Honestly, what dog doesn’t like clean laundry, or a super warm down comforter? This week’s Dog on Monday is Jinxie. This spunky little mixed breed is spoiled with her clean laundry in all of her three houses across the South. “Jinx” denotes a popular superstition as a curse or bad luck. But it was no bad luck when this pup found two gorgeous women who took her into their family. Jinxie’s people are archeologist Tigger Schexnayder and Oscar nominated sound mixer Pud Cusack of Houston, Marfa, and New Orleans. This spunky little spitfire is only two years old and a more seasoned traveler than most people we know! Tray tables down and dog under the seat, we’re cleared for landing… Thanks to Tigger ...
Opening this weekend on Gallery Row in Houston is an exhibit called Little Boxes by artist Bob Briddick. I’ve known Bob for 25 years and did not realize that he did artwork until I ran into him at a cocktail party a year ago. Low and behold, all the years that I knew him he had been quietly perfecting his craft of collage. Apparently he has made hundreds of collages in his spare time, never really intending to show his efforts in the form of an exhibition. But since retiring from the decorative trade he has devoted more time to his secret passion. In his 40 years at various showrooms Bob worked with interior designers, architects, and artists purveying luxury ...
![Claude Monet The Thaw at Vetheuil [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](https://i0.wp.com/troysart.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Claude_Monet_-_The_thaw_at_Vetheuil.jpg?fit=1024%2C617&ssl=1)
Claude Monet said, “I have painted the Seine throughout my life, at every hour, at every season. I have never tired of it: for me the Seine is always new.” And the latest exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston (MFAH) is a testament to that lifelong obsession. Oscar-Claude Monet (1840-1926) was perhaps the most revolutionary artist of the 19th Century. He is one of the founders of the French Impressionist movement and was the most consistent practitioner of that artistic philosophy. His body of work based on the Seine is the repetition of plein-air scenes at not only times of the day but also many seasons in order to document the changing light. For those readers unfamiliar with the terminology, ...
I enjoy getting together with Sisterwoman (Julie Boggio) every week for dinner. Last week she was headed in from Memorial on a Friday night—we had plans to attend art openings and then have dinner. In the meantime I received a call from dear friend Shannon Schrader. He and Charles Leigh III were dining at La Colombe d’Or and requested that we join them. Located in the heart of Montrose, La Columbe d’Or occupies the historic Fondren mansion which was originally built in 1923—the Fondrens being the founders of Humble Oil, which with Standard Oil would become Exxon. On the first floor Restaurant CINQ indulges diners with European style cuisine in various settings from the formal main dining room to the ...
The Next Door Bar is a Montrose drinkery on the same block as Rudyard’s at 2020 Waugh in Houston—seems like it has been there forever. The bar serves up strong cheap drinks, Lone Star in a bottle, a rockin’ juke box, old fashioned video games, and plenty of people watching. I stopped in last week for a nightcap and to see the Halloween decorations—this is a neighborhood watering hole that tends to go all out at Halloween. I’ve been a patron for at least a decade. But Next Door isn’t only a hard core drinking bar; it is also, as the old moniker (The Next Door Gallery & Spirits) explained, an art gallery. And for me what can be better ...
This week’s Dog on Monday is Sydney, a frisky Australian Shepherd. Her people are the Jurgensen family from Pearland, Texas–Steve, Jenee’, John Michael, and little Jillian. Here Sydney is shown, ready for Halloween, wearing one of Jillian’s princess dresses, though she seems more interested in the tennis ball! According to Jenee’, Sydney is becoming more frisky as the cooler weather moves to Texas–look at her thick coat, I can imagine. But she’s afraid of the rain, she’ll try to jump into the bathtub or laundry basket when it starts to pour. But one of Sydney’s most endearing qualities is empathy; if you’re sad she’ll jump in your lap and lick the tears away. Thanks for the pic, Jenee’.
Well, I posted my new companion Delta Dawn (See TroysArt Dog on Monday, September 15, 2014), but today’s Dog on Monday is my former four-legged friend, Katie Scarlett, also an English Springer Spaniel. She was gorgeous, sweet, athletic, and extremely intelligent. She enjoyed travel (was great in the car until she ate the inside of my red Mercedes) and we went across the USA together (we did Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, and Utah), she liked to rollerblade, swim, camp out, climb mountains, and she always loved a party. But she was also quite the devil. In fact she was a window breaker and a door knob eater. She was happiest with me but when she wasn’t, then bar the door! She had ...
Today’s Dog on Monday is Gucci-poochie Garcia. This petite poodle enjoys splitting his time between homes in Houston and Galveston. Garcia’s people are Graham Gemoets and Robert Iris, the masterminds behind fabulous Butter & Co. Catering. The little lamb has been the subject of a couple original Troy Broussard pet portraits, one for each house … Butter & Company
One of the topics in a recent morning meeting was the implementation of the STURDY Act. So what is this new law that no one has every heard of? The Stop Tip-overs of Unstable Risky Dressers on Youth Act mandates new guidelines and restrictions on the furniture industry to prevent top heavy casegoods from killing people. Colleagues sat aghast that Congress has nothing better on which to be working but to screw over our livelyhoods. “This must be a knee-jerk reaction to the death of George Washington’s sister,” I commented. “She was killed while rooting around in a highboy for her husband’s secret letters.” The Stop Tip-overs of Unstable, Risky Dressers on Youth Act, or STURDY, was passed by Congress ...
