The "Washington Corridor"

Houston has a new Cultural Arts District. Well, not exactly new, but “re-designated.” Houston’s newest district, named the Washington Corridor, is comprised of Houston’s historical First Ward and the area surrounding it to the west, with Washington Avenue running through it like a spine. The geographical location encompasses the area bounded by I-45 on the east side, I-10 on the north side, Westcott to the west, and Buffalo Bayou to the south.

Though you may have heard little about the Washington Corridor, you might have heard much of the rumbling, revolving around the community petitions to designate part of the area as an officially recognized historical district, with long-time residents hoping to slow the progress of aggressive developers. In recent years, properties in the First Ward have been purchased for relatively low prices, and then bulldozed to accommodate newer developments with much larger price tags. The outcome of this historical district battle will not be decided by city council until later this summer.

Here’s just a taste of what the debate is about:
http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/video?id=9429748

Artists in residence at the area’s art studios, like Winter Street and Spring Street, have a vested interest in the revitalization of the area, but some question whether or not their opinions are actually being considered.

The Houston-Galveston Area Council, eager to get the implementation of a plan in place that pleases both current residents and future property developers asked the Asakura Robinson Company to spearhead a study to get at the heart of what’s at stake. The project, named the Washington Avenue Livable Centers Study was completed late last year, and the designation of the new arts district is just the first step towards setting the whole thing in motion.

In a resulting 250-page report (which can be found at http://videos.h-gac.com/CE/livablecenters/Washington-Avenue-Livable-Centers-Study.pdf ), the study identifies the need for poignant growth: “The Livable Centers program seeks to create walkable, mixed-use places that provide multi-modal transportation, improve environmental quality and promote economic development.”

The study sites 6 main purposes for redevelopment: 1. Provide more transportation choices; 2. Promote equitable, affordable housing; 3. Enhance economic competitiveness; 4. Support existing communities; 5. Coordinate and leverage federal policies and investment; and 6. Value communities and neighborhoods, which is defined as “enhancing the unique characteristics of all communities by investing in healthy, safe, and walkable neighborhoods—rural, urban, or suburban.”

If all this is news to you, you’re not alone. Few of the artists at Winter Street Studios knew anything about the project when I asked around during the studio’s bi-annual open house. Those who had heard something couldn’t articulate anything about it, only that its name “sounded familiar.” 

In fact the project has been using social media to spread the word since early 2012 with mixed results. It has a Facebook page (www.facebook.com/WashAveLivableCenters) with a whopping 183 followers. The last post was in September of last year—the actual announcement that the designation of Cultural Arts District had, in fact, been achieved (there are a couple of nifty videos to watch though, if you’d rather skip the 250-page report). There’s also a Wordpress blog which had a total of 18 posts from Jan. ’12 to Jan. ’13—drawing a total of 18 comments (5 from concerned citizens, 4 from volunteers, and 9 from employees of the afore mentioned Asakura Robinson Company). 

You can find the blog here: http://washave.wordpress.com/ .

Keep in mind that change is never swift in the South. The proposed "revitalization" of this area is actually a 30-year plan. Yet, designation now—whether it is cultural or historic—does make or break ongoing and future development of the area. And revitalization takes money…lots of money.

While concerns and fears run rampant, it is still too early to tell whose interests are more important to city council members. Should outside developers’ concerns weigh more than citizens with generations of vested interest at stake? And what will become of small-business owners who lack the capital to maintain properties along a roadway with high visibility?

Surely, Houston has the potential to launch its own Soho (New York City), Noho (Los Angeles), Mission District (San Francisco), or Wynwood (Miami), but at what cost? Who stays? Who goes?

*To learn more about Houston’s Washington Avenue Livable Centers Study, visit:

 www.asakurarobinson.net/portfolio-view/washington-avenue-livable-centers-study/

**The article that drew my attention to the whole discussion can be found here:
http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/print-edition/2013/06/07/washington-avenue-redux-ambitious.html

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99 Inspirational Artist Quotes

1. “I am seeking. I am striving. I am in it with all my heart.” Vincent van Gogh 
2. “Creativity takes courage.” Henri Matisse 
3. “If I could say it in words there would be no reason to paint.” Edward Hopper 
4. “They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.” Andy Warhol 
5. “Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” Pablo Picasso 
6. “Great art picks up where nature ends.”  Marc Chagall 
7. “The position of the artist is humble. He is essentially a channel.” Piet Mondrian 
8. “Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing.” Salvador Dali 
9. “The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.”  Francis Bacon 
10. Dr suess quotes“To create one’s own world takes courage.” Georgia O’Keeffe 
11. “The object of art is not to reproduce reality, but to create a reality of the same intensity.” Alberto Giacometti 
12. “The main thing is to be moved, to love, to hope, to tremble, to live.”  Auguste Rodin 
13. “It is important to express oneself...provided the feelings are real and are taken from you own experience.”  Berthe Morisot 
14. “To be an artist is to believe in life.” Henry Moore 
15. “Every good painter paints what he is.” Jackson Pollock 
16. “Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.” Edgar Degas 
17. “ In art, the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can imagine.” Ralph Waldo Emerson 
18. “Whether you succeed or not is irrelevant, there is no such thing.  Making your unknown known is the important thing.” Georgia O’Keeffe 
19. “What moves men of genius, or rather what inspires their work, is not new ideas, but their obsession with the idea that what has already been said is still not enough.” Eugene Delacroix 
20. “Art must be an expression of love or it is nothing.” Marc Chagall 
21. “Don't be an art critic, but paint, there lies salvation.” Paul Cezanne 
22. “Life obliges me to do something, so I paint.” Rene Magritte 
23. “If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing.” Marc Chagall 
24. “I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way--things I had no words for.” Georgia O'Keeffe 
25. “The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider’s web.” Pablo Picasso 
26. “A Good artist has less time than ideas.” Martin Kippenberger 
27. “Don’t think about making art, just get it done.  Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it.  While they are deciding, make even more art.” Andy Warhol 
28. “I never paint dreams or nightmares. I paint my own reality.” Frida Kahlo 
29. “I paint for myself. I don't know how to do anything else, anyway. Also I have to earn my living, and occupy myself.”  Francis Bacon 
30. “A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art.” Paul Cezanne 
31. “Have no fear of perfection, you'll never reach it.” Salvador Dali 
32. “The longer you look at an object, the more abstract it becomes, and, ironically, the more real.” Lucian Freud 
33. “There is no must in art because art is free.”  Wassily Kandinsky 
34. “Poor is the pupil who does not surpass his master.” Leonardo da Vinci 
35. “If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful at all.” Michelangelo 
36. “Color is my day-long obsession, joy and torment.” Claude Monet 
37. “Nature is not only all that is visible to the eye.. it also includes the inner pictures of the soul.”  Edvard Munch 
38. “Painting is a means of self-enlightenment.” John Olsen 
39. “I don't say everything, but I paint everything.” Pablo Picasso 
40.  Andy warhol quotes“The only time I feel alive is when I'm painting.” Vincent Van Gogh 
41. “The holy grail is to spend less time making the picture than it takes people to look at it.” Banksy 
42. “Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.” Twyla Tharp 
43. “An artist cannot fail; it is a success to be one.” Charles Horton Cooley 
44. "There's no retirement for an artist, it's your way of living so there's no end to it.” Henry Moore 
45. “One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself.” Leonardo da Vinci 
46. “An artist never really finishes his work; he merely abandons it.” Paul Valéry 
47. “The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward insignificance.” Aristotle 
48. “No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist.” Oscar Wilde 
49. “Painting is just another way of keeping a diary.” Pablo Picasso 
50. “Life beats down and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one.” Stella Adler 
51. “To send light into the darkness of men's hearts - such is the duty of the artist.”  Schumann 
52. “I want to touch people with my art. I want them to say 'he feels deeply, he feels tenderly.'” Vincent Van Gogh 
53. “Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.” Leonardo da Vinci 
54. “Art is a lie that makes us realize truth.” Pablo Picasso 
55. “I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free” Michelangelo 
56. “For me, painting is a way to forget life.  It is a cry in the night, a strangled laugh.” Georges Rouault
57. “Art is the stored honey of the human soul.” Theodore Dreiser 
58. “An artist is not paid for his labor but for his vision.” James McNeill Whistler 
59. “Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.” Vincent Van Gogh 
60. “Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.” Scott Adams 
61. Painting is easy when you don't know how, but very difficult when you do.” Edgar Degas 
62. “Inspiration does exist but it must find you working.” Pablo Picasso 
63. “The emotions are sometimes so strong that I work without knowing it. The strokes come like speech.” Vincent Van Gogh 
64. “The artist's world is limitless.  It can be found anywhere, far from where he lives or a few feet away.  It is always on his doorstep.” Paul Strand 
65. “It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.” Henry David Thoreau 
66. “Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.” Dr Suess 
67. “There are painters who transform the sun into a yellow spot, but there are others who, thanks to their art and intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun.” Pablo Picasso 
68. “It is not the language of painters but the language of nature which one should listen to, the feeling for the things themselves, for reality, is more important than the feeling for pictures.” Vincent Van Gogh 
69. “If a man devotes himself to art, much evil is avoided that happens otherwise if one is idle.”  Albrecht Durer 
70. “It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.” Pablo Picasso 
71. "I wish they would only take me as I am.” Vincent Van Gogh 
72. “Painting is the grandchild of nature. It is related to God.” Rembrandt 
73. “Art is never finished, only abandoned” Leonardo Da Vinci 
74. “To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it.” Kurt Vonnegut 
75. “It is a widely accepted notion among painters that it does not matter what one paints as long as it is well painted. This is the essence of academicism. There is no such thing as good painting about nothing.” Mark Rothko 
76. "Art, Undeniably, is conductive to happiness." unknown 
77. “Love always brings difficulties, that is true, but the good side of it is that it gives energy.” Vincent Van Gogh 
78. “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.” Pablo Picasso
79. "Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it.” Andy Warhol 
80. “The greater the artist, the greater the doubt. Perfect confidence is granted to the less talented as a consolation prize.” Robert Hughes 
81. "If you ask me what I came to do in this world, I, an artist, will answer you: I am here to live out loud.” Émile Zola 
82. “I dream of painting and then I paint my dream.” Vincent Van Gogh 
83. "The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless." Jean-Jacques Rousseau
84. "A painting is never finished - it simply stops in interesting places." Paul Gardner 
85. “A great artist is always before his time or behind it.” George Moore 
86. "As practice makes perfect, I cannot but make progress; each drawing one makes, each study one paints, is a step forward." Vincent van Gogh 
87. “Do not fear mistakes - there are none.” Miles David 
88. “A man paints with his brains and not with his hands.” Michelangelo 
89. "In our time there are many artists who do something because it is new; they see their value and their justification in this newness. They are deceiving themselves; novelty is seldom the essential. This has to do with one thing only; making a subject better from its intrinsic nature.” Henri de Toulouse Lautrec 
90. Total Freedom of Web Design! “You come to nature with all her theories, and she knocks them all flat.” Pierre Auguste Renoir 
91. “The emotions are sometimes so strong that I work without knowing it. The strokes come like speech.” Vincent Van Gogh 
92. "If I were called upon to define briefly the word Art, I should call it the reproduction of what the senses preceive in nature, seen through the veil of the soul." Paul Cezanne 
93. "If you always do what you always did - you'll always get what you always got." Unknown 
94. “Life is the art of drawing without an eraser.” - John W. Gardner 
95. “The object isn’t to make art, it’s to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable.” - Robert Henri 
96. “Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better.” - Andre Gide 
97. “I invent nothing, I rediscover.” Auguste Rodin 
98. “I would rather die of passion than of boredom.” Vincent van Gogh 
99. “Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures.” Henry Ward Beecher