Tag Archives: Deep Ellum

TunnelVisions

Posted on by Bill Chance

Friday I packed my bike onto the DART train after work and headed downtown – riding over from the station through the heavy Friday/Rushhour/FinalFour/NASCAR/Concert traffic to Deep Ellum. It was the annual Deep Ellum Arts Festival – running all weekend, but I wanted to get in at the beginning.

One of the things (more to come) that I wanted to see was TunnelVisions Mural Tournament.

From the Facebook Page:

The Deep Ellum Community Association is proud to debut the inaugural TunnelVisions 2014 Mural Tournament at the Deep Ellum Village section of the Deep Ellum Arts Festival.

Throughout the weekend, 30 mural artists from across the city will paint 4×8 panels to be attached to a pop-up, walk-through tunnel structure, invoking memories of the TunnelVisions project on Good Latimer. Each artist has exactly 4 hours to paint. 6-8 artists will paint at a time. And it will be pressure-packed, high drama.

Confirmed artists include:
Sour Grapes, Joe Skilz, Hatziel Flores, Judith Lea Perkins, David Rodriguez, Jeff Thornton, Cathey Miller, Isaac Davies, Richard Ross, Tony Slomo, Ben Camillo, Brian Crawford, Michael Lagocki, Patricia Rodriguez, Jerod Davies, Jeff Sheely, Brad Albright, Roxanne Mather, Randy Guthmiller, Dan Colcer, Justin Clumpner, Clint Scism, Jashua Davies, Ixchel Aguilar, and more.

Finished boards are added to the tunnel and over the course of the weekend, the tunnel frame will be transformed into a huge, 12’ wide by 8 foot tall, 32’ deep Mural Tunnel. Artists paint every hour of the Festival until 3pm Sunday, when the last artists finish and judging begins.

Prizes include $1500 for 1st, $750 for second, $250 for third, and a People’s Choice Award. Winners will also receive a package including a night at the Omni Hotel, and Deep Ellum gift certificates.

I especially wanted to get there first thing on Friday because among the first wave of artists were three that I was familiar with. Justin Clumpner had taught the cool Art History class I attended at Kettle Art the other day – Sour Grapes painted a couple of murals we toured on the Dallas Contemporary Street Art Bike Tour – and Richard Ross has a number of Deep Ellum Murals that I’ve admired.

Closeup of the Sour Grapes mural at the Belmont Hotel, Dallas, Texas. (click to enlarge)

Closeup of the Sour Grapes mural at the Belmont Hotel, Dallas, Texas.
(click to enlarge)

Richard Ross Column Deep Ellum Art Park, Dallas, Texas (Click to Enlarge)

Richard Ross Column
Deep Ellum Art Park, Dallas, Texas
(Click to Enlarge)

I made it down there just as they started. It was pretty darn cool.

I’ll try to get by there Saturday to look at some more work… and definitely see if I can see the finished stuff on Sunday. What fun.

The start of a work of art

The start of a work of art

Justin Clumpner starting on his mural

Justin Clumpner starting on his mural

Sour Grapes planning their mural

Sour Grapes planning their mural

Alfredo Pina prepping his panel.

Alfredo Pina prepping his panel.

Sour Grapes

Sour Grapes

Justin Clumpner

Justin Clumpner

Sour Grapes adding detail

Sour Grapes adding detail

Richard Ross

Richard Ross

Richard Ross and Justin Clumpner

Richard Ross and Justin Clumpner

Brain, Thoughts, and a Red Door

Posted on by Bill Chance

Mural by Leighton Autrey
Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas

Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas (click to enlarge)

Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas
(click to enlarge)

“The ugly and stupid have the best of it in this world. They can sit at their ease and gape at the play. If they know nothing of victory, they are at least spared the knowledge of defeat. They live as we all should live– undisturbed, indifferent, and without disquiet. They never bring ruin upon others, nor ever receive it from alien hands. Your rank and wealth, Henry; my brains, such as they are– my art, whatever it may be worth; Dorian Gray’s good looks– we shall all suffer for what the gods have given us, suffer terribly.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

Dirk

Posted on by Bill Chance

“…So please, be tolerant of those who describe a sporting moment as their best ever. We do not lack imagination, nor have we had sad and barren lives; it is just that real life is paler, duller, and contains less potential for unexpected delirium.”
― Nick Hornby, Fever Pitch

Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas

“You have to give 100 percent in the first half of the game. If that isn’t enough, in the second half, you have to give what’s left.”
― Yogi Berra

Hand of Dirk, Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas

Hand of Dirk, Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas

Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas

Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas

Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas (click to enlarge)

Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas
(click to enlarge)

I’m still working through older photographs – I need some bicycle shots with my new Xootr Swift, instead of my old commuter bike.

“We have to do something about our bad starts because it’s not the first time it’s happened to us all year. Maybe we should get up at 6 o’clock and run around the block.”
—-Dirk Nowitzki

“I sat down in the producer’s office and he handed me a basketball. It had my name on it.”
—-Spalding Gray

Dirk Nowitzki Gives Conan The Texas Citizenship Test

Holding Up the Sun

Posted on by Bill Chance

“By day the banished sun circles the earth like a grieving mother with a lamp.”
― Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Mural by Richard Ross
Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas

“See,” Sasha muttered, eyeing the sun. “It’s mine.”
― Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad

Richard Ross, Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas

Richard Ross, Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas

“Here I came to the very edge
where nothing at all needs saying,
everything is absorbed through weather and the sea,
and the moon swam back,
its rays all silvered,
and time and again the darkness would be broken
by the crash of a wave,
and every day on the balcony of the sea,
wings open, fire is born,
and everything is blue again like morning. ”
― Pablo Neruda

Bulldog

Posted on by Bill Chance

Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas

Detail of Mural by Cathey Miller/Cathedonia

Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas Cathey MIller, Cathedonia (click to enlarge)

Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas
Cathey MIller, Cathedonia
(click to enlarge)

“The marriage of reason and nightmare that dominated the 20th century has given birth to an ever more ambiguous world. Across the communications landscape move the spectres of sinister technologies and the dreams that money can buy. Thermo-nuclear weapons systems and soft-drink commercials coexist in an overlit realm ruled by advertising and pseudo-events, science and pornography. Over our lives preside the great twin leitmotifs of the 20th century – sex and paranoia…In a sense, pornography is the most political form of fiction, dealing with how we use and exploit each other, in the most urgent and ruthless way.”
— J.G. Ballard

Please Don’t Eat My Bike

Posted on by Bill Chance

Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas

(click to enlarge)

(click to enlarge)

Guitar Player on a Column

Posted on by Bill Chance

Dan Colcer
Deep Ellum Art Park
Dallas, Texas

Dan Colcer Deep Ellum Art Park Dallas, Texas

Dan Colcer
Deep Ellum Art Park
Dallas, Texas

The same artist did this one:

Painting at the entrance to the Urban Gardens, Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas

Painting at the entrance to the Urban Gardens, Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas

from This Entry

Zoli’s New York Style

Posted on by Bill Chance

Try driving across a city when you are hungry – you will notice that there is a pizza joint on every corner. There is pizza everywhere.

Plus, the simple word pizza means something different to different people – there are so many varieties. Most people have a favorite and will defend their choice of crust – from crackerlike to deep dish – to the death. Then there are toppings – from traditional Margherita to fried eggs or squid ink. The place can vary from a corner take-out dive all the way up to a sit-down formal experience with wines to match the toppings and everything in between. A family owned local hangout to a massive international corporate chain.

Whatever you like.

I’m not a very good judge. My opinion is that pizza is like sex – when it is good, it’s great and when it is bad – it’s still pretty good.

Everyone has to have their go-to pizza joint. Ours is Cane Rosso in Deep Ellum (Pizza Napoletana with its famous “tip sag”) – I like to sit at the bar and watch the pies go into the giant wood burning dome of an oven, where they cook for only a few seconds (a close second is Urban Crust in old downtown Plano).

I stumbled across a list of 16 Iconic Pizzerias Across the Metroplex. I’ve been to about half of these (Eno’s and Mama’s are two more favorites) – and probably won’t make too much of an attempt to add more. The city is simply too spread out and there are too many good ones too close. Cane Rosso did make the grade, which is not a surprise. Campisi’s Egyption Lounge is on the list more for its history than its food, IMHO.

We were in Bishop Arts this weekend, looking for something to eat in a place that wasn’t too smoky and I remembered that Cane Rosso had opened a branch up there in the old Bee Enchilada location (shame it closed) called Zoli’s. They promised “New York Style Pizza” and that sounded good.

Here’s a useful graphic that outlines the difference in the various styles of pizza sold at the two spots. Zoli’s uses metal ovens instead of the giant domed wood-burner at Cane Rosso, plus it offers three styles – New York, Grandma, and Sicilian.

(click to enlarge)

Photo Courtesy Cane Rosso and Zoli's (click to enlarge)

Photo Courtesy Cane Rosso and Zoli’s
(click to enlarge)

Good stuff.

Zoli's, Dallas, Texas

Zoli’s, Dallas, Texas

Lunch special at Zoli's - Ceaser Salad, Slice, Knot of Garlic Bread

Lunch special at Zoli’s – Ceaser Salad, Slice, Knot of Garlic Bread

So, was Zoli’s great or was it merely good. I liked it a lot, but I was very hungry. You’ll have to go try it for yourself.

Red Trombone

Posted on by Bill Chance

“Come with uncle,” I said, “and hear all proper. Hear angel trumpets and devil trombones. You are invited.”
—-Alex, A Clockwork Orange

Mardi Gras
Deep Ellum
Dallas, Texas

Deep Ellum Dallas, Texas (click to enlarge)

Deep Ellum
Dallas, Texas
(click to enlarge)