Sorry for my absence, folks. As I stated last week, I visited Brent Ozaeta’s closing reception at The Public Trust. I was able to talk to him for a little bit and asked him what keeps his creative juices flowing and how he’s able to create piece after piece. He told me that it helps to have goals and deadlines. This totally makes sense, by the way, and it’s mind-boggling that I haven’t done this yet. I’ve set goals and deadlines on past web work (including this site), yet I’ve never set any for my paintings. Never even thought of it, really.

Anyways, during my web-absence, I’ve come up with another painting idea that has yet to see the canvas, and I made a 2.5 day trip to the Kerrville Folk Festival. Saying that this experience completely detaches you from reality and the daily grind for a couple of days does no justice. You’d just have to experience it for yourself. On that note, David hand crafted a beautiful bass-banjo for the event and made it into the Austin Statesman. We have a copy but are working on getting a digital copy. I’ll keep you updated.

Categories: Art Events, Blog, Deep Ellum, Music — Tags: Brent Ozaeta, Kerrville Folk Festival, The Public Trust — Valerie @ 5:48 pm Comments (2)

I was on my way to work this morning and noticed the Dallas Museum of Art setting up their outdoor stage. Ah, it’s that special time: Jazz Under the Stars, a series of outdoor, weekly jazz concerts that take place at the DMA each summer. The great thing about it is that it’s free. That means it’s time to bring your wine, beer, cheese, cake, Jell-O, or whatever you’re into and enjoy some nice jazz under the summer night sky. It brings back fond memories of the last time I attended and watched a couple get drunk and get their groove on between people’s picnic areas.

Also, if you’re familiar with DMA’s Late Night events, you know how cool they are: free coffee, tours, movies, etc. Tomorrow’s Late Night starts at 6 p.m., but doesn’t just end at midnight. They’ll be open around the clock until 5 p.m. Saturday. This means I could show up at 4 a.m. Saturday to renew my membership. …could.

Well, go and have a good time.

Categories: Art Events, Blog, Music — Tags: Dallas Museum of Art, Jazz Under the Stars — Valerie @ 1:07 am Comments (0)

Last weekend’s Oak Cliff Art Crawl was awesome; although, I don’t expect any less from the OC. As I’ve promised, the photos are uploaded. See them here. My small troop (David, me, and our friend Kenneth) went to visit the OC last Saturday.

We started on the corner of Bishop and Davis. The urban street bazaar comprised of more than 100 craft vendors. Items for sale ranged from baby shoes to jewelry made from recycled guitar and bass strings by Eye on the Sparrow Designs.

After stopping for a fruit smoothie, we headed to Tyler Street. The Better Block Project took part in this year’s event. The project hopes to create a better shared space for a more hospitable, community atmosphere. The street was divided into a bike lane, a narrow driveway for cars, and a patio and seating area for the visitors of nearby pop-up coffee shops and galleries.

Art galleries also took part in the festivities. Mighty Fine Arts hosted the opening of Underneath and In-Between, a showcase of Janet Chaffee’s work. Her pieces ask to be touched and felt as they hang playfully from the gallery walls. Some imitate different textures, such as paper sculptures that — at first glance — seem like velvet and lace.

How else to end the Art Crawl than a couple of frozen margaritas from Gloria’s? We sipped while we had pupusas and left for David and Kenneth’s show in uptown. Wonderful day.

Categories: Art Events, Blog, Inspiration, Local Artists, Local Galleries, Music, Oak Cliff — Tags: Better Block, Eye on the Sparrow, Janet Chaffee — Valerie @ 11:53 pm Comments (0)

As many of you know, the Oak Cliff Art Crawl is this weekend. I’ll be visiting today — later today, as it is almost 2 a.m. now — and will be taking my very significant other David. To see exactly how kick-ass he is, you can go here or find his link on the bottom right of this site under “Art Dilemma’s Friends.”

Anyways, back on track: For the small price of $10, you can get discounts on stuff like beer and art. Awesome.

Included in the list of participating art galleries are Artisans Collective, Daniel Padilla Gallery, The Soda Gallery, Decorazon, and Mighty Fine Arts among others. Live music and poetry are also scheduled. There will also be an outdoor urban street bazaar offering more than 100 vendors. It doesn’t get much better than this. I’ll be there. Photos to come. Hope to see some of you out there too.

Categories: Art Events, Blog, Inspiration, Local Artists, Local Galleries, Music, Oak Cliff, Poetry — Valerie @ 2:13 am Comments (2)

At last, the day has come…

Art Dilemma is now live! It’s not completely finished, though. I hope to add more content this following week. So please check back in a couple of days to see what’s new.

And what perfect timing to start than the weekend of the Deep Ellum Arts Festival? Well, I happen to be going today. I’ll be taking photos and posting them later. Maybe I’ll be seeing some of you there.

Categories: Art Events, Blog, Deep Ellum, Inspiration, Music — Valerie @ 1:47 pm Comments (1)