Damn there are so many amazing artists in Austin.
This shouldn’t be a surprise, considering we’ve featured over 800 creators but still, the talent here should not go unnoticed.
For our 20th issue the theme was Combo. During our Call for ART, we asked contributors to list the various materials, influences and genres they combine to make their art.
We received such an overflow of cool, art fusions that we had to share them. Read ahead to discover 10 amazing artists that we we’re highlighting for this edition’s Artists to Watch. Follow their pages to get updates on their work (and maybe take home an original piece yourself!)
1Red Moth
My work is highly influenced by Japan, graphic novels, nature and color.
Though I usually end up deviating from my original sketches, they’re a useful starting point.
I love combining different elements that shouldn’t go together. And this time it was was no different. My Qué Dijo kimono has a touch of 60s Flower Power, Psychedlic Rock, and Lisa Frank. Topped with sass as a garnish. With a side of a bright neon color palette.
2Hannah & Nemo
We collaborate to create textile-like interactive mosaic assemblages from common materials – wood, nails, and discarded aluminum cans.
Utilizing low-tech tools such as hole-punchers and hammers, we transform common beverage cans into reflective, multi-colored, flickering tapestries that seem to move of their own accord.
We also touch on the themes of Environmentalism & Consumerism, Stillness & Movement, Mosaic & Collage, Forgotten Junk & Important Documents, Her & Him and Hammer & Nail.
INSTAGRAM // WEBSITE
3Vintage Eyez
I aim to provide audiences with thought provoking literature that is also entertaining with a spin of outside of the box word play.
I got this point in life by returning and capturing my 9 year-old self. Some call it a transition phase or midlife crisis, I simply put it as a rebirth after dying inside chasing what you thought things should be.
“Pink Moon” is about what we most often overlook but is all around us everyday. It’s the smell of freshly cut grass on a Saturday morning or distant smell of someone else’s barbecue grill on a Sunday afternoon. Simple pleasures of life that we don’t cherish until we are under a forced stillness. This is one of many passages that is a part of a larger book entitled Mines In The Field.
Excerpt from “Pink Moon”
Typing under the moonlight, 10:06 to be precise. The moon provides a shine so bright in these darkest of times. Seems like when the days are darkest the colors are the brightest. The powers above have a way of reminding us that the smallest things are the most important in life. Earlier today I watched some birds take flight and I could tell they had a different gleam in their eye. With limited movement from the masses there’s not much smog in the sky. No wonder all the grass in the neighborhood looks so bright. Even in these troubling times you can find the silver lining.
4Clare Wuellner
My life has been one long creative adaptation to circumstance. Recent circumstances have put art front-and-center in my life.
In 2018, art became more important to me than I could ever have imagined. A traumatic brain injury muted many of my strengths and competencies. For reasons mysterious, however, seeing spatial relationships was enhanced. Creativity has exploded. And my hunger for it has become ravenous.
I have always loved photography, drawing, and illustration. This current project combines all three.
My work is intended to capture your attention in two ways. I want you to see the beauty I see when I look at nature and I also want to prompt your appreciation for trees. I strive to create work that is delightful and thought-provoking. If you look at each work, you will find both.
INSTAGRAM // WEBSITE
5Nikole Terrell
I make paper art mostly, but also play around with my sewing machine and textiles.
I have been running an Etsy shop selling customized event decor for the last 6 years. I am also a huge fan of vintage textiles and have recently decided to try and combine paper and textiles to make art.
I used repurposed retro materials (for example, old vinyl placemats) in addition to pulp/paper, all the eps foam, 60s optical art, the pinks and greens, transparent neon jelly vinyl and pre-2000s fabric.
6Robert Kinsey
I’m from Austin, Texas, but originally from rural Michigan where I was raised by wolves.
Not really, but kinda (long story). I studied fine art at the College for Creative Studies in downtown Detroit with a focus in sculpture and painting. Eventually, I made my way down to Austin in 2015 looking for an adventure.
My work is a combination of vintage magazines, packaging foam, rhinestones, electrical tape, and found objects. I also delve into themes of romance, Italian landscapes, surrealism and the balance between masculine and feminine.
7TJ Maclaskey
I’m a master ice artist, and more recently have experimented with fusion sculpture using all the talents I’ve achieved over 60+ years.
My art is created from antique, vintage, found and recycled items, rescued from the trash heap and forced to co-exist to display my vision. Joining non-cohesive items by different means usually with the addition of some sculpted materials caused me to coin the term “fusion sculpture”.
My sculptures set the stage for the story you will write.
INSTAGRAM // WEBSITE
8Ismael Archbold
I’m a writer and musician living in the Hill Country working in the craft beer industry.
Pardo is an old yet extant term for tri-racial folk, i.e., Ibero-European/West African/American Indigenous. My written piece, “Self-Portrait (Pardo),” is influenced by the complicated layers of ethnic and racial identity as not only a lived experience but also as one that is conveyed by others.
A particular influence at work here is how some art speaks different volumes depending on what one knows & brings to a viewing.
Self-Portrait (Pardo)
He is a loquacious breath of American quality, limpid & riddled, lost between two tides in the
black night
He is an effusive Afro-Spanish-American daemon full of spit, clay, smoke, clamor & dust, a
debonair dervish marooned in the plains of his time
He is a diminutive Hispanic scoundrel descended from pirates, planters, the mercantile and the
indigenous, Pacific in his veins, Gulf Stream on his breath, surly gaze an isthmus
He is a beacon unanchored & brown, siren & epicenter of a surrender, drifting along the
unconquered shores
9CP Harrison
As a collagist my art practice and worldview is about making connections via combination.
I’m originally from Houston but moved to Austin in 1997 after receiving my BFA in Theatre. To create my artwork, I simply start with a blank surface and try to combine (in any order):
- Glue
- Crayola
- a pinch of Blue Scribbles
- Red Sharpie to taste (chisel tip)
- Tinnitus
- the stench of refineries
- 2 bowls of Boo Berry cereal
- Ornette Coleman’s This is Our Music
- Caffeine (iced)
- Reader’s Block by David Markson
- 4 cups Pop Art
INSTAGRAM // WEBSITE
10Eric Greer
I paint because it makes me happy. I don’t do it for anyone else but me, but I have found some people like it, and for that I am greatly humbled.
I live by one rule and 10 commandments, but I am human and mess that shit up a lot too. I have a college education, have lived the white picket fence, corporate life, that we are all told is the path we should follow. It was not for me and only made me who I am today.
Love is my driving force and I can only thank God for the tests, trials, and tribulations he has put in front of me to overcome, learn from, and never ever give up or into anything I know in my heart is not the right thing.
