Fresh from the Studio | Austin Studio Tour

Thu Nov 9, 2023

12PM

Fresh from the Studio invites W&TW artist members to share what they are working on now. In this virtual format, artists share work in progress, newly finished artworks, and recent or upcoming projects. Each presentation is about 10 minutes with time for your questions and comments afterwards. Fresh from the Studio is your chance to see what is new and hear from contemporary artists. This program is free and open to the public.

This segment of Fresh from the Studio will feature April Garcia, Amber Dalgleish Mustard and Michelle Rahbar.

About the Artists

April Garcia is an Austin based artist who loves to create soft sculpture art. Using fabric, fiber-fill, needle, and thread, she sews her fabric pieces by hand or with a machine. She sews colorful fabric shapes, attaching one to another until the bulging pieces are balanced with color and pattern. Garcia enjoys allowing her sculptures to grow organically when she is creating. She allows her soft sculptures to morph into what they want to be. Her biomorphic soft sculpture work has an organic abstract look that resembles shapes found in nature or even something that might grow on another planet. She has been creating and exhibiting her art in Austin for twenty years and has several sculpture art pieces in the permanent collection of Mexic Arte Museum

Amber Dalgleish Mustard was born and raised in Austin, TX. She received a B.A. from St. Edward’s University where she majored in Photo-Communications. Mustard worked in the medium of photography for 12 years before discovering the art form that really fit her. Having ventured into many other forms of artistic expression including paper piecing, drawing, and painting she began to mix these art forms by piecing paper on canvas and using acrylic paints to complete the overall image. As her process developed, she began to explore the surface of each piece by layering texture as well as color. The in-depth development of each work evolves into a rich and complex abstracted canvas. Mustard uses her innate sense of design to designate the process complete. These pieces fit well into the contemporary and modern environment.

Michelle Rahbar is a visual artist based in Austin,Texas, who grew up amongst factories and railroad yards on the shores of Lake Michigan. After receiving her BFA in Painting & Drawing from the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, she moved to Austin and has since exhibited across Texas in select curated exhibitions. Her work has appeared in national art publications and been acquired for both private and public art collections. She is also a contributing member of Bolm Arts Collective. Rahbar makes curiously strange mixed media paintings that connect with the viewer on an emotional level. Her work focuses on how loss reshapes you, how we reframe the idea of home throughout our lives and how past trauma can be cultivated into strength and beauty. She strives to make work that’s slow to reveal itself through layered stories. According to scientists, our first two decades seem to pass as slowly as the rest of our lives, so that our early experiences carry vastly more psychic weight than those of adulthood. If this is true then all the landscapes, whispers, and meteor showers she’s witnessed have left their indelible mark on her work.

Interested in participating in Fresh from the Studio? Click here to learn more about artist membership benefits and opportunities!