Color:Story Literary:Visual::Words:Art

Color:Story 2021 opened on April 17, 2021 upstairs at Spring St. Studios in Sawyer Yards in Houston, TX. Houston’s Poet Laureate Outspoken Bean opened the art exhibition / poetry reading with “Don’t Save Me. (Superman)”. Videos: https://www.youtube.com/@colorstoryart

Poets:
Alan Balter [Northbrook, IL]
Amy M. Hale [Yavapai County, AZ]
Andy Ray [Houston, TX]
Ann Gladstone [Houston, TX]
Arthur O'Sullivan [Co. Galway, Ireland]
Benjamin D. Carson [Bridgewater, MA]
Brandon Dillon [Houston, TX]
Carey Link [Huntsville, AL]
Catherine Gentry [Houston, TX]
Ellen Margrete Grong [Follese, Norway]
Eloisa Perez Lozano [Houston, TX]
Iris Orpi [Chicago, IL]
J. T. Morse [Houston, TX]
Jake Anant Miller [West Chester Township, OH]
James Grogan [Houston, TX]
James Latimer [Minneapolis, MN]
Je'Ni Barrett [Los Angeles, CA]
Jeffrey Joe Nelson [Brooklyn, NY]
Katherine Center [Houston, TX]
Kelli Lage [Sheffield, IA]
Kristi Powers [Houston, TX]
Lara O'Connor [Perryville, MD]
Lisa Toth Salinas [Houston, TX]
Lizzie Ballager [Maidstone, Kent, UK]
Loretta Diane Walker [Odessa, TX]
Marie Luther [Nashville, TN]
Outspoken Bean [Houston, TX]
Philip Kienholz [Peterborough, Ontario, Canada]
Rachel Browne [Houston, TX]
Robert Walton [King City, CA]
Rosa Glenn Reilly [Houston, TX]
Sean Johnson [Houston, TX]
Tamra Plotnick [Brooklyn, NY]
Tom Squitieri [Bethesda, MD]

Artists:
Dana Caldera
DeAnn Christensen
Ellen Ray
Emily Dingmann
Gabriela Monterroso
Heidi Lowell
Jeanne Jones
Jen Lam Parmer
Jessica Phillips
John Hovig
Laura Tyagi
Leslie Gaworecki
Marlo Saucedo
Oluseyi Soyege
P. Blackwell
Pilar Uribe
Shawna Martin
Vivian Pastor
Yasmin Youssef

Color:Story 2021 opened on April 17, 2021 upstairs at Spring St. Studios in Sawyer Yards in Houston, TX. Houston’s Poet Laureate Outspoken Bean opened the art exhibition / poetry reading with “What The H Stands For”. Videos: https://www.youtube.com/@colorstoryart

Poets/Authors:
Adam Holt
Anjola Coker
Ayokunle Falomo
Brandon R Dillon
Catherine Gentry
Ellen Seaton
Grady Paris Johnson
Holly Lyn Walrath
J.S. Kapral
Jake Anant Miller
Kelli Hines
Lisa Levy
Lisa Toth Salinas
Outspoken Bean
Rachel Browne
Raie Crawford
Robin Reagler

As visual artists, both of us (Leslie and Marlo) use words in our work. We both also love books and appreciate creative writing - and in 2018, we thought, why not pull these two worlds together? Our world - fashioned by the creation of visual art pieces - and writers’ and poets’ worlds, their own methods of creation? We began working with writers and poets in 2019 and our work culminated in Color:Story 2019, an exhibition with a groundbreaking art opening/reading/poetry slam that drew a bigger crowd than that Houston gallery space had ever seen. We chose 17 Houston-area writers for that exhibit via submission process, and created collaborative and individual pieces to showcase and honor their work, 17 pieces for 17 individuals whose worlds we bridged with our own.
We opened Color:Story 2021 to national and international submissions. Nineteen Texas artists exhibited work featuring the words of 34 local, national, and international poets.
Our 2023 event was at The Silos at Sawyer Yards on April 8, 2023 featuring Texas artists and US poets - who flew in from Washington DC and both coasts to attend and read at this event.
We brought in Emily Dingmann as ColorStory Marketing Manager in 2024.
Our 2025 event, if funded, will be held in April, 2025 at The Silos at Sawyer Yards, featuring Houston-area artists and national poets. Email: colorstoryart@gmail.com

CO-FOUNDER

Leslie Gaworecki is a photographer turned abstract artist living and working in Houston, Texas. Her most recent work explores longing for place - places from the past, places called home, unseen places of the future. Mostly acrylic with some mixed media, Leslie's painting practice is driven by color and the surprises that happen when she releases expectation. Her work is collected internationally and has been displayed and purchased for public spaces. Leslie lives with her husband and four sons who inspire her mark-making and tendency toward whimsy.
Leslie and Marlo have been collaborating since 2017 as visual artists. Their most recent work is installed at Bush Intercontinental Airport Gate D5, a project commissioned by the Mayor's Office of Cultural Affairs on behalf of the Houston Airport System for Houston through the city's Civic Art Program.
See more of Leslie's work -
webpage
instagram

CO-FOUNDER

Marlo is interested as a visual artist in the internal and external: She presents a verbal “interior” in her work at a close distance, like stories we hold within ourselves, and a connected “exterior” form first seen from a distance. Her labor-intensive work is her meditation, influenced by journalism experience and love for the written word. She calls it visual art narrative® because it incorporates a narrative to tell a visual story. Marlo's introduction to art was in childhood scholarship classes at The Museum of Fine Arts Houston’s Glassell Jr. School. She left her hometown for a BA and an MBA in other cities before returning to a vibrant arts community here. Marlo's work is collected internationally and has been displayed and purchased for public spaces including all 8 Methodist Hospital locations.
Marlo and Leslie have been collaborating since 2017 as visual artists. Their most recent work is installed at Bush Intercontinental Airport Gate D5, a project commissioned by the Mayor's Office of Cultural Affairs on behalf of the Houston Airport System for Houston through the city's Civic Art Program.
See more of Marlo's work -
webpage
instagram

MARKETING MANAGER

My paintings are abstractions of personal narratives. I set out to create emotionally immersive painting passages taking the viewer on a visual journey through my compositions. One example is how I contrast large graphic elements with small, detailed collage sections which can be discovered and explored over time.

Collaged images and found objects ground the work and further a connection to nature, our shared source. The occasional literal references like a clock, building or face adds touch points of shared realities bonding us together through universal themes.

Emily Dingmann is a Houston, Texas based visual artist whose work has been exhibited in Box 13 Art Space, M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, Sawyer Yards, Momentum, Winter Street Gallery, the Yancey Richardson Gallery and more. Emily Dingmann’s work is in international private collections and public collections such as Ellison Heights and Regent Square in Houston, Texas. Dingmann has been featured in Glasstire, Essential’s Magazine and PaperCity Magazine and has participated in international art fairs including the Innsbruck Art Fair, Innsbruck Austria and the Matsudo Science & Arts Festival, Tokyo, Japan.

Emily Dingmann graduated from the School of Visual Arts in New York, NY with a BFA and was part of the Mentorship program with the Yancey Richardson Gallery, NY. Dingmann was an artist advisory council member of Sawyer Yards and the curator at Winter Street Studios. Dingmann was also the art director at Motel 45 Art Space in Houston. Emily Dingmann currently is a board member of BioBAT Art Space in Brooklyn, NY and has a studio at Box13 ArtSpace.