7.24.18 |Summer Blast

We’re in the heart of summer right now, but wanted to look back on the last few months.  Back in May we were honored to host a screening of David Fenster’s film “Opuntia” about Cabeza de Vaca, prickly pear cactus, and personal journeys.

To mark the occasion we served Prickly Pear cocktails – containing mezcal, prickly pear juice, ginger liquor, and lime! Smoky and sweet and potently delicious. Yum.

Congratulations to current GAR residents, Justin and Kristina, for making an amazing exhibition! The opening was a lot of fun, and many thanks to El Lago and Blushing for providing some awesome music in the back courtyard.

The night ended in flames.

Heading out to West Texas, for our annual Marfa trip. Turn left at nipple mountain.

Sallie and Lucy exploring the rocks at the Chihuahuan Desert nature center. The  best part about West Texas is the hiking, and the creatures. Which brings us to another installment of: CREATURE FEATURE!

Here is a Spade Footed Toad balancing a dog hair on its nose! Spotted in Marfa, TX.

For some nightmare fodder, here is a Giant Centipede, and yes, it is longer than your finger (I don’t care how long your fingers are).

Fluttering Friends! From top to bottom: A Sphinx Moth feeding on flowers in Marfa, An Arizona Sister butterfly in the mountains near Fort Davis, TX, and finally a Black Witch moth that was waiting for us upon our return to Galveston.

In response to the minimalist art in Marfa, we noticed that the bunnies have taken it upon themselves to be the upholders of representational art, like this self-portrait we found etched into the side of a building at the Chinati Foundation.

And introducing our newest GAR furry friend – the wonderful, ever charming, Mister Smithers!

At the second artwalk for the residents show we had to pull out the giant bubbles – its a GAR summer tradition. And this bubble master just had a birthday! Happy birthday Marji! 

And if you came to the second artwalk hopefully you got your hands on these limited edition GAR t-shirts featuring 2016-2017 resident, Pat Palermo’s drawing of Pumaman on his magical, bee-making guitar!

And no blog post would be complete without some plant-life, like this exuberant Passion flower, strutting its stuff in the GAR front courtyard. Stay cool this summer, friends!

 

Fantastic Spring!

It’s been a beautiful spring. We had a lot of fun beachcombing with Mark Dion while he was in Galveston working on an upcoming project.

Here are some of the beach treasures he found.

While visiting the bird rookery at High Island there was this strange moment when an alligator ambushed a Roseate Spoonbill, pulling it under the water. The other spoonbills turned and stared intently at the spot of their comrades disappearance for what seemed like a very long time. 

The GAR soundtrack for this spring was perfectly captured in an evening show featuring Advance Base, Friendship, and Karima Walker. Thank you Michael Stuart Allison for taking such good care of the sound and lights!

A big Thank You to our current resident artists, Justin Roykovich and Kristina Estell, for taking time out of their studio work to share with students from HSPVA and Clear Springs High School!

It was an honor to host the students from the Iconoclast Poetry program for one of their live poetry reading events. Torrina Harris is doing such great work!

We always love having Da Camera put on one of their special performances in the GAR gallery. This visit the Da Camera Young Artists — featuring Jacob Schafer (violin), Giancarlo Latta (violin), Sergein Yap (viola), and Annamarie Reader (cello) — performed Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp Minor, Op. 131 (1826) as part of the Beethoven For All Concerts.

The poet and writer Jeremy Sigler has also been in town doing studio visits and while here created this lovely book along with mathematical assistance from David Feil.

If you haven’t seen Adam Putnam’s show in the GAR Gallery make sure you stop by soon! The last day to catch it is May 12th.

The migratory birds have been passing through all month! The second picture is a sweet but exhausted hummingbird resting in our Jasmine. The last picture is of several Tanagers picking off the GAR bees as they come and go from the hive. Fortunately the Tanagers have moved on, leaving our bees in peace.

Festival of the Beautiful 2018

It’s the first Saturday of Mardi Gras, so it’s time for the second annual Festival of the Beautiful! We started this event along with the Galveston Arts Center and the Hotel Artist Lofts as a response to the rising ticket prices and heightened fences of Galveston’s Mardi Gras. This event is free and open to everyone’s interpretation of beauty! Costumes and handmade gifts (to be given away in lieu of beads) are highly encouraged.

The King of the Babies and Super Sallie are ready to go! But first we must consult the Oracle.

Undeterred by the pouring rain, we set out for the Artists Lofts to meet the rest of our crew.

We took refuge in the Proletariat to warm up before we began the rest of our festive journey.

Our crew paraded down Postoffice, giving handmade gifts to fellow merrymakers and onlookers.

Thank you to current artists in residence Kristina and Justin for bearing the ark back to the sacred fire!

Thank you to Becky Major for her excellent bull-horn skills, David for adding his sousaphone into our parade cacophony, and Dennis Nance for navigating our path through the fog.

After our downtown meandering we headed back to GAR to give our offerings to the magical fire.

Offerings were made, and the fire accepted!

We sealed the deal through music! Thank you to Mariana Kunst Fascion (of BOAN) for her amazing performance.

And Tex Kirschen and Erika Thrasher (of Studded Left and Indian Jewelry) for bringing it home!

Somewhere in the fog is Michael Allison, once again taking care of the sound, the lights, and the THICK MYST.

Not pictured is Dan Schmahl, because he was once again, the man behind the camera. Therefore he appears in none, or all of these pictures, depending on how you look at it.

It was an amazing night, with fun had by all!

Thanks to everyone who came out that night and helped us celebrate. When we emptied our pockets the next morning we found so many amazing gifts!

Until next year, you beautiful people!

 

12.20.16 | GAR Holiday Spectacular!

The view from the GAR front gates – yes, it is that weird. Always.

David Snyder’s prophetic show completely predicted the outcome of the election. Man, we wish he was wrong.

Deinstalling David Snyder’s show was at least cathartic, as we destroyed the mindless spectators with a sledge hammer.

It’s been a great year so far with the new residents! Here is Pat Palermo and a gaftopsail catfish.

Lunch is served!

Fidencio Martinez and Leonardo Benzant share their work in progress with UofH students.

The artists in residence were also able to present their work to the Galveston community.

The official GAR sport – Texas boule!

It’s best played in an alleyway with lots of pebbles and potholes and maybe a dead pigeon.

If you haven’t come by to see Scott Gilbert’s “True Artist Tales” in the GAR Gallery, it’ll be up through the holidays.

It’s what all the fancy ladies are doing…

There’s also a new issue of Binder Magazine available. Featuring handmade incense, created from lovingly gathered fragrant woods, herbs and spices in the Davis Mountains of West Texas.

Also, a sticker!

A behind the scenes look at Super Hit Press, where Binder is printed.

The newest addition to the GARden – boat planter! The mast is a pluot tree.

Gratuitous kitty photos.

The GAR kids, being silly.

It’s always good to end on a sunrise.

Happy Holidays, friends.

6.23.16 | Summertime

Thanks to everyone who came out for the opening of the 5th Year Residency Show! It was a great night, with great art, food, and music.

Thomas Helton’s Boomtown Brass Band was fantastic!

Himalayan Taste made SO much food! And we did a pretty good job of plowing through it.

Big shout out to Paul Pedisich, a long time friend of GAR (purple shirt) and congrats on the release of his book “Congress Buys a Navy”. Go check it out here.

The show is pretty sweet. Congratulations to this year’s residents – Zachary Moser, Diana Puntar, and Michael Waugh.  If you haven’t made it down to see it yet, come on by! It’s up until July 23rd.  You can also see more installation photos here.

After the show opened we headed West.  Say what you want about Marfa, but just look at that sunset!

Searching for cave paintings at Mountain GAR.

We found them! Possibly an elk…?

Dwindi still loves nothing more than a good hike.

We still have a few issues of Binder Volume 1 available if you haven’t got yours yet. Contact us for more details.  This issue comes with the zine, a cd, and a poster.

The GARden has been fruitful this spring, especially figs and berries. But you gotta get to them before the mockingbirds do, because those dudes don’t share!

Dean Daderko gave us a cucumber seedling plant when he came to do studio visits and it has been cranking out cucumbers all summer long! 

It’s officially summer, and while all the other plants are fading, the Mexican sunflowers are going crazy! And that’s what’s so great about them.  High fives to anyone who can spot the Sallie among the sunflowers.

10.25.15 |Fall Gratitude

A big thank you to Joshua Edwards and Lynn Xu for sharing their poetry with us. This was in conjunction with our Fall show by Joshua Edwards: “Photographs Taken At One-Hour Intervals During A Walk From Galveston Island To The West Texas Town of Marfa”.

A big thank you to Eric Taylor for coming to GAR and kicking our asses into the real world.

A big thank you to everyone who came to our hands-on workshop, helping us bind the emotional world to the physical world.

A big thank you to Robb Walsh for coming to GAR and cooking amazing gumbo for our Residency Artist Meet & Greet party.

Look at that roux!! (Cajun napalm)

6 . 27 . 15 | Summer Isn’t Always a Bummer

Thank you to everyone who came out to the Residency Show, even though it was a rain soaked night!

Gartist in Residence, Grace Ndiritu, looking fabulous next to the Eatsie Boys food truck.

Wild Moccasins were able to finish their set right before the storm set in! Thanks for a great show guys!

Cat Koozies! Cat Koozies! Cat Koozies! If you could correctly answer a Greek mythology trivia question posed by Lucy Sparrow you may have walked away with one of these GAR commemorative beauties!

After the Residency Show opening we headed out for our annual West Texas field trip. On the way out there we stopped at the Sonora caves. It’s a strange, crystal world down there!

A Mountain GARfrog eagerly watches breakfast being made.

Back at GAR proper we see that under Sallie’s eternal optimism our Plant People invite has blossomed into this! Anyone else get any gardens from their invites?

The swallowtail larvas have been shape-shifting.

But if anyone out there knows what kind of butterfly this guy will become, please let us know! Because it sure is pretty!

5 . 5. 15 | Kite Weekend

A big thank you to kite experts Glenn Davison and Kathy Nixie for coming to GAR and doing three fun kite building workshops with us. We made Miniature Kites, Fighting Kites, and Kites from recycled materials. If you weren’t able to come, here are some pictures from the weekend.

Building and flying miniature kites in the GAR gallery.

Building and flying fighting kites.

Building and flying kites from recycled materials.

Thank you to everyone who came out to participate! Seeing all the kites up in the air flying together at the end of the weekend was really magical.

4 . 18 . 15 | April is the Cruelest Month

Our spring got off to a great start when Maria Molteni gifted us with this net for our basketball hoop.

Along with working on our basketball game, we’ve been dream machine-ing. Thanks Dan!

 

 

Building and burying Adam Putnam’s obelisk for the “Plant People” exhibition.

 

 

 

 

Also part of the “Plant People” exhibition was current artist in residence Grace Ndiritu’s shamanic plant performance.

 

More fun with fungi! Top: Shitake Mushrooms, bottom: Turkey Tail Fungus. Also part of the “Plant People” exhibition.

Our carnivorous Pitcher Plant is now large enough to eat full grown flies! Thank you Diana for turning us on to this fascinating plant and insect eating machine.

 

Battle Royale in the garden!

 

 

We’ve had good luck with some new crops this winter: artichokes, broccoli, and sugar snap peas!

The palimpsest of “New New Berlin”. The structures may be gone, but their mark remains.

1 . 29 . 15 | The Ghost and The Darkness

Introducing the GAR kitties! We found them at the shelter, they’re brothers and their mother was a stray. They are cute as shit.

The Ghost.

The Darkness.

The back courtyard is a kitty playground.

These little dudes have been a great addition to GAR. Everyone has been having such a good time getting to know them!