There Will Be Art in (Houston) Airports!

http://www.chron.com/life/photogallery/Public_art_in_Houston.html

Today’ Image

Rather than an actual image, Today’s Image is a link to a series of photos on the Houston Chronicle website. I hope you take a minute to click on it and view them.

Back in September of this year (2008) as we began some of our travels, I mentioned in the Orbisplanis Art Blog (There Is No Art in Airports) that I was disappointed to find next to nothing in the way of art at any of the airports that we usually pass through. Those are Bush Intercontinental (IAH)-Houston, Los Angeles International (LAX)-Los Angeles, Hobby (HOU)-Houston, and Ronald Reagan National (DCA)-Washington, D.C. We also recently traveled through Tulsa International (TUL)-Tulsa, OK, and found the same thing—no art.

It’s not that I have particularly high expectations about art or anything else, it just seems to me that because so, so many people pass through airports in order to travel, there should be at least a little accommodation on this. When you’re at one of these airports (or actually any airport in the world) you usually have to walk an extraordinary distance: from departure ramp to baggage check to ticket counter to security check to moving sidewalk to shops/newsstands/restaurants to boarding gate. It’s a utilitarian journey through most likely dull public architecture and government financed structures with little or no human aesthetic. Even if the airlines have tried to spruce up their immediate environment around the departure gates, in my opinion there is nothing to show for it in the way of art (Before you email, I know there must be airports where this is not the case, but I haven’t been through any—Charles De Gaulle in Paris, maybe?).

Anyway, someone else must have noticed this, too, at least in Houston. I’m very happy to read about several public art projects coming in 2009—and two of them are at our airports, at Bush and at Hobby! An article in the Houston Chronicle details the two works. Bush will receive decorations for two large columns in one of the newer terminals in the form of colorful beaded designs representing world art. Hobby will get several large glass panels for a pedistrian bridge that abstractly show our area from an overhead satellite view.

This is very cool and good news. I’m proud of the art groups and alliances, as well as the airport authorities, in Houston who helped make this happen. Thank you! I hope LAX, DCA, TUL, and other airports worldwide take up the call.

In the Studio

I’ve been out of the studio for several weeks working on mandatory projects, so I am looking forward to getting back to my acrylic (or pastel) painting. Not sure what I’ll work on next, but that’s part of the quest, isn’t it?

Cheers!