|
Color, light, and the beauty of nature inspire Pat Waughtal. She is grateful for her artist’s eyes, which allow her to see the magnificence of the created world around us.
Pat is a native Houstonian who started her art career in the late 1960s with drawing classes at Glassell School of Art. Her love of color soon led her to study acrylic painting with Lamar Briggs for two years. In the 1980s, she switched her medium to watercolors and had the good fortune to study with Barbara Jeffrey Clay for several years. Since then, she has attended many workshops to increase her skills and has also explored oils, pastels, and collage.
During the pandemic, Pat had the good fortune to be introduced to Louise Fletcher’s online course, "Find Your Joy." Her eclectic art background finally came together as she discovered that mixed media was my art form!
Since completing Louise's course, she has won three Best of Show awards and is delighted to have found a whole new group of art friends in the Houston Area Art Tribe (HAAT). Through members of HAAT, she discovered and joined WIVLA.
Pat is married to Russell Orr, a supportive husband, and has four children, six grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren. She has been involved in community service with the Houston Junior Forum and the Gathering Place over the years and serves as president of the Houston Art Society.
Her education includes a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Houston and a Master of Occupational Therapy from Texas Woman’s University. Her career as an Occupational Therapist working in rehab and as a hand therapist was exciting and rewarding.
Pat is actively involved with the Houston Art Society, the Watercolor Society of Houston, and the Pastel Society of Southeast Texas and is a new member of WIVLA.
Website: PatWaughtalArt.com
|
|
|
Who will WiVLA highlight next?
|
|
Each month, a WiVLA member is highlighted in the Newsletter. This is a fun way for us to get to know each other.
Contact the Literary Art Chair or the Visual Art Chair, if you would like your time in the spotlight.
|
|
|
Congratulations, Ladies!
Representing all facets of WIVLA creative mediums!
|
|
Leslie Archibald: Poetry
"Fog"
“Born of Night”
“I Saw Death on the Parkway”
Brooke Summers-Perry: Painting
"Persist” - This piece has also gone by the title, "love anyway."
It is brutal out here, walking around with a big open heart
“Boundaries” - This painting pays respect to my Oneida ancestors and is a symbol of grief for all the ways we divide Mother Earth.
Denise Bossarte: Photography
"Galaxy Merger," "Ensō Duet," and "Heuristic Alchemy"
|
|
|
Raven Burnes Kushner
Solo Exhibit
Angels and Aristocrats
Black Prosperity, Spirituality, and Hope
Ends January 25,2025
|
|
|
Examples of Raven's art in her solo show
|
|
|
AND...On December 12 at beautiful Westcoast Black Troupe Theater in Sarasota, Abbie Brothers partnered with Cynthia Davis and Irene Johnson to host Mildred for a speech, reading, and book signing. The well-attended event was held in The Black Box room, and a robust discussion on resilience, determination, and rising above one’s circumstances followed.
|
|
|
Dr. Nancy L. Glass
Two pieces published this fall
|
|
|
|
“A Long Way from Home” in the Examined Life Journal, about a young undocumented woman (my hospice patient), who arrived in Houston only to find out several weeks later that she was pregnant AND had an aggressive liver cancer. She made an incredibly unselfish decision, different from what I might have done in her shoes. Sadly, the piece is only available to subscribers. She meant a lot to me.
|
|
|
|
“Homeless and Dying,” named runner-up for the Perkoff Prize at the Missouri Review, was published in their fall edition. I loved.loved.loved. the photo they chose to illustrate this essay, again about one of my young adult hospice patients, who was taken in by the parents of one of his friends. It makes me sad you can’t read the entire essay but you can see the first few pages online. There are angels among us, y’all, if we just keep our eyes open.
|
|
|
Kathi Crawford
Five pieces published this fall
|
|
|
|
Three of my poems have been published by Unlikely Stories Mark V, including Red Light, 2019 Was A Very Hot Year, and Blindly Bubbled.
|
|
|
|
My spoken word poem, Little Orange Men, is included in the anthology, FUMPTRUCK, published by Written Backwards, Michael Bailey, Editor.
|
|
|
|
My creative nonfiction story, For Immediate Release, has been published in the Fall 2024 Edition of The Bayou Review.
|
|
|
Denise Bossarte
Fiction Anthology Published
|
|
|
Robot Transcendence is a series of short explorations into human-robot relationships.
These five stories examine what it would mean for robots to be an integral part of our world and how they would interact and work with us.
The anthology includes an essay at the back of the book about the inspirations for each of the stories.
|
|
|
Deborah K. Frontiera
Two Pieces Juried into an Anthology
|
|
Deborah K. Frontiera had two short pieces accepted into the 2025 U.P. Reader, an annual juried anthology put out by the Upper Peninsula Publishers and Authors Association.
The first is a short story, Penny Postcard's Journey--the imaginative but as realistic as possible story of a postcard that took over 70 years to reach its destination.
The second, Losing My Marbles, is a humorous memoir of a game of marbles when the author was in the second grade.
The anthology will be published in the spring of 2025.
|
|
|
Synkroniciti is Open
for Written and Visual Art Submissions
|
|
Synkroniciti is a quarterly online arts journal. They accept work in a variety of media across the visual, literary and performing arts spectrum. Issue twenty-two, “Haunting” came out December 15th and "Identity" will debut this spring.
Submissions for their March 15th issue are now open. Contests will be held in poetry ($75), flash fiction ($75) and for the cover ($100).
Theme: "Identity"
Deadline: 1/15/2025
Fee: $3 per submission
Submissions should be emailed to magazine@synkroniciti.com
Want to know now what they look for in a submission? Check out this interview with editor Katherine McDaniel by Jim Harrington over at Six Questions For…
|
|
hotpoet has launched Equinox, a biannual digital multimedia journal that showcases poets, writers, and artists.
While solstices are the extremes of the year, an equinox is equidistant, poised on the edge of one thing or another, the cusp of change or transformation. With this archetypal significance in mind, Equinox strives to explore the contemplative and motivational power of writers and artists; to celebrate how word and image can create a world and then change it.
We invite you to send us your poems, flash fiction, flash essay, photography, and art. We look for contemplative, argumentative, globally aware, despair-resistant, and apathy-abolishing works.
Theme: Inner Chambers, Secret Rooms
This theme invites you to shift your focus to interior spaces, whether literal or metaphorical. As always, you are free to respond to this theme in any way that is meaningful to you. We are eager to visit the rooms you remember, the chambers you imagine, the havens you invent.
Entry Deadline: 2/18/2025
Entry Fee: $5/submission (3 pieces in any one genre (poetry, flash prose, or image)
Length: Poems, flash fiction, flash essay, photography, and art. We look for contemplative, argumentative, globally aware, despair-resistant, and apathy-abolishing works.
Published : online on hotpoet website
|
|
Texas Chapter of the Women’s Caucus for Art
"Water" Exhibit Call for Art
|
|
The Women's Caucus for Art - Texas is a chapter of the Women's Caucus for Art, a national organization with a mission to create community through art, education, and social activism in support of women artists.
Theme: "Water"
Deadline: 1/22/2025
Fee: Exhibition entry is $1 for WCA Texas Chapter members to enter up to 3 submissions. Non-members are required a fee of $50 for the first submission, and an additional $25 each for up to 3 submissions.
Location: Mexican Cultural Institute in San Antonio, Texas
Show Dates: March 1 - May 1, 2025
Water is the pulse of our planet, the silent rhythm that sustains all life. From the smallest droplets to the vast oceans, it nourishes, cleanses, and shapes our world in ways both profound and humble. This exhibition is a celebration of water's timeless beauty and its vital role in the balance of nature. As we explore the various forms and faces of water—its power, its tranquility, its resilience—we are reminded of its irreplaceable presence in our lives.
In this tribute, we invite you to reflect on the many ways water touches us all: as a source of life, a force of nature, and a symbol of purity. Through the lens of art, science, and culture, we hope to deepen our appreciation for water and inspire a renewed commitment to its protection. May this exhibition serve as a reminder of the profound connection we share with this precious resource, and the responsibility we bear to preserve it for future generations
|
|
In 1975, the Jung Center opened its non-profit gallery space in Houston's Museum District. The space exhibits a diverse array of artists and a permanent collection by Peter Birkhäuser.
The gallery space presents up-and-coming artists, local artists, Texas based artists, career retrospectives, and established or mid-career artists. Our fine art committee welcomes artists of different backgrounds and abilities to apply to our free annual open call.
Submission Guildelines
Theme: open
Entry Deadline: open between January 1st and April 30th, 2025.
Entry Fee: none
Images for application: up to 10 images representative of the proposal. Also includes artists statement and bio.
Location: The Jung Center 5200 Montrose Boulevard, Houston, TX 77006
Dates: 2025 - 2026
Email entries to: Art and Exhibitions Committee, care of Elissa A. Davis at edavis@junghouston.org.
|
|
Seeking applications from women and nonbinary artists in Texas who break new ground in their approach to form, content, and ideas. Seven-week solo exhibitions to occur Mar 2026 - Jul 2027.
Women & Their Work (W&TW) seeks artists who create innovative, contemporary art that breaks new ground in its approach to form, content, and ideas. Selections are based on an evaluation of work samples submitted and ideas proposed; we look for a strong, consistent aesthetic vision. Recently created work in all media will be considered.
Women artists living anywhere in Texas who have not had a solo exhibition at W&TW within the past ten years are eligible. Emerging, mid-career, and established artists are invited to apply.
Women & Their Work will award selected artists an honorarium of $3,000. Our gallery staff will work with the artist to help them achieve all aspects of their vision.
Theme: open
Entry Deadline: 1/8/25
Entry Fee: $20
Images for application: Minimum: 1, Maximum: 10. Plus artist statement, proposal, proposal layout, and resume.
Location: Women and Their Work, Austin, TX.
Dates: Mar 2026 - Jul 2027
Applicants will be notified by email by February 12, 2025.
|
|
"Perspectives" is a Juried art show to be held at Ardest Gallery in The Woodlands, Texas.
"Perspectives" is a group art show that celebrates the rich diversity of human experience through art. This group show strives to represent the various cultural and individual viewpoints that shape our world...... through art. What is YOUR perspective!?!
All mediums are eligible for submission; 2D and 3D art welcome.
Theme: Perspectives
Entry Deadline: 1/10/25
Entry Fee: $40
Images for application: Minimum: 1, Maximum: 6
Location: Ardest Gallery, The Woodlands, TX.
Dates: February 5th - March 1st, 2025
|
|
A juried selection is held annually to award artists three-to-twelve month residencies. Artists selected for the program receive 24/7 access to studio space, cultural and professional development opportunities, a monthly stipend that includes a small housing/materials allowance, and the opportunity to give an artist talk. The studios are equipped with sinks, telephones and wireless Internet access. Artists are selected based on the quality of their creative work, ability to interact with the public, career direction, and program diversity.
Applicants must be able to fulfill a program requirement of working in their studios for two days per week during HCCC public hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM. All resident artists are required to open their studios to public interaction on Saturdays and one other day of the week (TBD), as well as during exhibition openings and specific educational programs on the evenings and weekends. Applicants should consider the public facing nature of the residencies and the fact that a major goal of the program is to provide visitors with an opportunity to explore contemporary craft through engaging with working artists.
Theme: open
Entry Deadline: 2/1/25
Entry Fee: none
Images for application: images of 10 Works Created within the Last Two Years. Plus Artist Statement, Resume, and 3 References.
Location: HCC 4848 Main Street, Houston, TX 77002
Dates: 2026
|
|
Founded in 1975, the Watercolor Art Society – Houston (WAS-H) is a non-profit organization with over 600 members. For almost 50 years, WAS-H has brought the excitement of watermedia to the greater Houston area with outstanding exhibits, world-class instruction and dedicated community outreach. Year-round opportunities are provided to every level of painter, from novice to seasoned expert. Art lovers are invited to enjoy monthly exhibits in our gallery in the Museum District.
Theme: open
Entry Deadline: 1/11/25
Entry Fee: 1 entry = $40; 2 entries = $55; 3 entries = $70
Images for application: Minimum: 1, Maximum: 20. Only artwork completed on or after January 1, 2023 is eligible.
Location: WAS-H determines the location for hanging and placement for all artworks.
Dates: March 4 – March 29, 2025
Printable IWE 2025 Prospectus
|
|
The Dougherty Arts Center:
2026 exhibitions at its
Julia C. Butridge (JCB) Gallery
|
|
The Julia C. Butridge Gallery (JCB Gallery) is located within the Dougherty Arts Center, a multicultural community arts venue that provides personal, and professional development opportunities for community members through creative arts. The mission of the JCB Gallery is to provide educational exhibits that further the DAC’s mission statement through expressions of community, identity, history, ecology and more.
Theme: open
Entry Deadline: 1/26/25.
Applicants will be notified by February 28, 2025, for the 2026 season.
Entry Fee: There is no fee to submit an exhibit proposal and all related exhibits and events are free and open to the public.
Images for application: Minimum: 10, Maximum: 20. Completed in the past 5 years.
Location: Julia C. Butridge Gallery, Austin TX.
Dates: 2026 season.
|
|
TYLER ART SHOW1:
TSHOW an international juried art show
|
|
TSHOW stands for Tyler Art Show – an international juried art show currently hosted at the Gallery Main Street located downtown Tyler, TX.
Theme: open
Entry Deadline: 1/11/25
Entry Fee: $40 to submit 1 artwork. Extra submission is $5.
Images for application: Minimum: 1, Maximum: 20
Location: Gallery Main Street located downtown Tyler, TX.
Dates: Jan 31 – March 2, 2025
|
|
The Sugar Land Arts & Music Fest is a two-day festival in the heart of Sugar Land, an emerging hub for the arts. More than 100 artists participate in the event, which is a prime opportunity for them to exhibit and sell their artwork across 14 different mediums. Hosted by the Sugar Land Cultural Arts Foundation (SLCAF), a 501 c3 organization that strives to promote, connect, and empower arts and culture throughout our diverse community, the Sugar Land Arts & Music Fest is a testament to the positive impact the organization has on our community.
Theme: open
Entry Deadline: 1/15/2025 (Early Bird Deadline); 3/1/2025 (Final)
Entry Fee: $25/application
Images for application: 6 Images. You can submit up to 10 applications for this show.
Location: Smart Financial Centre Plaza, 18111 Lexington Blvd, Sugar Land, Texas (South).
Dates: April 26 & 27, 2025 10AM – 4pm
|
|
The Sugar Land Cultural Arts Foundation (SLCAF) is seeking four (4) accomplished muralists with a proven track-record to participate as live mural painters for the 2025 Sugar Land Arts and Music Fest at the Smart Financial Center Plaza. This is the fourth annual Sugar Land Arts Festival and live mural painters are a staple of the event.
We are looking for 4 accomplished muralists!
- 4 muralists will be live painting during the festival
- Compensation: $150 for materials & $500 stipend
- Must attend and paint mural on-site. Stipend distributed when the mural is complete.
- Artwork by selected muralists will be displayed in the Smart Financial Centre lobby from summer 2025 to summer 2026
Theme: THE FEELING OF MUSIC. Your concept and rendering should represent music in some manner.
Entry Deadline: 1/31/2025
Entry Fee: $10/application
Images for application: 4 Images. You can submit up to 10 applications for this show.
Location: Smart Financial Centre Plaza, 18111 Lexington Blvd, Sugar Land, Texas (South).
Dates: April 26 & 27, 2025 10AM – 4pm
|
|
Ekphrastic works
We define "ekphrasis" or "ekphrastic" as "creative writing inspired by visual art." Wherever the art takes you is fine, whether it is "about" the art or artist, or about something else.
We love all the arts, but only consider ekphrasis after visual arts such as painting, sculpture, collage, assemblage, and photography. Performative, musical, or moving picture arts, such as symphonies, cinema, or dance are amazing, but outside of our niche.
Theme: Open to Ekphrastic works
Entry Deadline: 1/31/2025
Entry Fee: $3.75/submission
Length: Prose 50 to 4000 words. We have a very strong preference for work in the 100-1000 range. Poetry can be any length, but please query about any that are unusually long.
Published : online as individual blog posts and available as ebooks to purchase online.
Submit to the editors at theekphrasticreview@gmail.com.
|
|
Theme: new Ekphrastic themes bi-weekly
Entry Deadline: 1/3/2025
Entry Fee: $3.75/submission
Length: 1000 words max
Published : online as individual blog posts and available as ebooks to purchase online.
Submit to the editors at theekphrasticreview@gmail.com.
January 3, 2025 The Wild Hunt of Odin, by Peter Nicolai Arbo
|
|
|
According to their website, "Duotrope is an established, award-winning resource for writers and artists. We help you save time finding publishers or literary agents, so you can focus on creating. Our publication and agent listings are up to date and full of information you won't find elsewhere. We also offer submission trackers, custom searches, deadline calendars, statistical reports, and extensive interviews."
|
|
|
According to their website, "For writers, getting your work published and recognized is a step toward realizing your goals as an author. However, finding the right contests or publications can be a challenging and time consuming. Authors now have the opportunity to find and submit their writing to magazines, publishers, and contests through a website called Submittable."
|
|
|
According to their website, "CaFÉ strives to make art opportunities available to all by offering arts organizations an affordable submission platform and artists an easy way to apply. CaFÉ has an open call for everyone, from competitions to public art calls, to art contests and more. Artists can create an artist portfolio for free and apply to various call listings. CaFÉ also hosts its own call for entry."
|
|
|
According to their website, "For the Artist, Maker and (Forever) Inspired. Artists Network is with you every step of your art journey. Artists Network produces anywhere from three to five major events for visual art enthusiasts each year. We plan and produce different art-making getaways and retreats, art competitions, pop-up learn-ins, Paint Alongs, art talks and tours, and more in locations worldwide."
|
|
Jesse Lane Color Pencil Workshop
|
|
|
WHEN: Saturday, January 18, 2025 from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm
WHERE: The Woodlands Art League 701 Sawdust Rd, Spring, TX 77380
COST: $150 for WAL Members, $200 for non-members
Explore the exciting possibilities of creating beautiful artwork in colored pencil with award-winning artist Jesse Lane. This workshop is an introduction to colored pencil as a fine-art medium, capable of so much more than scribbles of color!
All skill levels are welcome.
Please register here.
|
|
|
WHEN: Saturday January 25 from 9 am - 4 pm and Sunday, January 26 from 12 - 4 pm.
WHERE: The Conroe Art League 127 Simonton St, Conroe TX
COST: $175 for CAL Members, $215 for non-members
Learn the art of paper weaving by working with different types of papers (commercial and handmade), using strips, warp and weft, and cutting windows. Options are unlimited for combining papers to achieve colorful and textural creations. Most supplies are provided, including a curated packet of varied and beautiful papers.
All skill levels are welcome.
Please register here.
|
|
|
WHEN: Monday January 27 from 10am.
WHERE: The Conroe Art League 127 Simonton St, Conroe TX
COST: $40 for CAL Members, $60 for non-members
Painting Textures in Watercolor with Alison Hendry
Please register here.
|
|
|
Writespace is Houston's writing center. Founded in April of 2014, we are a grassroots literary arts organization founded by writers, for writers. At Writespace, we support writers of all genres, including writers of literary fiction, poetry, science-fiction, fantasy, mystery, young adult, and other genres.
We offer weekly writing workshops, manuscript consultations, write-ins, open mics, socials, and more. In the spring of each year, we host a national literary festival, Writefest.
|
|
-
Folktales and Your Own Story
-
SEO for Writers
-
Becoming Yourself: Poetry as the Voice of the Individual
-
Form or Function? Exploring Schemes of Poetics
-
Beginner Class - Genre Fiction
-
Read Like a Writer: James Baldwin "Sonny's Blues"
-
Narrowing your Scope for Memoir & Non-fiction
-
Authorial Voice: Take a Line for a Walk
-
How to make Today into the Fantastic
|
|
The Houston Writers Guild is a volunteer-run, nonprofit organization working to create a community of writers of all skill levels. Together we strive to improve our writing craft and help each other build successful careers through education, collaborative marketing efforts, and camaraderie.
The Guild offers a myriad of programs for both published and unpublished writers. It creates opportunities to build careers through networking, as well as, opportunities for author book sales throughout the Greater Houston area and neighboring communities. The Guild is also a place for hobbyist authors to enjoy writing in a relaxed and fun environment.
Critique Group
Writer's Room - several offerings
|
|
|
Grackle and Grackle hosts creative writing classes taught by talented writers who love to teach. They also consult with organizations and businesses seeking a literary touch on big projects, or who want them to create workshops for team retreats or other events. They work with all ages of writers.
Founded by writers Miah Arnold and Raj Mankad in 2014, their goal is to bolster the power of storytelling in Houston and abroad to connect writers to each other. By offering graduated discounts on classes, they ensure that anybody who wants to take a class at Grackle and Grackle can do so.
They host weekend workshops for retreats geared toward specific kinds of writing, therapy, or outcomes; and weekly workshops in institutional or hospital settings. As consultants, they deliver strategic plans, texts, publications, illustrations, and videos. They collaborate with graphic design, landscape, urban planning, and architecture firms.
|
|
|
Inprint envisions Houston, Texas as a city where the literary arts are a defining resource. Thousands of Houstonians, recognizing the value and impact of the written word, join in Inprint programs to write, read, and support the literary arts. The community is enriched by some of the nation’s top emerging writers, who study at the University of Houston Creative Writing Program and teach at Inprint and various local community centers, schools, and universities.
|
|
The Writers' League of Texas (WLT) is the largest literary arts organization in Texas, a statewide nonprofit offering programs and services to writers at all stages of their writing careers, from just getting started to publication and beyond.
Founded in 1981, the organization’s mission is to provide a forum for information, support, and sharing among writers; to help writers improve their craft and understand the business of publishing; to promote the interests of writers from diverse cultural, economic, sexual identity and orientation, ethnic, and religious backgrounds; and to elevate the art and enterprise of writing, including supporting and growing the Texas literary community at large.
|
|
|
Two Sylvias Press is an independent press located in the Seattle area. We publish poetry, memoir, essays, books on the craft of writing, and creativity tools, such as The Poet Tarot, The Daily Poet, Everything is Writable, PR for Poets, Demystifying the Manuscript, and the bestselling resource for poets, The Weekly Muse.
|
|
|
* Collaboration Catalogs Available! *
|
|
We have another excellent collaboration on the books!
Each member who participated in the ENTANGLED Collaboration received a copy of the catalog containing all the artwork and literary pieces. Melody still has a limited supply of copies in her studio that you can purchase for $15.
In addition, you can also purchase additional copies of the REFLECTION catalog from the 2022 Collaboration for $5.
Stop by Studio 320 at Silver Street Studios to purchase additional copies of either catalog. Silver Street Studios is located in the Main Yard of Sawyer Yards. Call ahead at 713-851-0134 to ensure that she’ll be in the studio when you arrive.
|
|
|
Remember to check the WiVLA Calendar for exciting events, such as field trips, studio visits, workshops, and other fun activities.
|
|
|
|
Save the Date(s)
February 18th: Member Meeting. Check the WiVLA Calendar for details and updates.
April 5th: Reception for Melody Locke's exhibit, DREAMSCAPE: The Garden of Your Mind at the Jung Center from April 5 - May 15.
WILVA Exhibit: July 18th - August 31st, 2025, at Sabine. (Same place as the Entangled exhibition.) Theme will be announced soon!
|
|
|
Board Matching Game Results
How well did you do?
|
|
- Mildred Mills: Webmistress
- Melissa Chambers: Membership Director
- Marie Casamayor-Harvey: At-Large Director
- Liz Plaster: At-Large Director
- Brooke Summers-Perry: President
- Rebecca Chirak: Literary Art Co-Chair
- Susan Salter: Vice President
- Shirley Beyer: Visual Art Co-Chair
- Kathi Crawford: Secretary
- Melody Locke: Treasurer
- Jamie Frontiera: Publicity Director
- Gwendolyn Womack: Literary Art Co-Chair
- Elissa Davis: Programs Director
- Denise Bossarte: Newsletter Editor
- Deborah Ellington: Visual Art Co-Chair
- MJ Figuard: Historian
|
|
|
WiVLA Needs Your Expertise
|
|
Do you have special skills, talents or knowledge to share with other WiVLA members? Now is a good time to volunteer ~
- Serve on a committee
- Speak at a monthly meeting
- Lead a workshop.
- Be creative
Don't be shy. We have a lot to learn from each other.
|
|
|
We'd love to celebrate your good news. If you are interested in sharing, please send your items to newsletter@wivla.org. The deadline for inclusion in the next month's newsletter is the 20th. Thank you.
|
|
|
|
|
