I’m not a crafter. In any sense of the word. I can’t sew myself out of a corner.  The only time I’d ever use craft to describe me, would be followed by the words mac’n'cheese.

I subscribe to no less than 50 craft, design, and fashion blogs, wide-eyed gazing at the posts in my Google Reader like a little girl would tear through a Tiger Beat issue. It’s sad, yes. But I am an admirer of crafty design, not a possessor of the skills required.

I usually find that when I get something in my head, it won’t get out ’til I satisfy it. And for months I’ve been determined to find a stress relieving hobby that does not require me staring at a computer for 20 hours a day. However, I never expected to summon my crafting desire at midnight on a Tuesday in a 24 hour Kinko’s in Katy, TX.

If you are a reader of this blog, you’ll recall that this year I am attending 15 weddings. Four of those which I am either in or helping to plan.   Over the next 10 weeks alone I will be hosting 2 bridal showers, organizing 1 couples shower, planning 2 bachelorette parties and attending 3, 2 bridal luncheons, 4 rehearsal dinners, and attending 5 weddings.  And that only takes us up to August 31st. Then begins fall wedding season. I’ll spare you the details. Plus, I’ve gotta leave something for you to read in the book I’m writing about all of it!

So takes me to Monday night. Sitting at dinner with Amber talking about the upcoming 3 weeks of wedding festivities upon me. I had searched all day for bridal shower invites for a shower I am hosting in a few weeks.  I really needed to get the invites out stat, and couldn’t find anything I was looking for. Amber suggested Michael’s and I immediately perked up. I had been searching at every stationery store I could find in Houston. (Actually have a later post planned on this, found some great places!) But nothing had what I was looking for color and budget-wise.

The thought of going to Michael’s always intrigues me. Much like things normal people do, like grocery shopping, when I am in Michael’s, I feel like part of a society of crafty people. “Ah, yes, can  you point me in the direction of the paper mache aisle,” I could hear myself casually say. Or exchange jovial beading tips with whoever happened to be standing on the bead aisle. (Did you know there is a whole aisle of beads?!). Dreams, all dreams.

It was 8:30pm and I was in the city. I had to get the invitations out by the next morning, and the closest Michael’s to my parents was in Copperfield, and closed at 9pm.  I had my mission.

I promptly thanked Amber, and headed out 290 like a wild woman. I arrived at Michael’s 10 minutes before closing. The large front display windows glowed in the otherwise empty suburban strip mall parking lot like an oasis in the desert.  I tore through the aisles, of course having no idea where invitation supplies would be. Passed it up about 3 times. Finally got to the “wedding aisle.” Yes, there’s one of those, too.

I quickly grabbed a modern looking Red & White invitation kit from Gartner Studios, a box of blue favor boxes, a roll (do they call these rolls?) of red ribbon, and a tin of blue flower confetti. Oh, and gel glue.  Martha Stewart brand gel glue. I figured I couldn’t go wrong with anything that said Martha Stewart on the label.  I can’t even explain what made me grab those items. It was as if my hands were possessed. I had no idea what I would do with them once I got home, but I knew I need to get 40 invitations in the mail by the morning.

After a stop at CVS for mailing labels, I arrived back to my parents’ house about 10pm. I felt like I was cramming for a college exam. I spread the contents of all the boxes out on the floor and got to work.

I had seen a party theme on one of my favorite event design sites, Hostess with the Mostess, for a Red & Aqua modern kitchen shower. I’m an event planner.  I can make events happen.  Crafting?  Not so much. Little did I know I was in for a night full of lessons, experiments, and fun.

The invites I got came in a cool packaged set which included a white card stock, printable (or so i thought at the time) invitation, a red scalloped invitation cover, a reply card and return envelope, and a white ribbon and decorative paper center piece that reminded my of snowflakes we would cut into pieces in art class. 40 of each. All for only $25. This was the best part. Cheap. The invites were supposed to look like this when assembled:

I ditched the white ribbon and snow flake and got to work on the invitation wording.  I found lots of cute wordings on the web and decided on a playful one.  The invitation set came with instructions on downloading an online template for both the invitation and the reply card. Since I wasn’t using them for a traditional wedding invite, I made the reply card into a gift registry notification. I downloaded a modern looking font, and I was ready to print. Or so thought I was.  It was about this moment that I realized the only printer we had at the house was black and white. I need a color laser printer, and the closest 24 hour Kinko’s was in Katy. Nothing was stopping me now. I gathered up all the supplies, and headed for Katy, TX.

When I arrived, I made besties with the night staff there.  It was now 1am and I’m sure my frenzied state and the determined looking in my eye humored them to no end. I handed over the invite cards, gave him the template on a jump drive and figured we were go to go. The invite cards that came with the box had a pearlized texture, and raised flower embellishments on the corners and border. Once he ran the invite through the ultra hot industrial machine, all of these details were flattened. No time to waste, we quickly came up with a solution.  He cut similar sized card stock into the size I needed, and we were back in business. At that minute, I knew what I would use the confetti for.

I broke out the box of blue confetti and began to glue 3 pieces at the bottom and one at the top, where the raised embellishment had been. It actually turned out more of a look that I wanted than the original paper. Much more modern looking on the plan white paper. I high-fived the Kinko’s night team and was out the door.  Pushing 2am at this point.

I returned home, finished gluing 4 flowers on 40 invitations. stuffed the invites in the covers, replaced the white ribbon with blue ribbons that happen to come with the blue gift boxes, and wrapped the red ribbon around the cover of the blue gift boxes. Brilliant! I had to say, I was super proud of myself. Oh, I left out the part about adhering all of the mailing labels to the envelopes while on my way to kinko’s. While DRIVING.  Yes, I’m a dangerous multi-tasker.

The end product turned out like this:

It was nearly 4am by the time I got all of the invites stuffed, addressed and ready for mailing. I have to admit, the feeling of accomplishment outweighed the exhaustion. This small project made me feel that maybe I’m not so craft-challenged afterall. Maybe, just maybe there’s hope for me yet.

View the set of images on Flickr here.

Check out the lead story on Houston’s “long-established, internationally recognized art scene.” Thanks for noticing, FP.

For more Flavorpill Culture eNewsletters, check this.

Opening Reception Friday, August 22, 2008, 6:30-8:30 PM
Artist talks at 6:00 PM

Check it out, yo.

(Re)Vision: A Preservation of Houston’s
Inner Loop | Shannon Duncan

Project Space

Shannon Duncan has a compulsion to collect and photograph discarded and otherwise overlooked objects, reviving their once precious nature by excessively archiving and/or documenting what she finds. For her installation in the Project Space, Duncan extends her interest in abandoned property to include real estate. Between January 1st, 2008 and June 30th, 2008, Duncan synced her life in tandem with the City of Houston’s on-line permits website, then visited residential properties scheduled for demolition within the inner loop. She captured these fugitive places using (the now discontinued) Polaroid film, and retrieved what personal items she found on site. (Re)Vision encapsulates her six-month project, with the collection of images gridded off by zip code and accompanied by selected found objects.
http://www.communitywalk.com/revisionhouston

Transcendental Smoothie
Mary Magsamen +Stephan Hillerbrand

John M. O’Quinn Gallery

• Psychedelic Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich store front facades
• Magical bottled water crystal palaces
• Strange Star Trek space anomaly looking pictures of our kids!

Transcendental Smoothie is a video installation by the collaborative husband and wife team of Magsamen + Hillerbrand. Through a playful and unexpected use of materials and camera viewpoints, Magsamen + Hillerbrand transform the John M. O’Quinn Gallery into a kaleidoscope world of cookie dough, vultures and monumental peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that bring questions and ideas of perception, identity, family and everyday pressures. “Transcendental” refers to Kant’s theory that our experience of things is about how they appear to us, but not about those things as they are in and of themselves. “Smoothie” refers to our use of food and everyday objects and the blending of many items to make something delicious.

What’s in a Line?
Judith Cottrell and Alex Lopez

Mezzanine Gallery

Alex Lopez and Judith Cottrell approach their exhibition with a simple question, what is the purpose of a gallery? The purpose of a “gallery” is considered by many as a place to exhibit works of art. Their answers lead them to examine the gallery as a finite area of space with interesting, challenging and complex architectural situations. “Would the gallery space be defined by the work or would we propose the question that perhaps the space itself could be the artwork?” Through an investigation and visual documentation of the Mezzanine Gallery they were able to determine that the space was in fact the challenge and “line of sight”, or point of perspective, would be one of their primary focuses. Their exhibition will combine independent and collaborative sculptural drawings that involve an investigation of methodology, approach, and comment on how line and space can be articulated, integrated, viewed, and accessed. Through installation and various media, Cottrell and Lopez challenge the modes of traditional genres with a new consideration for line.

The Grand Tour, Texas
Omar Vera

Grace R. Cavnar Gallery

Inspired by the ‘Grand Tour’ collections of Europe, Vera’s The Grand Tour, Texas is a grouping of charcoal and ink drawings and terracotta maquettes executed on site in the small and somewhat obscure Texas cities that take their names from iconic European meccas: Paris (311 miles from Houston), Florence (197 miles from Houston), and Roma (383 miles from Houston). The subject of these studies is the architecture, public artwork, and other local symbols whose role it is to fill the hopelessly large art-historical shoes of their namesakes. “Despite the implicit cynicism in undertaking this project, I have found that there is a tangible sincerity in the act of traveling to and venerating these locales not usually ennobled by the rhetoric of ‘The Grand Tour’, “explains Vera.

Experiential Opening: Saturday, August 23, 2008, 6-9pm

2445 North Blvd.,
Houston, TX, 77098

Exhibition Dates: August 23- August 28, 2008

Houston-New York based, experiential Artist Molly Gochman presents Release: Give-Away III as her last event at Commune on 2445 North Blvd, Houston.

The space will become alive with the interactive experience of Molly’s work on Saturday, August 23rd, from 6:00 to 9:00 PM.

Molly Gochman’s GIVE-AWAY PROJECT is a series that continually unfolds. Release: Give-Away III addresses relationships with change through exhibiting large-scale prints and intimate paintings, inspired by aspects within these prints. Both the prints and paintings serve as a way of archiving choices, circumstances, and personalities. During the exhibition, the image on selected prints will become less distinct. People will use cleansing tools designed to correlate with the body as instruments for physically engaging with the work. Release encourages one to be present, connect, and let go.

Creating opportunities for community interaction, connection, and exchange is a primary investigation of Molly Gochman’s work. When she began the GIVE-AWAY PROJECT in 2002, Gochman invited people throughout Houston to take place in an exchange, “Take home free clothes by modeling what you love”. People came throughout the evening the night of Give-Away Part I. Led by their curiosity, participants wove between the candy colored clothing and each other. It seemed as if garments were hovering at various heights within a large warehouse space. People chatted with each other. They also interacted with the objects by fondling them and evaluating their sizes and other features. They were considering the possibilities for these objects. Then, through documenting themselves with their chosen items, participants helped Gochman fulfill one of the intentions of this work, to investigate and record taste.

The lighthearted atmosphere encouraged visitors to openly express themselves while being documented. The prints, images of the participants, convey the type of energy present that evening.

Consistent with her entire body of work, Gochman explored the concept of value. Not only with the depiction of what her participants valued, but also by showing how the actions within her installations have at least as much value as the installation itself. Exhibiting the documentation during Give-Away II, showed how a group of collective actions can evolve into a significant series of work.

Molly Gochman is an experiential, inter-sensory artist working and residing in both Houston and New York. Her work provides evocative experiences through inter-disciplinary installations. Born in San Antonio, Gochman studied art in New York City and London, and received her BFA from Guilford College in 2001. In the last five years, Gochman’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally.

“My work returns what’s missing from life – fragile moments within cycles of creation and destruction. Through performances and installations and the documents that record them, I communicate a delicate dance between presence and absence. Creating work helps me come to terms with extremely contradictory experiences. Within the work, rigid contrasts soften and boundaries become blurred. Fabric, my primary medium, is used to transform surfaces into gurgling landscapes. My usage of materials within space allows me to create intimate experiences. Supple, penetrable materials like fabric, allow my work to have a softening affect. The common thread is not always obvious; mystery and romance hover. Unfolding myself as I work allows me to build environments that blur the relationships between particulars. A clarification can occur as one releases oneself within the mistiness of the work”.

The exhibition is in conjunction with Deborah Colton Gallery where the gallery’s portion of all sales will be donated to DiverseWorks and Aurora Picture Show.

Ad hoc dinner, originally uploaded by CosmoPolitician.

A group of us gathered last night for a dinner at the diverseworks “this old house” curated by aerosol warfare. jeff kaplan (new living) and adam grossman (gravitas) have recently moved into the house.

grossman has been creating weekly private dinners that benefit diverseworks. dubbed “Ad Hoc” the dinner bring together a diverse group of artists, journalists, and friend to the house for excellent food and (way too much) wine.

we had an awesome time. in attendance last night was diverseworks director diane barber, the orange show’s philip marshall, kaplan, grossman, houston journalist nancy wonzy, and artists Melanie Crader and Mick Johnson. Crader was showcased pieces she specifically created for the night’s dinner.

for more information, check out the chronicle piece on the dinners here: www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ent/arts/gray/5777325.html

photo: CosmoPolitician

Another great Dr. Sketchy event yesterday, what a turn out! No doubt thanks in part to the Chronicle’s coverage in last Sunday’s paper.

If you missed the event yesterday, you can catch some of the Sketchy action over at our HoustonSketchy Flickr Group
Be sure to check the site for upcoming dates and to sign up for the Sketchy Newsletter.

photo: groovehouse

About Dr. Sketchy
Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School is everything you wish all of your old boring art classes could have been. That is, chilled out afternoons full of beautiful people, killer beats, booze and ridiculous contests / draw-offs. Dr. Sketchy’s is what happens when Cabaret meets art school. When saucy models meet costume-themed boozefests. When artsy kids meet hip hop sketch clubs.

Houston Sketchy brings our steamy slice of the world a slew of stunning strumpettes to pose for and astound the masses – as well as pass out cool prizes and make fun of people. All that is expected of you is to sketch as you have never sketched before. And maybe have a couple of drinks, too.

Join us next time!