Once again I had two guests in the studio: Marcela Kourkova and Carol Hayman of the group Women Printmakers of Austin. It was alot of fun even though before hand both insisted that they weren't big talkers. It was almost like a birthday in alot of ways. There were surprises. Did you know that men can join WPA? Marcela's husband Roger Bohuslav is a member. There were gifts. Carol was formerly a big part of KOOP Radio and she brought us two big stacks of records that her son was giving away. Thanks Carol! There's also a party... and you're invited!

Thursday August 16th at the University of Phoenix there will be a reception. It's on the 3rd floor where WPA has an ongoing exhibit that changes featured artists every 6 months or so. Visit the WPA site for more information.

Angel Quesada is a busy man right now. He's been driving all over the state scouting out artists and narrowing down the field in his search for the few who will make up this year's Young Latino Artists show. This is the 12th year for the annual exhibition which is normally held at Mexic-arte Museum. This year the show will coincide with the innaugeration of the Mexican American Culture Center on September 15th.

Angel participated in the show last year with an installation entitled "Mis Quince." Visit AngelQuesada.com to see pictures of this piece and more. One thing I really like about his site is that it not only features his finished paintings, but also contour sketches of all kinds of people he sees out in the world. Appreciate his photography for the content, color, and composition. Forgive the blurriness. He used a camera phone to capture things he might want to paint later.

If all this sounds appealing to you then you won't want to miss Bohemios, the pre-party for YLA #12. It will be September 14th at Mexic-arte Museum.

Join me next week with Marcela Kourkova and Carol Hayman from the Women Printmakers of Austin .

Wow. Part of live radio is dealing with the random things that happen in real life and realizing that time will not stop to wait for those things. For instance: traffic happens. Sometimes it happens to your interview guest en route to koop studios. However, life is full of pleasant suprises too.

Mike Burns' business card states that he is a superhero, artist, and nice guy. It's all true and he came to my rescue to discuss his paintings while we waited for my scheduled guest to show up. Mike was in an accident many years ago which left him in a coma and he wasn't even expected to live. Now he's doing all the things doctors thought impossible including walking talking and creating art.

Today he spoke about his performance pieces. The mild mannered mop boy is one of his skit characters. You can see the mild mannered mop boy in his self portraits at imagineart.net
or actualives.org
check out his blog superheromopboy.blogspot.com

David Justin was the originally scheduled guest and he did eventually win an epic battle with Austin traffic. He was gracious enough to let Mike tell some stories after he showed up and then joined in the fun for the second half of the show.

David is the Artistic Director of Dance for the American Reperatory Ensemble. We spoke about some of the things that set his group apart from other dance companies. First off, it's not just dance, the musicians are part of it too. As opposed to bringing in outside talent to play for their performances, they all work together to create award winning shows. And although dance and music can always bring joy and stimulation, ARE takes it farther. They strive to educate by holding special rehearsals that are open to the public and hosting discussion panels to answer all your "I wonder..."s.

They will perform their upcoming work LINGO at the McCullough Theater in the UT Performing Arts Center July 20, 21, 27, & 28 at 8:00 pm.
Also July 22, & 29 at 2:00 pm.

For more information visit americanrepensemble.org

Join me next week on July 23rd for a chat with painter/photograhper/muralist Angel Quesada. You can find him on myspace, which, by the way...

myspace.com/koopvisualaid
come be my friend!