The People’s Gallery at City Hall is a free, annual exhibition designed to showcase regional artists and to encourage public dialog, understanding, and enjoyment of visual art. Each year, visitors are asked to vote on their favorite pieces, and the winning piece is bought by the City of Austin and continues to be displayed.

Music: “Bad Street” by Twin Sister

John Swanger creates abstract and process based paintings. The series explore specific materials, structures, concepts and modes of paint application. The individual works are sometimes informed by the sense or memory of a particular person, place, time, atmosphere or state of mind.

East Austin Studio Tour 2012 Site #78
Music: “Shadow Repair” by Videoing

Art Therapy Austin offers individual art therapy for all ages, as well as workshops for women, Open Studio for adults, and more.  Deanna Miesch and Cathy Altman, owner of Austin Ashiatsu, have created a healing space for art, acupuncture and ashiatsu massage therapies. Their aim is to provide balance for the body, mind and soul of Austin & beyond.

East Austin Studio Tour 2012 Site #H16
Music: “Calgary” by Bon Iver

“Have Fun. Enjoy Life” is a call to create. There is more than just one style to Brian Phillips. This self-taught artist believes that “one man’s junk is another man’s art supplies,” and takes this quite literally by using  scrap wood along with other surfaces, as canvases for painted works.

East Austin Studio Tour 2012 Site #H28
Music: “No Particular Night or Morning” by Deadhorse

Big love and big fun are the focus of MonsterLove, a community art project spearheaded by Sara Hasslinger. “Monsterheads,” mixed media works, and even vegan taxidermy are some of the things that happen under the project.

East Austin Studio Tour 2012 Site #76
Music: “Night Watch” by Videoing

April Garcia is bold and vivid. Charlie Chauvin is magical and fearless. She likes fabric and bubble wrap. He likes writing in cursive and drawing funny things. Mostly they work separately but often they find ways to be influenced by each other and work collaboratively. Together they mix her fabric and mixed media with his illustrations and paintings. This year they will be featuring both independent and collaboratively.

East Austin Studio Tour 2012 Site #66
Music: “Driver’s River” by Vidoeing

Gay Fay Kelly is a painter that believes “our eyes need the food too.” She creates art that has “narrative content” and is interested in the “meeting point of an aesthetic conversation.”

East Austin Studio Tour 2012 Site #166b
Music: “Sea of Keys” by Videoing

“Weaving Space and Color” are colorful, intricate compositions carefully painted by Erin Elizabeth Curtis. She  finds inspiration in textile art and collage from around the world and is presenting new work in progress and older completed works.

East Austin Studio Tour 2012 Site #60

Music: “Death To The Storm” by Joe Henry

In September 2011, the most destructive wildfire in Texas history raged through Bastrop County, TX. The Bastrop County Complex Fire destroyed 1,667 homes, burned 33,033 acres and claimed two lives. This blaze devastated the region’s signature Loblolly pine population and further compromised the habitat of the endangered Houston Toad. ART from the ashes takes its mission to Texas to support the Lost Pines Recovery Team’s restoration efforts for the Lost Pines Region of Bastrop County, TX. The exhibition from April 28 – May 5, 2012 showcased over 70 works of art donated by Texas based artists and ART from the ashes. In AFTA’s spirit of “Support. Inspire. Create. Renew,” works featured will incorporate materials salvaged from fire site locations in Bastrop County. Proceeds support the efforts of the Lost Pines Recovery Team.