Artists of Houston

Artists of Houston podcast is on the road, again!  Lori Griffin , a west Texas based artist in Alpine was the curator of the pop up show: Covid 19 2020 Art Installation which took place on Sept. 5, 2020 in Ft. Stockton, TX.  The show invited 21 area artists to express the experience of the artists in Covid.   Lori and I had a delightful conversation about her inspiration in pulling the show together.  Designed to be a travelling exhibit, similar to the spread of a virus, and our hopes are the show will make it to HTX.  On hand was new artist, Sarah Shuttleworth, who brilliantly depicts the anxiety of the whirlwind of information thrown at the general population and the anxiety of wearing masks that make normal tasks like going to the grocery store and overwhelming experience.  

Richard Hall is a native Houstonian and local artist among many other talents.  We sat down, masked and social distanced to talk about his early years, and journey to becoming the artist he is today!  Richard  has a  studio in the Silos within the Sawyer Yards and welcomes visitors by appointment and on Second Saturdays. Please wear your mask.  Visit Richard in Studio 227. 

I had  the privilege and delight to sit down with Houston artist, Kelley Devine.  Kelley has an extensive exhibition resume, and has been a long standing member of the Houston arts communities.  Best known for her paintings of women,  where narrative are sometimes provided by the viewer,  and provocative expressiveness  draws you in to have that conversation, making for interesting art -looking experiences.  She is however, a sculptor and also has  an interesting repertoire of body casts and modified casts that  are clever and beautiful.  Please enjoy my conversation with Kelley and look her up online, and when Covid (die, die) goes away, visit her in her beautiful studio space at Hardy-Nance Studios downtown Houston.

www.KelleyDevine.com

www.hardynancestudios.com

Ellen H Ray is a professional artist in Houston, TX. Her work evokes experiences of childhood, inviting the viewer to dig in the depths of remembrances, and courage to surface and  let others go.  Please enjoy this podcast with one of the most important artist in Houston, I certainly did. I apologize for the delay in upload , and regret some of the content is out of date and unable to visit the current show due the Covid quarantine, hopefully in the near future we will all celebrate art together. See www.artistsofhouston.com for show notes, links and subscribe! 

Manuel Hughes and I met in a very unconventional way, at a Newark airport after both waiting for a very long time for a flight to Paris.  The conversation was easy and we became fast friends.  After I realized he was an artist, I had a lot of questions and he was a generous historian.  He was happy to tell me about his life in St. Louis, about a knife attack, and his illustrious art career, of which is inclusion in the Whitney, City Museum of St. Louis, State Museum of New Jersey, to name a few,  a book on tools, since many of his paintings depict highly rendered tools,  and representation by multiple galleries over the years.  He has been a resident /artist of New York and now Paris for the last 20 years.  I've deviated from my norm of inviting artists of Houston into my studio to do my podcast  but  I was in Paris and  couldn't pass up the opportunity to get to know Manuel better,... he is 80 years old and he is more vibrant than a 25 year old and I was so interested in what he had to say. He was so nice to invite me to his home and that's when the light bulb went off to do a podcast on the go!   Its a short and sweet  as I was a guest in his home for un cafe, and I didn't want to wear out my welcome.  Hopefully we will meet again.  I was able to enjoy many of his paintings in his home and meet some of his family, it was an enjoyable and happy day for me.  I have so much gratitude to Manuel for allowing me to record part of our visit.

Chell is a terrific, thoughtful artist located here in Houston.  She has a studio in Silver Street Studio located at 2000 Edwards Street Studio 323 where she is a prolific portrait artist. Before Chell followed the professional artists' path she was a chemical engineer. Please join us on the podcast to hear her story in its entirety, she is engaging and sincere and I really had a good time getting to know her better.  I already was a fan of her work, but now I enjoy it more, getting to know what a cool person she is.  Chell recently had a solo show at the prestigious Jung Center of Houston, and has work in private collections across the country and world. Visit her during open studios every 2nd Saturday 12-5 or reach out to Chell for appointment and to discuss a potential commission.  Please listen and enjoy this awesome podcast with this beautiful person, Ms. Chell Vassallo. Thank you Chell for being on the podcast!

Eddie Filer is a Houston portrait painter recently awarded a Certificate of Excellence by the Portrait Society of America, which is a very prestigious and important prize, however it is only one of  his many other accomplishments, including a recent solo show at the  Houston Museum of African American Culture, which I had the pleasure to attend.  Eddie also had an article featuring his art work in The American Art collector magazine!!  Eddie is a generous teacher and very kind person. I am happy he took the time to visit me in my Sawyer Yards studio to talk about his art, projects and process.  Eddie will be participated in Sawyer Yards Second Saturday Face Off event featuring members of the Houston Chapter of the Portrait Society.  Check out his website at eddiefilerart.com for info on commissions and see more his work.  Also follow Eddie on instagram at eddiefiler.