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LOCAL ARTISTS
Community art exhibit brings excitement to City Hall
The heartbeat of any community is its art, and no entity understands that better than the city of San Marcos, which recently adorned City Hall’s walls with a rich display of local artwork. The exhibit will be up through the holidays, so one can feel free to check it out next time they stop in to renew a passport, request a public document or wait for a turn at public comment.
San Marcos City Manager Stephanie Reyes said the idea initially came from former Assistant City Manager Laurie Moyer who wanted to spruce up City Hall. She said the city also plans to bring public art into the new facility when it’s completed.
“As we go through the planning process for building a new City Hall, we are also looking at how we can incorporate public art into other projects within the community,” Reyes said. “It just [provides a] sense of place making and [provides an opportunity for] people being able to appreciate peoples’ creativity and creative energy throughout the community, [which] is really important. It also brings us together …to really embrace the arts — love the arts. I’m very thankful that we have this beautiful gallery this evening that we are celebrating.”
Moyer said it has meant a lot to her to be able to accomplish this project.
“I think it’s reflective of what arts — whether it’s visual arts or performing arts or all kinds of arts — can do in the community, because it sparks that desire for creativity,” Moyer said. “After working for the city for many years in a profession that’s typically not viewed as very creative, for me to then be over Destination Services with the arts was so fun and so exciting and opened my mind so much to all different things.”
Jaqueline Miller’s piece was a three-dimensional, multimedia piece that featured a woman with an ornate hat made of paper extending outward from the piece and a branch with a cardinal placed next to her, almost as if the bird was whispering to the woman. Miller said seeing a cardinal can have spiritual implications.
“My inspiration for this piece was a woman on the runway, however sensitive to the voices and the appearance of the ancestors. Because I hear that Cardinals represent ancestors that go on, and I see them frequently,” Miller said. “So that causes me to just be still and to really tune into the messages from my ancestors of what they might be saying and telling me and giving me direction.”
Miller loves to teach art as well, finding that healing comes with creation.
“I began to teach as an artist at a school during the after-school program, and just seeing the joy of the children as they were participating in the arts and allowing them to choose the supplies that they wanted, that was the most thrilling thing about it is that they got to choose what supplies they wanted to use, what colors they wanted and the projects they wanted to do as well,” Miller said. “Actually I’ve done a lot of research around trauma- informed care for the community, and art is the way that I found… to get that release, to have fun, to process in different kinds of ways and to really just release all of the trauma.”
Michelle Acosta has a striking handpainted skull in the exhibit that breathes life into the macabre. She is inspired by Oaxacan art, which is very colorful and incorporates puff paint that gives the pieces texture — similar to her creation. Though her piece, and many others she has created, incorporates dead materials, she sees it not as a celebration of death but a “celebration of life.”
Sid Nyman is a multimedia artist that uses metalsmithing techniques combined with plexiglass. The piece on display at the exhibit had a bright, cheerful and nostalgic quality as, like a series of works that Nyman plans to execute, is based upon a children’s book. The piece was attention grabbing with bright pops of color that would add visual interest to any space.
“The book [that it is based on] is called A Very Hungry Caterpillar. We got the book from a thrift store, and I was just so inspired by the colors of it,” Nyman said. “I wanted to translate that into an abstract piece. I want to do a whole series of kids books based on the same concept. I wanted the flowers to represent the foods in the book… so I wanted them to look like the fruits that the caterpillar is eating.”
Nyman is “open to new things” and plans to find new ways to incorporate metals and plexiglass in the future.
“I want to mesh the two mediums together,” Nyman said. “I have a pair of earrings that I’ve been doing that are tiny versions of my paintings. It’s a fun thing to play with.”
Marieta Hutchison is a local photographer that recently started her morning with a nice swim just after sunrise, trusted camera in tow, when in a moment of kismet, her exhibit photo was already perfectly set up; some sticks lay in the formation of the word “joy,” and there is no better word to describe a morning swim in the San Marcos river.
“I love wildlife and landscapes,” Hutchison said, adding that the constant changing of the local landscape leads to an endless supply of photo material. “I’ve written a children’s picture book [called Mermaids are Magical. You Can Be Too.] It’s in the library. … I’m a writer. I’ve also gotten several poems published in the When the River Speaks publication.”
All pieces in the exhibit are for sale, and San Marcos Arts Coordinator Trey Hatt said the city will not be taking any commissions. One can purchase a piece by calling the artists directly, and their contact information is on display adjacent to the work.
