, she apparently stays very busy with other endeavors! She had a table of handcrafted objects in her booth, including these irresistable crocheted bags. I say irresistable because you just
have to touch them -- the wonderful colors and textures are that tempting!
Next up, Paula from
PaulaArt, the queen of recycled/repurposed art.
(image removed)
Fairly recently Paula began a series of vases made from rescued pipes. Who would have thought that you could get such bright colors and beautiful surfaces from old reclaimed pipes! It takes a visionary eye to spot this at the salvage yard, but after Paula gets these home that's when the real work begins! She cuts them to size, grinds the top smooth in some cases, cleans them thoroughly, cold welds a bottom and waterproofs the resulting vase so it will hold your flowers in water. Or, you could purchase some cool, funky "flowers" from Paula made out of all sorts of found materials, like the ones you can barely see here in the center of the table. A better idea would be to check out her shop on
Etsy where you can have a closer look!
I won't use the phrase "better half" but Tod was there with Paula, and managed to delight the crowd and make a few sales with his own fantasy flowers. He had some made with plastic strapping for the stems and puzzle pieces and bottle caps for the blooms, as well as more sturdy types such as these white insulator cap flowers. Of course they are perfect in Paula's vases!
Lance Cross was there showing his acrylic paintings in a range of sizes and a rainbow of colors -- eye candy for sure!
Check out his website for the full screen effect -- then you can really appreciate the incredible textures he is creating. Now I wish I had asked him about his processes to share with you, but at the time I was just glad to get a picture of everyone and wasn't really thinking about what I would write! And maybe his processes are trade secrets anyway -- the results are wonderful!
Kit Davis of Mountain Birdy Studio is a student at the University of Houston at Clear Lake, and I was aware of her talent back when she took ceramics with Robby Wood at Lone Star College - Montgomery. Since that time she has really amassed a body of work!
I love these porcelain torsos!
Kit also had a variety of jewelry for sale, including these cute domino pendants!
The spray paint artist Pilot was creating large format paintings on site to the delight of the onlookers. From my tent I watched this work emerge from a blank white canvas, and it was sooo interesting to see the stages and changes through the process. He had finished the skull and started on a new painting when I was packing up, and I hated to leave before I could see the final result!
Pilot told me that, in spite of what you see here, lately he has been painting mostly animals, and showed me some impressive images of big cats. Someone else told me that he gets a lot of commissions for murals, especially for kids' rooms! Wow -- kids these days have it all! Check out his
My Space page for a look at more of his work.
Dave Woodard has worked at Frame Craft for 21 years, and he recently started a new business with a fellow employee, Mary, making gorgeous stained glass pieces under the name Just Mad. ("Mad" stands for Mary and Dave.) Regrettably, Mary was inside when I was taking pictures -- this is not Mary with Dave, but Ann Marie, Dave's very proud high school art teacher! The Just Mad stained glass artworks are several cuts above most of the stained glass pieces I've seen. First and foremost, these are their own designs, and excellent designers they are! Some of the pieces are three-dimensional, and some are whimsical, like a 3-D glass fairy in a jar with holes poked in the lid! The 3-D fish and water lilies are amazing! Come on out to the next Saturday Market to see their incredible work!
This pretty lady is Mel, painter and tattoo artist. She was showing her very cool paintings in her booth, of a variety of subjects. You can see more of her paintings, as well as her tattoo designs on her
website, where she says that she loves art and has done everything from "designing t-shirts to painting murals to portraits of your dear 'ol granny."
The off-the-shoulder blouse was a classy way to show off some of her skin art. If you look closely, maybe you can see that the tattoo on her upper back is taken from her design that is front and center in her booth. She says on her website "you know you want a tattoo!" If that's the case, seems like you'd want to go see a pro like Mel!
Here's Therese with some gorgeous creations for sale! As you can see, Therese is a jeweler, but what you probably can't see in my pictures is the details of the very high quality work she does, so check out her
website for that. Therese was showing all types of jewelry -- necklaces, pins, rings, bracelets -- in silver, and beautifully crafted. I was struck by two things -- the unique look of her designs, mostly in organic shapes, and also the very unusual stones that she uses. When looking at the pieces I was thinking that the stones were some that I'd never seen, and then when I checked out her website later I read that she searches out "uncommon" stones. If you buy a piece of her jewlery you are going to own a one-of-a-kind show-stopper!
Tony Motto was there selling his new book
"The Woodlands Outdoor Sculptures." Tony has been fascinated with the sculptures in The Woodlands for as long as I've known him -- and that's a while! He photographed all these works of public art, contacted all the artists and did extensive research. His book is available in paperback and hardback, and the hardback especially makes a great gift and coffee table book. You can buy it on amazon, or at several local venues, like Frame Craft. It was a collaborative effort with his wife Jo Lynn, who did the editing. Tony always has a lot going on -- he has packs of postcards for sale with images of the sculptures, and he gives sculpture tours in The Woodlands. You can try to keep up with his comings and goings on his facebook page --
The Sculpture Guy.
What Tony is showing here are some artworks by his sister who lives in Madrid, New Mexico. She combines found metal pieces with paint and text to create small (i.e. afforable!) whimsical wall pieces that make great gifts! There are several for sale at Frame Craft -- check them out!
I had a great time at the Saturday Art Anarchy Art Market! The artwork was diverse and of high quality, and I enjoyed getting to meet the other artists. I should also mention that there was a DJ and music, and it very much added to the festive air! The food was much appreciated as well, but I think that was a special for the anniversary. I did very well on sales, and I'll be back!
...and I'm getting everything ready, including myself.
Glenda loves Frank Sinatra! She gave me a sheet of these stamps last year, and I remembered to save one to make her a card. Gives me some other ideas for new cards I wanna create!
Hopefully she'll love this ACEO I painted...I know she likes these colors. (I got a little obsessive making these little tree paintings, and I've listed quite a few in my Etsy shop, CynART.)
I also got her this useful and adorable porcelain brushholder from Sumiko on Etsy. (Check out her shop!) I got one for myself too and I've been using it and loving it! Glenda will too.
Now, what to wear? Gray pants and a white shirt? What do you think, kitties? Grisgris, I know you favor gray.
It feels so springy today, and I think I need a little punch of color. My mom, great quilter that she was, made this jacket years ago. I love it!
This restaurant doesn't look like much from the outside but the atmosphere inside is great, and so is the food! I think I'll start with a Bellini! Happy Birthday, Glenda!
First up, a beautiful pair of green and gold dangle earrings! I'm an earring collector and these are gorgeous! You can find these at 
