Author: Robert Kimberly

Houston Fine Art Fair Recap: With Favorites

Houston has the reputation of a distant relative you don’t really know well, but makes lots of money, buys expensive clothes in poor taste, and gets loud when they drink too much. The success of the first Houston Fine Art Fair, at the George R. Brown Convention Center, might make our city appear more cultured in national and international eyes.

I was there for three of the days, due to a new job.  The usual snappy dressers with nice cars were well-represented, but moderately priced tickets also had local curiosity seekers walking around.  The few that I talked to were impressed with the scale and appearance of the booths.  Houston galleries in attendance looked great, with their exhibiting artists looking right in place neighboring national and international galleries all around.  Houston high-tech artist William Betts had pieces in two out-of-state galleries, which was my introduction to him.   His art is fine; it’s his automated, CNC router that makes his pieces that keeps my interest.
 
Even if the job doesn’t take me to the upcoming Texas Contemporary Art Fair, I hope to attend, just to compare and contrast. 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

Miina Äkkijyrkkä & Daniel Anguilu Should Exhibit Together

Metal Cow
Daniel Anguilu Famous Monsters

What a great menagerie they could make.

Miina Äkkijyrkkä- works

Street Art | Offcite Blog

West Towards the Winds… and Other Sights on a Tuesday Outing

Pangram: When You've Drunk to Much to Say the Alphabet Backwards

This booze-based pengram (a sentence that uses every letter at least once) was found in Lettering for commercial purposes.  I like it.

If you ever get pulled over you you can try this phrase if you can’t say the alphabet backwards to get out of a sobriety test, but I wouldn’t.

TMI Hand Grenade: Where the Blog Owner Shares His Art and Too Much Information Which May Make You Feel Better About Your General Situation

In a reasonable imitation of a midlife crisis, I pretty much detonated my recent career path of the last few months. It was an act to maintain sanity, but hasn’t done for my bank account. But it has led to a small spurt of artistic productivity. My first inclination was to keep these ideas under wraps, but I love when successful artists and creators share their process. For some it might remove the mystery, but I love seeing the foundations on which people build their ideas. And maybe posting my incomplete art for all to see may be the catalyst to keep these sculptures on track and eventually completed.

Which was also why I attended the last open house of the Tx/Rx Labs hackerspace on Commerce Ave. It’s a tech geek enclave, full of computers, electronics, and sexy tools, including a MakerBot Thing-O-Matic 3D Printer, a RepRap and a plasma CNC table.  It’s about people trying to make cool stuff because they can.  And a few were mighty open about me asking lots of questions about my ideas and if their tools could make them (for the most part, no).  It was the first time I had taken my sketchbook and samples and shown them to people.

It was weird and cool and helpful. Hopefully, it won’t be the last time I talk to people about my art.


F-1 Paper Model, originally uploaded by Mr. Kimberly.


F-1 (Side View), originally uploaded by Mr. Kimberly.