Thank you Michael Cordúa for transforming Mayor Annise Parker from merely head of the nation's fourth largest city into a top-selling artist. For it was his bid of $6,000 for the painting that Parker created with artist Hanh Tran that tallied highest at the celebrity art auction benefiting the Museum of Cultural Arts, Houston.
And then the generous restaurateur threw in another $4,000, bringing the total he paid for the painting of a Texas cactus to $10,000. In encouraging the bidding, the mayor confessed to being a "cactus nerd," who belongs to a cactus society and knows as many species as an expert.
The Queens of Creativity, a team of MOCAH artists, created a bejeweled bustier for the auction.
MOCAH took over Americas in the River Oaks Shopping Center for the night with hosts Lucia and Michael Cordúa delivering their signature hospitality while executive chef David Cordúa prepared a scrumptious buffet.
About the food: Just ask Houston Texan Connor Barwin, one of the celebrity artists. "This is delicious," he said digging into his plate of offerings from the buffet table.
Barwin paired with up-and-coming artist Grant Manier, whose painting sold for $4,000 to Susan and Bill Ellis. The Double Entendre series painting, a collaboration of artist Taft McWhorter and this scribe, sold for $5,100 to Aileen McCormick, CEO West Region Amerigroup.
The High-Tech Texan Michael Garfield worked with artist Allan Rodewald while Houston Magazine publisher Peter Remington teamed with Katarina Conrad. The Queens of Creativity, a team of MOCAH artists, created a bejeweled bustier for the auction. Proceeds were a boost to MOCAH's public art programs.
MOCAH founders Rhonda Radford-Adams and Reginald Adams and emcee Sonia Azad of Channel 13 KTRK headed the program for the Masquerade Ball for which some guests brought their own masks while others purchased those made by MOCAH artists.
In the crowd, we spotted Jared Lang and Maryam Afshari, Roseann Rogers and Dr. Aashish Shah, Karen and Mike Mayell, Todd Nunnally, Dan Rueda, Michelle and Steve Bohreer, Corbett Parker, Tammy Greene Dowe, Mandy Kao, Yolanda Green, Aisha Hayme and Morad Zekhnini.
Museum of Cultural Arts, Houston Masquerade Ball at Americas.
Wally Funk became a hometown hero in Grapevine. Facebook/Wally Funk's Space for Race 
Wally Funk in her '20s as a flight instructor. Facebook/Wally Funk's Space for Race 