Arts Eclectic

Look to the Left

February 11, 2013 3:40 pm by: Mike Lee

Animation Still, "Disco Forest," by Wendy Wagner

Artist Wendy Wagner works in many different media; she's been painting and drawing since childhood, and in her adult years, she's expanded into many other artforms. The characters from her paintings inspired her to create sculptures, which then led her to create soft sculpture, plush versions of the same characters. Then she found herself learning animation to set those characters in motion. Whichever media she's working in, Wendy's vibrant colors and sense of wonder shine through, helping to create the sense that all the works belong to the same world. Last year, Wendy was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor; after several surgeries to remove the tumor, she now has a left side deficit in her vision, meaning that she has lost peripheral vision on the left side of both eyes. As a result, she says, she's found herself misplacing things (remote controls, cel phones, art supplies) and has to remind herself to "look to the left" to find them, hence the title of her current...
» read more

Arts Eclectic

At the Drive-In

In between writing books and screenplays, Josh Frank has found time to reinvent the drive-in movie theater. After creating a makeshift drive-in as a romantic surprise for the woman who is now his wife, Frank began to wonder why the drive-in had fallen from favor and why nobody seemed to be working to bring it back. He soon decided to undertake that task himself, buying drive-in speakers on eBay and putting together a small but ever-growing drive-in experience. Now able to accommodate 50 cars at its new home on E. 51st Street, the Blue Starlite Mini Urban Drive-In offers up plenty of fan-favorite and classic movies while also making room for small, independent movies that might not otherwise be seen in Austin. And it all comes with a level of cheerful, full-service hospitality that...
» read more