fort worth artists in the star-t

today's star-telegram included a nice surprise: a profile by photographer chris blay on three local artists -- his fellow photogs nick prendergast (also drummer for the theater fire) and loli kantor, and our fave painter jesse sierra hernandez. the online edition includes some pics that didn't make it to print, as well as audio interviews with the artists (chris provides commentary for jesse, who doesn't dig interviews).

while i'm thinking about it, here's the profile i wrote of jesse that didn't make the cut for the "hard rock cafe" thingy that ran in fw weekly a few weeks ago. (the idea was to include artifacts we'd wanna see in a fw-centric hard rock cafe.)

Jesse Sierra Hernandez's fedora: Jesse is his own creation -- a son of the north side who taught himself representational painting, whose work has graced some ephemeral spaces (the walls of the Wreck Room, the back wall of Tequila's) as well as galleries. Famous for his depictions of nudes and musicians (he was Sleeplab's original conguero), he's also done more challenging work -- his politically-themed 2003 "Cortez the Killer," for example, which combined Aztec and Iraq war imagery and was lost in transit from a show in San Antonio. Like many of the greats, though, his persona is as much a part of his art as the work itself, and Jesse's immaculate suits, cigars, and courtly demeanor make a statement that's as much about grace as it is about style.