My Week In Pictures and It's Only Wednesday

What a roller coaster week as we near deadlines and budgets are suddenly strained as new costs come in that I know nothing about until I open an email or am handed an estimate. I've been so busy this week attending to 'the numbers' that I did no work on my own text interventions until mid-afternoon today. That made a gap of five days without any focus on my own project for this building.

But maybe, that was OK. We came up with a great new idea today and are now juggling numbers for five walls. What can we afford to do? How can we simplify? What can we drop? What can we add to? I had a really good meeting with the graphic designers I hired to make my text ideas real.

All the project artists are at work and all ten projects are looking really good. In fact, Aggie Eyster finished her etched metal panels and she delivered them today to the mill work folks in Katy, TX.

Her panels will be incorporated into a very grand reception desk for the main lobby. There will be nothing quite like this 'meet and greet' area. Her work is superb.

1002 Washington will be unique. The building itself will get people's attention and then the art will kick in. Each piece will invite response from the public. The art is all real. There isn't even a hint of faded posters pinned on the walls.

My only misgiving and it's a very small misgiving, is that there may be a lack of coherence because all the artists do such different work. But, we chose the artists specifically because each does do something different. Each artist offers another 'take' on this great, complicated and diverse city.

Then it's time to pause and say to myself, "This building is big and folks will see one work of art at a time. They can be surprised and even delighted that they are surprised." Enough.

I've decided that I will think of this building as one of those 1980s outdoor bayou art exhibitions when selected artists created very diverse art along Buffalo Bayou between Shepherd and Downtown Houston. I remember being energized by such variety. So, I will look at this five story building in the same way I looked at those bayou exhibitions. If the art is real, the building can hold it and all will work.

I suspect that the experience of this building will be unexpected, both for the folks who work in it and for the visitors who come for permits, licenses and green building ideas. I hope we have folks who come with no other agenda than to see the art and, by the way, visit the Green Building Resource Center. I hope there will be receptions in the public spaces so ever more people spend time in this unique public building.

But oh, what a time we're having this week. Costs we assumed were already covered are suddenly coming from my budget. My contingency has shrunk to nothing in just days. That is OK if nothing else becomes an issue. If I should ever be offered another job like this, I'll get a lot more in writing, right at the beginning. I'll know the questions to ask and then I'll know enough to ask them again and again and again. And involving a wider circle in the process. Nothing like adding 6-8 people to each email so everyone is in the loop. Always.

There are moments when the whole project seems overwhelming and then I take a deep breath and suddenly believe, again, that it's all going to work out. Life is a risk and that seems to be working out. So this will also. Maybe I am simply a tenacious optimist and don't give up on anything until it's finished. Successfully. I had my palms read a few months ago and my life purpose is, believe it or not, "To get the job done." Guess that means whatever job is at hand. No pun intended.

Today was a good day, once I'd risen from bed and emailed a dozen folks, made some calls and got on my way to meet Aggie at the mill work place in Katy. Ticked off all the stops, including Aerosol Warfare where I photographed Gonzo 24/7 at work, who was adding layer after layer of color to his two canvases. Can't wait to see them finished.

Last Sunday I visited Dan Havel who was clearing space in the studio he's sharing with Dean Ruck for this project. They've collected so much wonderful metal junk, cast-offs. I'd had saved this stuff too.

We talked about how art emerges from the materials and how we're always reshuffling and reorganizing, often despairing that it'll all come together and finally it does come together and it does work. That's where Dean and Dan are now. I have the sense that the final piece may not look like what's on their wall right now. And it will be wonderful and knock folk's socks off.

Also stopped by TSU to see Jesse Sifuentes' two murals. He's nearly finished, kept adding touch-ups while I photographed him. Says the magnolias are finished yet.

What I can say about the art that is being created for this building is that it will be a surprise to almost everyone. There is no other COH building that will contain such a mix of art by local artists. All but one artist live and work in Houston.

There are several more artists that I've haven't yet talked about. I'll do that next. It's late at night and tomorrow may be much like the first three days of this week - total immersion in this civic art endeavor.

Works in Progress

So much to tell and seemingly little time to tell it. However, all the artists are now underway with their work for the Houston Permitting Center. I'll be posting more. At least, that is the hope. Here are a few photos of some of the artists at work. Everyone is heading for an April 15 deadline, which is when the AIA will have its annual gala in the lobby space of the building. I suspect that guests will have access to the entire building that evening, so the work needs to be done in time for this first public viewing.

Visited Dean Ruck's big red barn studio today and photographed Dean and Dan's latest finds from their foray to Spectrum Metal Recycling. Folks dispose of the most beautiful, wonderful stuff. Sure looks like treasure.

Here's a first look at where the two are headed with this giant wall piece that will be installed at the top of the ramp entrance into the Green Building Resource Center in the main lobby area of the building.

Interesting to see how they work. I guess artists just work this way. Stuff goes up on the wall, assembled bit by bit and you begin to get a feel for the piece, the direction it is taking and what may be important, or on reflection, not important to the work at all. Off it comes, up goes more. Takes time to think about it, then return to the piece. I probably won't recognize the piece in a couple of weeks when I go back to take more photos of this work in progress. However, I can see already that this is sure going to be a 'piece of work'.

Visited Jesse Sifuentes in his studio at Texas Southern University days ago. He's got his canvases stretched and began to paint on the larger of the two. Jesse is using the iconic images he's used in murals before. Magnolia trees, house roofs, downtown Houston skyline. He'll paint four magnolia trees in this new work, a reminder of that early community known as Magnolia Park, first settled in 1890 near the Houston ship channel by John T. Brady. It is reported that the original Magnolia Park had 3500 magnolia trees and was a magnet for picnics and bayou boating.

Magnolia Park is now a largely Mexican American neighborhood in Houston's East End. I doubt, in these busy times, that anyone has counted its magnolia trees recently. But it's nice to know that Jesse is painting a mural that represents an early slice of Houston's history. Jesse was a student of John Biggers and I think you will see a bit of Bigger's influence as the mural develops.

More photos of works in progress soon.

Civic Art: A Morning Before Houston City Council

Good morning Mayor Parker, members of city council, and Houstonians here at city hall today.

This year, I have the privilege of participating in a unique civic art project. Unique because civic art has never been created for the City of Houston in quite the way it’s happening now.

In this project, twelve artists, representatives from the city, the architects and the building contractor are working collaboratively. We are all in the loop, all dealing directly with a very public space and with our city’s aspirations to make the Houston Permitting Center at 1002 Washington Ave. a model of sustainability and an example of the city’s green philosophy.

Nine months ago, I was selected by the city and Houston Arts Alliance to serve as lead artist on the building team for this project.

My instructions were clear. Select a team of artists who will create art that is urban and dynamic, that reflects the cultural diversity of this great city. Make sure that the art reveals the work that goes on inside the building and reflects the city’s engagement with green building practices, recycling and reuse. Plan on art that will engage the public and invite their participatio. And by the way, stay on budget and finish the work on time.

So why is civic art important in a public facility like the Houston Permitting Center?

It’s important because thousands of folks will have business in that building and the art there will be integral to the way the building functions. The art will tout the city’s commitment to ‘green’ and will celebrate and mirror Houston’s diversity. This civic art will give back to every person who enters or works in the building.

On a broader level, civic art helps define who we are and what we aspire to. It can embody civic pride and give us a sense of place in very complicated urban space.

Complicated urban space is like a big pot of soup, perhaps a soup with flavors hard to pin down. Add some salt and now, you’ve got something. Really good.

Civic art is like salt. Think about it.

Thank you very much.

Dick Wray's Tower and Towering Life

We got the phone call a few miles east of Marathon, just after we'd watched a couple of tumbleweeds blow across the highway and after we'd stashed a half dozen tumbleweeds in the back of the Subaru. We were laughing and loving the notion of tumbleweeds cavorting down the open road.

And then my iPhone rang. The call was coming from Beth's phone and it was CeCe. Our connection was bad and I heard CeCe say that Dick died and that it had been magical.

A magical time, she repeated, because Dick Wray died early Sunday morning in the middle of a thunder storm. Dick Wray died in a clap of thunder after a thunderous life. Fitting. Perfect. That man was strong, even in death. Beth was there to say, "I love you," in their little piece of heaven.

Last week, I heard Beth say to Dick, "You promised a great ride and you gave me a greater one than I could have imagined." So he did.

Dick's life and his paintings jump right out and grab you. Both loaded with high octane energy, humor and a sly take on life itself.

Dick completed the civic art design for the four story elevator tower for 1002 Washington Avenue. We've got his maquette, his drawings, his in-put on materials and installation. But he's not going to be around to see this enormous piece fabricated or installed. Now will he be able to simply revel in the finished work. But Houston will have a Dick Wray. That piece of work will be 'one tall tower'. Tower, phallus, whatever. It'll be Dick Wray.

As for tumbleweeds? Aren't we all a lot like them? Just tumbling down a highway and sooner or later, we each take that last tumble? And maybe some of us will leave a tower behind?

Dick's Office

What a fitting way to begin this blog about the saga of creating "artful interventions in the functionality" of the vintage rice warehouse at 1002 Washington Avenue that the City of Houston is rehabbing for its permitting and code enforcement departments and its new green building resource center.

Here are photos of Dick Wray and me taken this afternoon at his house in the Heights. His wife says she is going to put a sign on the box springs of the bed that reads 'Dick's Office.' Apparently he conducts all visits with friends and business of all sorts from a horizontal position. If that is the way Dick will become one of the featured artists for this building, then I am happy to show the Power Point presentation and architectural renderings right there on his bed.

I think he's interested and when I return from Seattle, I'll bring Bill Neuhaus over a visit. Imagine all three of us on the bed.