SECOND SATURDAYS ARE FOR FAMILIES: Painting with Nature

When we invite exhibiting artists to Laguna Gloria to consider the location of their next work of art, we ask that they explore all 14-acres of the grounds. We ask that they take into consideration not only our visitors, but how the sun moves across our landscape and how the flora and fauna that inhabit the park may play a part as well.

In anticipation of a new work of art coming to Laguna Gloria on May 13 by the artist duo Celeste, we will be experimenting with fabric painting inspired by the landscape around us and the beautiful murals created by Maria Fernanda Camarena and Gabriel Rosas Alemán.

Want more? There is more! We will also host the Austin Public Library’s Art Smart program featuring stories, hand kites and mural art that explores themes around cultural diversity! Don’t miss out! Here is the itinerary for the day:

11:45 - 12:15pm – Shadow puppets, storytelling and movement 

12:15 – 12:45pm – Hand kite building and flying 

1:15 - 2:15pm – Collaborative mural building

While you're here, enjoy lunch and snacks at Spread & Co.!

Ambray Gonzales, has a 55-year history of learning, practicing, creating, teaching, or performing art through different formats: whether through taking art outreach to children, completing COA Public Art limestone monuments or COA Cultural Art contracts for community murals or projects. She was selected from nationwide Hispanic artists, to be 1 of 15 artists featured in the 2010 UT Press book, Chican@Contemporary Art: Color and Culture for a New America.

In 2000, she started working for Austin Public Library, as a Youth Program Specialist, and in 2008, created 6 seasonal ArtSmart Cultural Programs, with the hope to inspire youth to Discover, Learn, Create (through literacy and art).These free APL programs currently travel to about 30 schools per year, are performed for up to 10,000 students and Teachers; and can be seen in branch libraries. These programs include folktale storytelling, shadow puppetry, dance, singing, poetry, drumming, or art.

Celeste is an artist duo based in Mexico City formed by María Fernanda Camarena (b. Guadalajara, 1988) and Gabriel Rosas Alemán (b. Mexico City, 1983). The artists’ collaborative practice centers on explorations of archetypal images and the creation of spaces that are both physical and social. Their largescale, dyed and painted fabric installations employ a distinctive warm color palette and respond to architectural environments while incorporating abstracted images, such as extended hands and empty vessels, that speak to the personal and collective unconscious.