the stuff dreams are made of

Far from the days of hoola-hoops, Popples and ballet skirts, my favorite things–in the tangible sense of want and love–are no longer things. I’m certain it has always been happiness that I wish for, but after several years of birthday candles and letters to Santa, the things I long for and truly cherish won’t be found in a dusty box beneath trapper keepers and cassette tapes.

Finding solace from the hustle and bustle of the bar scenes and city streets in the corner of your favorite funky coffee shop … Time spent with the ones you love, your closest friends, your family and all the people who know your dreams and make life real … The coolness factor of being privy to a small, personal performance by one of those somehow still undiscovered musicians that, in any given number of months, you will boast to your friends standing shoulder to shoulder in the back of an overcrowded venue, “Yeah, but I saw them when…” … A room full of contemporary, colorful artwork for you to study, enjoy and admire for hours, never once thinking that you’ve seen this before, or wishing for it to be any different.



All those things, those favorites, are what remind you how big even the smallest moments can be and how hungry your soul is. They make you think that maybe David really did defeat Goliath, and maybe love could make the world go ‘round…



This is the stuff that dreams are made of, and for one night, for one great night, with all of my favorites in one place at one time, we celebrated these things of our dreams.

July 12 was the opening reception of Dreams Are Made of These, a month-long display of work by Austin-artist, Mason McFee. Wine, friends, food and live music were all on the menu at The Hideout, an inconspicuous coffee house/theatre turned gallery hidden among stores, restaurants and hotels that line Congress Avenue in the heart of downtown Austin.





Old friends and many new faces escaped reality for one evening to take a glimpse into Maseman’s dreamland. A ghost? An alien? A Russian nun? Maseman is the brainchild of this contemporary artist–a character of life and imagination.



On the corner of imagination and invention, you will find a character known as Maseman. In an effort to elude reality, he lives in a world of his own, finding his way through endless cosmos and environments. Simple thoughts and ideas, conveyed through ink and paint, provide the viewer with a world in which to contemplate the intricacies of life.



In Dreams Are Made of These, Maseman and his fateful friends beckon to us by appealing to our emotional familiarity. Each character in Maseman’s dreamland is a reminder of the vague nature of reality and the power of perception. Through this whimsical journey, he encounters a menagerie of inked identities and friends, who seemingly overcome obstacles with a shield of simple, humble satisfaction in mere existence.





If groovy and funky had a beautifully complex, dance-crazed lovechild, it would be divine justice, and it was.This music is the kind of stuff that … say you’re sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic in the desolate aftermath of an ice storm, and the entire world is frozen solid. If God played these tracks from his heavenly iPod, every creature on earth would break into dance. Hey all you beat boys and beat girls! You want to have a real party? Rock these jams at your next sock hop.



Dreams are Made of These will be showing through the month of July.
Check out more Maseman here.
Like what you see? Send him a message on myspace.

A Craving for Color

Artist Christine Gray crafted this colorful cuisine with layers of dried acrylic peeled from mixing trays. Tasty.

Seldom is there a weekend that art-minded Austinites quietly retreat to their eastside caves, faced with a famine of color and creativity. Luckily, in the first weekend of July, our great city did not disappoint, and we were blessed with a fun-filled feast of local happenings. With simultaneous opening receptions at two eastside galleries and a local joint with a long-awaited liquor license, my friends and I gorged on the plentiful offerings of our great city.



For starters, we swung by Pump Project to check out CHIRP! (a celebration), and oh it was. This scrumptious collection of work featured an impressive group of local art celebrities including Travis Nichols and Matthew Rodriguez among others. Feel free to Flikr for a taste of this goodness … if the spirit moves you.

We may have been appeteased by the chirpy cheerfulness, but greedy and gluttonous, we were hungry for more. Second Course? Okay Mountain–an LGC staple-–to nibble on the work of Santa Barbara based artist, Christine Gray.



Mingling among admirers at the opening of her show, Mimeographic Spectrum, the artist seemed to resemble the vibrant palette of her work. Clad in kelly green skinny denim, camel wedges and a purple sweater with over sized buttons, Gray–and her work–was anything but.

When I was in Santa Barbara a few weeks ago, the common fashionista style of choice appeared to be slinky mini dresses and clunky boots, so although Gray is currently a resident of Santa Barbara, the funky casualness of her Austin past was inescapable. Gray received her BFA from UT in 2003, and is now in the land of milk and honey, working on her MFA at UCSB.



The inspiration one receives from time spent in a city that smells of fresh flowers and farmers markets is not easily replicated. Though her personal fashion may not have immediately reflected it, her work bore semblance to the inspiration that few locales–other than peaceful life of an incomparable So Cal Mecca–can offer.

Her oil paintings were both breathtakingly beautiful and hauntingly chilling simultaneously. She refers to the oppositional ease of these images as ‘empty fantasy landscapes.’ Additionally, many of her pieces were crafted from recycled materials such as the cardboard structure below, which could, at first glance, be mistaken as a pile of leftovers from a careless industrial endeavor.



Mimeographic Spectrum will be up through August 4. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys color, happiness, care bears and rainbow bright.

Minds and bellies full from whimsies and Pacifico, we swung by the Scoot Inn in celebration of their newly obtained liquor license. For 130 some odd years, Austin locals have been scooting in to this eastside bier garten for their favorite tasty brew. Now I know people say that you shouldn’t change a good thing, but I don’t think they were talking about adding tequila. Thank you, Scooters, and long live the garten!

Shelter from the [Ice] Storm

Here in the Lone Star State, we pride ourselves on being of a tough cowboy variety. We hunt, shoot, fish, ranch, ride, rope, and rodeo. We drown our food in butter and our sorrows in whiskey, but when we see a little ‘wintry mix’ come our way, we carry on like a bunch of suburban mothers in the eve of Y2K.



Although I only work a short while north of where I stay, it was not required that I report to the office for three consecutive days, for fear of the treacherous commute. My humble employer believed it was in both of our interests to work from home until the ice melted, so that’s what I was doing… working. Working on transcribing interviews and organizing the magazine, yes – but also working on catching up on my much-needed rest, working on laundry, working on getting through several books, and working on getting my creative juices flowing. (All of which are beneficial for both my personal wellbeing, and that of the company.)



McSweeney's
Much of my ice-induced literary focus was directed toward a publication called McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern. Averaging at 300 pages per issue, these hardcover journal collections take readers through captivating fictional scenarios. Amazingly fantastic things happen in McSweeney’s whimsical world. A man marries a tree, pointless wars are fought and lost, a love relation of imperfect proportions develops and thrives, entire secular histories are created and destructed, and young girls come to defy masculine authority.


Issue 20

As if this weren’t enough, the independent Bay Area-based editor has placed a full-color illustration of brilliance on every fourth page – each by amazing artists, and each enhancing the reader’s experience. The Quarterly Concern is a refreshing twist on literary publication, and it’s sure to bring you more colorful surprises than LeVar Burton’s PBS theatrics.

Retreat
Speaking of colorful surprises, several may currently be found hanging on the white walls of Austin’s Women & Their Work Gallery. For nearly 30 years, Women & Their Work has functioned as a statewide non-profit organization celebrating the beauty and strength of contemporary art and feminism.



Until February 17, the gallery will host Retreat, which features the amazing work of Theresa Marchetta. To create her large-scale masterpieces, Marchetta pours pigmented acrylic and wax to capture colorful abstract interpretations of the faraway and the familiar. Unbelievable stuff, really.

No American Talent
The guys over at Okay Mountain kicked off their No American Talent series this month with Argentinean artist, Benito Laren. No American Talent – a spoof on Arthouse’s New American Talent - is a three-part series of exhibitions showcasing work from artists in countries other than the 50 great states. Most of Laren’s work looked like it was made in the technological period of the early Windows 'Paint' program, and it shared the radical neon simplicity of the ‘80s peg toy, Lite-Brite.



It was Laren himself who captivated my attention for the majority of the evening. I wasn’t sure if he was wearing a toupee, a full-on wig, or if he was aware of exactly how much 'it' looked like a gray, matted Himalayan. He was poised, quirky, and full of energy – active, excited eyes behind over sized, tinted transitions lenses. (Tony LaRussa take note: inside/outside single-lens convenience will never be fashionably appropriate.) Laren was an effusive character as well - delighted to speak with any audience, whether they responded or even understood.



Riding on my friend Aldo’s fluency en Espanol, I managed to stick around for the better part of a conversation. Laren was sharing a collection of personal photos, which seemed to share little relevance to one another in terms of characters, symbolism, or even time period. I would like to believe that he was sharing some great wisdom of chemistry and war, love and expression, but I kept hearing the word thong. Every time he would point at a picture of a woman, he would say thong, and laugh. There were quite a few women in his picture collection, and as it turns out, Benito did a stint in undergarment advertising some years ago. The pixilated thongs in Laren’s pieces – a blatantly recurring theme – bore striking similarity to those oddly shaped Tetris blocks in Atari backgrounds. Lite-Brite, like I said.

SXSW 2007
Finally, some long-awaited leakage from SXSW. We’re about a month into the new year, and still no official word about the line-up. Well, the SXSW folks have played hide the salami with the anticipated news for too long. Yesterday, the Austinist posted 340 performers in an unofficial band list. It’s not a complete list by any means, but it’s enough to get your blood pumping.