2.25.17 | The Festival of The Beautiful

This year for Mardi Gras we joined forces with the Galveston Arts Center and the Hotel Artist Lofts to present “The Festival of The Beautiful”.  No fences, totally free, sponsored by no one and everyone.

Costumes and handmade gifts replaced store bought jester hats and plastic beads.  Eric’s wizard costume came complete with a driftwood staff, barnacle incense holder, and beach flotsam necklaces to give to strangers and friends.

We left the GAR compound and joined up with the Hotel Artist Lofts.  Becky Major was playing the Euphonium!

Dennis Nance, Galveston Arts Center curator, looked amazing in his handmade costume and streamers. GAR resident, Fidencio Martinez, was spectacularly turned out as a potted monstera philodendron, and carried our Ark for the fire.

Sallie and GAR resident Pat Palermo carried the official parade banner.

We paraded downtown, gathering revelers as we went.  We quickly outgrew the sidewalk, walked the wrong way up a one-way street, and took over an official parade route for a few blocks, returning to the GAR compound for the rest of the Festival.

We had a ritualistic burning of our Festival Ark. Each group brought their own offering for the fire. In the fire our ashes all became one.

Studded Left from Houston kicked off the show!

And Vockah Redu from New Orleans brought it all home! And a very special thank you goes to Michael Stuart Allison for the projections and sound. A second very special thank you to Dan Schmahl, who took all our photos, and therefore appears in none, or all, symbolically, depending on how you look at it.

Thanks to everyone who came out, made costumes and gifts, and brought the festive spirit. It was a truly special night. Hope to see y’all next Mardi Gras!

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.

9.17.16 |The Eye and The Oracle

David Snyder explains his installation, “Knock-Off Oracle, Undecider’s Anthem… And a Disaster, After” at his opening in the GAR Gallery.

Josh, listening to the oracle.

In conjunction with the gallery opening we had a mini-music festival featuring 3 bands – Karima Walker, Deep Cuts, and Hearts of Animals.  This is Karima Walker’s atmospheric and haunting performance .

Thanks to Michael Allison for his awesome projections! Looked just as good from the inside as it did from the courtyard.  This was during Deep Cuts’ performance.

The three new residents have arrived and have begun exploring the strangeness of Galveston.

Ghost, the GAR kitty – hard at work.

Sunrise over the Gulf of Mexico.

8 .4 .16 | Big Bubbles and Bernie on the Beach

We sent off our 2015 – 2016 Residents in style – geeking out on giant bubbles!

I mean, how can you NOT smile with bubbles this big? It brought out everyone’s inner kid.

And snow cones!!

Dan puts the finishing touches on a “Bernie on the Beach”.

Special shout out to Michael Waugh for planting ground cherries all over GAR. These funny little fruits shouldn’t have been able to grow in this climate, but they did incredibly well.

Ghost and the Darkness having an early morning conspiratorial meeting. Caught in the act, boys!

Sun rising over the Gulf of Mexico. Happy Summer, everyone!

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.

2 . 19 . 16 | End of Winter Update

A typical winter beach day. Sometimes when the wind is out of the north the water becomes incredibly flat.

Shark Karma. But when the wind comes from the south it can get really choppy and wash creatures up on the beach. We sent this shark back into the water and it swam away fine. With all the surfing we’ve been doing around here lately a little shark karma could be useful.

Sadly it’s time for Vicki’s show to come down. but not before it was visited by a ghost from Dicken’s past…

Time for our show at the CAMH to come down too, but not before we do a little meditating on the Island Time…

Thanks to Brandon Bell, Danielle Chan, Craig Hauschildt, Jamey Kollar, Matthew McClung, and Neil Sisauyhoat for coming to GAR and performing Michael Gordon’s “Timber”. It was intense and cathartic!

Thanks to Shrimp Boat Projects for helping us bring Dave Dove, Jason Jackson, and Ryan Edwards to GAR to perform “Music for Dolphins”. This was a really unique piece that brought the concert from the Bay to the people!

A field trip to the Oil Rig Museum in honor of current resident Diana Puntar’s birthday with Michael Waugh and Vicki Sambunaris resulted in multiple assaults by frisky mannequins.

Thanks to Josh Bernstein and Natasha Bowdoin for bringing us Christmas Rune Wood. We’ve been burning it in the proper order and hope to unleash the Nordic Fire God before the Vernal Equinox! Bring on spring!

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.