I am a professionally trained artist having earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Houston. Since then I have continued practicing my craft exploring various styles, materials and techniques creating highly detailed pieces. While my work is diverse both in choice of medium and subject matter, it centers around nature and organic forms.
I create remarkable jewelry from antique and vintage architectural elements, including hinges, keyholes, chandelier parts and doorbells. I also repurpose musical instruments, clock-parts, vintage tools and postage stamps. I search high and low for castoff pieces of the past, then reinvent them. I frame them in classical jewelry settings, to highlight their hidden and often unintended beauty. The result is a striking and adventurous synthesis of industrial strength, history and glamour.
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.
Teresa L. Staley is a Multidisciplinary is a Houston based artist, she was born in Australia and grew up in the West Houston area.
Teresa has a degree from The Art Institute of Houston, graduating with honors with a degree in Visual Communications. She has many years of experience as a fine artist, faux finisher and muralist. She has had her decorative painting company for over 20 years and has worked for many of Houston’s elite.
The genre/style of Teresa Staley’s fine art could be described as eclectic; merging romantic fantasy and realism. She mainly works in acrylic, oil, digital and mixed media. Her favorite subject matter includes exotic and powerful women from different cultures, pop art and mixed media abstracts.
“My art is continually evolving found through life’s experiences, observations, and experimentation with many different mediums. My greatest joy is to paint, draw, design and create in many different forms without limits. My life’s work has been in the arts; this is what I know and love best.
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.
I create fused glass in my studio; beginning with sheets of glass, I cut, stack, and shape pieces and then fuse them together to create original functional art. Most are sandblasted and fire polished to give a matte finish to add an extra dimension to the art piece.
David Mercado is an artist who resides in Austin, Texas. In the beginning, his imagery focused on the beauty, strength, and movement of hummingbirds—a series that gained him national recognition by their popularity. As his career progressed, however, an exciting new abstract collection emerged which illustrated not only his range as an artist, but showcased the evolution of depth and complexity within his work.
It is the striking imagery of Mercado’s latest venture, however, which reveals a much more personal side of the artist. His “Virgen de Guadalupe” series gives a profoundly intimate glimpse into the faith and heritage which have inspired him. The series unveils an incredible transformation of traditional, iconic imagery into complex, abstract renderings of the Virgin’s image onto board, paper, and furniture pieces. Mercado’s style flawlessly blends the old and new to produce this new intriguing mix of vivid, soul-jarring, and contemporary pieces. @davidmercadoatxEmail David
Austin native John Mercado works primarily in painting and book deconstruction. He often uses found objects and mixed media to create his geometric artwork, which can be viewed as aesthetically minimalist with constructive and collage elements.
John has been a full-time artist for more than fifteen years participating in juried art festivals across the country and has shown in galleries in New York City, New Haven, CT, Houston, TX, San Antonio, TX and Austin, TX. Instagram: @johnmercadoarthttps://www.jmercadofineart.com/
Lauren Luna was born in Columbus, Ohio. After graduating from Kent State University’s School of Fine Arts with a focus in painting, she moved to New York City. She began teaching Special Education for New York City schools and entered a Masters program at Manhattan College. Upon graduation, she moved back to her hometown of Columbus along with her son and continued teaching. Later enrolling in the Academy of Art University for her second Master’s degree, in Fine Arts.
In 2011, Luna relocated to Houston, Texas, pursuing her new life as a full time artist and footwear designer.
Lauren Luna was named a Top 50 Entrepreneur by Scion Car Company, participated in Austin and Houston Fashion Week, was featured in British Vogue and Glamour Magazines, and had a shoe design in an exhibit in the Grassi Museum in Germany.She was honored to receive the Margot Siegel Award for Design by the Goldstein Museum of which two pairs of her hand painted shoes are a part of the museum’s permanent collection.
In 2015, after winning Best In Show at a juried art competition, she was commended by the Alvin Independent School District School Board, and was put into Congressional Record by the District’s State Representative.
She is a frequent participant to local art festivals, and also has a mural at the George R. Brown Convention Center.
Luna currently is an art professor at Lone Star and San Jacinto Colleges, and is Co-President of the D.R.E.A.M Affect Foundation, a non-profit organization that awards scholarships to minority art students pursuing Fine Arts, and grants for emerging artists to show their work.
