As part of the Dallas office of TAIT and a lover of art myself, it was a natural fit to attend the first annual Artist V. Architect event. TAIT is not currently looking for an architect for a particular project in Dallas, but we work with them so often it is great to get to meet new people, especially in the local area. Our in-house architects are mainly in California/on the West Coast and Idaho though we work on projects throughout the US.
Artist Vs Architect was the byproduct of Vince Wilson, owner of Precast Materials, and Merrick Pickens, founder of CreateGate, to create an opportunity for Architects and Artists to reunite, network, and showcase what they are capable of. CreateGate is a network of Creatives who desire to transform cities through art and design. Their artists partner with causes and collectively channel their creativity to express the heartbeat of that cause. It was Wilson’s idea to bridge the gap between the two industries, when historically, the two used to be one in the same. Pickens quickly saw the creative edge of Wilson’s concept, and the duo partnered together to create the event. Pickens’ company, CreateGate, helped power the show by producing the event alongside the efforts of Abstract Method Marketing, David Call Interiors, WadeFX, and of course, Precast Materials.
The charity recipient of the proceeds was Dwell with Dignity – helping families escape poverty and homelessness through design – one less thing families need to worry about, to get homeless families out of homelessness and into self-sufficiency. Watch a video about their mission to learn more about the heart behind this project. If you have a moment, I believe seeing the story will pull at your heartstrings, too.
I attended the event with Ashley Dorris of Bryant Consultants. We arrived at the D Magazine building 
, and were greeted by friendly volunteers that explained the contest. We were each given a blue and a red chip, to vote for one Artist and for one Architect. This was a more difficult task than I thought it would be. The works of art were beautiful, and the works by the architects were works of art – so I almost didn’t know which was which!
The event was well attended, and I enjoyed talking with people and seeing the creative works on display by the architect firms in Dallas Good Fulton & Farrell and parmadesign. Jared Rooker of Omniplan Architects had a piece I truly loved, built from motherboards and lighting up the positive words by touch. That was inspired. I love getting to talk with the artists and hearing about how their pieces came to fruition – like Jared’s collecting motherboards as he refurbished computers, and ending up using them years later in art. Marco Fat-Diaz from the University of Texas at Arlington Architecture was so much fun to talk with. His energy and enthusiasm as he presented his piece brought it even more to life. I had to sit in the chair provided to view from the correct perspective, the helicopter lifting a young man out of poverty. It was beautiful.
Here are some pictures from Studio Rocket Science, who was doing the event photography that at Artists V. Architects.
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| AVA Pictures by Studio Rocket Science |
David Rodriguez was a live interpretive painter we watched at the event. He painted a portrait of a man, pulling open his chest and revealing a home inside – reminiscent of the named charity. It was stunning to see his paint bring to life the man on the board. Most people around me were taking pictures and videoing – it was fantastic to see him work. I also stopped for some time to talk with JD Miller, who was also onsite painting live, and was creating an almost 3D sculputral oil painting. The bright colors he used definitely captured my eye.
Who won? Omniplan was the winning Architect and Michael Mauldin was the winning Artist. Also One of the building owners of St. Paul Place, Jim Wilson, was an architect Judge. Jim chose John Allender from Architexas to do a commission piece for the lobby of one of Wilson’s buildings. Wilson also mentioned considering contacting some of the architects in the contest to use for future projects he will be working on in 2013.
You can continue to follow Artist V Architect on their AVA Facebook page and other events as well at the Create Gate Facebook page. Thank you to the sponsors for helping make such an event happen.
