KICKSTAND KICKSTART
Righteous art bikes run through Discovery Green
By Steven Thomson
Photos by James Black
March 23rd, 2010
Nicole Strine shares a personal connection to multiple sclerosis patients through her work at MRI Technologies. It's natural for this connection to translate into her art.
Strine's "I'm a Princess!" piece for ART BIKE 2010 includes rhinestones, feathers, mirror pieces, silicone, glitter and a tiara because "something sparkling and colorful makes me smile and is quite the opposite of the gray scale imaging I see daily."
Gray is out at Discovery Green for Art Bike 2010. So is anything that looks like an MRI exam or anything else to do with the regular medical intrusions that multiple sclerosis patients have to go through for that matter.
ART BIKE 2010 is an outdoor exhibition of more than 20 artistically reinterpreted bicycles presented by the National MS Society: Lone Star Chapter. It started this week and runs through April 25. A roster of Houston's A-list contemporary artists was drafted to create the exhibit — think Art Car Parade with a righteous reference to the MS 150 bike ride.
The group show gracing the Bill and Andrea White Promenade aims to raise awareness and communicate the Society's theme of "Keep Moving", a motivational message about the importance of multiple sclerosis patients to keep their eyes on the future, in which the as yet incurable diseases may be conquered.
On a heavy note, bike artist Nicola Parente's "Bloom Cell" was inspired by the need for alternative fuel, as well as a reference to the pivotal role stem cell research may play in MS research.
Many of the exhibition's artists were on hand at an unveiling to elucidate their visions. "Lonestar Flyers" was created by GONZO247 of art collective Aersol Warfare in tribute to a grassroots grafitti artists' MS 150 bike riding team. Explains the artist, "I tried to incorporate elements of graffiti into the entire body, from scraping fades, to the paint drips, to cut out pieces of a graffitied wall." GONZO247 hopes to honor his friends and family who suffer from MS through this enigmatic piece.
The exhibit strives to raise awareness of MS — every hour, one person is diagnosed with the unpredictable and often debilitating disease. This collection of compelling bicycles will try to enlighten Discovery Green visitors, and keep us all moving forward.
