It's not just a studio where art is created or a gallery for visitors to stroll through.
Downtown Bryan's new artBAC is a working artist studio.
An assortment of artwork hangs from the walls while artists carry out their craft. People pop in and out of the gallery to buy, observe and learn.
College Station native Sky Chevalier, 24, opened the studio in early June after six intense days of renovating the site off Main Street to be open in time for the city's First Friday event.
But let's be clear about this: Chevalier doesn't view her studio as a business.
She describes artBAC several ways: A power-house for artists. A cohesive cultural community. Art dialogue.
"The community is starving for the culture," said the petite, blonde, blue-eyed owner as she sat on a red couch inside the studio in a polka-dotted skirt.
Hundreds of pieces of paintings, sculptures, photographs, stencils and other works line the walls and floor surrounding studio space, couches and a corner designated as spot to take photos.
"Come here. Let's paint together," she said.
Inspiration
Chevalier said Bryan-College Station sometimes feels like a wasteland for artists, pushing many to Austin or Dallas. She should know: Her art has been featured at the Dallas Museum of Art, as well as elsewhere across Texas and Savannnah, Ga. She said she went on a trip a while back "to find my place in the world." Chevalier, who has a bachelor of fine arts in painting from the Savannah College of Art and Design, said she was inspired after visiting a friend in South Carolina who was working for a gallery. An idea was hatched.
"The further I got, the more I realized that this is my home. My family is here. The downtown Bryan community has really become my family," she said.
She moved back to the area and started asking around to see if there was an interest in a location that would allow artists to create and hang their work to sell. Chevalier said she wanted to create a place that the musicians, photographers, painters, sculptures and thinkers could come together and bounce ideas off one another, work and laugh together while growing as individuals and creative artists.
Creating at home often stifles inspiration and creativity, she said. Being surrounded by those who think "outside the box" helps an artist create things he or she might not have imagined or even improve, Chevalier said.
"If you're in a room full of people, and someone else is also painting, you feed off one another. It's contagious," she said.
Chevalier said she'd eventually like to start offering classes at artBAC as a way to educate inspiring artists and the community. She said they are doing a fashion show Sept. 23 and hope to find people interested in teaching things like how to make a stretch canvass, or mixing exact colors, as well as doing demonstrations and giving workshop lessons.
"I see this as becoming more powerful, more of a force to be reckoned with. It's kind of like exacting your recipe. You have it. You know it in your heart. It's just getting the mixture right," she said.
'Breathing it'
In the three months artBAC has been open, it's grown to 11 members who are donating funds, helping with clean up, sharing ideas for promotion of the gallery, offering to teach lessons and, of course, making and selling their art.
She said the studio allows the community to peek into the world of an artist and learn what it takes to create a masterpiece.
"It's not just paintings and drawings and things you've seen 80 million times," she said. "It's being art, being an artist, living and breathing it."
Chevalier said she hopes the collective is able to demonstrate that it's OK to be different.
"Growing up here, the only thing to do as a small adolescent was to go to a field and drink or do drugs or go to the movies and to the mall," she said. "There's absolutely no outlet. Here, you can come to the mall of your mind."
Members pay monthly fees that range in price based on whether they use wall space to hang art work or studio space to create their masterpieces.
Chevailer said she hopes to attract visitors interested in seeing the level of talent available in the community, while also offering support to local artists.
Making art may not be a way to pull in a lot of money, but Chevailer said she had no other option.
"The scary thing is when you realize you can't do anything else," she said.
Chevailer said they not only design their own pieces to sell, but customers can commission work from members through the studio.
"The beauty of it is it is what it is. It is what you make. It is what you allow it to be," she said about the definition of art.
Educating the community
Greta Watkins, who works at The Frame Gallery and is the vice chair of the Downtown Bryan Association, said over the last several years she's witnessed the art scene blossom.
"I'm excited about that," Watkins said. "I think art brings something special to our lives and it would really be a dull world without art in all of its forms."
Downtown is an exceptional place for that to happen, she said, describing the close community and layout of the area.
Watkins said it means a great deal to local artists to have the community support them.
"Supporting local art doesn't always mean buying a painting. It could mean coming out to hear a performance or being willing to stop and talk to them about their work. With their artwork, the artist are exposing themselves, showing their heart and soul on the wall."
artBAC isn't the only local art venue downtown.
Watkins said original art by many local residents, as well as local performances, can be seen at The Frame Gallery, 216 N. Bryan Ave.; Art 979 & The Village Café, 210 W. 26th St.; Revolution Cafe & Bar, 211 S. Main St.; Forsyth Center Galleries, 110 N. Main St.; Timeless Designs, 104 S Main St.; and Brazos Glassworks, 202B W. 26th St.
During First Fridays and Art Step events in downtown, many other local businesses help support local artists by displaying their work, she said.
Jerome Riddle, artBAC member and stencil artist, said his goal is to live off of the sale of his art this year instead of getting a 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. job.
"I've never been as poor as I am right now. But with other artists around you, it's a lot easier to justify that and keep going," he said, describing how it will force him to work harder and improve his pieces.
Riddle said he was considering moving to Austin; however, the Bryan scene is developing and he likes the idea of being a part of that, while helping nurture its growth.
His stencil art medium is spray paint and a more contemporary pop art.
"You can do the iconic stuff like Johnny Cash or basic musical or political figures, but also to take current events and twist them. Like with BP, you could have a BP logo dripping blood or oil. It's good to be current with art is my theory," he said.
Amanda Hughes, painter and artBAC member, said despite having only known the artBAC community for a short time, they've become family.
Hughes said she hopes the studio can help the community learn that "art is cool, and it's good."
She said she loves the idea of creating a piece of art inside the studio and then being able to turn around and hang the piece on the wall to sell.
"It's pretty incredible," said Hughes, who also works for Forsyth Center Galleries. "That's what sets us apart. It's messy. It's creative. It's beautiful and it's perfect."
If you go:
* artBAC
425 Main St., Downtown Bryan
http://artbac.com
bryanartistcollective@gmail.com
www.twitter.com/artBACers
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