Category: Art of San Antonio

Postcard from San Antonio, Texas: Reclaiming creek as urban asset

postcardsfromsanantonioLeave a comment

Above: “Restoration,” mural by Kathy and Lionel Sosa

Once upon a time, I logged a lot of hours at City Hall, sometimes parking on a surface lot behind it. Behind it meaning on the other side of an unrecognizable creek. An ugly footbridge, hemmed in by chained-link fencing, crossed a narrow trash-filled concrete-walled ditch – San Pedro Creek. A place creepy enough to leave me feeling I should pay an extra dollar or two to park in front of City Hall.

Above: 1889 photograph of San Pedro Springs, Austin History Center via Portal to Texas History

Development and insensitive flood-control projects had destroyed what had once been a healthy spring-fed creek.

Continue reading “Postcard from San Antonio, Texas: Reclaiming creek as urban asset” →

A pair of Marys’ distinctive impressions of city landmarks

postcardsfromsanantonioLeave a comment
bonner keating concepcion

Above, Mission Concepcion de la Purisma by Mary Bonner (left) and by Mary Aubrey Keating (right)

‘I had always dabbled a little in artistic things in a sort of boarding school fashion, but I had certainly never taken anything I had done very seriously.’

Mary Bonner (1887-1935) in a 1926 interview by Penelope Border in the San Antonio Express

Mary Bonner, well known etcher, in conjunction with her sister, Emma Jane, has a studio on Agarita Street. There, period furniture, rare objets d’art, first editions, and, of course best of all, etchings my be had. ‘Mary’ has won many medals and decorations from the French Government for her etchings. The Bonner place… is set in an ancient walled garden, hemmed in by giant cypress trees. In the garden there are many paths. One leads to Mary’s studio, another to an underground part of the Shop, known as the Caverns…. Beyond this, is the room for the gigantic etching press where the artist spends most of her time.

Mary Aubrey Keating (1894-1953) described her fellow artist in Keating’s 1935 guide, San Antonio: Interesting Places in San Antonio and Where to Find Them.
Continue reading “A pair of Marys’ distinctive impressions of city landmarks” →

Spectacular illumination projects city’s colorful history on San Fernando Cathedral

postcardsfromsanantonio2 Comments

These photographs from 2014 are not great, but reposting them to refresh a suggestion for an outing appropriate for these times – entertaining, outdoors and admission-free on a plaza large enough to allow ample room for spreading out.

The painterly projection of Xavier de Richemont‘s San Antonio Saga (click there for much better photographs) sweep masterfully across the façade of San Fernando Cathedral, founded by Canary Islanders in 1731. Accompanied by lively music, the massive kaleidoscopic collages mesmerize those on Main Plaza.

Continue reading “Spectacular illumination projects city’s colorful history on San Fernando Cathedral” →