The Creative Standard committee formed by artist, co-founder, and board member of Big Medium, Jana Swec, Big Medium board member and founder of One Story Productions, Aaron Weiss, and artists Caroline Wright and Court Lurie, will discuss their practices, and the vision and goals for Creative Standard in 2021. They’ll open a conversation to address our community’s needs, and how the program can serve our creative sector.
Aaron Weiss is the founder and owner of One Story Productions, an independent documentary production company creating customized videos used for marketing, websites, social media, community awareness and fundraising. Aaron’s career is dedicated to telling a wide variety of stories through his work. He is a graduate of The New School University in New York City, with a Bachelor’s Degree in Media Studies. Aaron demonstrates to organizations the value of telling stories through film-stories that create awareness, innovation, and change. He has created compelling videos for more than 100 organizations around the world and is dedicated to making a difference through his storytelling abilities with his passion for helping those who are disadvantaged and underrepresented.
Caroline Wright (MFA, School of the Art Institute of Chicago; BA, Brown University) dances across her large abstract paintings, bringing music and movement into the visual field. After Brown, Caroline moved to Paris and lived in an abandoned state building in Belleville, with artists from all over the world. This unique experience imprinted in Caroline the possibility of a life made through art. Caroline returned to Austin in 2007 to participate in the burgeoning art community of her hometown. She loves encouraging artists to take up space, explore deeply, and make a living with their art. Through performance and her collaborative spirit, Caroline invites you to deepen your awareness and experience her artwork with all your senses.
Court Lurie is a queer, Jewish, abstract painter from Chicago. She lives and creates in Austin, Texas, where she has called home for 15 years. She is a professional artist with gallery representation at Kenise Barnes Fine Art in NY, Costello Gallery in Phoenix, Addison Gallery in Miami, and JGo Gallery in Park City, UT. Her work has been featured in many design and lifestyle magazines, on the set of several films, ABC Studios, HGTV, and hangs in public and private collections across the country. She co-created Artpost, with a developer and a group of artists in 20 + studios in East Austin where the Govalle Library used to live. Artpost lived for 8 years strong. It was a hub of activity during the East Austin Studio Tours each year and was a pillar of community, joy, collaboration, mutual aid, shared reality, and friendship.
Court is an ordained minister, self proclaimed Kabbalist (which has been reserved for only very studied men in their 40’s), in the Jewish tradition. She is a Reiki Master, has trained in trauma sensitive yin yoga and meditation. She ritualizes daily life through art making, poetry, connection, conversation, music, road trips, fresh air, magic, and serendipity. She is a great softball player. A percussionist, singer, guitarist. She has a long history with spoken word poetry and performed on queer stages across the country almost 20 years ago. If you ask her for a poem, she may just spit one there on the spot. Her life is about living in the present moment and listening to its message. Learning how to listen. And being awake enough to respond with intuition and integrity.
Jana Swec received a BFA from the School of Visual Arts in 2001 with a focus in Studio Arts. After moving to Austin in 2001 and moving into a shared warehouse space with a few other artists and called it Bolm Studios, she became a member of the three person collaborative group, Sodalitas, made up of herself, Shea Little and Joseph Phillips. The three artists mainly focused on the process of working with each other and included performance, painting, community collaborations and temporary/permanent installations. In 2002 they co-founded the artist-run organization, Bolm Studios, now known as the non-profit Big Medium, which provides programs such as the East Austin Studio Tour, West Austin Studio Tour, a year round gallery that focuses on mostly Texas based artists. and the Texas Biennial.
In 2008, Jana began to work on her solo work more and began with drawings of anthropomorphic trees, which would define her work for the next decade. This work presents a unique and beautiful balance between powerful formal abstraction elements and organic growth. The trees are a primary source of imagery, which explores a visual partnership with forms that resemble elephants, whales and other elements of the natural world. Using these trees as the core subject, she explores the beauty and darkness of nature, life, and death.
In 2014, Jana began to work with her brother Joe Swec and his sign painting business. This opened her to a world of large scale painting and murals. Jana loves the connection murals have with the public. From the performance of making them in front of people and the conversations it starts, to the viewers interpretations after the mural is long finished. When she’s not making art, she’s a singer, wife and a mother of three.
Coffee Chats feature leaders in the creative community sharing their personal and professional experiences to inspire others pursuing careers in art. To view past conversations, visit our Coffee Chats Archive.
Aaron Weiss
Caroline Wright
Court Lurie
Jana Swec