Essay

Sala Diaz was the first space of its kind through which I came to recognize and appreciate the important duality of a house-space.

This week, San Antonio artist Juan Miguel Ramos talks about his 2002 public art project and exhibition at Sala Diaz.

I was worried about the bears. Had they been phased out in my short time away? Had my last essay been an unwitting elegy?

This week, San Antonio artist James Smolleck discusses how a 2012 show at Sala Diaz ignited a new spark in his work.

This week, Ethel Shipton finds that spilled paint is just another way to get there, and recalls the beginnings of friendship with Tracey Snelling, who writes about her summer 2003 experience at Sala Diaz.

This week Alejandro Diaz channels Aesop recalling the 1997 Jesse Amado show at Sala Diaz, while Jesse Amado takes us back to Madrid for ARCO 02.

These stories, and those that follow, paint a picture of an artist-run-space of humble beginnings — grass roots that will never harden into an institutional surface.

The works featured in this exhibition range from China and India to present day Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Cambodia, Korea, and Japan.

I am transfixed, and must immediately spend some time with these bears.

At this strange moment in history, Hills Snyder asks members of our creative community: What is at the top of your mind? What is in the bottom of your heart?

At this strange moment in history, Hills Snyder asks members of our creative community: What is at the top of your mind? What is in the bottom of your heart?

At this strange moment in history, Hills Snyder asks members of our creative community: What is at the top of your mind? What is in the bottom of your heart?

The Media Center at Rice University has shown thousands of movies to generations. On June 4, it screened its last movie ever. I was there.

At this strange moment in history, Hills Snyder asks members of our creative community: What is at the top of your mind? What is in the bottom of your heart?

"That is how I am an artist: it is teamwork and surrounding myself with artists and friends who support me." -Karla Garcia

Our memories of movies are inevitably tangled up in whatever else was going on in our lives when we saw them.

I am looking forward to a future where the stories that were lost will be exhumed and honored by all.

Neither the pandemic nor the other rattling events of 2020-21 slowed these students down or compromised the rigor of their work. It may be just the opposite, actually. 

In reviewing the pictures, now, I question the amount of chaotic energy my memory has ascribed to the cat.

It is not art, but I suspect it may be beautiful.