Lights Above the City: Luminaria

San Antonio celebrated Luminaria this past Saturday night -- it's the annual free art free-for-all in the center of the city, taking up most of HemisFair Park with music, dance, visual arts installations and lots of illumination. The evening has its challenges and, inherent in the project, a sort of slap-dash feel to some of the offerings, but the 350,000 people who attended seemed pretty happy with the whole thing!

My favorite part of the evening is the lights, big theatrical gobos on many of the buildings, lit-up installations and illuminated window shows.  Here are a few photos from my iPad excursion:

 

Doerte Weber's Wonderful Weavings (recycled plastic bags).

Small Works for a Big Cause

One of the FEW events I donate art to:

The Preview Night is Thursday.

It’s the “Sweeeet 16” for the annual fundraiser auction, Small Scale Work For a Larger Cause (SSWLC), and SAY Sí is ready to celebrate! Festivities begin on Thursday, February 28, 2013 at the2nd Annual Youth Arts Education Advocacy Awards and Small Scale Preview, where patrons can mingle with the artists while enjoying live music, quenching libations and delectable cuisine.

The SSWLC Silent Auction and exhibit culminates on Friday, March 22, 2013, with live music and inspiring cuisine from some of San Antonio’s top chefs, including Chad Carey of the Monterey, Jason Dady of Tre Trattoria, Johnny Hernandez of La Gloria, Stefan Bowers of Feast and Steve McHugh, formerly of Lüke, opening his new restaurant soon at the Pearl.

Small Scale Private Preview & Awards Ceremony
Thursday, February 28 | 7:30 – 9:30 p.m.
$40 Presale | $50 at the door
A limited number of $80 Presale tickets are available to attend both the preview and final auction events, but please note that option ends 11 p.m. Wednesday, February 27, 2013.

FREE public preview [part of First Friday]
Friday, March 1, 2013 | 6 – 9 p.m.
Open for public viewing until Thursday, March, 21, 2013
Gallery Hours: Mon.-Thu. 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., Fri. & Sat. 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
“Buy it now” option ends 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 20

Friends Exhibit Coming Up

In the San Antonio area? Put this on your calendar:

It's in the Bag: in*ter*face

Mandala made by Austin artist Virginia Fleck from recycled plastic bags; this design (as well as several others) is also a free ecard you can send!

SDA (Surface Design Conference) is holding its conference here in San Antonio. Find out more here. 

I hope you are planning to come to the conference this June. The lineup of speakers and workshops is fabulous. My pre-workshop study tour to see embellished Fiesta gowns -- and a stop by SDA president Jane Dunewold's new studio -- is already filled! But lots of fun is still to be had.

Meanwhile, start making an upcycled bag to share, trade and make famous. The whole upcycling by artist world is a rich one, and you can join in with this little collective -- and social -- project.

IT'S IN THE BAG! from SDA President Jane Dunnewold  ..................................................................................................................................... WHAT IS SNAG-A-BAG? We're all very aware of waste in the studio. So I got the idea to take those bags we all have hanging around & up-cycle them to create re-purposed conference totes.  Cynics may say it's just a way to save SDA money. But my vision includes inviting you to exercise your talent while stimulating new contact between SDA members AND making every SDA dollar count - all at once. HOW? Bring an upcycled carry-all to in*ter*face conference & exchange it for a new one. The conference won't even have started and you'll feel good. Feel even better when you see your bag across a crowded room (Some Enchanted Evening?) & slide on over there to talk it up & introduce yourself as The Artist Who Made the Bag. I can hardly wait to see this happening in San Antonio! LOCAL BAG ACTION! We're already allover this in Texas. So why not PLAN A UPCYCLING EVENT for your local SDA friends & colleagues? Send an invite. Pool your supplies. Rev up the sewing machines. This could be even bigger than the conference! Spend a morning transforming some bags then bring/send them to San Antonio. Your creativity will boost our collective economy. Bags not snapped up by conference attendees will be sold on SDA website - with proceeds going to support member programs.

For some truely inspired plastic bag art (way past bags) take a look at the work of Virgina Fleck (photo above from her website). I'm hopeing it will inspire my attempts -- using bags collaged on bags!

From her website:

Since 2002, Virginia Fleck has been working exclusively with recycled plastic bags creating site specific, ecologically conscious art works that have been commissioned for several high profile, green building projects including the US Embassy in Rwanda, Whole Foods World Head Quarters in Austin TX, LeBonheur Children’s Hospital in Memphis TN and Dell Children’s Hospital in Austin TX -the first hospital in the world to attain LEED platinum certification. Fleck is a featured artist in the book, recently published by Random House:  Craft Activism: People, Ideas, and Projects from the New Community of Handmade and How You Can Join In.

 Fleck was born in New York City. She began making artwork in childhood and eventually studied at two art schools: Portland School of Art in Portland, Maine and at The School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts.  In 1990 Fleck moved to Austin, Texas where she continues her work as a visual artist.

And for more amazing art made from recycled materials, close to home at the Southwest School of Art in San Antonio see Anita Valencia's installation inspired by West Texas, completely from recycled stuff. The show closes on Sunday, so hurry, hurry. (By the way, for any of you complaining about your age out there, Anita is 80.)

This week is the final week you can see Anita Valencia's Sun She Rise, Sun She Set & You Ain't Seen Texas Yet; Justin Boyd's Days & Days; and Juan de Dios Mora's Laters! at the Southwest School of Art. The final day to see Mora's exhibition at the Ursuline Campus is Friday, Feb. 8. The gallery closes at 5pm. The final day to see Valencia and Boyd's exhibitions at the Navarro Campus is Sunday, Feb. 10. The galleries close at 4pm.

PS If you are not going to the conference, you can also recycle unwanted conference bags here:

http://www.bagstoriches.org/#!individual

PPS: VIrginia Fleck has an opening in South Austin tonight: