Darby Rose Hillman Does Speed

Not really, but sort of. Darby Rose, yet another good friend and co-worker at Uncommon Objects, recently took her first cross-state jaunt to Marfa, TX and came away with much more than she had anticipated. While seeing the sites in the West Texas mecca, Darby stumbled upon the studio of Julie Speed - one of Austin's most accomplished contemporary artists and one of my favorite artists working today. But Darby didn't just get to look around at a gallery of finished works. Ms. Speed was so kind as to let Darby photograph her working studio and her in-progress, unfinished works - warts and all. Quite the honor. So, below you will not see the pics Darby took, but instead a photo of the rolls she shot. 8 of them - to be developed and fawned over at the shop by all of us photography freaks and hopefully posted on Detour at a later date. I can't wait to see them.



And a little bit on Julie Speed (from Elizabeth Ferrer) if you don't know her work. It's crazy good.

"A fundamental aspect of Julie Speed's art is that each work gives rise to a multitude of questions. While gazing upon her exquisitely crafted pictures, we can only ponder the meanings behind Speed's inscrutable subjects and curious settings; she certainly won't tell us what they are. The artist has become accustomed to repeated questions about such things as her frequent depiction of "the third eye," the numerous clerics who take center stage in her compositions, and the vivid if idiosyncratic allusions to sex, violence, and psychic drama in her paintings. Speed conjures such strange settings and eccentric characters that it is impossible not to wonder where it all comes from. Are autobiographical elements at play? And, if so, has Speed's own life been so calamitous? Are the paintings based on dreams? Perhaps she makes them as a way of exorcising some especially surly demons..."

Perhaps...