WEST: First West Austin Studio Tour launches May 19-20
By Jeanne Claire van Ryzin | Wednesday, May 16, 2012, 12:09 PM

Organized by the same folks at Big Medium who’ve made the East Austin Studio Tour one of the most popular arts events in town, the West Austin Studio Tour kicks off Friday with a party at the People’s Gallery at Austin City Hall.

Like EAST, the free, self-guided West Austin tour champions the eclectic abundance of Austin’s artistic talent, offering visitors the chance to take a peek in artists’ working studios to learn about their techniques, tools and inspiration.
If EAST is in a fairly circumscribed area, WEST sprawls out to include a vast swath of Austin west of Interstate 35 and east of MoPac and north and south of the Lady Bird Lake.
There are a whopping 162 designated destinations that are officially part of WEST. And while many destinations on the tour are individual artist’s studios, some are established galleries, some are temporary pop-up galleries and still others are special events.
West Austin Studio Tour
Kickoff party: 6 to 8 p.m. today at the People’s Gallery at Austin City Hall, 201 W. Second St.
Tour: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday
Tour headquarters: 241 W. Third St.
Cost: Party and tour are free
Information: Catalogs available at Austin Public Library branch locations and tour headquarters.
Downloadable maps and a guide at www.westaustinstudiotour.com

Image: “#195 from “The Wheel Series,’” oil on panel, 2012. Stella Alesi. No. 50 on the WEST map, artists Stella and Leon Alesi will be showing work at their Blackbox Gallery, a residential gallery in South Austin.

http://www.austin360.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/seeingthings/entries/2012/05/16/west_first_west_austin_studio.html

There will be an exhibition of my newest mandala paintings, along with others dating back to 2001
at Texas Tech University’s International Cultural Center. The exhibition will open on April 23rd and run through the month of May.

The exhibit will coincide with an exhibit of photographs by Rick Dingus titled, “Pilgrimage Sites in India 1988-1990″
There will be an opening reception on May 17th when Dr. Sankar Chatterjee will speak about Indian spirituality.

here is a glimpse of my latest work in progress.
the title of the series, “the wheels” makes reference to one of buddhism’s eight auspicious symbols, the wheel.
the oil on panel paintings serve to mark the days and give direction.
as well they act as a dharana, a single point of focus for meditation.

All of these paintings are 30×30 inches, oil on panel

So the KLRU Arts in Context program aired last night on public television.
Ed Fuentes created a 30 minute program highlighting some of the GenrousArt.org artists.

You can view the whole episode, (or just my part), here:

http://www.klru.org/artsincontext/

The conch shell is one of buddhism’s eight auspicious symbols.

It is an emblem of power, authority and sovereignty whose blast is believed to banish evil spirits,
avert natural disasters, and scare away poisonous creatures.

Among the eight symbols, it stands for the fame of the Buddha’s teaching, which spreads in all
directions like the sound of the conch trumpet.