Blinn College art instructor's work featured at Corpus Christi gallery

Jamie Speck uses everyday items to create works of art

January 7, 2021

Jamie Speck sees art everywhere.

A part-time art instructor for the Blinn College District since 2002, Speck turned everyday items like dryer sheets, beeswax, and can lids into pieces of art that are now on display in a prestigious Corpus Christi gallery.

Her “Hausfrau Collections: Routine, Ritual, and Magic” is being featured at K Space Contemporary’s Clower Gallery through Friday, Jan. 22. This is her first solo exhibit at K Space Contemporary, one of the most notable non-profit art organizations in the region.

Speck is an award-winning artist who lives in Rockport, Texas, and has a studio there. She often incorporates domestic-inspired items and techniques, calling them “autobiographical assemblages.”

“As a person who fills many roles – housewife, parent, artist – my work is suffused with everyday, monotonous routines,” she said. “I celebrate notions of domesticity by turning the ordinary into the fantastical and the routine into ritual.”

Speck used dryer sheets, thread, and faux pearl beads to create an elegant dress for the exhibit. Used tea bags, cotton string, wooden beads, gold leaf, hemp, and recycled paper pulp make up her “Used Teabags Dress with Necklace.”

Speck has won local, state, and national awards with her artwork. She received a $5,000 grant last year for her art reflecting life in Rockport.

Virtual programming of Speck’s exhibit is available at www.kspacecontemporary.org and on K Space Contemporary’s Facebook and Instagram pages.

Gallery hours are Wednesdays through Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. It is located at 623 N. Chaparral Street in Corpus Christi.