ART Magazine. San Antonio, Texas.
Last Friday, The Blend, marked the launching of RAW San Antonio’s monthly events in our city. RAW is an independent art organization that brings exposure to emerging artists with an online profile on their website and a spotlight at their nationwide showcases. Every month, RAW will host an event at the Backstage Live featuring a film screening, a musical performance, a fashion show, an art gallery, performance art and a featured hairstylist and makeup artist. These monthly shows occur simultaneously throughout RAW’s over sixty-five locations across the country and they all share the same title. The online profiles can be seen by people from all over the United States while some of them are selected for extra exposure on the website’s main page. These series of events create a wonderful community sense, but also a feeling of belonging to a bigger sphere by being part of something national.
Even though it the first show for RAW San Antonio, it was quite successful. Attendance was good, the quality of the art was decent overall, it was well-organized and promoted, and the atmosphere was fun and relaxed. The multifaceted elements of the show where successfully incorporated by presenting them on a schedule instead of having them happen on different places at the same time. There was poetry, fashion, film, art and music, and they all seemed to coexist well without seeming over-the-top. Even though the cocktail attire increased the events’ seriousness, the place and the industrial aspect of the display kept the show somewhat informal. Some art was hung on an aluminum fence while some other was displayed on a table keeping the craft fair feel but imposing formality by using a cocktail attire. It was a great and refreshing experience to go to an art show and see everyone (especially artists) wearing a formal outfit taking art more seriously. However, this formality failed to translate in the ambition of the artwork. There where some very talented artists on display, but there were mostly medium-scale representative works, several prints and drawings, and not many three-dimensional work. Nonetheless, The Blend offered a talented and wide range of disciplines that are not seen together often. Besides the need for some fine tuning and polishing, The Blend was a substantial event that opened new exposure and networking opportunities for emerging artists as well as a new dialogue between San Antonio and the country.
The artists for their next event, Solstice, have been announced, and it will also be a set of very talented local emerging artists, designers, filmmakers, and musicians. It will be very interesting to see how RAW evolves and what place in our community will it end up getting. We do not have many (if there is any at all) national arts organizations living in our city. We also do not have any concurrent events organized by an outside source, which will definitely open the scope for locals and outsiders. RAW gives our community the opportunity to partake on a bigger project increasing national exposure of the local independent artist.
Participating Artists:
Art: Rey Mundo, Rick Staggs, Tara Kelly, Madison Cowles, Isidro Olguin Jr., Raymonster, Samuel Morales, Contra’, mandude, Tara Hutch Jewelry, Natasha Nesmith
Film: Idabel, Sweetie2Sweetie
Fashion: Heather Fitzgerald, Heart & Sew Creations
Hair: Samuel Paniagua
Performing Art: Rooster, Travis S
Music: Deep in the Heart
Makeup: Shawn D. Jones
