Art Tour offers plethora of culture

Over 200 artists participated in the seventh Annual East Austin Studio Tour, which took place Nov. 22 and the 23, to invite art aficionados into their homes and studios.

Due to the closeness of the galleries, visitors from all over the city rode their bikes or carpooled from stop to stop to witness where the pieces were inspired and created. Some attendees from surrounding areas even coordinated field trips to Austin to enjoy the festivities.

"The first day there was a bus here of 50 people from Georgetown and they all rushed in," said Chris Novella, one of the participating artists.

Various mediums such as photography, sculpture and painting were showcased during the two day event.

One artist that stuck out was Barbara Lugge, who does hand-stitched portraits. She uses standard embroidery thread and ribbon on canvases prepared for painting and creates portraits of various individuals and landscapes.

One of the installments she presented at the tour was her peace portraits.

"I wanted to do recognizable public figures to help me demonstrate to people the quality of their work," said Lugge. "I settled on doing portraits of people that have worked for peace, Nobel Peace Prize recipients and things like that."

People responded favorably to the portraits, because of her attention to detail. Lugge will spend 100 to 200 hours creating one portrait.

Her Bob Marley portrait took 300 hours to put together because of Marley's signature dreadlocks.

Barbara Irwin, another participating artist, forms sculptures and collages with found objects from thrift stores and antique shops.

Irwin uses the knowledge she learned in her Austin Community College welding courses and incorporates those skills into metal sculptures for homes and gardens.

"Coming to my house is like a visual feast for the eyes," said Irwin. "There's so much to look at and to see."

Walking into her home is a welcoming party of 20 years of her work as well as collections of antique objects sorted by themes throughout the house.

Some galleries offered classes and workshops for people to enjoy as they gained inspiration from the amazing creations on the tour.

Some of the workshops and demonstrations consisted of screen-printing president-elect Barack Obama's image on an article of clothing or making a pair of earrings out of metal circles.

Studio 1408 featured artists Kathleen McTee, Theresa Noyes, and Christine Terrell.

McTee is a textile artist working with dye techniques, silk screenings, and image transfers. She currently teaches workshops with Studio 1408.

Noyes uses raw unrefined materials such as hog's gut and jute in a three- dimensional medium.

Terrell owns Adapted Reuse which uses contemporary tins found in thrift stores and up cycles them into jewelry and accessories.

"The new term is up cycled tin, and it is basically taking something that supposedly doesn't have any value like an old tin and giving it value," said Terrell.