Catherine Couturier Gallery continues its blog series entitled Safe in the Studio. With each blog post, works will be highlighted and discounted 20% for one week following the post’s publishing date.
Last week, Catherine Couturier Gallery featured gallery artist Jeri Eisenberg and three works from the gallery’s collection. This week, the gallery is pleased to present the following post by gallery artist Molly Block:
My quarantine period started on March 13th (Friday the 13th), an easy date to remember. A day earlier, and a couple of days before that, I had volunteered at FotoFest which had put me in close contact with several dozen people who had just traveled to Houston from other parts of the U.S., Canada, and Europe. After that, since I had been around so many people, I decided to quarantine at home for 14 or so days, to ensure no COVID-19 symptoms appeared. Thankfully, during those two weeks, I developed no COVID symptoms and didn’t hear of anyone who had been with us at FotoFest getting affected by the coronavirus.
As the days passed (and March turned into April and then May and then June), as someone who has underlying health conditions that could put me at risk for more severe illness from COVID-19, I continued to stay home in Houston – and stay safe. Since I have been working from home for the past 10+ years with a mellow 15-year-old rescue cat as a co-worker and spare bedroom serving as studio/office, this staying home/working from home thing wasn’t really new.
But *not going anywhere*, except for brief outings in my car to pick up groceries that I ordered online, took a little while to get used to. (I must say I have become a BIG fan of ordering groceries online, then picking them up “curbside” at the store – what a great service.) It was during a couple of my grocery pick-up drives that I stopped to capture these two photos of Houston’s River Oaks Theatre and Heights Theater.
Even though many theaters and performing arts venues around the world are closed due to the pandemic, I appreciated seeing that someone at these two closed theaters used the marquee to convey a message of optimism, hope, and future.
However, my photography practice does involve traveling to find and document vintage signs and other roadside relics. I have not traveled anywhere since February, when I drove to Dallas for a family event. Pre-coronavirus pandemic, I had hoped to spend time this year making photos in parts of the midwestern U.S.; needless to say, those plans are on hold.
Among the good things that this stay-at-home/pandemic period has afforded me to do is sort through files of photos from previous years’ photo-making trips, including 2018 visits to Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and West Texas (El Paso and Marfa, in particular), and select a bunch of images to edit and print. Stay tuned for some of these images to be posted to the gallery’s website in the weeks to come.
I will end this post by encouraging you to check out the July issue of Texas Monthly for a story about ModTexas, a group of us Texans (and some non-Texans) who are connected via Instagram who have an interest in mid-century modern design. Among the story’s photos is one of mine of the Holiday Plaza Motel’s old neon sign in Bryan, Texas; the sign is a great example of Googie design – Space Age-influenced design that was meant to capture the attention of drivers and entice them to stop and patronize businesses. You can see it in the July print edition and online here.
To learn more about Molly Block and see more of her work, please visit her Artist Page.
The following pieces are available to purchase with a 20% discount for the next week. Molly Block's prints are inkjet prints on archival metallic photo paper and an edition of 25. Please note that the discount will no longer be applicable on orders made after Friday, July 10, 2020 at 11:59PM.
8 x 8 inches: $320 ($400)
12 x 12 inches: $480 ($600)
15 x 15 inches: $720 ($900)
26 x 26 inches: $1,200 ($1,500)
Texas Favorite, Study 2, Houston, TX, 2016
Heights Theater, Houston, TX, 2017
Tropicana in Tuscon, Tuscon, AZ, 2016
Vintage Neon Bowl, Study 2, Santa Fe Springs, CA, 2016
Neon Coffee Shop, San Antonio, TX, 2017
Holiday Plaza Motel, Bryan, TX, 2016
For purchases or further inquiries, please email us at
gallery@catherinecouturier.com.