Artists grapple with identity in new downtown Waco exhibit

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Artists grapple with identity in new downtown Waco exhibit

By Carl Hoover Tribune-Herald entertainment editor

Thursday July 8, 2010

“SELF”

When, where: Through July 31 at Croft Art Gallery, 712 Austin Ave. Hours: 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, noon-7 p.m. Saturdays and by appointment. Free.

For Austin artist Aaron Sacco, the surprise of judging Croft Art Gallery’s show “SELF” came not in common themes that surfaced from more than 200 entries, but in those individual interpretations.

“I was impressed mostly with the diversity of styles and artistic expressions,” said Sacco, a 2004 Baylor University graduate and student of Baylor artist-in-resident Karl Umlauf. The artist, whose own work involves portraiture and the capturing of a subject’s personality, said “SELF’s” work ranged from graphite self-portrait drawings to abstractions that grappled with personality formation, emotion and individuality.

Waco artist Josh Bryant won the People’s Choice award for "La Deuxieme Partie."
Duane A. Laverty/Waco Tribune-Herald

Gallery owner Katie Croft said the diverse interpretations also were expressed in various media: painting, drawing, video, textiles, photography, mixed media installations and more.

The Society for Friends of Jung in Waco sponsored the show and put up $600 in prize money. Sacco narrowed entries to 40 for the exhibit and chose what he felt were the best. Winners, announced at the exhibit’s July 2 opening reception, were Heather Sincavage, first place for “Architect’s Daughter”; Summer Crenshaw, second for “Avoidance”; and Jim Henson, third for “Self-Divided.”

Winning honorable mentions were Jason Peterson for “Growing Pains,” Heather Hughes for “Layers of My Soul” and Mike Stephens for “Barefoot and . . .” Josh Bryant’s “Deuxieme Partie” won the People’s Choice award.

The show was Sacco’s first as an exhibit juror. The graphic artist, son of Baptist missionaries to Lebanon and Cyprus, served as an animator on Richard Linklater’s film “A Scanner Darkly,” has created animated commercials for investment service Charles Schwab and won a Best in Show award in 2007 at Austin’s Gallery Lombardi.

In conjunction with “SELF,” the gallery will host a lecture and panel discussion featuring Southern Methodist University adjunct assistant professor Steve Anderson and Baylor University senior lecturer in religion Blake Burleson, a Jungian scholar, from 6- 8 p.m. July 22 and a self-portrait workshop from 2-5 p.m. July 24.

Nancy Gail Kizis, a Wichita Falls artist, drew on stylized childhood memories in her “Before 1st Grade.”
Duane A. Laverty/Waco Tribune-Herald

Oklahoma City’s Tom Wester explores concepts of personalty and self in his “Identity 6.”
Duane A. Laverty/Waco Tribune-Herald

Waco artist Heather Hughes won honorable mention for her sculpture “Layers in My Soul” in Croft Art Gallery’s “SELF” exhibit.
Duane A. Laverty/Waco Tribune-Herald

Austin artist Elton Woolsey poses with his sculpture “Ode to My Hips.”
Duane A. Laverty/Waco Tribune-Herald

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Best bets: Events coming up

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Waco events in the spotlight

• Multiple Hydes blur the line between good and evil in Baylor Theatre’s production “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” which continues its run at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, Feb. 2-4, and 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 4-5, at Hooper-Schaefer Fine Arts Center. $15, $13 for Baylor students, faculty and staff. Call 710-1865.

• Waco’s Smooth Jazz Generation kicks off a weekly jazz night at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 2 at Tres Mexican Restaurant, 723 S. Sixth St. $6-10 for dinner, no cover before 7.

• The world-famous Vienna Boys Choir returns to Waco for a 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 5 concert at Austin Avenue United Methodist Church, 1300 Austin Ave. The Vienna Boys Choir previously sang in Waco in 2001 at the Waco Hippodrome Theatre and in 2008 at Baylor University. Tickets cost $35 for premium seating, $25 for adults and $10 for students, available at the church, online at austinavenueumc.org or at the door. The concert will end about an hour before the start of the Super Bowl. Call 254-754-4685 for information.

• The Stars Over Texas Jamboree pays tribute to Valentine’s Day with an Oldies Heart & Soul theme at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 2 at the Lee Lockwood Library and Museum, 2801 W. Waco Drive. $12, $10 for those ages 65 and older or 12 and younger.

• The touring show “Black Art — Ancestral Legacy” begins a month-long showing at the West Waco Library and Genealogy Center, 5301 Bosque Blvd. Hours: 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, 1-5 p.m. Sundays. Free.

• Art Center Waco’s “Membership Invitational Art Exhibition” comes to an end this weekend with a closing reception from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, Feb. 3 at the center, 1300 College Drive. The unveiling of the exhibition’s winning poster image takes place at 7 p.m.

• Art by Kathy Lovas and Susan Sponsler makes up the Croft Art Gallery’s February exhibit “Red/Yellow,” whose opening reception is held from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, Feb. 3 at the gallery, 712 Austin Ave. Hours: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays.

• Waco rapper Big Binky brings on a local Super Bowl half-time show Sunday, Feb. 5 at Jordan Sports Bar and Lounge, 921 Lake Air Drive.

• Flatbed Press co-director Katherine Brimberry will talk about the Austin print-making company and its work at 1:30 and 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 11 at the Martin Museum of Art in Baylor University’s Hooper-Schaefer Fine Arts Center. Free.