Today was the 2011 CreekFest Chark Artist festival at the Pearl Fincher Art Museum in Spring, Texas. This is a Flickr photoset of the pics that I took today:

Mikie was one of the featured artists and she got tons of positive feedback during the 8 hours that she spent working today. This was a really well-organized event and everyone associated with it was just delightful.

Had my very first CrossFit workout. It was really intense. I went to Universal CrossFit, which is a cool place located at the intersection of Roy and Maxie Streets in what I think would be considered the Heights area of Houston. Our instructor was Jimmy. He went out of his way to make sure I understood all of the exercises and also the basic science and philosophy of CrossFit. I met Daniel, Victoria, and Jonathan. Our Workout Of the Day (WOD) was 5 sets of:

5 back squats
5 box jumps
5 wall ball
100m sprint
200m jog
jump rope x 2 min

Here is a (blurry) shot of the gym (box?): Right around the corner of the gym was a couple of very cool lots that had some metal art / art car action going on:

Swimming

Went for a quick swim at lunch time. Just did 22 minutes for a total distance of 1050m.

You can see all of the pics in my Flickr set here.

Click Continue reading to load an embedded Flickr slideshow…

Mikie did a 10 x 10 foot square and it came out just beautiful. Click on the picture below to see a Flickr slide-show of a few images from this event.

Heights Art Auction to benefit Shriners Hospital for Children

Houston artists create 40 works of art out of 40 cigar boxes

As the holidays approach, people tend to think more about those who need assistance — particularly children. This year, artists from all over the Houston area have come together to help children in need by creating works of art from a nontraditional medium — wooden cigar boxes — to be sold at a special benefit auction on Saturday, Nov. 18, from 7-10 p.m.

Held in conjunction with Hight Cigar Company’s first anniversary celebration, the proceeds of the auction will go to the Shriners Hospital for Children. The auction will be held at M2 Gallery, located at 325 W. 19th Street in Houston’s Historic Heights.

Forty artists were each given a wooden cigar box to create a work of art from, be it abstract, portrait, landscape, mixed media, collage, 3-D, or any other medium the artists chose to utilize. Each box is one of a kind and displays the style and imagination of the artist. The boxes will contain hand rolled Perfecto cigars by Hight Cigar Company and fitted with label bands matching the artwork on the boxes. The Perfectos are especially made for the auction and only 2000 of these perfect figuardos will be made.

Among the participating artists are: Aimi Dunn, John Mercado, Michael-Ann Belin, Martin de Vore, Mehak Bagai, Sorange Castillo, Susan Goettsche, Mitch Cohen, Carolyn Cohen, Max Boyd Harrison, Solomon Kane, Big Al Bartell, Laura Hodges, Alissa Fereday, Michelle Macy, Sam Van Bibber, Amie Krebbs, Christine M. Farnsworth, Cindy Folsom, Jeanne Haner, Alex Hostetler, Chip Hight, Nathan Parmar, Shawnacy McArthur, William Newton Rice, Erik Kolflat, Amy Lynch, Scott Mernelstern, Beth Harris, Fletcher Stafford, Noelle Trowbridge, Joyce Dorn, Jennifer Beam-Kresovsky, Mark Stephen Kresovsky. Silas Woodward and Kelly Ryan.

Those attending the auction must be at least 18 years of age.

Hight Cigar Company, LLC. is located at 635 West 19th Street, #201 in The Heights. For more information about the auction, future events or Hight cigars, please call (713) 802-0777 or visit the Web site at www.hightcigar.com

For more information about M2 Gallery, its upcoming events or exhibitions and directions to the gallery, call (713) 861-6070 or visit their Web site at www.m2-houston.com

To see a poster featuring the boxes of Aimi Dunn, John Mercado and Michael-Ann Belin click here: http://www.m2-houston.com/moreinfo/poster.pdf.

To see more photos of the artists, click on the image: