Upon entering the Corinth Park warehouse just south of downtown Dallas on Saturday night, my first thought was, “Am I in Austin?”

My reason for being there was the after party for the Cedars Open Studios Tour, curated by Art&Seek guest blogger Sarah Jane Semrad (that’s her Giant Necklace above). Artists with studios on the tour all brought some of their recent work to share in the warehouse as a hundred or so folks mingled, sipped free drinks and took in the guitars ‘n’ laptops sounds of Denton’s Florene. It was a scene I’ve taken in many times in Austin — mellow, fun and a little mischievous all at once. And so it was with great excitement that I wandered around the warehouse, half the time looking at the art, half the time looking at the people.

Frankly, I didn’t know Dallas was capable of a scene like this. I figured Denton was your best bet for this sort of vibe. Does that mean I really need to get out more? You bet. And after Saturday night, I know one area of town — the Cedars — that was previously off my map that is decidedly on now.

If you missed it, then there’s no way that this photo of Scott and Nicole Horn’s High Five installation — a 40-foot-wide or so sprawling re-creation of the Central Expressway and LBJ interchange — will do it justice. But here it is anyway:

The other piece I kept returning to was Scott Horn’s Useless Pistol, a wire sculpture. This is the part where some very learned art writer would extrapolate the meaning of the piece and translate if for you.

All I will say is: man, it’s cool.