Connections

Today was a great day of making connections for La Reunion! First up was a presentation to the Uptown/Oak Lawn MLS group. Realtors are always great fun to interact with because by nature they are all about people and all about selling the community. They had insightful and thoughtful commentary on the slide show, the presentation, and really 'got it'. Their questions were great and I made wonderful new acquaintances on behalf of La Reunion.

Next up, Catherine and I had lunch at Rick Brettell's house with Charissa Terranova - they are the leadership team behind Central Track - the residency being formed around the University of Texas at Dallas community. Great conversation + delicious lunch = open dialogue for the future. We are forming very different programs in Dallas and yet have an opportunity for natural collaborations as we both move forward.

After lunch, it was down to the La Reunion land to meet 60-some-odd University of Texas at Arlington architecture students. They are taking on MAKE SPACE FOR ART as a class project this semester. Wonderful, I say! The students were anxious to explore so after a few brief words - they were off! We look forward to some interesting entries in January 2008 from these students.

tree carving

Yesterday I met with a couple of local artists named Kevin Obregon and Brad Ford Smith who are going to spearhead the tree carving at the La Reunion TX land later this winter. That's where unhealthy and non-native trees have been tagged by Preservation Tree and approved by the City of Dallas for banding - a technique where the bark is hacked off one handswidth around the trunk of the tree, thus inhibiting growth and slowly killing the tree from the inside out. The dying tree becomes a feast for insects and birds and restores a more balanced ecosystem.

We trekked around a bit and talked about various artistic visions. The most final version we have will most likely be altered somewhat before we execute the idea in January, but I'm already really, really excited. It's going to take a couple of clean-up days in advance to get the site ready, but once artists are lined up and we pick a date - wow-oh-wow. you'll want to be there to check it out.