Found these while rummaging through some old boxes my dad dropped off the last time he was in town. These pieces are some of my first and very few explorations into collage.
Conversation Over Dinner. 2004.
You can tell which items I added to the table because they don’t cast a shadow.
Phonelines. 2004.
They are images cut out old National Geographics.
My jewelry design project, REfused Designs Studios, has a new home! Here is a picture of the set-up at the new studio space off of Northloop. Its about 400 square feet, wood floors, and one wall is covered in a mirror. The space was used previously as a dance studio where they taught bellydance, pilates, and yoga. 
I’m sharing the space with painter Pat Taylor. We might be in the West Austin Studio Tour this year. From what I hear it’s the Spring version of the East Austin Studio Tour and it basically encompasses the rest of Austin. I’ll probably use the space for larger fabric sculpture, puppet making, and perhaps some filming. I’ve had an idea for a film project that I really want to do.
Taking a break from the fused glass posts, friend and musician, Leah Edwards has commissioned me to design her album cover. Originally from Texas, I met her in Austin while we were both interns for the Downtown Austin Alliance, doing P.R. and street teaming for their 4th season of PBS/KLRU TV show “DOWNTOWN”. We were thrown into a room together to bundle up thousands of postcards for promotions, and instantly hit it off. Now she resides in Nashville, Tennessee where she is attending grad school and pursuing her musical career.
Her music is best described as Folk/Americana. I did a couple of designs for her and this seems to be the one we are going forward with:
I designed a similar font, but she ended up going with one designed by another friend of hers. I need to get their name to give them credit. This design is based on a well-known Lewis Carroll illustration of Alice.
Here is a poster design I did for Leah a few years back for her to promote her shows:
I keep saying that Leah is going to be the next Regina Spektor. She is one of the most kind-hearted people I know and she puts her all into her music. I only have tons of love for this wondrous lady.
Check her out at: http://www.myspace.com/leahmarieedwards
I think there is a video of us singing in her car while running errands for our internship. Fun times…
Sundown is a Columbus-based, psych-folk-rock band that is comprised of my brother, Dustin White, T. K. Webb, Vug Arakas, and Chris Pierce. They will be in Austin for SXSW this year. Dusty asked me to draw up a design for their shirts. He gave me a few references and here’s what I came up with:
She’s 50% Farrah Fawcett, 25% Ralph Bakshi, 15% pin-up, and 10% Sailor Jerry tattoo.
I sat in on a glass fusing class at Helios on Anderson Mill and we were making what they have coined “glass latticework.” It’s a non-traditional technique using strips of glass fused together with large spaces in between. This technique has a more overall organic shape after it is fired than what I generally lean towards with my jewelry and glass art designs, but I figure it’s good to try everything.
Piece prior to fusing.
I forgot to take a picture of the second step before slumping it. So the the pictures on here are the first and third steps of the process: pre-firing and post-slumping. After it slumps it will look like a glass basket of sorts.
It seems that one of my corners came undone during firing, so it didn’t do what I expected. So now I have a glass basket with a long hoop for hanging. Which is a neat accident, as far as accidents go.
One side looks like a human ribcage, complete with upside down xiphoid process.
If you’re interested in learning to make fused glass, check out Helios.com’s Beginners class schedule.
When you create fused glass you never work with an open flame. Its all done in the kiln, but there is glass combing, which is where you open the kiln while it is still at glass melting temperatures and run a metal rake or hook through the glass to get cool effects. Even then, there is not an open flame, there are metal elements in the sides and top (depending on your kiln)producing the heat. This technique is not unlike dragging a knife through the icing on your brownies to create fancy patterns.
This was my first glass combing piece. It consists of pimento red, forest green, marigold, and clear Bullseye glass.
Picture courtesy of Helios Kiln Glass Studio.
The glass in its glowing, molten and pliable state. Photo courtesy of Karen Tarlow.
Me combing glass at 1700 degrees. Photo courtesy of Karen Tarlow.
This was my first fused glass handkerchief, it gets that name from the shape it makes after being slumped.
After firing. Before slumping.
This large glass “handkerchief” was my submission for the Second Annual Iron Fuser II Competition, its an national competition put on by the glass studio I work at. There was a first place and several different categories of awards (which were made of glass). There were 39 entries submitted this past year. Besides some rules on dimension limits and having to use the contents of a glass pack, we were given free reign on what we could submit.
Photo courtesy of Paul & Karen Tarlow
It sold to a customer based in North Carolina. Pretty excited to do the Iron Fuser again this year. Wonder what the first place award will look like…?
The Cirque du Soleil “Dralion” poster is for sale on Nakatomiinc.com’s website! This is a collaboration print I did with gig poster artist Clint Wilson. There is also a beautiful rare variant of this in red/gold that should be up there soon.
Clint Wilson and I went to San Francisco to attend the “Bad Dads II Exhibit”, which is the Wes Anderson themed art show put on by Spoke Art.
Spoke Art had a double opening on Saturday and Sunday of Halloween weekend at their location on Sutter Street. Wes Anderson related costumes were encouraged (and rewarded with a free poster), but not mandatory. The gallery was floor to ceiling artwork with a constant flow of people coming in and out wearing various costumes-Wes Anderson themed and otherwise. There were adorable Fantastic Mr. Foxes, Margots aplenty, a couple dressed as characters from Darjeeling Limited, and even a guy dressed as the yellow submarine from The Life Aquatic.
As you can see from the pictures, a large portion of the artwork was two-dimensional, about three others and myself were the only ones doing three-dimensional work. My favorite three-dimensional piece is the wearable pair of Team Zissou shoes from the Life Aquatic. Those are some sweet kicks. Some of the featured artists in the show: Tim Doyle, Kevin Tong, Rhys Cooper, Audrey Pongracz, Isaac Bidwell, Sandi Calistro, Dave MacDowell, Rich Pellegrino, and Joshua Budich, who designed the flyer for the show.
While we were in San Francisco Clint and I got to go to Japantown, Little China, the De Young Museum, the Asian Art Museum, and the Golden Gate Bridge. We wanted to check out Muir Woods, A.K.A. Ewok Village, but we ran out of time. We had dinner a with the curators Ken and Sarah, and artists Gene Guynn and Ashleigh Tucker. One evening we ate at an underground sushi place and another we went to a great bar/restaurant called Jasper’s, which is well known for its awesome service, french fries, and a burger that made me want to weep it was soo good.
The hostel we stayed at was in the heart of Little Saigon, between Japantown and Little China. It was very nice, they had a computer room equipped with Skypeing capabilities, a theater, a kitchen with free breakfast, a room to lock up bikes, and they organized evening group activities…there may have also been a bowling alley there for all I know. It was quite clean and well organized, the Greenbriar of hostels, if you will, minus all the brocade and clashing furniture and curtains.
The only downside was, we stayed at a hostel during Halloween weekend, I got zero sleep. Every night the tenants of the hostel were drunkenly yelling/singing into the wee hours of the morning. So that might explain my somewhat exasperated appearance in the group photo. Zero-three hours of sleep a night and walking up and downhill eight hours a day…I was a so tired at the end, still had a blast though.
Between work and two marionettes to finish for the show, I didn’t have enough time to finish my costume, nor was there room in my suitcase to bring one. It was my first Halloween with no costume.
Overall my experience in San Francisco was great! We saw fantastic artwork and made new friends. Before I left Austin everyone told me that I wouldn’t want to come back, but I had to, the rent was too high.
Click below to check out the photography of Shaun Roberts: http://www.shaunroberts.net/project/artist-portraits/
tessa.yvonne.morrison. 