Houston Bound

April 10th found me bound for Houston to visit my friend Shannon. Although I had not seen her since 2007 when a group of us got together in Fredricksburg,  I know pretty much everything that has gone on in her life thanks to youtube and facebook. :)

i'm pretty sure this is what lives in the room in the attic.  Accessed from the guestroom.

  My 4 1/2 hr trip turned into a traffic nightmare-2 separate wrecks-huge back-ups.  I finally had to pull off and kill time (better than sitting in traffic) so i perused Texas Art Supply  and waited out the traffic.  When google maps said it was a 30 min drive, i hit the road.    We spent the evening catching up on life, talking about art and watching a movie. Jayson too-well, he watched the movie with us-he didn't care about the girl/art talk.
  Sat i got up, did my "routine" then appeared downstairs.  Shannon had scheduled a"Journaling by 5's" get together at her house-which coincided with my trip.  There were 8 of us in attendance.  Shannon came up with a way for people who are too anal retentive to just journal-to slap stuff in there w/out thinking so you
can actually do it.  (my words)  you can see the video-or the info about Jb5 by looking at her page on you tube (link above)  We had a lot of laughs.  We were tired after that so both decided to nap.  i read, then actually slept for about 30 min. she didn't.  We snacked, watched 2 movies-jayson and shannon had a few words about lighting when i turned off a lamp.  Apparently that is an issue with them :)  had i known, the light would have stayed on-

 Sunday we ventured into Houston to check out Glenwood Cemetery.  Can not believe i've never seen this one as many trips as i've taken to houston-AND it's right by an area i hang out in.  We got out of the car and i figured there would be no problem  (this will link you to her video of our "trip") finding our way back when we were done. HA.  little did i know how big this place was-84 acres.  Hilly, treed acres.  At least we got to see areas we wouldn't have seen had we not been lost.  When we made it back to the car-it was off to Auntie Chang's.  (only chinese food i like) if you can call lemon chicken chinese.  but theirs is the best.  We got our sustenance, then off we went to the Menil museum. Shannon wanted me to see the hairy cheese. We saw old and modern art.  OK. so "art" might not be what some would call it.  Like the hairy child's legs coming out of the sink.  Or the silhouette's-where one image of a woman pushing a man? into an oven was questionable.  At least where her tongue was. (the sink replaced the Hairy Cheese)   We wondered to the Rothko chapel.  looked at the large canvases w/different shades of black.  Then went to see the Frescoes.   They were gone. In their place was a yr long exhibit.  The Infinity Machine    The most awesome thing i've ever seen as far as art goes.  If you are in houston this yr, i suggest you see this-it's free and worth the time.  We spent a good 45 min watching it rotate, seeing something different everytime it went around.  We also decided we'll each be starting our own collection of vintage mirrors.  a good way to end the outing.
  Sun night was snack night, watched Game of Thrones then visited and painted in journals.  And caught up on more life issues.   Mon i packed it up and headed home.  I made 3 stops, decided since i was "in the area" i needed auntie chang's again.  not like they will notice.  Wrong.  The same guy waited on me as did sun.  AND remembered a)what i drank and b) what i ordered...that's service!
  At this point traffic would be bad, so i took the "backroads" to 45-and hit one more art store for good measure.  FINALLY got home at 10:30   It was a good weekend, good laughs, met new people and got to eat at Auntie Chang's. 

Houston

Fri morning i worked about 2 hrs then headed to the Houston area. Melissa actually lives about 45 min away, but if i mentioned her city you would say "where?"
i got unloaded then we went into town and hit an antique store-where we saw some cool overpriced stuff. Then she took me to "Jeters." I think maybe they filmed the last Tx Chainsaw movie there. really. it was cobweb-by, dusty, & mud-dobber-y but we managed to find a few things. Had dinner at a great italian place and headed back to her place where we stayed up late playing w/art supplies and talking.
Sat we planned to head into Houston and meet up w/CeCe to go to the Bayou City Art Festival.
Met at the shuttle and off we went! As much as i love the atmosphere of our art festival-i really loved this one a bit more-actually i loved the Artists more than the atmosphere-it was set in Memorial park-Some fabulous mixed media artists.
Our favorite by far had no website: Aaron Hequembourg. wonderful mixed media using things salvaged from old buildings on his property (193 yr old plantation home)
www.kimberlywillcox.com
www.anthonyhansen.com
www.stevehunsicker.com
www.stephanierubiano.com !!melissa, stephanie, cece
yes, stephanie was there-she won 2nd place in the fall at this same festival-she had lots of her boxes and prints for sale.
When we left we headed to the Heights for some lunch and shopping. Found a few goodies in this area-and saw the cutest 3 legged dog (mastiff puppy) (lula)

Texas Art was another stop for us before CeCe headed home. Mel and i hit the liquor store, 1/2 price books and Auntie Changs for dinner before heading home. Another late night of talking.