Community Art Makers

We’re gearing up to build a new performance stage for Art Outside this year.  You can help by donating at the link to the left where you can get all sorts of goodies like bottomless gourmet popcorn, Curious Customs lanterns, and even discounted tickets to Art Outside!  Check back soon for a rendering of the new stage.  Here’s a picture of last years beauty…

Thanks to the continued generosity of the Black Rock Arts Foundation , we have nearly completed a 400 SF studio space renovation at our North Austin Compound. This weekend we should be finished renovating our very own glass studio! Our space will be equipped with tools for creating stained glass, fusing and also slumping glass. Need some space to create? Want to learn? Drop us a line and get involved!

And it’s not too late to learn the exciting sheetrock arts! Once we complete the glass studio we’ll finish out the remaining 400 SF of meeting, planning and general make it go space. Just look at the fun everyone is having n the pictures below – you too could get in on this dirty, constructive glamor! Just drop us an e-mail: marrilee@communityartmakers.com

We Have the P O W E R!

Texas Heat, we are at your mercy NO MORE!

Dave, hold that roof up for a minute while we build walls...

Brother Knee the Tall teaches sheetrockzen

Ryan does not respect Marrilee's construction-fu...

What a great success our stage was at Art Outside. About a dozen of us created a beautiful platform for artists to perform and share their songs upon. We also had a fantastic time; if you missed the festival this year – be *sure* to catch it in 2011. From noon until about 2 a.m. we were booked solid with incredible performers like J. Wagner, Shovel Man, Suddenly Dapper and too many other fantastic others to list.

But stay tuned – because our talented audiophile JoeJoe recorded them all and we hope to make ‘Folk it Up’ recordings available to benefit the Festival.

The Sun is going down and the Moon is coming up...

Ahhh, but she really shone at night....

Thanks to Seven Star Photo for the great shots.  After 2 in the morning it was an Open Call to sing your heart out – and many did.  She’s the prettiest little stage to cut your teeth on and we were glad to offer the chance for folks to have a go at performing for an audience. Funding for this project was made possible by the Black Rock Art Foundation, to whom we and many others owe countless thanks.

And here we go.  There’s a lot more to this than you can see in this pic – but we’re working like crazy to get it all into one piece.  See you at Art Outside this weekend!

We’re creating an enchanting installation for the Art Outside festival this month in Downtown Texas, TX. Pictured below in beautiful concept drawing mode by Illustrious Illustrator Daniel Miller, is our acoustic music stage, Folk It Up!

The trees in our grove are large and looming and will feature our wooden lanterns, twinkling through the night.

And we’ll have kettle popped pop-corn, and olde-timey lemonade made with real sugar and hand cranked Victrola records by byouteeefull ladies and, and, and (!!!) -  We hope to see you there!

Making the Fire of Fires from Ira Weinschel on Vimeo.

This video is assembled from hundreds of still photos I took during the building of “The Fire of Fires”, the Temple at Burning Man 2009. It includes shots from fundraisers in Austin and Houston, our build in Austin, TX during one of the hottest summers on record and the month we spent putting it all together on-playa.

Special thanks to The Mermen for allowing the use of their music in this video. Please visit them at http://www.mermen.net

We’ve been accepted to Maker’s Market, it’s Make Magazine’s curated online marketplace. We are working to pay down the debt from the Burning Man Temple project by making many of the designs featured in the temple into wonderful artwork you can own.

We also recently traded one of our ShopBots in for a shiny new laser cutter! Since then we have designed over thirty styles of lanterns, all based on last year’s temple panels. We will be making new things all the time, so check back often. If you have a favorite design from the temple, let us know and we can make something just for you. Let us know in an email if you have a specific request or an idea for a new thing you want to see. Email to dave at community art makers dot com.

Thanks for your continuing support, it means a lot to us. If you’d like to simply donate, the button on the left will do. If you’d like to support us by buying some lighting or artwork, hit up the Maker’s Market.

Community Art Makers returned to Auditorium Shores for First Night Austin ‘09 with “Dorothy”, a 30-foot fire tornado. As always . . . a raging fire means a raging success.

Beautiful slow motion video shot by Jason Mika.

Dorothy from jaysinspace on Vimeo.