"Second Lives: Remixing the Ordinary"

Terese Agnew
Clothing labels, thread, fabric backing
94 1/2 x 109 3/4 in. (240 x 278.8 cm)


""Second Lives: Remixing the Ordinary" is the inaugural exhibition at the Museum of Arts and Design in the new building at 2 Columbus Circle, which opened in September 2008. The exhibition features work by 50 international established and emerging artists from all five continents who create objects and installations comprised of ordinary and everyday manufactured articles, most originally made for another functional purpose."

changes

“We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.”
-Maya Angelou

Austin First Night

Metamorphosis Arte - The Migration of the Monarch Butterfly
“La Migracion de las Monarcas” is a bilingual interactive puppet show using puppets, theater, dance, music and graphic arts to illustrate the history of the migration of the monarch butterflies. The monarchs migrate each year from the mountains of Michoacan, Mexico, traveling through the U.S. and into Canada. As they travel and lay their eggs, the process of metamorphosis occurs and they return to Mexico with a new generation of butterflies. While tracing the migration of the monarch butterflies, our story develops various metaphors relating to international relations and communication, the US/Mexico Border wall, agriculture, pollution and resource conservation. The show is for all ages but attracts many children with its colorful puppets and dancing.

Park guell

Park Guell in Barcelona, Spain is by far one of the most stimulating and beautiful places I have experienced in my life. I first visited the park in 2005 where I remember feeling like a child in Grimm's Fairy Tale, Hansel & Gretel. I immediately wanted to run and skip through the parks layers of mosaic walls, stairs, sculptures, walkways and elf like buildings. I returned again in 2008 as a participant in a summer graduate program covering mosaic arts and art history. The program gave me the opportunity to visit other great buildings done by Guadi and to learn about the natural forms that have influenced him. This park has also been a great influence for me because of my interest in public art, ecological design, and recycled art materials. Guadi used local stone from the parks site for its architectural columns, plazas, and stairways as well as recycled broken tile, ceramic, and glass pieces in the decorative skin of the walls and benches. His works throughout Barcelona have not only attracted people from all over the world to admire but have become a huge part of Barcelona’s identity and local pride.
Antoni Guadi a native to Catalonia was born in Reus on June 25, 1852. He received his architecture degree in 1878 from the Institut d'Ensenyament Mitja in Barcelona, Spain. His works are known for their expressive sculptural elements as well as his amazing use of space, color, and light. They are mostly concentrated in the Barcelona area. 1n 1984 seven properties of his were declared world heritage sites because of their exceptional creative contributions to architectural development of the late 19th and early 20th century. These properties include Casa Vicens, La Sagrada Familia, Casa Batllo, and Colonia Guell. He was especially recognized for his influence; work in his original Art Nouveau style and how is style combines gardens, sculpture, decorative arts as well as architecture.

The Austin Open Green Map is Growing!

This past summer while I was working at the Green Map Office in NYC I learned about their new online green map project. Its called the Open Green Map and uses an interface similar to map quest for the map makers to upload the Green Map Icons, site descriptions, photos, and videos of sites they want to map in their community.
In October I registered to start the Austin Open Green Map page and meet with the Austin Eco-network, Eco-wise, members of Real Art, Real Community and other interested participants to go over collectively uploading sites onto the on-line map. I was a little skeptical of the process at first but excited about how many people could upload map information with relative ease. Since October we now have over 10 people uploading sites to the Austin Green Map and have 125 places.
I am going to have my Digital Design Foundations students upload sites from their campus green maps. I like that the map is accessible to people on the internet and that the responsibility is shared to update and research Green Map sites for Austin.
Upload a site!
www.opengreenmap.org/en/greenmap/austin-green-map

“A Tapioca Da Tia Lu” by Lula Marcondes

The East Side Studio Tour was lot of fun this year and great motivation to fix up my studio, celebrate my 31st Birthday and invite artist Lula Marcondes to exhibit his work with me. I have admire Lula’s work after seeing his large puppets and banners in the Austin First Night parade in 2006 and then seeing it in critique studio when I came to visit the UT Design program in 2007. Lula is from Olina, Brazil and is an architect, musician, and artist. His work is very influenced by the Brazilian folk art movement and Brazilian woodcutting art. He showed a new work of his at my studio titled “ A Tapioca Da Tia Lu” that is a tribute to one of the oldest tapioca (taco) sellers in his home town. He created this addition with the help of the Austin Series Project which works with artists to create limited edition serigraph print of their work. I like that he not only turned his painting into a print but added a section of fabric from Brazil for the women’s dress. He has incorporated Brazilin fabrics into many of his works. During the studio tour I gave Lula a lesson in linocut printmaking and he is almost done with his new print!

“A collaborative workshop format is the setting used to foster diverse artists’ development and creativity through exposure to the serigraph technique. Each participating artist creates a limited edition serigraph print and The Serie Project, in turn, is able to make the fine art available to the public through these affordable, signed and numbered prints.”
-serieproject.org

You can see the Series Projects current show at the Mexic-Arte Museum from now through March 1st. I highly recommend it!

East Side Studio Tour