Valerie Gudell, 3D mixed media artist, was born in NYC. She currently works in Houston, TX, where she creates assemblage art as well as vinyl and clay creatures with unique and sometimes complex personalities. Her main artistic influences include the Steampunk genre, Asian culture, and street art.
During the past few years, Valerie has shown her work at the Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, CA), Irving Arts Center (Irving, TX), ShockBoxx Gallery (Hermosa Beach, CA), CraftBoston, d’Art Center (Norfolk, VA), and the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts (San Angelo, TX). She has shown her work locally at the First Saturday Arts Market, Ardest Gallery, Texas Art Asylum, Winter Street Studios, and Art Museum TX. Her work has been featured in the Houston Press, Culturemap, The Leader, the LA Beat, and the OC Register, among others. Valerie is currently an artist at Hardy and Nance Studios (Houston, TX).
Zen Morris-VMGWater Rabbit-VMGRudo-VMGRabbitmonsters-VMGJellybean Monsters-VMGJellybean Monsters-VMGGarbage Party or HOA Meeting
I am a landscape and nature photographer living in Houston, Texas. My goal is to seek out inspiring rural locations and subjects, either natural or man-made, and capture them with the medium of photography to create fine art of the highest quality. http://www.herschbachphotography.com 713-454-9468
I grew up in a small town in Oklahoma and spent my childhood playing outdoors in the woods, fields, streams, and lakes. I have never much cared for the hustle and bustle of city life. My inspiration comes from my time spent walking, running, biking, riding, and driving the back roads where relatively few travel. Open pasture instead of parking lots. Silos instead of skyscrapers. Barns instead of strip malls. Hills and mountains instead of overpasses and super domes. The rural areas speak to me.
I became interested in art at a young age. My Aunt bought me Mark Kistler’s Draw Squad for my birthday when I was twelve and it taught me the fundamentals of creating a three dimensional world on a two dimensional piece of paper. In Junior High, I took a year of private instruction from a local acrylic painter who worked with wildlife and landscapes. During this time I also was taking piano lessons and even taught myself to play the harmonica and the guitar. I grew to enjoy and become skilled in various arts.
Throughout this time I had experimented in photography, from my first 110 film camera given to me by my first grade teacher, to the Minolta SLR I chose as a high school graduation present. However, it wasn’t until December of 2009 that I began to take photography more seriously when I decided that I would like to create some artwork to hang on the walls in our home. In order to do this, I knew that I had to develop a strong foundation for the technical aspect of photography and to continue developing my artistic eye and mind, which I had already begun years before.
I began scouring the internet and reading every book I could get my hands on and watching countless hours of videos on image processing. I submitted select photos for critique by professional photographers. I took on voluntary photography projects at work and at my church to learn how to use light effectively and picked up some small family portrait jobs here and there for family and friends. With every photograph I created, I grew closer to being able to use photography as not just a way to capture a beautiful scene or subject, but as a viable method of communicating emotion, a fundamental principle of fine art. While I understand that mastery of any genre of art is subjective and, at best, difficult to attain, I wish to share with you the artwork that I create along the way as I work toward this goal.
I’m an old hippie whose jewelry making began 20 years ago when on a dare my wife signed me up for a beginner beading class at a local bead shop. I was hooked pretty quickly and began making women’s jewelry using silver, stone and crystal beads and constantly learning techniques to make better pieces. While beading is still a passion, most of my work now is with chain and wire wrap.
Five years ago on yet another dare, I began making rings from old silver coins. I don’t cut or solder the coins. One coin makes one ring and the detail from both sides of the coin is preserved and visible. I fell in love with working metal, and am constantly learning new techniques and exploring the boundaries of turning old coins into cool jewelry. Taking something like a 100-year-old coin and turning it into something it was never intended to be has been an unbelievably rewarding journey, and I love that the possibilities are endless.
Nancy and Tuz Adams at TheTinArmadillo.com We take the ordinary tin can and elevate it into an unusual and beautiful piece of art with the help of a torch and hand molding. Every item is hand-cut with no patterns creating a patina and shape unique to that particular can. Just like the armadillo….he’s an enjoyable mystery! Lanterns create elegant illuminations…Planter/windchimes sound from lids…Creatures that make you chuckle….and sculpture you simply enjoy either inside or out in the garden. All cans are donated…creating a circle of useful life for Mr.Tin. Â TheTinArmadillo.com 713-303-5279
Back in the early Seventies, during Earth Day’s inception, I was a young teen experimenting with torches and metal…copper, tin, brass etc. I came upon the idea of working with the cans, and it evolved into creating saleable pieces, for which I traveled to juried shows that eventually paid my way through The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Flash forward nearly forty years. Yikes! We still have far too many cans going into the trash… My husband bought me a torch for Valentine’s day so we could resurrect my tin art and create new and more mature refined pieces for the twenty-first century.
The Fish Sculpture on our website is an original, now literally a timeless antique!
I use natural fiber such as wool, alpaca, and angora as my media, transforming the raw fiber by hand dying and using a variety of felting and surface design techniques in my creative process. My style is expressive and impressionistic and centers on vivid colors and textures to create striking visual movement. My representational art is primarily landscapes and botanical images. I also creates stunning non-representational art in the process of exploring composition, medium, and color. www.michellebowersart.com 281-299-9049
I am an emerging fiber artist in the Katy/Houston Area. I began my artistic pursuits at an early age studying sketching, drawing, painting, and writing in a multitude of venues from academic courses to artist’s cooperatives. In recent years, I have transitioned from a casual painter and artist to a career artist. I think of my artwork as inner reflections of the outer natural world, full of color texture and experience.
My work reproduces familiar visual signs, arranging them into new conceptually layered pieces. This work has always been grounded in pleasure and aesthetics. Felting is my key to sharing this inner landscape with the world. Hand dying and wet felting started it. From the beginning, the process of transforming fiber into cloth has struck me as magical. And, over the years, that magical process has had its way with me, leading me from hobby to art.
Felting fills me with a sense of accomplishment and integrity, and has proven a most amenable vehicle for translating inner vision to outer reality. I felt from the inside out. Though I work quite deliberately, consciously employing both traditional and innovative techniques, my unconscious is the undisputed project manager. The organic nature of this work frees my imagination and provides many opportunities for happy accident and grace to influence the finished product.
Moving to Texas has opened new vistas that resonate deeply with my fiber work. Inspired and invigorated by a renewed sense of continuity, and awed by the mystery of how creation occurs, I am now exploring the many patterns, textures and colors of this new land.
Tomboy Pretty offers a unique mix of semiprecious stones necklaces, pearl pendants, glass bead jewelry and metal earrings. tomboy-pretty.com
Design Aesthetic: I prefer designs that highlight the natural beauty of stones using the classic elements of jewelry design with a modern interpretation to reflect a timeless statement of personal style.
I am a Houston-based photographer specializing in “found art” – unusual views on everyday objects and locations – with a scavenger aesthetic that is evident both in my subject matter and my framing presentations. Although photography is far and away my primary medium, I also display a number of mixed media and textile repurposed creations. To me, scavenging is the art of nostalgia in a disposable world! Â Please check out my website at www.jennywilde.com to view my gallery and for more information on my scavenger aesthetic.832-722-7148
I love to paint and that is what I do now. My paintings reflect my life and God’s creation. I render many coastal themed pieces, but also love animals and people. My goal is to reflect the personality of my subjects or the character and charm of objects. Acrylics are my go paint for smaller pieces, but I also use oils.
Each piece is handmade out of a combination of sterling silver, fine silver, gold-filled wire, copper, and/or precious stones. My designs are simple and clean. I express the inherent beauty of the silver by hammering, twisting, soldering, wrapping, etc. The shape of the silver itself, along with the contrasting scales of materials provides elegant and interesting designs. silverthread-designs.com
I’ve been working with silver for over 20 years. I began taking classes in Columbus, Ohio from a wonderful woman named Wilma Cecil. I immediately loved metal as an artwork medium. Then I moved to Austin, Texas to study architecture at the University of Texas. While I was there, I further developed my silversmithing skills by taking classes in the School of Fine Arts. I graduated with a degree in Architecture in 1997 and moved to Houston, Texas where I practiced Architecture for the last 17 years. My jewelry, of course, is influenced by my Architectural education. The balance of form, scale, and texture is as important in a small piece of jewelry as it is in a large building.
I take care and pride while creating each design. I hope you will enjoy each piece as much as I enjoyed making it.
Gourmet Preserves all have Pecans in them. Peach Pecan Amaretto, Raspberry Pecan,
Jalapeno Peach Pecan,Orange Pecan. Pecan Pie in the Jar. 281-342-8117
