10.17.2007

DIY Factory in the news

DIY Factory in the CURRENT+210SA

In this week's CURRENT, is an article about the DIY Factory event this Saturday by Jennifer Herrera. Here is a link:

http://www.sacurrent.com/util/printready.asp?id=67580
DIY Factory promotes independent artists

By Jennifer Herrera

The ladies from Alamo City Craft Union and Alamo City Craft Mafia have brought the do-it-yourself mentality to a whole new level with the DIY Factory, an event spotlighting more than 40 vendors selling handmade items ranging from jewelry and ceramics, to accessories, original art, and more.

"It is your traditional crafts but it does have kind of a modern, alternative feel," says DIY Factory organizer Missy Ozuna, who is also head of the Alamo City Craft Union.

Acknowledging the fact that everyone likes a little something for free, Ozuna and the gang are giving away, to the first 75 people through the door, hand-sewn goody bags with vendor samples, stickers, magnets, and more. Also offered will be a Day of the Dead themed make-'n'-take table where guests can create their own Mexican sugar skulls. The DIY Factory will also feature a fashion show with emerging to established artists including works by Paris Ann, Agosto Cuellar, and Kate Colgan, to name a few.

The idea behind the event came to Ozuna while on a trip to Austin for last year's annual Stitch fashion show and guerilla craft bazaar. She was with her mother and two fellow Alamo City Craft Union members when the idea hit. "We were driving back thinking, 'We don't have anything like that in town — let's do it,'" says Ozuna. And in less than a year, the DIY Factory was born. "We're doing this as a community project with an emphasis on local artists."

Myriam Lanau, a member of the San Antonio Craft Mafia, jokes that they talked about organizing an event such as the DIY Factory within their group, but scheduled it four years down the road. Katherine Brown, president of SA's Craft Mafia added that when Missy and the Craft Union came to her, the Craft Mafia instantly offered their support and help.

The DIY Factory is being tagged as a "celebration of creativity that will bring together a diverse group of cutting-edge independent craftsters, artisans, designers, and musicians." Ozuna and her crew intend to hold the event every year but are sure to plan months ahead the next time around. "It's been a learning experience, definitely," says Ozuna. "Next year will go a lot smoother."

The 12-member DIY Factory organizing crew is visibly excited to be working on the event. They bring to the table a vast knowledge of the local craft scene and know exactly what their event has that others may lack.

"This is really a first of it's kind [in San Antonio]. I mean, we have Hecho a Mano and the Peace Market, but we don't have anything like this," says Ozuna. The difference with the DIY Factory is its focus on local independent artists, from the vendors to the seven bands lined up (ranging from free-form jazz to acoustic to Tejano-punk).

When it came to choosing the vendors, the crew was faced with quite a dilemma. Some 80 applicants entered and only half were chosen. Ozuna stressed that she wanted to maintain a balance in the work made available at the event, with a fair amount of each handmade item present. They received a lot of applications from vendors selling jewelry and had to cut more jewelry vendors than anyone else. "I don't think there was one applicant that we did not like their work, "says Brown. "There was not one person that submitted crap."

Their goals for the future of DIY Factory is to tap into the South Texas craft scenes, expand in size of venue space and vendors, and bring in the next generation of DIYers. Annele Spector, member of the organizing crew, said it best when describing the basis of the event present and future: "It's about being different, unique — having a voice." •
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And also in this week's 210SA, Jessica Belasco wrote a blip for the event:
http://www.210sa.com/content/view/3078/19/

Wednesday, 17 October 2007
If you're looking for a craft market selling afghans and paintings of the Alamo, you might want to head to a church fair in the Hill Country.
.
THE RUNDOWN WHAT: DIY Factory
WHEN: 5 p.m.-2 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 20. All ages until 10 p.m. After 10 p.m., you must be 18 or older; after midnight, you must be 21 or older
WHERE: The Venue, 800 Lexington Ave.
HOW MUCH: $5; free for kids younger than 10
INFO: thediyfactorysa.com

If you're looking for knit skulls, bottle-cap jewelry, beanies with devil's horns and handsewn bags, then the DIY Factory is your kind of event.

"This is kind of geared to a different crowd. These are handmade and traditional crafts but they have a modern twist on them," said Missy Ozuna, general organizer and member of the Alamo City Craft Union.

The group teamed up with the San Antonio Craft Mafia, the Alamo City Knitters Society and some other artists to hold an event similar to those in Austin and Dallas.

"There's nothing like this in San Antonio so far. We've gone to Austin; we've traveled out of town. There's a handmade revolution kind of sweeping across the country, and we're not seeing much of it in San Antonio," Ozuna said.

Most of the crafters range in age from 18 to the mid-30s.

Besides more than 40 vendors selling their wares (most items are priced at $20 or less), there will be a fashion show at 9 p.m. featuring handmade clothes. Music will be provided by Ledaswan, Psychics, ElectroChemists and five other bands.

Jessica Belasco 210SA Contributor

9.05.2007

210SA article on SACM member Myriam Lanau's exhibition


Wednesday, 05 September 2007

Courtesy photo
LEFT: ‘Hardbodies' by Myriam Lanau. Photo color casts, paper, thread on canvas. RIGHT: ‘What Was Is Still — Film Noir' by Courtenay Martin. Silver gelatin print.

For the upcoming exhibit “I got you(r) back,” Courtenay Martin and Myriam Lanau spent a year creating artworks in response to assignments they gave each other every two months.



WHO: Myriam Lanau,35

MEDIUM: Photography, mixed media

BEST KNOWN FOR: Photo collages using remnants of her old work, which are cast in bright, primary colors. Along with the strips of photographs, she glued and sewed maps and paint samples onto the canvas.

CURRENTLY: Some of the images for the composites displayed in “I got you(r) back” come from a homoerotic series of Lanau's called “Behind Closed Doors.” “You see little hints of the old stuff, body parts,” she said. Viewers “think they're seeing pretty pink pictures, and it's actually two guys tied up and kissing. And then they see what they want to see. They might not see a torso there. That's fine with me.”

BACKGROUND: Lanau studied at the Kansas City Art Institute and the now-defunct San Antonio Art Institute. She earned an associate's degree in advertising from San Antonio College and a BFA in photography from UTSA.

PAYING THE BILLS: She's an assistant to a real estate appraiser.




WHO: Courtenay Martin, 32

MEDIUM: Photography

BEST KNOWN FOR: Portraits of women disguised with wigs, accessories and props. Interestingly, it's the best way she's found to discover the subject's true nature. “I tell them, ‘Don't worry, it's not you,' and see what happens,” Martin said. Usually what happens is that the subjects relax and let their guard down, and Martin captures their “very private expressions” they don't usually show. A debilitating struggle with a thyroid illness also has heightened her interest in the human body. “When I'm shooting people, I'm much more aware of the frailties of the body,” she said. “The body itself is just much more precious to me. It's not only a gorgeous or interesting object, it's very personal.”

CURRENTLY: In “I got you(r) back,” Lanau's challenges to Martin tended to include references to film noir. Accordingly, Martin's large-scale black-and-white photographs feature models and herself dressed in personas from the 1940s-1960s, including a gun mole.

BACKGROUND: Martin earned her BA at Incarnate Word and her MFA in creative writing at the California Institute of the Arts

PAYING THE BILLS: She teaches creative writing at Palo Alto College.

CHECK THEM OUT: “I got you(r) back” opens with a reception from 7-10:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 8, and runs through September at Arbor Art House, 837 Arbor Place. Call (210) 416-8938 for an appointment.

Jessica Belasco 210SA contributor


8.15.2007

Upcoming events

Lots going on coming up in September and October.

Me and my collaboratoring guru Courtenay Martin
will be having an 'unoffical' Foto Septiembre exhibition.
I GOT YOU(R) BACK
will open on Saturday September 8th 7-10PM
at the Arbor Art House Gallery

On Saturday October 13th
I will be partaking in...
ArtPace's CHLAK IT UP chalk festival as a featured/invited artist.
It's an all ages event on the streets of downtown San Antonio from 10am-5pm

Of course Saturday October 20th is the big DIY FACTORY
which the SA Craft Mafia and the Alamo City Craft Union are hosting....
check out the website
at http://www.thediyfactorysa.com

..

7.03.2007

Linda Pace 1945-2007

As of late I have realized some good does come out of bad things, and that everything does happen for a reason. Little did I know what a small decision would do to the SA art scene as we know it today

OK on 7.2.1992, Linda Pace, the then chairman of the board at the San Antonio Art Institute, helped with a decision to drop the BFA program from the school, putting 80+ students out of money and a school. I actually lost my job (as I worked in admissions at the time), my room mate b/c Sally ended up going to Memphis College of Art, and the program I was part of. I liked SA, and I didn't want to move. Of course at the time there were a great many UPSET students to say the least...HOWEVER because of the demise of the program, (and the closing of the doors in 1993)....a foundation was formed in 1995 that transformed the SA art scene, big time.

Dan Goodard wrote this piece last night. I am reposting it from mysanantonio.com......... I personally think it's a bit coincidently syncronized that she passed on on the 15 year anniversary of the BFA program being dropped....

Artpace founder invited the world to San Antonio

Dan R. GoddardExpress-News

Artpace founder Linda Pace, who helped introduce San Antonio artists to the world and brought the world of contemporary art to San Antonio, died Monday.

Arguably the most most generous art patron in the city's history and a respected artist in her own right, Pace died from complications of breast cancer. She was 62.

An heir to the Pace Foods company founded by her late father, David Pace, she had been treated for cancer at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Last week, she returned to San Antonio and was under hospice care at her apartment on Camp Street.

Pace founded Artpace in 1995 in an old Hudson car dealership downtown on Main Avenue. It is now known as perhaps the country's premier international artist residency program. National, international and local artists are selected by well-known curators to create projects at Artpace three times a year.
Because of Artpace, acclaimed artists such as Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Isaac Julien and Christian Marclay have made new works in San Antonio, and local artists such as Franco Mondini-Ruiz, Jesse Amado and Dario Robleto, to name a few, have gained wider recognition.

Well-known Australian artist Tracey Moffatt, who was among the first residents at Artpace, called it the world's best contemporary artist residency program. "Linda Pace invited the world in, and we all came and are still coming," Moffatt said by e-mail. "Linda never bothered any of us artists as we worked; she would drift in and out and would occasionally peek in at us. We loved that she occasionally peeked in, and we loved that she had her own life and was busy with it. We loved as well that she loved art."

San Antonio artist Mondini-Ruiz said Artpace changed his life. "I don't know where I would have ended up, but I ended up being an artist that got to travel all over the world and have something to say about myself and San Antonio, and it's very much due to her and her efforts," he said.

Mondini-Ruiz said Artpace was a Linda Pace "masterpiece."

"She thought big, she dreamed big and she spent big, which is what this city needs," he said. "And it worked. It really worked. ...

"She gave a whole generation of artists a voice, a platform, credibility and, most important, exposure to the world bigger than just San Antonio.

In a 2005 interview, Pace said Artpace had been more successful than she ever dreamed. "Contemporary art can be controversial, and quite honestly, that's what makes it exciting," she said. "As a working artist, I have come to realize that art reveals itself as it develops in the artist's studio."

Riley Robinson, Artpace's studio manager, worked with Pace for almost 15 years.

"She was gracious and supportive," Robinson said. "She had a hands-off style, but she really enjoyed watching the artists work.

"Artpace has given local artists a lot of good exposure, and it's exposed them to national and international artists who might never have come to San Antonio otherwise. We're really going to miss her. She loved Artpace and how it worked, and I know she wanted it to be around for a long, long time."

Those close to the organization expect that to happen.

"Artpace is Linda and Linda is Artpace," said Jeanne Klein of Austin, head of the Artpace board. "All of us who loved Linda want to make sure that Artpace stays steady and continues to operate at a high level. Our duty will be to carry out her legacy.

"Linda has given us this mission and she has been very clear about what she wants Artpace to be. ... We are all so sad, but we know Linda wanted us to carry on."

Her legacy of art patronage will be continued through the Linda Pace Foundation, said Rick Moore, the foundation's president. "The tremendous charitable legacy of Linda Pace will live on through her private foundation, which will continue to encourage the creation, exhibition and dissemination of the work of notable contemporary artists," Moore said.

Another part of Pace's legacy is Chrispark, south of downtown, which she created as a tribute to her late son Chris Goldsbury.

Artpace artist Teresita Fernandez designed the jewel-like park — across from Pace's home on Camp Street — with meandering paths and colorful landscaping. "It's something growing, something living and forever, just like the imprint of somebody that you love," Pace said in a 2006 interview.

Chrispark will be the site of a memorial service for Pace at 11 a.m. Saturday.

Pace's father created the original Pace Picante Sauce in 1947.

After their divorce in 1976, her mother bought out the company. Linda Pace and her husband, Kit Goldsbury, acquired the company in 1985 for $14 million.

"Kit and I risked everything we had to buy the company," Pace said in a 2000 interview. "It was a scary time. We were spending big bucks and didn't know if it would pay off."

In 1991, as a result of their divorce settlement, Pace sold her 50 percent stake in Pace Foods to Goldsbury, who sold the company three years later to Campbell Soup Co. for $1.12 billion.

"Losing Linda is a tremendous loss for me and my family," Goldsbury said in a statement. "She was a wonderfully loving mother to both of our children and to our granddaughter, Ava. We will miss her very, very much."

In the past few years, Pace stepped back from Artpace to spend more time working on her own art. A mirrored igloo that she debuted in "Blue Star 21" in 2006 was featured in the 2007 "Texas Biennial" in Austin. After she learned that she had cancer, she continued to work in her studio and had a one-woman show at the Joan Grona Gallery in May that featured drawings based on her dreams.

A drawing of a necklace from that show has been purchased by the San Antonio Museum of Art and will be featured as part of the museum's re-installation of its contemporary art collection, which is scheduled to open Saturday.

But Pace is perhaps best known for her monochromatic mixed-media collages such as "Red Project" and "Green Peace," made up of stuffed animals, cheap souvenirs, advertising trinkets, plastic jewels and other solo-colored objects.

"I collect all kinds of things from the places I've been," she said in a 2005 interview. "I call it 'accumulation art.' I have bins full of stuff in my studio, each work sorted by color. I just like the look of things in monochrome. And I like to juxtapose quirky things. How you put the things together, composition, is the art of it."

San Antonio artist Kathy Vargas, an Artpace resident in 1997, said she related to Pace as a fellow artist.
"Everybody always wants to talk about everything she did for artists, and of course, that's huge," Vargas said. "And the fact that she brought a lot more contemporary art to San Antonio, and, of course, that's huge.
"But people tend to be embarrassed sometimes or — how would I put it? — shy about speaking about her as an artist, but I think one of the best ways I connected with her was as Linda Pace, the artist."

Vargas recalled a white piece by Pace from an exhibit at Joan Grona Gallery.
It "has all these funny little toys in it, and every now and then there would be a little skull. It amazed me that she could combine whimsy and sorrow the way she did, or whimsy and reality. And that makes for depth in work."

As an art lover, Pace followed in the footsteps of her mother, Margaret Pace Willson, a watercolor artist, a founder of the Southwest School of Art & Craft and a longtime board member at the San Antonio Museum of Art. Marion Oettinger Jr., Museum of Art director, said Linda Pace had given a painting or sculpture to the museum each year since the founding of Artpace in memory of her mother.

"She could have gone in a lot of different directions, she could have chose to do nothing, but she chose to do something that benefited the San Antonio art community in all kinds of ways," Oettinger said. "Artpace has a great reputation nationally and internationally, and everyone knows that it operates at a really high level. A lot of people were dedicated to her and what she did, and I think Artpace should have a long life beyond her."

Before Artpace, Pace served as chairman of the board of the San Antonio Art Institute, which had to close in 1993 after declaring bankruptcy. However, the institute's visiting artists program inspired Pace to create Artpace.

"I knew that what I liked about the school was the visiting-artists program," she said in an interview in 2000. "It was so important for the students to hear other voices and to see other work, and being with the artists was what I enjoyed most. I also knew that the art I was seeing in San Antonio was as good as much of what I saw in New York and Europe."

She studied sculpture with Bill FitzGibbons, who taught at the institute and is now director of the Blue Star Contemporary Art Center.
"This is a tremendous loss for our community," FitzGibbons said. "She had more impact on the city's contemporary art than any other single person. She was a treasure to the city, state and nation."

6.24.2007

DIY Factory

So the SACM has teamed up with the Alamo City Craft Union and we are gonna host a DIY/ Indie craft event in october...the Diy Factory

Check it out... here is the site:www.thediyfactorysa.com which is almost 100% complete.