Shoba Rani, the creator of Tipsy and Disposition series, believes that it is only natural to create. She is experimental in her approach, pushing the boundaries of traditional mediums and materials as well as subject matter. She embodies the notion that being inspired by one’s surroundings keeps one young.
Shoba Rani is a retired educator and experimental artist based in Bangalore, India. Her art is inspired by the cosmos itself. She sees beauty in everyday objects at the macro and microscopic levels. She delights in expressing what she sees in vibrant colours. As a lifelong artist she has created art with a variety of materials including fabrics, wood, shells, beads, seeds, stones, and any material that works for her vision. Her most recent work featured here, is an acrylic sheet painted with translucent glass paints, acrylic paints and crystals.
The older I get the more I realize not only have I always been an artist, I truly love being a carney as well! Its an added extra bonus.
My definition of a Carney is someone who travels from place to place setting up a tent to sell their wares and loves almost everything about this experience.
I recently had a friend send me a shop name to check out on Etsy. He said he thought of me when he saw the site and wanted to share it with me. I promptly looked up that site to find a very one themed adorable line of products. At that very second a light bulb went off, once again, to do this would make me an unhappy being.
The marketing, easy to spot, was perfect, clean and very catchy, after all I have a marketing and business background from my college days. The product was repetitive and trendy. At that second I realized I am not in this to make a hip something that catches on for a little while that I can sell and make money. I am a true maker, which goes hand in hand with being a carney, at least in my eyes. I want to touch each piece I make. I want to know who it goes home with. I need that connection.
My husband is after me all the time, that will sell better make 6, you need to work smarter not harder. Don’t get me wrong, I do not want to sit down and reinvent the wheel. But repetitive non-heart making may as well be a design job that leaves someone else to make it for me. I did not start this journey to be the next James Avery, although when I started this journey, I had no idea of that! … I want to do and be one thing… ME!
I want to hold and create each piece in my hand, I want to set up a tent at an art show meet amazing people and share my heart and art with them. Not everyone likes what I do, I now get that too! But the ones that do, well it is an unexplainable feeling…. to have someone spend their hard working money on a little piece of wearable art that I created is beyond the scope of a humbling experience. To be able to share my story, my self with these people who walk into my booth and talk with me about what I do, well, it has allowed me to meet some of the most sincere and wonderful people. I don’t want it to end!!! EVER!
Vivian Mora, Lauren Luna & Chrissy Doolen
Being a Carney is fun, if you put aside the struggles… to get enough product made in time for your next big show, hauling heavy stuff, long distance driving, staying in cheap motels, suffering in the heat, cold, wind, rain and thunderstorms. Its sort of like being on a hamster wheel, you do it over and over again questioning yourself… why? The truth is it is agony and a rush. Driving to a new place, trying to figure out where your tent will be, setting up ( usually in unbearable heat)… we all love fall! Most of us carneys look forward to doing these things with other carneys. (Misery loves company?, maybe so…) It gives us time away from our normal lives and our studios, gives us time to recharge and be inspired. It gives us time with wonderful friends we have met along our art journey. It is the excitement of getting to share our art with new amazing people…. those people that will humble us by spending their hard earned money on our art. It never gets old.
View profile at Urban Eats (opens the artist archive, Carolyn is 1st)
Purchase Miss Carolyn’s book! Exploring Contemporary Art A formal essay on the exploration of contemporary art by Houston artist Carolyn Bertrand Hodges, with select paintings by the artist.
S E R R A N O G A L L E R Y 2000 Edwards St. Houston, Texas 77007 713 724 0709 www.serranogallery.com
Photos by Cynthia Isakson Photography taken at the “My Pie In The Sky Wish” reception, 8/30/2019 at Serrano Gallery
ARTIST STATEMENT
I wish it to be known why I use the medium of ink to create my art.
For many long years, I painted with oils. Focusing with intent on subject matter with a realism we are all familiar with and relate to in our personal experience. However, now, the pen is more handy for me than painting.
With a pen, there is a flow. With a pen, there is no clean-up as with paint, and there is certainly no tediousness … indeed there is a timelessness. With the fine point of a pen, multi-affects may be visualized. There can be surprise, discovery, and inventiveness. And, in my art, no monotonous design!
Now I approach my art in a different manner than I did in the past. Subject matter, or things which we are all familiar with remain and comes partly from memory.
However, as I draw, in a randomized sort of way, and like in a dream, unforeseen images appear consciously. Dependent on this unconsciousness, as with dreams, or imagination as some people call it, the artist is faced with the unpredictable until an image pops out. That’s it, this is what it means … and after all, much better than I could have thought up, and certainly a lot more fun!
Like in dreams, the images may be a mystery. The whole unconscious is a mystery to most of us. Like the unconscious, we can dream up images with our art. Also, as with meditation, we may transcend beyond the ordinary when we create art … making art as a whole; The great “I am that … I am.”
There is a ceaseless flow of imagery, and with such spirit, things don’t matter, for detail, memory, etc., are part of the whole, and all-embracing.
~ Carolyn Bertrand Hodges
Mitch visits with Miss Carolyn at her art reception in the Heights.
ABOUT
“Miss Carolyn” is a longtime fan of First Saturday Arts Market. A few years ago, I interviewed her and found her personality to be spot on with the other artists at the market. After many conversations and artistic outings, I continue to include her random bits of knowledge in my arts column, Art Valet, in The Leader Newspaper.
I am now entering my 4th year of showing at First Saturday Arts Market, and my 10th year of making jewelry. About a year ago Mitch was doing an article on a few of us artists. In the article, he described me as a jeweler. Since then I have reflected on his view of me and my immediate reaction to that label. I called him right away stating… I am NOT a jeweler, I am a metalsmith!
My entire life I have had a strong desire to create. I loved art in school, I poorly learned to play the piano and drums. I begged and got my first camera at age 7. I was always driven to make something, create something. In college, I studied photography. I had my own darkroom and had a blast developing my own images. I did a little photo work after that but mainly worked in the corporate world.
Chrissy Doolen’s workbench.
Fast forward what seems like an entire lifetime and you arrive at the years 2000- 2001. New adventures, marriage and a big move from Louisiana to Colorado. I decided I was ready to be a photographer. I did portrait work and beautiful nature photos, after all, Colorado offers a ton of beauty. A few years later I was introduced to the scrapbooking phenomenon. What a blast! I worked for several manufacturers and a favorite was traveling all over the U.S. to teach the
classes I had developed. It was the perfect place for me to marry my photography with paper art. But like all good things that lead you where you should truly be… the industry slowed and I was ready to move on. I came home and told my husband I wanted to become a metalsmith…. His priceless response… “of course you do”.
I went to school for about 3.5 years studied every technique I could and decided to venture out into a world of jewelry making. Close to this time my husband is having to transfer with his job to Houston. I’m thinking, new area, a new adventure. I found many shows and markets to participate in, however, until I foundFirst Saturday Arts Market I never truly realized how to describe me.
You see to me I equated jeweler with that person that sits in a shop making wedding rings and such. Someone that casts there designs. Not that there is anything at all wrong with that, they are skilled amazing people. We all have our space. But for me, what I discovered is that I am an artist. I don’t fit in a box. I want to make and create in every way I can. From painting to home decorating to remodeling, making things out of wood, making displays for my tent, creating little pieces of wearable art, I am an artist. Everything I see and do I approach with this artist eye.
I still love working with metal and every day I learn. I think I have finally found that medium that of which I will never tire… but then again I know me, and I know better than to ever say never.
The Market at Sawyer Yards debuted Saturday in the spring of 2016and continues 2nd Saturdays. This curated market hosts a mix of artist mediums with a focus on folk art, the maker is the seller & artisan crafts including packaged specialty foods.
Surrounded by the highest concentration of working artists in all of Texas, a select number of fine artists from The Silos at Sawyer Yards, Winter, Spring and Silver Street Studios will also participate. The Washington Avenue Arts District hosts this eclectic Saturday market produced by Mitch Cohen of First Saturday Arts Market.
The holiday shopping season is almost upon us, if you’ve been in any megalomart type stores recently you can see the stacks of merchandise already being stacked high. We will soon be bombarded with new Black Friday specials weekly.
You may also hear or see, especially on social media the voices of some saying “shop local” or “support your local artists, designers & makers”….even American Express gets in on this with “Small Business Saturday “.
I thought I would share with you what it means to us when you “shop local” and support your local artists, designers & makers at First Saturday Arts Market.
Sure, it means that we can buy groceries, feed and clothe the kids, maybe even get ahead on the mortgage for January & February (aka the slow months)..you know, the obvious things. There is another side for us though that goes a bit deeper.
First and foremost, we appreciate you. Our work is a passion for us, everything we create has our heart and soul poured, painted, hammered and chiseled into it. Every single thing. We are fortunate to be able to do what we do, and the artists, designers & makers of First Saturday Arts Market never forget that. We know that you passed a lot of stores on your way to First Saturday, and we don’t take that lightly. The thought that our work will end up as gifts to your family and friends is an honor. Our creations wrapped and under trees and in stockings across the city, state and even the country is honor that we will always remember.
Our drive to create never slows, it’s a constant in our minds, our hands and our heart. Your support and patronage allows that passion to grow, allows us to learn, allows us to follow our creative vision wherever it may lead us. It’s kind of hard to fit all of that into a slogan like “shop local”, but it’s all there and we want you to know just how much it means to us.
This holiday season we hope you will once again consider First Saturday Arts Market for your gift shopping. We promise you an awesome shopping experience full of unique and incredible choices for you and yours! Come see us Saturday, November 5th or Saturday, December 3rd.
Steve Sellers, has been making and selling his jewelry for many years. He was one of the first exhibitors at our originally named market: Yale Street Arts & Flower Market! Check out his web page here.
Several of the art market artists, wearing market shirts, volunteered at the 45th Annual Bayou City Art Festival at Memorial Park. Here’s a some pics and links to their sites. More to come! ~Mitch
Vena Ashley is the featured visual artist at this Saturday’s encore performance of the Houston New Arts
This Saturday evening is an encore performance by members of the Houston New Arts Movement, performing works by Gabriel Fauré, Claude Debussy, César Franck and Maurice Ravel; all late 19th and early 20th century French composers. The performance is titled “Images, Dreams & Impressions”, performance time is 7:30 p.m. at Houston Piano Company, 1600 W. 13th St, Houston, TX 77008. Advance tickets are $15 available online www.artsmove.net/enter/events and $20 at the door.
First Saturday Arts Market regular Vena Ashley will be the featured visual artist with a reception following the concert. Mitch Cohen, market founder, wrote about the event in his arts column, Art Valet, in this weeks edition of THE LEADER newspaper.
Betsy Barry Accepted to U.S. Botanic Garden in Washington DC.- Flora of the National Parks
Macular Pomifera Osage Orange in colored pencil by Betsy Barry
Her piece, “Macular Pomifera Osage Orange,” done in colored pencil, has been accepted into the US Botanic Garden in Washington DC.- Flora of the National Parks https://www.usbg.gov/exhibits
The celebration commemorates the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service. The show runs from Feb. 18 – Oct. 2
The Market at Sawyer Yards debuted Saturday in the spring of 2016 and continues 2nd Saturdays. This curated market hosts a mix of artist mediums with a focus on folk art, the maker is the seller & artisan crafts including packaged specialty foods.
