Coffee Buffet Moves To METRO

At last, METRO installed Jesse Sifuentes' Second Seating coffee buffet and batik in their building lobby on Main Street. We talked about a move last fall when folks from METRO saw Second Seating. Seemed like a good idea as Jesse is one of their transit stop artists for the Harrisburg line. Good for folks to become familiar with his work and motifs. Good for public relations reasons. And good that the work won't simply be stored away in his garage for the summer. I'll have to take myself to METRO and see how it looks in the new digs.

Photos below are of Jesse moving the coffee buffet into the Second Seating space last September and then beginning to pack up the piece at the end of Second Seating last November after Art Crawl.

Second Seating Story in Houston Chronicle

The first story about 'Second Seating' appears in the East End/Third Ward Neighborhood section of today's Houston Chronicle. It's titled 'East End artist creating display in homage to area.' Interesting title, that. It's a decent story, though it certainly raises expectations about 'displaying' East End history and culture.
I'm happy to have the story and hope it generates those 300 coffee mugs that Jesse and I need for the 'coffee table.'

The Real Houston

'Seeing the East End for the first time again' is an old article written by Houston Business Journal's Bill Schadewald that really identifies some of the character of this oldest part of Houston. I remember reading the piece when it was originally published in 2000. Just came across it again when I Googled for East End coffee processing in an effort to get some up-to-date facts and figures on one of our neighborhood's major industries.
I like Schadewald's last sentence, "Economic conditions may ebb and flow, but the East End will always be one of the first places to go to find the real Houston."
That statement certainly contains one of the inspirations for 'Second Seating.' Too few people know where Houston's heart lives. Maybe a group of artists and East End businesses can change that lapse of knowledge. We're working on it.

Task: Gathering

It's been a very good few days for 'Second Seating.' The letters I sent and the phone calls I made two weeks ago are reaping return calls and appointments. As CK used to say, "We've moved the meter." Hurray for that. I am assembling more packets of information about 'Second Seating' and I'll get them in the mail before I fly to Seattle. I'm hoping that most of the recipients will be having a couple of quiet days between Christmas and New Year's, meaning that they just might take a good look inside those packets and be responsive when I call for a visit.


On Tuesday I drove over to the Valero Refinery on Manchester to look at scrap metal that they sell off or leave to rust away like these old flanges. Those flanges also look like skillets or chargers so they may make it on to a table.

I think we can use the nuts and bolts for a chandelier, albeit a very heavy chandelier. All of this stuff will be fun to show to the several other artists who will play parts in creating 'Second Seating.' In fact, after the holidays, I need to write more about each of them and what they will bring 'to the table(s).'

Made a visit to Maximus Coffee to discuss a 'coffee' table constructed with hundreds of mugs and vintage coffee percolators. Response was so positive that I'll begin work on that table in January. Right after New Year's, I'll pick up dozens of coffee cans from Maximus and Irma and I will take them down to Jose Solis in the valley. We'll be talking chandeliers.' Big chandeliers'

Trish has a collection of old percolators that may become part of an elaborate stacked centerpiece on the coffee mug table. I never really looked at old percolators before I photographed Trish's last Sunday. I have the feeling that I'll be haunting Value Village, The Guild Shop and garage sales in search of many, many more.


I have to say it's tough to write about these conversations and visits with East End businesses. They are all leading to something, but conversations are part of a gradual process during which folks become excited and eventually want to play a part in the whole. Writing about anything until there is a commitment is premature. Like a wine, relationships need time and the right conditions to blossom, reach fruition. Am I mixing metaphors here?

Mixed metaphor or not, I am making a decision right now to talk about funders and partners only AFTER they've signed up. For now, this blog will focus on the 'hows' of making the art. There will be more than enough to talk about.

By the way, my clothes dryer has been non-functioning for several weeks. Service man has been here and we thought it was fixed, but it isn't so I've waited another week for a second service call on Friday. You ask, why am I mentioning my clothes dryer? Well, I think the vent and all the insides were clogged with velvet lint from all the washing and drying of those mildewed and sodden brocades and velvets I salvaged from a garage flooded by Hurricane Ike. My dryer couldn't take it and succumbed. Expensive salvage job - is that a business expense of 'Second Seating'?