MAS Artist Reception at Farrago’s (5/11/2012)
Posted by Roberto Torres-Torres
Come see recent and current work by the group.
Farrago will be putting together a small, but special menu for our guests.
This is the group's first group show of the year.
Join us for art, drinks and conversation.
The work will remain on view through the end of May.
If you haven't had a chance to meet this Collective, now's the time.
Artists:
Tony Parana
Raul Gonzalez
Eduardo Portillo
Nico Whittaker
Tina McPherson
Adam Romero
Juliana Astral Alonso
Roberto X. Torres-Torres
Cultured Cocktails with MAS (Thurs. May 3, 2012)
Posted by Roberto Torres-Torres
Come join the artists of the Montrose Art Society this Thursday for a great event, Spacetaker's Cultured Cocktails, at Boheme Cafe & Wine Bar (307 Fairview @ Taft).
Celebrate our local art scene each Thursday with Spacetaker and Boheme! Join us at Boheme from 5-10PM, when a portion of the proceeds benefits a new local non profit arts organization each week! Cultured Cocktails was named "Best Happy Hour of 2010" by the Houston Press....
Come meet the MAS Artists. Find out how this Art Collective is making it work!
Learn about each artist's individual projects as well as upcoming group events.
We will also have small prints for sale. All priced between $25 and $50.
We look forward to meeting you!
Early Stages
Posted by Adam
All of my work has an experimental value to it. I never set precise standards for a finished piece, partly because of my indecisiveness but also because new ideas sprout out of each painting in different stages. Here is a self portrait I started last night, it has already taken off in a new direction and I am sure it will have evolved again and again by the time the show comes around on Nov 5th.
The Never-ending Battle
Posted by Lauren
As an artist not only are you subjected tons of outside competition but at any given time you are competing also against yourself. Personally, my interests lay within equal rights, fair treatment, and identity , and citiscapes. On opposite sides of the spectrum, the two couldn't be further from each other. As a result of my decision to quit my day job and do the artist thing full time, an internal struggle has arrisen. What I want to paint vs. what will sell.
Artists have an innate need to show the public visually what we are thinking and voice our opinions. Many of my works are politically charged because I am interested in identity. My most recent show was entitled, The State of Our (un)Union, where I visually addressed the plight of African-Americans since the Civil Rights. I poured my heart and soul into those paintings, formerly I was a special education teacher to inner city children with emotional disturbances. I had plenty to say about our "popular culture".
Sanitation Workers Strike 1968 by Lauren Luna
However, I also love music and I love to paint what music makes me feel. Fast, uptempo music, you know the type that you have no choice but to tap your foot to? In high school I had a painting teacher that always made us listen to classical music, saying it would help us use our right side of the brain, or was it the left? The correct (creative) side! So now as an all grown up artist, I still do that, however my music is much much faster! And the strokes I leave on my canvas mirror the flow of the music.
Urban Garden by Lauren Luna
Finally there is my love of citiscapes. In college one of the painting classes I took, assigned us to take the elements of a city and put it together. ie. People, Buldings, Movement, Signage. This was my painting below.
The Big Apple by Lauren Luna
Ever since then I've done a lot of collage paintings, and eventually merged the citiscapes into purely abstracted paintings. But the problem still remains. Paint what will sell or paint what I like.
I love to paint abstracts, but most of the general viewing public don't get abstracts. So they glance at it and move on to something they can connect with. The political pieces are thought provoking, but not many people are willing to hang such controversial pieces in their homes.
So alas, I am torn. As a professional artist, it is my income,and if art doesn't sell, bills don't get paid. Do I become strictly commercial and become a cookie cutter artist, who paints like the prints you can find at Walmart? Or do I continue to paint what I like and hope, wish, and pray that someone will buy it?
The Portraiture Show
Posted by Nico Whittaker
HOUSTON - Beginning, Saturday, November 5th, Warhous Visual Studios will host The Portraiture Show, a group exhibition presented by the Montrose Art Society (MAS).
The Portraiture Show, which will feature artist Nico Whittaker, will examine the classical attempt at representing individuals through emotion and history. Each artist will examine themselves, loved ones and strangers through painting, drawing, photography, digital-media, collage and installations.
"If anyone knows about surface beauty as it relates to inner beauty it is an artist. We show people exactly how we see them, albeit filtered by our artistic fiber. We may create images of real people, or maybe of how we imagine or visualize people to be. Some of us are influenced by caricature or comic books, where what matters is to catch certain features that define the subject while others seek to portray the subject by realistic painting or photography and even performance art and installations that explore not just the outer but the inner self." - Nico Whittaker
WHAT: The Portraiture Show
WHEN: Opening Reception on Saturday, November 5, 2011, 6 – 10 p.m.
WHERE: War'hous Visual Studios| 4715 Main St, Houston, TX 77002
COST: Free
Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=105491292895607
MASartists@gmail.com
713-594-2735
The Human Face
Posted by Roberto Torres-Torres
One of the things I find most perplexing about ancient, pre-historic art is the lack of portraiture. We take portraits for granted, sometimes relegating them to the Fine Art backwaters, along with genre painting, still-life, etc. Potraits may be commonplace, but it seems that ancient man did not share this with us. The daring artists, probably shamans, who ventured into the secret magic places and left us images of wildlife, hunts, plants, and deities, also left behind images of themselves. Most of these images are not what we would call Portraits.
Did ancient humans not have a need to create images of each other? Once society developed enough to create cultures and permanent settlements humans began to craft individual portraits. Until then, the focus may have been more on a magical aspect of art. Instead of being decoration for beauty's sake, art was maybe the most powerful tool in the shaman's bag of tricks. With sympathetic magic a painting of a succesful hunt would help to bring about an actual succesful hunt. In a world living with these ideas, a specific portrait of someone might indeed be seen as stealing their very soul, much like people who are first exposed to photography have reacted throughout the world. I wonder what changed in humanity to allow for the creation of portraits. The one below is from around 150 BC, and is a portrait created for the funerary rituals of a noblewoman.
It does seem to be that once the switch was made in humanity, the portrait became ubiquitous. To have a portrait of oneself was a sign of opulence, of modernity. The detailed studyof the human face, and the ability to portray that in paint, granted the powerful with a new tool. They could use portraits as propaganda. Whether this meant crafting a relief sculpture of the Ceasar for their coinage, which everyone would see and admire causing them to associate their ruler with their money, or whether it was a painting commissioned to commemorate a coronation, instantly granting it's subject the grandeur of royalty, the portrait was subservient to the whims of man.
Formal portraits have lost their power in an age of quick reproduction. Photography allowed the masses to obtain lasting images of themselves and their loved ones. Portrait paintings became out of fashion, while portrait photography exploded. Ancient man would see our world today and marvel in fear at our reckless use of images. As a species we create and display more portraits every day than could be imagined by our ancestors. We just call it "advertising."
While some may think this would be the death of the art portrait, I find it to be beneficial in a very specific way. By taking the requirement of exact reproduction away, photography leaves space for painters who can use their art to convey something deeper than mere surface. When the Outer is fully examined, it is the Inner which truly informs. Ancient man did not seek to portray an individual human. He sought to portray an idealization of a human for the benefit of all. Modern painters seek to paint the inner truth of their subjects, thereby granting them some semblance of immortality. The focus of portraits has shifted many times in the past and will shift again. That is a given. However, the past history of portraits does not necessarily point to their future. There is still endless room for innovation and creativity. That is the challenge to the modern artist, for the obsession with the human face continues unabated.
Portrait Session – Open to the Public
Posted by Juliana
 This Tuesday October 4, Caroline Collective will be hosting another MAS event. We will drawing/painting/collaging each other as part of a collaborative piece that will be shown at our next group exhibition. The event is open to public. If you're interested in participating, bring some art supplies and get to work! |
Ode To The Group Dynamic
Posted by Roberto Torres-Torres
Most artists have always sought the company of other artists. The human mind does not thrive in isolation. Sure there are periods where one must be alone, to think and/or create, but Art at it's core is communication. This is why, after a long day of work in their studios, many artists find other creative people to socialize with. Picasso and Matisse had their own respective crews of fellow artists. This allows for refinement of ideas, for explorations of thought that one cannot do alone.
While some artists seek others for casual reasons, others gather to support each other in the competitive and fickle art world. Many of the artists now known as the Impressionists originally banded together to show their work, having all been rejected for inclusion by the official Salon in Paris. They fought to be shown. The Dadaists created alternative spaces to show their work, marketed themselves, and engaged their potential audience in a whole new way.
It is wonderful to be a part of the Montrose Art Society for all these reasons and more. It takes a lot of courage to not only create something new, but to open it up and allow new members to join and contribute. The world needs Art. Houston desperately needs Art. We now have a duty to provide it. Let's do it!
RXTT
The Primacy of Drawing, or, How To get Your Mo-Jo Back
Posted by Roberto Torres-Torres
Many people are under the impression that drawing is a gift reserved for the very few. They seem to think that it takes a specific amount of innate talent to draw. This is simply not the case. Anyone can draw. Anyone can learn to draw. It is a skill, much like writing, or reading, or bicycle-riding, and for many artists, it is the primary source of their Art.
If drawing from a subject, the act of drawing becomes a direct conversation between one's hand and one's eye. If one is drawing from memory, the conversation occurs between one's hand and one's mind. In the former, the eye explores the subject, while the hand makes marks on a surface, to render the subject being analyzed. Through this the artist reaches a closeness with his/her subject that is much deeper than if the artists had just looked, and not drawn. It can be time-consuming and rigorous or it can be spontaneous and free. For example, the drawing below was done in less than 3 minutes while looking at our old dog, Chiquita. It is rough, and loose, but it captures her mood perfectly. (click to enlarge)
In the latter, the hand directly communicates what the mind, both conscious and subconscious, is thinking. This allows for endless surprise and thematic complexity, since the human mind is at all times frothing with imagery, thought, and context. If one is lucky and dedicated, this will be evident in the final artwork. Through countless drawings, the artist can develop a conduit from his/her subconscious, allowing exploration of the inner-space of our lives. The image below is a drawing done with India Ink and bamboo brushes. There is no under-drawing, no sketching, just the ink and the page. (click image to enlarge)
Drawings are so fulfilling because they are immediate. They take shape quickly before our eyes. Sometimes it seems that new artists are taught primarily how to come up with conceptual ideas instead of being taught how to draw what they see, both in the world and in their mind's eye. This is not fair to an up-and-coming artist. A strong basis in drawing greatly affects how one's work looks, whether it is sculpture, printmaking, painting, architecture, etc. It is the true source of Art for humanity. The very first art was likely a series of scratches made in dirt with a sharp stick. This is Drawing. It is never too late to join up in the continuum from the earliest hominid artist to the current crop of image-makers.
What do you think? How does Drawing affect your work? If you already draw regularly, good for you. If you do not, ask yourself "Why?" It is easy, fun, and nearly FREE! It can only improve your "eye," and it can only improve your Art. It may also aid you in exploring your own Mind. Is that not the greatest source of material for any artist? How do you know what is in there if you do not explore it?
-RXTT-
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