Melissa Juvan was born in San Francisco in 1977, but was raised in Houston and graduated from the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in 1995 with a major in Visual Art. She spent one year of college at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan and ultimately graduated from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2002. She was represented by Poissant Gallery between 2001-2004 and was in Fotofest in 2002 and 2004. After moving back to Manhattan in 2005, she worked as head book buyer for an underground media chain and moved home to Houston in March of 2007. Melissa founded ArtStorm in October of 2007 and is currently working with alternative photographic processes as she strives to create her own reality in Houston.
Christopher Cascio was born in New Orleans, but raised in Houston. After graduating from HSPVA in 1995 he received a bachelor’s degree in painting/drawing from the San Francisco Art Institute. It turns out that degree isn’t worth much in “the real world.” The next four years Mr. Cascio spent in Los Angeles, working a variety of reality television jobs and making art and music as part of the collaborative team Uncomfortable Jams. Uncomfortable Jams was represented by New Image Art Gallery and played shows regularly in and around Los Angeles. Mr. Cascio returned to Houston in 2003 and eventually found employment as Marketing and Outreach Manager with Da Camera of Houston, a chamber music and jazz presenter located in the museum district. He is a working artist and performs in the new-new-new wave group Wicked Poseur. In addition to being on the Board of ArtStorm, Mr. Cascio is also the Director of Marketing.
Megan Whitenton was born and raised in Houston, where she graduated from HSPVA in 1997. She went on to San Francisco Art Institute for two years, and then moved to southern California to graduate with a BFA from Cal Arts in 2001. Megan has participated in and curated countless shows for independent gallery spaces and burgeoning art organizations in Houston and California, and also organizes visual art exhibitions for Café Brasil in Houston. She is the Public Relations Captain for Peel Gallery Shop, also in Houston, as well as serving on the installation advisory board for Houston’s annual Five-A Citywide Exhibition in 2008. Currently, she works in Communications and Marketing at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and is director of PR for ArtStorm.
Alicia Seale was born in Houston, Texas in 1977. She attended HSPVA and graduated in 1995. She went on to attend San Francisco Art Institute, School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and HCC visual arts programs. She is currently working as a video production assistant in Houston where she resides with her family. In an effort to curb her self-destructive behavior, she has founded the ArtStorm Glee Club - "Shimmying through reality, one extra curricular activity at a time...".
Kyle Reynerson has lived and worked in Houston Texas on and off since the mid-eighties. He currently works as technology director for a manufacturing firm and is the webmaster and Treasurer for ArtStorm. Kyle's daughter Anna Guerrero tirelessly supports ArtStorm in it's activities as it's first Advisory Board member. "We like to draw".
Monte Large
After high school at HSPVA, Monte attended Columbia University and Bard College, graduating from Bard in 2000 with a BA in art/architecture. From 2000 – 2004, Monte lived in New York City, designing window displays for H&M. Since his return to Houston in 2004, Monte has focused on city planning and the built environment. A real estate broker with Wulfe & Co., Monte’s current pursuit is to help further establish walk-able neighborhoods in Houston’s urban areas through preservation, adaptive reuse, and the creation of new mixed use retail corridors. In ArtStorm, he sees not only a way of bridging the past with the present, but also a way continuing to open a new dialog on fresh, innovative art that is often not seen in the city.
Eli Sebastian Brumbaugh was born and raised in Houston, where he
graduated from Stratford High School in 2004. He is currently working
on a degree in Business Administration and Marketing at the University
of Houston. Eli co-owns and operates a small insurance agency called
MorningStar Insurance in the Memorial area of Houston. He admires the
arts of this great city and feels it has so much more to offer if only
passionate individuals work together. To see that this city receives
the recognition it deserves from creating great works of art and that
the sea of talent waiting to be discovered here is tapped. Eli has
shown in and helped put together countless independent art shows here
in and outside of Houston. In his free time he paints, designs, works
in photography, and writes. Eli has a published book of poetry and is
currently working on a second to be released in fall of 2008. He loves
to collect books, movies, records, and old cameras. He has described
himself as having a "bad case of wanderlust" and loves to travel. Eli
believes in ArtStorm and sees it as a breath of fresh air for a
suffocated city.
Isela is a working artist and has shown at Café Brasil, Mecca, The Artist’s Collective, and Lawndale. She is the secretary and photographer for ArtStorm.
Advisory Board
Anna Guerrero (pronunciation: aw-nuh geh-re-row) was born in Houston and raised in Pearland. She came into this world knowing that it would be a long and crazy life. Anna is thirteen years old and is currently in seventh grade at Junior High West in Pearland. She is a member of Fly dance company and loves it so much (especially the hip-hop)! When she goes to college Anna plans to study a variety of biology subjects to prepare her for a job as a marine biologist. She enjoys the outdoors and loves playing video games. She especially likes vintage consoles that were made before her time like the NES that are fixed up by her geeky dad Kyle. Another one of Anna's hobbies is drawing japanese characters. Anna is proud to be the youngest member of the ArtStorm staff and thinks it is one of the best small art galleries in Houston.