TexasWAX/November Meeting

Painting by Deanna Wood, TexasWAX/Dallas from Some Like It Hot, TAM Port Arthur, TX

Our November meeting was held Sunday the 16th at Gwen's house. In attendance besides Gwen, were Robert McGehee, Suzanne Shield-Polk, Susan Crowson, Cynthia Robertson, Julia Kiovumaa, and our newest member, Sara Cooney. Sara recently moved to Houston, (La Porte, TX) from San Francisco welcomed to Texas by big Ike!

Next Year's Schedule:
It was a very productive meeting in that we were able to mark off some of the items on our t0-do list for this month. Number one was our schedule for next year. Well, we only got as far as April but that is a start and perhaps we can finish the calendar for 2009 at our December meeting.

Here is the schedule we have so far:
December 16 - 6 PM (Tuesday evening) at Julia's house

Back to Sunday meetings in 2009, this year on the second Sunday of the month.
Our meetings usually begin at either 2:30 but sometimes we begin at 3:00.

January 11th - Cynthia Robertson's house
February 8th - Sara Cooney's house
March 8th - Robert's house
April 12th - Darke Gallery, 5421 Feagan @ Detering.

(I need to make sure this date is good with Linda Swaynos at Darke first) (Julia, Gwen, (both Houston artists) and Sharon Kyle-Kuhn (who is from TexasWAX/Austin) will be exhibiting some of their work along with Linda Swaynos at Darke during the month of April.)

Painting by Julia Koivumaa from Some Like It Hot, TAM, Port Arthur, TX

Projects:
We continued our discussion about combining an exhibition proposal combined with a program or panel discussion regarding the disappearance of the bee population.

Check out the TexasWAX/Dallas latest blog post regarding the program they presented at MAC in Dallas. Their presentation is called Global Swarming. I like it.

Workshop and guest instructor:
We are also hoping to bring in an artist from outside our group to do a workshop. Several artist's name were put forward. We are hoping to get an artist who uses wax in 3/D. Julia offered to make contact with one of the artists on the list to find out about availability and fees. We are thinking of doing this in conjunction with Cy-Fair College and the Encaustic program Robert has started there. Cynthia Robertson offered to write a proposal for a mini-grant to help fund this endeavor through the school's Breaking Boundaries program this year.

Some Like it Hot:
Last but not least, we talked about the Some Like it Hot exhibition in Port Arthur. Many thanks again to TAM (Texas Artists Museum) in Port Arthur for hosting the exhibition and in particular, Sandy Trevino-Wigley the Interim Executive Director there who was so helpful.
And again, many thanks to Junane Peck and Darlyne Hartman of the Dallas group who were instrumental in getting this exhibition in Port Arthur and for inviting the Houston group to participate.

I don't remember if this came up at the meeting or not but regarding Some Like it Hot exhibition, I know Junanne would like for that exhibition to travel to other cities in Texas. She is hoping for Houston next, but since we are planning the Degrees exhibition in May at M2 Gallery, I don't know if Houston is the best place for it to go next. I like the idea of that exhibition traveling and picking up art as it moves along though. We will have to think about that more.

New Mexico:
Junanne in Dallas was contacted recently by artist Harriette Tsosie in the New Mexico wax group and they are interested in putting together a joint NM/Texas exhibition. You can check out their site here.

Degrees at M2 Gallery:
About the Degrees exhibition, Deanna Wood has been working on the prospectus for it she says it is almost complete. I will send it out when I get it.

Robert's Encaustic workshop:
FYI for anyone reading this in the Houston area who is interested learning about encaustics, Robert McGehee teaches an Encaustic workshop through the Continuing Ed program at Lonestar College - CyFair every spring and fall. The class is limited to eight students and the cost is very reasonable. Every other year, Bosque Gallery at CyFair College hosts and Encaustic
exhibition.


See everyone in December at Julia's.