Date: Sun, 30 Jul 2006 16:17:03 -0700 (PDT)
This is from an open email to Joshua, Jerod, Isaac and Jeffrey, the three brothers and father who own the Control Room studio. I attended an opening there last friday.....
I picked up one of your cards Friday night, and I was hoping to see your images again on your website, ThreeOfOne.Com. Unfortunately, neither typing that site into my browser or searching for that weblink on Google yielded a link to a site for your art. I am hoping that one will be up and running soon, but I understand that business doesn't always leave spare money for running a website. Perhaps you'll consider fielding MySpace sites for Three of One and the Control Room until its possible to support a website running under your own domain.
I am enjoying revisting the evening in my imagination. First, your attitude towards your guests was incredibly amiable. I arrived early enough to enjoy the spectacle of a claw-footed tub, painted black on the outside and left porcelain on the inside, filled with ice cubes and four different kinds of Texas beer, including cans of Lone Star. I am counting Budweiser as a Texas beer. I half expected to see a Shiner Bock amongst the cubes, but that only comes in bottles, and a bottle could shatter in a porcelain tub.
You deftly increased exhibition space by placing a divider on the right of audience arriving for the show. Not only did the painting hung on the divider recieve immediate attention, I was unable to gauge the size of your display space, and I was excited to know what the gallery had placed behind the divider. I also noticed a cardboard box in the hallway that had once contained the air conditioner probably installed just before the opening. More, I've never noticed a half-circular stage in an art gallery before, enhanced by the black and white checkboard pattern painted upon its surface. It served as a perfect place for art lovers to sit and admire your paintings, especially the pre-masterpiece in the center sweet-spot at the center of the longest wall, the black and white image featuring Zebras struggling for dominance and in the foreground, a dominant male in a pinstripe suit with tie. The man in the tie had his chest thrust forward, and it reminded me of the work of a famous 1970s photographer who posed all of his male portraits just so, including President Gerald Ford.
Sitting on the stage, I had no trouble meeting everyone in the room, and people could easily slide closer for deeper conversation. It worked so well, I had no need initiate conversations or introduce myself. Your peppy crowd sat right down and said hello. I'm used to taking the initiative, and this was so different, I am sure there is a design principal at work, if only we can identify the principle. I met more than 30 fashion designers, software designers, musicians and creatives during my visit, and on evenings when I've met more, I had been wearing a nametag. A number of the guests discussed their training at the school they called Arts, alterantively the Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. Amazingly, a round hightop table made do as a DJ booth, and several visiting DJs and MCs used the equipment to entertain guests.
Again, the stage deeply impressed me. With water and drain pipes hooked up to the counter, one could stage light cooking demonstrations or bartender demonstrations for an audience. Bringing in a number of inexpensive chairs, once could easily host poetry readings or even stage a black box theatre production there. A chamber music concert is not out of the question if one could keep the space cool without the noise of the air conditioner. I am wondering if you are planning events soon as a source of rental income. With your design interventions, the loft space of no more than 600 square feet gave the impression of a space twice that size, with five galleries (the "foyer", behind the divider, the main room, up-on-the stage and the watercloset gallery).
The bathroom showed the cleverness of the design team, especially the black rock zen sandbox on the left hand side, easy to contemplate at eye-level. However, I was disappointed to see the image featured on the announcement card hung upon the watercloset's longer, western wall. Done in the black and white style of the Zebra cityscape, with monkeys representing the animal kingdom, one had little time to contemplate the image before another patron required the room for its primary purpose. Echoing themes from Desmond Morris, The Planet of the Apes and the Anti-vivisectionist movement, I am certain it will be purchased if only patrons can study its nuances in proper light.
There are a number of galleries where a family influence is felt, but it is usually a father and son or a mother and daughter concern; I had an opportunity to speak to Jeffrey Davies, the proud father of all three young artists, who never denied his sons art supplies when they asked for them. It is my understanding that art bound the three brothers together, who now cooperate in a successful business in the interior design field and own real estate together. It is a perfect case study of synergy instead of sibling rivalry, and it reminds me of the Bronte sisters, Emily, Anne and Charlotte, who each published a novel around the year 1847. Interestingly, Sunday, July 30 is the anniversary of Emily Bronte's birth.
I am looking forward to future openings at the Control Room. I am certain the space is destined to become known as a prime destination for art work by emergent artists.
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