Street Art

Yesterday the Daily Texan ran a story about Federico Archuleta, a local graffiti artist commissioned by Cheapo Discs.

Peyton McGee, Daily Texan

Interestingly enough, Archuleta has done quite a bit of public works in Austin, like the portraits on the formerly known Intellectual Property.


I'm always intrigued by grafitti art - more impressed than anything. It's like in the old-school Paint program that I would play with when I was a kid; I hated the spray paint! I could never get anything good, except snow or something of that sort. Artists like Archuleta have such beautiful images created with what I think to be such a difficult and time-consuming material.

Check out the Daily Texan article, it's pretty interesting.

Flatbed Visit

I visited Flatbed Press Tuesday, one of Texas' largest printing press services, and I have to say, I came back feeling inspired.



Flatbed was founded in 1989 by Katherine (Kathy) Brimberry and Mark Smith as a side-project to both of their careers as teachers. It became a full-time career for both of them in 1999, when they expanded their space and moved to East M.L.K. Blvd, giving them an 18,000 sq. ft. warehouse comparable to that of one of New York's Chelsea-district galleries.

Half of the space is devoted to printmaking processes and their presses, the other half to smaller galleries.

First off, let's get a little background on what printmaking is and the different techniques that Flatbed and many artists use.

Basically, a print is any mark pressed onto paper either by hand or by a printing press. There are a few different types of printing techniques:

• Relief: a surface that is carved (i.e. wood or linoleum), and then inked, so that only the surface is shown - not what has been carved. Some of the earliest prints and illustrations were done with relief printing, mostly carved woodprints. For example, this famous Japanese print was done with with wood.

• Intaglio: This type of printmaking is somewhat of an umbrella term. It can have many different techniques such as engraving, etching, drypoint and aquatint. These type of prints are normally done on metal (i.e. copper or zinc), and whatever is drawn onto the plates will be where the ink sits, therefore what is printed. This type of printmaking makes it easier to produce finer lines, so you can end up with a result like this:

Etching by Rembrandt

• Lithography: In contrast to relief and intaglio, lithography is a print made by drawing onto a stone with oils which pick up ink, giving you the print. This is one of the harder methods of printing, but can produce beautiful results:

"Relativity" by M.C. Escher

Flatbed press provides printing services to Austin and Texas artists. With most printing presses costing upwards of $20,000, a place to print your work is necessary. They provide counselations to artists, and charge by press per day. They also teach classes like introduction to certain methods of printmaking - a great opportunity for beginning artists.

As I said earlier, half of their space is devoted to small exhibitions; right now they are hosting the Senior Art Exhibition for UT graduating art students and a small viewing of war art.

In looking at their collection of prints on the wall, I was surprised to see the name of Bob Schneider - Austin's musical wild-man - and apparently, master printer. I was able to see some of the etchings he is currently working on, and what an amazing experience! He will have an exhibition at Flatbed beginning March 12 - April 18, called "Beggar's Bag." Here's an example of Schneider's past works:

So if you have time, try to make it down to Flatbed, have a chat with Mark and the gang - it really was an inspiring experience that I would recommend to anyone. Plus they give away scraps of old prints to visitors, just another reason to make it down!

Tinted Windows

When I was in middle school, boy bands were the shiz (that's right, the shiz). From N*SYNC to the Backstreet Boys to 98 degrees, oh man, I loved them all - but what teenage girl didn't, right?

Those guys had something about them, but one band stood out among the rest: three brothers with golden hair.

Hanson.

(insert angels' chorus here)

Mmmbop was probably my sixth grade anthem.

Anyway, they made a failed attempt at a comeback a few years ago, but now one of them is back!

A new superpower band has formed featuring the middle golden boy Taylor Hanson, Smashing Pumpkins' James Iha, Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne, and Bun E. Carlos of Cheap Trick.

Now I've been a fan of these bands for quite a while, and to think that they are coming together is so exciting! Their new band is called Tinted Windows, and they just signed on with S-Curve records on February 19.



I know what you're thinking. What does this have to do with Austin? Well, first off, they are awesome, and I think all Austinites should be informed. Secondly, they are performing their first public gig during SXSW on March 20 - get your tickets now!

Here's a little sample of their album, set to release in April:

You can see when and where to catch them in Austin here.

Hear what others are saying about them:

Rolling Stone
Billboard
Stereogum

And check their Myspace out at http://www.myspace.com/tintedwindows.

Happy listening!

Presenting: Ventilo

Hi all! So this weekend I met up with one of my really good friends Meredith Crandell, a fellow KLRUian and a recent SXSW film producer. We had a talk about her latest film, Ventilo.



She and her husband Jerin just finished their latest work, which began last summer ('08), and has been accepted into the short film category of SXSW.

I will post our conversation as soon as I finish editing it. Until then read up on Meredith's blog and SXSW's lineup for Ventilo here.

Austin City Limits spinoff

As you all know, I work in at KLRU-TV, home of Austin City Limits, and we recently had a taping for Sarah Jaffe, an up-and-coming singer/songwriter from Denton, Texas.



The taping, however, will not be for ACL, but for a prospective online short performance, yet to be named. Jaffe's performance will be the pilot episode of this new series, set to air later this year (I will update when I know more).

Here is the event description for the taping on February 15.

To hear more of Jaffe, whose song "Ever Born Again" was named as NPR's song of the day in August, visit her myspace at http://www.myspace.com/sjaffe

Cake Charmers

First off, I need to mention that I am probably one of the few college students addicted to the food network channel. Maybe it's my love for food, maybe it's my envy of people who can cook and cook well. Whatever the reason, it has become my default channel whenever I turn on the tube.

The reason I preface with that is because one of the shows I love most on that channel is Ace of Cakes, a show about amazing Charm City Cakes bakery in Baltimore that does some of the most out-there cake designs, from traditional wedding cakes to motorized snowboarding cakes. Here's a little sample of what they do:



So in watching this show, and with an upcoming wedding to plan, I was wondering if there was a bakery in Austin that does cakes like this, without a TV contract. But apparently, this whole wacky cake frenzy is a nation-wide phenomenon, so a few of my friends tell me. Bakeries will do whatever they can, for the right price.

Just from doing a little bit of research, Austin bakeries like Sansalone's Specialty Cakes and Fine Pastry and Lucy's Cakes, attempt to do what Charm City does, and get very close to what they do, but there's something about that Baltimore bakery. There is no denying these bakers have talent. I mean, whoever can reproduce Kermit the Frog this well and edible deserves some recognition.

From Sansalone's

Now, my biggest question is, how much do cakes like this cost? For big-time cakers like Charm City, all cakes are individually priced, but with a minimum of $1,000. Not to mention the extra charges of flying them down here to bake it for you. That takes some deep wallets.

The same goes with Austin bakeries like Lucy's and Sansalone's, most cakes like this are individually priced, but are undoubtedly costly. Lucy's cakes can range from $22 and up, while Sansalone's specialty cakes range from $30 and up. But, if you want to celebrate in style, an amazing cake is definitely the way to go!

Thanks to Christina at Sansalone's Specialty Cakes and Fine Pastry

Welcome!

Hello and welcome to my blog, Austin Creatives. My name is Maggi Davis, and my plan for this blog is to discover and share the creative minds in Austin and surrounding areas, whether they be filmmakers, musicians, artists, bakers, graphic designers, etc.

Austin is home to some of the greatest, most creative minds in Texas, as well as the nation. I hope to examine the artwork of UT students, some SXSW filmmakers, the poster artwork of graphic designers at Flatstock in March, and other art from the vast array of creatives that reside in Austin.

What I am really looking for is what inspires these artists, and what inspires you. This blog is not only for those people I write about, but for you the reader as well. I hope to post often, with whatever I find via the internet, personal experience/exploration, or otherwise. But, as before, feel free to comment/contact me any time - I am always looking for new things to blog about, and can use your feedback.

Thanks for reading so far, and stay tuned for more!