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THE DANDY INSTIGATOR OF COMMERCE STREET LONG LIVE THE NEW FLESH O ne of our best finds this past year is actually the rediscovery of a fabled folk-art environment, presumed lost forever. In March 2011, we first covered Erma Lee's Inspirational Art Garden, an installation/sanctuary/retail rendezvous/green space for bottle trees, brass bed frames turned into anthropomorphic sculpture, outrageously exuberant displays of potted plants and flowering shrubs and other curious, odd elements of enchantment. The original Inspirational Art Garden burst forth from a Victorian two-story structure and its lawn along the 1100 block of Yale. A year or so after our article appeared, Erma Lee was suddenly gone, her formerly lush yard nothing more than a memory — what succeeded the place of her former residence was an undistinguished turn-of-the-century structure that barely merits a glance. Later, she popped up on Yale outside the loop, but that miniscule utilitarian building with its patch of green could not do justice to Miz Lee's vision. Flash forward to last summer, and a call from the artist herself yielded a visit to the third home of the Inspirational Art Garden. Its new incarnation is a mid-century golden- brick, former fire station turned visionary art compound — a worthy pilgrimage site for devotees of outsider art. (Are you reading this, Marilyn Oshman and Stephanie Smither?) Inside the nearly 5,000-square-foot live/work space, the bottom floor is entirely devoted to Lee's art. Equal parts curiosity shop and art installation, its creator's signature bed-frame people — from a droll cowboy to First Lady Michelle Obama, all wrought from found objects and antique bed posts — populate the pleasantly lit warren of rooms. Stacks of vases atop paperweights and other unique forms of sculptural assemblage also captivate. Shelves upon shelves of cookie jars rival Andy Warhol's collection; carnival and milk glass tchotchkes mingle with Victorian- era American brilliant-cut glass repurposed into sculpture from which vines sprout. Other rooms boast porcelain poodles and more dizzying gewgaws; ceramic poultry, including a "broke toe chicken," also number among the for-sale curated collectibles. Visitors may call ahead to determine if the proprietor is in, but you'll usually find the Inspirational Art Garden open on weekends when Lee and convivial caretaker Mr. Mike welcome one and all. Don't miss the front patio, home to an array of bottle trees and stacked assemblages of flowering blooms that testify to Lee's green thumb. The backyard, still in progress, bears bath tubs, fireplaces and other salvaged architectural relics enveloped in plant life. Throughout all the outdoor spaces are placards with sayings loosely based upon Biblical verse. About finding her new home, Lee credits that to the Lord. Her favorite Bible passage, Galatians 5:22, corresponds to the 522 Crosstimbers address, so she took this as a sign when she discovered the property in 2013. Now Lee's transformation is complete — from saleswoman (she once owned an office supply biz and, before that, sold cars for the Marks dealerships) to full-fledged folk artist. "God has chosen me for this work of art," she says. For the garden's upcoming Holiday Party Benefit, date TBA, check its Facebook page. Inspirational Art Garden, 522 Crosstimbers, 713.869.1993. ART TAKES ROOT S ince his arrival in Houston five years ago to jury a Lawndale Big Show, Paul Middendorf has carved out a spot of importance and great charm. His GalleryHomeland is not only home to some of the best exhibitions we've seen in a commercial gallery this year — the two-person show for Houston emerging talents Iva Kinnaird and Bret Shirley stands out — but the dealer's melding of nonprofit and gallery is innovative and makes for highly adventuresome viewing. Now with two Commerce Street spaces, Middendorf is poised to take over the town. We're not alone in noting that this artist/curator of happenings and odd moments of excitement stole the spotlight at the recent Houston Fine Art Fair with his deer stand as salon/ installation/performative sculpture, complete with Frenchy's fried chicken and a bar tucked into a vintage Samsonite- style suitcase. Up recently: Galveston-based Nick Barbee's "Ask Forgiveness" at GalleryHomeland and part two of Barbee, "Good Riddance," new paintings, at brand-new performance/project space HomeCore, inaugurating the series, "The Parlor" Coming Saturday, November 7, cult classic Mark Ponder, pushing notions of the taboo, including Ponder Parlor (through December 20). GalleryHomeland, 2327 Commerce St.; HomeCore, 2010 Commerce St., 503.819.9656; galleryhomeland.org. Civic TV Collective, one of the few new punk-inspired burgeoning galleries/art spaces opening around the city, sits down Dallas Street, adjacent to 8th Wonder Brewery and part of a larger cultural hub that includes Francisco Practice Studios, GalleryHomeland and other DIY multidisciplinary venues such as The Summit and The Shop. Inspired by underground DIY ideals, New Orleans transplant Terry Suprean (a new media teacher at St. Agnes) transformed his roughly 2,000-square- foot apartment into a cross-pollinating space for emerging artists to show alongside noise and techno bands. Borrowing its name from David Cronenberg's Videodrome (Civic TV was the name of the pirate channel that broadcast the twisted and the macabre in that film), Suprean's conceptual gallery also functions as a hive for writers, photographers, editors and anyone with an idea to share that falls outside the traditional, elite, sometimes stuffy art scene. The gallery also includes new boutique Instant Crush, founded and curated by Suprean's girlfriend Julie Leveque, the other half of the Civic TV endeavor. Offering jewelry, designer threads and a curated collection of cassettes and vinyl records from performing artists who've graced Civic TV's floor, Instant Crush resides at the top of the stairs, an oasis from the DIY/BYOB party below. Just in: due to a sudden, unpredictable redevelopment of the space, CTVC was forced to close its location at 2119 Dallas. However the CTVC brain trust will collaborate with Cardoza Fine Art for a performance by Phytosophie and the Invisible Man on Saturday, November 14 at Cardoza Fine Art. civictvcollective.com. Matthew Ramirez B etween the streets of St. Emanuel and Leeland, building walls covered with spray paint, bathed with splendid amounts of colors and patterns, dress the Houston skyline. These murals evoke an outdoor gallery, each creation by a different artist, enticing pedestrians to walk up to the buildings and take pictures with the art. Here, a new mural by Mario E. Figueroa, Jr., otherwise known as Gonzo247, unveiled Houston's first — and destined to be annual — mural festival (details in a moment). Sporting a necklace fashioned by spray- can nozzles, the artist/activist has become the unofficial spokesperson for Houston's street art movement. A native who burst onto the scene in the '90s well before the age of Shepard Fairey and museum-exhibited aerosol talents, his next endeavor is the upcoming Graffiti and Street Art Museum of Texas (a permanent location is in the works). Gonzo himself is known for monumental, colorful murals where each color reflects Houston's diversity and melting- pot culture. The inaugural Houston Urban Experience (HUE) Mural Festival went down October 17 through 24, with daily unveilings by 90 artists, local to international, fanning out over 17 miles of the city's urban canvas. See our coverage at papercitymag.com. The Graffiti and Street Art Museum of Texas (The GASAM Texas), temporary location until January 2016: 2110 Jefferson, Suite 111, by appointment only 832.748.8369, info@thegasamtexas.org. Faith Nguyen CONCRETE CANVASES C redit Lynne McCabe for keeping the former bungalow turned cultural space of Mixture Contemporary Art and Domy Books in the art game — and in a significant, profound way. Coaxed to return to town to direct She Works Flexible (an entity owned by Brasil's Dan Fergus, which bills itself as art gallery + art museum), the internationally exhibited McCabe is both artist and curator, with a commitment to both new media and big ideas. (She Works Flexible recently served as hub for the Mitchell Center's CounterCurrent Festival and also embraces cinema in its FlexFilm series.) Cue this season's offering, "Ell Nauahl esta aqui/Babaroga je dosla (the Boogeyman is here)" as artists Bosnia and Hercegovina- born, L.A.-based Maja Ruznic and Mexican- born and Barcelona-based Luz Maria Sánchez present solos, which respectively embrace painting and film projections, both probing violence encompassing personal and political fear (through November 7). She Works Flexible, 1709 Westheimer Road, 713.522.0369, sheworksflexible.com. THE BOOGEYMAN OF MONTROSE N ewbie gallerist Pablo Cardoza's eponymous gallery also serves as a front for a studio complex/talent incubator. A visitor, if he or she is lucky, may be invited around back to scope out such promising painters as Bret Shirley, who grows crystals in a lab that then make it onto canvases, or the wild ride of collagist gone awry Dylan Roberts. But his current showing of the scorching-hot Mark Flood has really put Cardoza on the map, coupled with the gallery's debut last month at Texas Contemporary Art Fair. During our recent visit, a new series of porn-embedded paintings by Flood was being hung by a bevy of his assistants, while a fog machine appeared in preparation for opening night of the artist's solo, "Methage in a Bottle," subtitled "An Exhibition of Genetically Modified Art Shit," paired with a rough cut of the soon to be Frieze-exhibited artist's feature film Art Fair Fever. Cardoza Fine Art, 1320 Nance, 713.386.9708, cardozaartgallery.com. HQ FOR THE FAMOUS AND INFAMOUS MARK FLOOD Paul Middendorf, Olivia Abbott with Ike, in Middendorf 's abode adjoining GalleryHomeland Gonzo247 with a creation Alika Herreshoff, Lane Hagood and Pablo Cardoza install a Mark Flood show at Cardona Fine Art Terry Suprean at Civic TV Collective Erma Lee in her Inspirational Art Garden Julie Leveque at her retail spot Bret Shirley en studio at Cardoza Fine Art Lynne McCabe, Dan Fergus Installation action at She Works Flexible