Héctor Arguelles [email protected]
Houston based mosaic/muralist Hector David Arguelles has been honing in his multifaceted art skills into murals for half of his life. Though informally trained his skill set in mosaics and murals equate to more to than the average Joe in his age group. Arguelles has worked in the public art field for sixteen years. His passion for community engagement makes such simplistic act of collaboration. His infatuation for symmetry and geometry shows in his works with the usage of sacred geometry. Arguelles relates mosaics to a puzzle of life always planning your next piece and seeing if it fits. He studied architecture at University of Virginia and Georgia Institute of Technology.
https://www.facebook.com/hector.arguelles.56
Emily Arrow [email protected]
Emily Arrow is an award-winning children’s songwriter and content creator. Her popular YouTube channel addresses topics in social-emotional learning for children and her two albums “Storytime Singalong, Vol. 1 & 2” can be found on iTunes and Spotify. Formerly a K-6 elementary music educator, Emily is now a touring speaker and musician. Her debut picture book, STUDIO (Penguin Random House) is forthcoming spring 2020.
Cuyler Ballenger [email protected]
Cuyler Ballenger is a filmmaker living and working in Houston. His work combines documentary and art, exploring complex subjects in the simplest, most intimate fashion. His films have shown on Nowness, Mubi, and NBC Universal, as well as programmed in indie cinemas across the US. He is currently an awardee of the Houston Arts Alliance Individual Artist Grant for his upcoming work Trash Mountain.
Marissa Castillo [email protected]
MARISSA CASTILLO is originally from Lubbock, TX. She graduated from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, WA with a BFA in Theatre with an emphasis in Original Works. Following graduation, Marissa appeared on Seattle stages with Book-It Repertory Theatre, 1-Off Productions, Northwest Playwrights Alliance and Theatre 22. She made Houston her home in 2016 and since then has appeared onstage with Main Street Theatre, Stages Repertory Theatre and Rogue Productions. In 2018 she co-founded TEATRX- A Latinx Theatre Company and is serving as the Marketing and Communications Director. She also had the first public staged reading of her play “Felon Known” about the hardship’s felons face following their release from prison.
In addition to performing, writing and producing, Marissa is working as a steering committee member of Houston Alliance of Latinx Arts, a coalition formed to advance Latinx artists in the city of Houston. She is a member of the Houston Arts Resilience Plan advisory committee which was formed in response to Hurricane Harvey to make the cultural community stronger and more resilient for what comes next. Marissa is passionate about creating and participating in work that showcases diversity and tells the untold stories of societies overlooked populations through her work as a theatre artist and advocate.
Shannon Crider [email protected]
Shannon Crider is a Houston-based visual artist and recent participant in the 2017-2018 Artist Studio Program at Lawndale Art Center. Crider’s work investigates the impact of contemporary representations of women in our televisual culture. Her two- and three-dimensional works employ collage, sewing, and print to construct new spaces that reflect the psychogenic space of female subjectivity in popular culture. Crider earned an MFA in Printmedia from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2016) and her Bachelor’s from Oklahoma City University (2008). In addition to her art practice, Crider serves as the Director of Education and Community Engagement at the Society for the Performing Arts in Houston.
Tatiana Escallon [email protected]
Born and raised in Bogota Colombia, educated as an artist, Tatiana Escallon received her B.A. in Graphic Design from the Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano in 1995; subsequent to that she attended to the Fine Arts Program at the Universidad de Los Andes, both in Bogota Colombia. In the year 2000, she moved to the United States in search of a better future and opportunities. After a long journey in the United States, having a family and becoming a citizen, she restarted her art career letting it be the meaning of her life.
Currently, she works and displays her work at her own studio near downtown Houston, in the historic Third Ward. Specifically, in an old house from 1940’s that was abandoned, now in the process of being rehabilitated so it can be made open to the public to promote and sell her work. She believes in her work and the importance of its contribution to a creative economy and is looking forward for opportunities to exhibit in other cities or countries. Besides abstract painting (her main passion), she does illustration and is a member of the SCBWI (Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators) since 2011. While growing her art career she also pursues to become an Author/Illustrator in the children’s book industry.
Jaime Frugé-Walne [email protected]
Jaime Frugé-Walne is a choreographer, performer, and educator who creates interactive and co-creative performance experiences. Her choreography has been presented at CounterCurrent Festival’s Ten Tiny Dances, Houston’s Fringe Festival, The Interchange, The MATCH, and Sam Houston State University. Jaime fuses choreography, theatre, costume and production design to immerse audiences and performers inside an intimate performance environment ripe with interaction and co-creation to promote social change. She has served on Frenetic Theatre’s Artist Board and is a graduate of Artists INC class of 2019. In addition, Jaime holds an MFA in Dance from Sam Houston State University and BA in Theatre from the University of Southern California and is a graduate of Houston’s High School for Performing and Visual Arts, the Houston Ballet Academy, and Joffrey Ballet School New York City.
Marsha Glickman [email protected]
Educated as a clinician and IT professional, structure and methodical detail show in Ms. Glickman’s passion for art. She incorporates right and left brain messages with the effusive use of color to provoke the viewer to see his personal story in the work. Marsha Glickman is an up-cycle artist using only found material and objects to create mixed media and assemblage art. Each work has a story behind it, be it historical or philosophical. “There is great pleasure in giving discarded ephemera a new purpose and meaning when combined into a single construction. The history and humor in my work is influenced by my life experiences: living and traveling internationally, family upbringing, thoughts on world events and scientific/technical education”.
Rachel Gonzales [email protected]
Rachel Gonzales is an abstract contemporary visual artist who is reclaiming the female gaze as a powerful way to see beyond the form and deeper into the realm of human experience. Educated and experienced in both architecture and fine art, Gonzales has a strong intuitive understanding of the human scale, sensorial experience, and spatial quality of form in both fields practice. She graduated with a Bachelors in Architecture from Rice University and has continued her artistic education under Laura Spector and Lucinda Cobley at the Art League Houston. Gonzales has fulfilled art commissions for commercial venues and she has private collectors in New York and the greater Houston area. She also delights in engaging community through guiding healing art workshops that are timed with phases of the moon out of her own studio at the Silos in Sawyer Yards.
Nyssa Juneau [email protected]
Nyssa Juneau is a studio artist whose practice includes painting, illustration and design. Juneau was one of the founding members and the first Education Officer for The Painter’s League at LSU and has several paintings in LSU’s collection. She worked as a studio assistant for sculptor Adam Tourek and ceramist Jennifer Poueymirou and has studied drawing installations with Phyllis Bramson at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center, CO. She has also taken course work in Interactive programming at Rice University, later using that knowledge to create an interactive geometrical program for her exhibition “Three Sides to Every Story”.
Juneau was a resident artist at BOX13 Contemporary Artspace from 2012 to 2016 and in 2015 was a Rice University Authors, Editors, Composers, and Artists Honoree. Juneau has created and/or collaborated in providing illustrative or design pieces for Pets In Space, the Ethics and Society Program at Rice University, Philosophically Drinking!, and El Centro de Corazon. Most recently, Juneau exhibited her paintings in the group exhibition Mythologies Louisianaises at Arthur Roger Gallery in New Orleans. The exhibition catalog is currently in both Rice University and Louisiana State University’s library collections.
Brandon Kafarela [email protected]
Brandon Kafarela is a wardrobe stylist, prop stylist, costume designer, and writer based in Texas and Louisiana. He collaborates with other artists in his community to tell stories inspired by language, vivid imagery, cultural references, and purposeful content that resonates using textiles, props, and curated set design.
Carla Lyles [email protected]
Carla Lyles is the artist behind Carla Sue Greeting Cards and Gifts, a fun handcrafted card company, inspired by her love for pop culture, Lisa Frank and all things girly. Throughout her career, Carla has worked with some of Houston’s top artists and graphic designers to assist her in honing her skills as an artist diving deeper in to the craft world and exploring different mediums. In 2015, Carla began making her own paper out of recycled paper scraps after attending the National Stationery Show in New York City where she was extremely inspired. Carla has been recognized in many publications including Houstonia Magazine, Culture Map, and the Houston Chronicle to name a few. She is the winner of 2017 Pop Shop America Maker Award for Best Prints & Paper Goods. After the devastation of Hurricane Harvey in 2017, Carla designed a shirt with hopes that it would help lift spirits and strengthen the city and the KEEP HOUSTON DOPE movement was born. She has made custom Keep Houston Dope shirts for many hometown heroes, like Kam Franklin of the Suffers and Travis Scott. P M Neist [email protected]
P.M. Neist is a visual artist in Houston, Texas and a participant in the 2019 Artist Inc. Program. Rooted in the handmade traditions of her French heritage, Neist’s work illuminates the experience of women, through the re-appropriation and re-interpretation of vintage objects and material. Neist combines text, digital collage, drawing, hand printing, and embroidery to produce two and three-dimensional works that are both universal in their emotions and deeply intimate in their craftsmanship. Neist brings to light the stories and struggles of the countless women whose lives remain anonymous. She does it with care, with a sense of humor and a flair for those unusual twists that define a life. Born and raised in Dunkirk, France, Neist obtained her graduate degree from the University of Texas at Austin and completed postgraduate coursework at Rice University. In addition to her art, Neist maintains a successful corporate career and is involved in multiple community engagement initiatives.
Anthony Pabillano [email protected]
Anthony Pabillano was born in the Philippines and spent the former part of his childhood there, but moved and lived out the rest of his youth in Corpus Christi, Texas. Pabillano earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees in accounting and is currently now a practicing accountant. Art has always been a part of him as far as he could remember. Pabillano studied it for four years in high school and received many recognitions and awards including having one of his drawings displayed in the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C. for one year. Though he had all but given up on art after high school, Pabillano began drawing and painting again in 2016, and it has been a life-changing experience for him ever since. While having a focus on realism prior to his hiatus, since immersing himself in art again he has found an immense passion for abstractionism as he has been able to articulate and express his ideas at a more profound and coherent level than ever before. The boundless avenues through which Pabillano could tell my stories—and how his stories may be interpreted by his viewers—have been an exhilarating experience that has reinvigorated his love for art.
Miles Payne [email protected]
Miles is a multimedia artist and fashion designer whose focus is creating sustainable garments while representing his interests such as skateboarding and science fiction. His personal experiences translate into illustration or fashion aesthetic. Illusions play with the juxtaposition of bright colors and sobering themes. While clothing explores functionality and impromptu construction, Miles aims to present these experiences so that may be shared through apparel and for the apparel to share the life of whoever wears it. Crystal Rae [email protected]
Crystal Rae is a playwright and performer who finds herself trekking through the forests of fables, wives tales, and religion with a laptop underneath her armpit. Her stories are often centered around women, African -Americans, hope, and faith. She is a Texan by birth and a Chicagoan by raising and is still in process, in nearly every way.
Jelisa Robinson [email protected]
Jelisa Jay Robinson is a Black American/Negra Americana playwright based in Houston, Texas. Her plays include The Stories of Us, Fae and Paciencia and Delivery. Her work has been developed and/or presented at the Austin Latino New Play Festival, Teatro Vivo (Austin), Now Africa Festival (New York), The Black and Brown Theatre (Detroit), The Rec Room (Houston) and Vision Latino (Chicago). Jelisa was commissioned by Echame Un Ojo Latinx Arts festival in Austin to write Fae and Paciencia and was one of 14 playwrights nationwide chosen to participate in the inaugural Maria Irene Fornes Playwriting Workshop taught by Playwright Migdalia Cruz. She was also one of five playwrights nationally selected as a finalist for the inaugural Seattle Public Theatre Emerald New Play Prize. Jelisa has held residencies with Vision Latino Theatre Company (Chicago) and the National Playwrights Retreat (Colorado). She is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild and ScriptWorks.
jelisajayrobinson.comNicci Sevier-Vuyk [email protected]
As a contemporary minimalist painter and sculptor Nicci Sevier-Vuyk creates work that highlights the mismatch of appearance and reality. Her work has a playful quality that is born out of years of working with children as a pediatric nurse. She has studied at The Glassell School of Art in Houston, Texas. Sevier-Vuyk has had two solo exhibitions at Galeria Regina and has been in many juried exhibitions. Recently her work was featured on the Jealous Curator blog and she was invited to participate in the Small Art Show at Simon Breitbard Fine Arts Gallery in San Francisco, California. In 2019 she participated in the Artist INC-Houston professional development program. Born in northern California, Sevier-Vuyk creates her work and has made her home in Houston, Texas. Laura Sprague [email protected]
Laura Sprague creates compelling artwork that conveys hope and restoration from her Houston studio. She received her Bachelor of Science Degree in Art Education from the University of Wisconsin Madison and completed an MFA degree in 2016. Formerly a visual arts teacher, she now works as a professional multimedia artist producing thought-provoking sculptures and paintings using clay, metal, glass and alcohol inks. She has exhibited internationally and throughout Texas.
https://www.laurasprague.com/Chris Thomas [email protected]
Thomas began dancing and entertaining at a very young age, and by the time he reached 11 Thomas was already being featured in commercials. Taking a break during his teen years to focus on sports and college, he returned to his true love, dance, and in 2007 began traveling the world. Thomas has visited 24 countries as a teacher, choreographer, and performer. He has been awarded numerous awards and grants for his unique artistry and productions and in 2013 Thomas was a featured Artist by the Texas Southern University Museum Wheel Project. In 2015 he was recognized as a Cultured Millennial by Remy Martin Cognac and in that same year Thomas was awarded the Independent Artist Grant by the Houston Arts Alliance. A few years later in 2018 Thomas was also awarded the Let Creativity Happen Grant by the Houston Arts Alliance, and last year in 2018 Thomas was named a Houston Cultural Influencer by Red Bull.
www.sonkissd.comCaroline Truong [email protected]
Caroline is a Vietnamese American painter and illustrator. Caroline’s mission as an artist is to spread the joy and healing that creating art brings to her, to everyone, through a character called Dream Bird. Dream Bird depicts the life she aspires to live. Its constant state of dreaming is symbolized with closed eyes and is painted in grayscale amidst colorful backgrounds. Often, Dream Bird is paired with words and phrases called “Dream Bird Mantras”. Caroline transforms lessons learned from personal experiences into uplifting designs using lettering, vibrant colors, and a bit of quirkiness. She paints Dream Bird not only for herself, but for anyone who is struggling with something because none of us have perfect lives. She uses art as a voice of hope and empowerment to people. Currently, you can find Caroline with Dream Bird at markets and pop-ups around Houston, or follow her creative journey to happiness at: neatcaroline.com
Arnea Williams [email protected]
Arnea Williams is a creative embodying the mind of a city socialite, the heart of a country girl and the spirit of her ancestors. Her interest in art mostly revolves around the power of words + images and the ways community, collective memory, social change, and personal narratives take shape through them. When she is not photographing or creating graphic content, her free time is consumed by interior design, culinary arts, curation, fashion, her furry companion and family. Williams’ goals include cultivating and nurturing her personal brand while collaborating with some noteworthy visionaries, publications, and spaces along the way.
Artist INC Houston 2019 Alumni
