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Artist Michelle Barnes blends art and style

As head of the Community Artists' Collective, she is dedicated in helping empower the underserved

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Michelle Barnes, co-founder and executive director of the Community Artists' Collective, poses in front of the work by artist Ron Smith titled "Wildlife" while wearing one of her favorite garments.
Michelle Barnes, co-founder and executive director of the Community Artists' Collective, poses in front of the work by artist Ron Smith titled "Wildlife" while wearing one of her favorite garments.
Melissa Phillip/Staff

Michelle Barnes' vibrant blue coat reflects her deep love of textiles. She made it in the 1990s by manipulating corduroy into a pinwheel pattern, then accessorizing it with African kente cloth and cowry shells.

"I love fabrics and being able to create something that has meaning," says Barnes, co-founder and executive director of the Community Artists' Collective, a local nonprofit organization geared toward supporting African-American artists, especially women, children and families. "Art was a part of my upbringing. Creative making was what I experienced long before I went to school."

More Information

Community Artists' Collective Annual Luncheon

When: 11 a.m. Thursday

Where: Royal Sonesta Hotel, 2222 W. Loop S.

Details: Tickets are $150-$500, and tables are available. Visit thecollective.org.

As a child, her dad showed her how to make crafty things, like mosiac tabletops and wooden furniture, and her mother taught her to sew at age 6. "In our home, there was always a sewing machine," she says. "It was mystical to me. I wanted to know what it did, how to use it."

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By age 13, Barnes, 66, had earned awards for her sewing skills. A few years later, she took trade-dressmaking classes as a student at Jack Yates High School and participated in fashion shows.

Barnes didn't take her first structured art class until she attended the University of Houston. What she lacked in traditional training, she made up for with her innate sense of color and design. She also discovered she liked working with papier-mâché, fibers and other sculptural materials.

"The whole world opened to me then. I felt myself trying to meld my interest in art, fashion and textiles. There was a general (line of) thinking that there's a difference between crafts - making things for a purpose - and fine art - making things for intellectual enjoyment. I've been bucking that thinking all of my life."

Barnes eventually got a full-time job at Sharpstown High School and later at the Kinkaid School. She also volunteered teaching art at Shape Community Center for 30 years.

In 1983, Barnes started the Barnes-Blackman Galleries in collaboration with the Ensemble Theatre. It was considered a groundbreaking idea for the time since the gallery was in the lobby of the theater and provided a visual-arts experience for theatergoers.

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Four years later, she and fellow artist and college schoolmate Dr. Sarah Trotty started the Community Artists' Collective to fill a void as art programs were being taken out of schools in underserved Houston communities.

Today, the nearly 30-year-old nonprofit incorporates many art forms - pottery, woodworking, quilts, fashion and more - into its educational programming for both children and adults. The group also offers an exhibition program for emerging and midcareer artists.

On Thursday, it will hold its annual fundraising luncheon, with noted artist Kerry James Marshall as guest speaker.

"It's phenomenal that a small arts organization with a small budget can have an event like this attracting an international artist," says Barnes, who has been married 38 years to Barry Barnes, and has three children.

And as her organization has grown through the years, she still finds time to return her sewing roots.

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"I don't sew for people as I did in college. Some of my projects take years to complete because I'm not on any hard deadlines. It just for me," she says.

Home: Third Ward

Personal style: Creative casual

Must keep: A garment she made from African kente cloth. "It's a tribute to the ancestors who wove kente cloth and honors the skills of weavers."

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Favorite accessory: Shawls. "Houston can be so hot, and then you go into a building that's freezing. I always carry a shawl so I can wrap up easily."

Item she should toss but can't: Blue and white lace-up shoes from Neiman Marcus. "I can't wear them anymore, but I just can't get rid of them. They are like old friends."

Collectibles: Jewelry by local artisans. "I love supporting other artists and help bridging that divide between crafts and fine arts."

What's on your bedside table: Spring water, nail polish

Favorite smell: Egyptian musk

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Favorite vacation destination: Paris or a beach

Favorite word: Edify

Favorite dessert: Key lime pie at Royal Sonesta Galleria

Guilty pleasure: Work

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Joy Sewing is a news columnist for the Houston Chronicle, reporting and opining on issues including social justice, politics, race, education, health care and inequity. She can be reached at joy.sewing@houstonchronicle.com.

The Houston native is the author of "Ava and the Prince: The Adventures of Two Rescue Pups," a children's book about her own rescue boxer dogs. She also is the founder of Year Of Joy, a nonprofit organization that spreads joy to children from underserved communities. A former competitive ice skater, Sewing became Houston's first African American figure skating coach while in college. She currently serves as vice president of the Houston Association of Black Journalists and has been an adjunct journalism professor at the University of Houston.