VISUAL ARTS + MUSEUMS

Beginning February 26, Spacetaker’s ARC Gallery will be transformed into the brain of artist and neurologist JETheriot at the tender age of five. The Poo-tail Collection, a solo exhibition featuring multi-media works inspired by the childhood of JETheriot, will open with a public reception from 5 to 7 p.m. on Saturday, February 26. At 5:30 p.m., the artist (in cowboy costume) will offer a guided tour, explaining the stories behind the creation of his artwork from the perspective of a neurologist. The exhibit will remain on display through March 19 and is free and open to the public.

With the ARC Exhibition Series, Spacetaker seeks to provide Houston-based emerging and mid-career visual artists with an alternative space to show their work outside of a commercial gallery setting. Spacetaker staff and Artist Advisory Board members dedicate time and resources to mentoring each artist on exhibition preparation, marketing, press engagement, and patron cultivation, in effect equipping each artist with valuable skills for independent exhibition management. For information about Spacetaker’s exhibition proposal process, visit http://www.spacetaker.org/content/page/arc-exhibitions.
 
About The Poo-tail Collection:
Part art installation, part mind theatre, part magic show, part time travel, the exhibition will feature work in a variety of media: painting, photography, sculptures of paper and limestone, found audio, video, street art, latch hook, a carved wooden toy-box, and a spinning mermaid-popsicle machine which will be set in motion during the exhibition’s opening reception. The title of the exhibition – The Poo-tail Collection – refers to a horse the artist drew in 1979 when he was five years old:

“My grandmother gave me a sewing basket when I was very young. I was really into embroidery and she wanted to encourage that. Decades later, when I found the old sewing basket again, it was like discovering a time capsule. Inside the basket, beneath a typewritten short story I wrote in the fifth grade and folded panels of light blue satin onto which I had embroidered nursery rhyme characters was this crayon drawing of a horse on loose leaf paper. My mom had written in black crayon below the horse: Jude ’79.

When you look at the horse, you see why I named him Poo-tail. His parts are in the wrong places. He’s this really awkward horse, yet I love him because he’s drawn with such abandon. Children are able to channel that creative spirit so effortlessly. When we become adults, it is more of a struggle to return to that place. As an artist, I want to be guided by that spirit, that sense of adventure and pure play, so Poo-tail hangs on the wall in my studio and serves as my muse. He is the inspiration for this collection and this exhibition.”

“We all carry our childhood with us, even though it gets drowned out for the most part by the noises of adulthood. I am at my most creative when I can go back in time and tap into that sense of wonder. This collection is the fruit of that approach. When you walk into the installation, I want it to feel like you are stepping back in time with me to 1979.

It will be a total sensory experience – typewriters, paintings of typewriters, the sound of typewriters, static from an old radio, latch-hook pillows I designed, paper birds, the sound of birdsong, mobiles, photographs of mobiles, a record player playing, a listening booth, an old headless rocking horse I turned into a sculpture. I’m even going to have an instant camera for people to take photos of the exhibition and keep as souvenirs.”

During the Opening Reception on February 26th and also during the Winter Street Studios Second Saturday Open Studios event on March 12th, the artist will create new art with his mermaid-popsicle machine and read The Hide-and-Go-Seek Massacre – the short story he wrote in the fifth grade.

About the Artist:
JETheriot is an artist and neurologist in Houston, Texas. He is also a lecturer on topics in mind science and brain hygiene. He posts virtually his entire creative process on Facebook (www.facebook.com/jetheriot ) as it happens. The good stuff gets archived on his blog, “The Adventures of Poo-tail” (www.pootail.blogspot.com ).

About Spacetaker:
Spacetaker is a 501(c)3 professional organization and Artist Resource Center located in Houston’s First Ward whose mission it to provide artists and small non-profits access to economic development, continuing education, and networking opportunities to support their professional growth.