Call for Volunteers & Sponsors!!!

The Largest Mono-Print in Texas!!!

San Antonio artists Kim Bishop, Paul Karam, Luis Valderas will be printing a large scale 3-color mono print using 2 steamrollers and 360 feet of 5ft. wide paper. The subject of the print is creation myths–ancient, present and future. It will take 6 hours to print.

These pieces of the mono-print will then be exhibited at two different arts institutions in San Antonio, Texas (The Blue Star Contemporary Arts Center and The UTSA-Downtown Gallery).

Kim, Paul and Luis are doing this as an artist collaboration to create a large scale print for exhibition and to educate the community, about printmaking.

The Printing Event will happen:
On September 17th 2011
Blue Star Parking Lot
7:30 a.m to 3:30 p.m.

The Exhibits are Scheduled at:

November through December 2011

Blue Star Contemporary Arts Center-Gallery IV

February through April 2012

UTSA-Durango Gallery

If you are interested in hosting a selection of the Mono-Print:
email us so we can schedule

If you want to volunteer for the crew email us at:
valderas @ projectmasa.com
...so that we can coordinate with you.

If you want to be a sponsor-Here's the deal:

The Largest Mono-Print in Texas event is to be held September 17^th 2011 at the Blue Star Contemporary Art Center parking lot. The mono-print series has been selected for exhibition in the Gallery IV Space at the Blue Star Contemporary Arts Center scheduled to begin on November 2011 and at The UTSA Downtown Gallery in the spring of 2012. This project consists of three phases: Printing the series of 30 large-scale mono-prints (9’ x 5’) - it’s as long as a football field, The Exhibitions, and Educational Workshops at Blue Star Contemporary Art Center.

This printing event presents an opportunity for various elements of the San Antonio community (students, artists and institutions) to come together. In order to fund this project we are offering to sponsors a 9’x 5’ piece of the print series available for a pre-sale price of $880.

These sponsors will be recognized at the event and will own a piece of history. The piece is called Who Are We, Where Do We Come From, Where Are We Going and examines the idea of creation and transformation through the relationship of aesthetics, culture and mythology. Please feel free to call us with any questions that you may have. We look forward to working with you.

More Details Coming Soon...

Save the Date!!!

Be a part of the art that night!
Join us at 10pm that evening to participate in the group photo that we take of the installation. Save the date for the premier of the 3-D video collaboration between Paul Karam, Martin Rodriguez and Luis Valderas.

Volunteers Needed!!!
Do you want to help? We are looking for volunteers to pass out 10,000 FREE 3-D glasses to view the video that evening. Please contact us via email: valderas@projectmasa.com

Check it out...
Last year's Video at Luminaria

Steamroll Prints for Stonemetal Press 2009

Paul Karam and I were invited by StoneMetal Press to participate in their large scale printing event that was to happen in the Blue Star Complex parking lot.




We created a 2 color woodcut for this printing event.


This year Stone Metal Press rented a smaller steamroller. This made printing a lot much easier on that day.



For our 2 color print we needed extra help in order to ink up our extra plate. San Antonio artist, Kim Bishop, helped us with this problem. After having done a 2 color print like this we will have to plan for something new.
























These prints are now in exhibit in Denver, Colorado

Dia De Los Muertos 2009

November 2, 2009 was the premier of my Dia del los Muertos installation at Centro Cultural Aztlan. As co-lead artist, not only did I curate the exhibit and coordinate the event, I created a Dia de los Muertos Altar in memory of my father. I collaborated with my mother in this year's installation. Her contribution to the altar were 37 coronas(funeral wreaths) that she still makes and sells at her ceramics & flower shop in The Rio Grande Valley.
I began planing and working on this large scale altar in July of '09 after I had a small talk with my mother. I had been wanting to reveal a side of my father that represented how much we miss him and what reminds our family of his presence around us everyday. She was surprised that I suggested the use of the corona arrangement as part of the altar for my father, but it only made sense to me, since he was so closely involved in the business. My mother talks of how when they both started the business he told her that he wanted her to have something that would allow her to be survive financially without having to go get a job and work for a stranger.
I always felt that my father had a keen insight to the future and proof of this is that to this day my mother still has loyal neighborhood customers that prefer to buy coronas from her shop. Most of these costomers' families have lived in that neighborhood(La Paloma) for more than 50 years. Now her customers include the kids and grand kids of those people that my father knew. As with everything, however, time has changed things, families have died out, new families have moved in, the busness has transformed with the influx of cheap ready-made floral arrangements imported form Southeast Asia. This installation represented for me a way of also sharing my mother's craft as an artist to the San Antonio community. Check out last year's installation.

About Victoria Moctezuma Valderas-press release
Victoria Moctezuma Valderas has lived in The Rio Grande Valley region most of her life. She has been a florist and ceramist for over 30 years while at the same time raising a family of 4 kids. Together with her now deceased husband, Horacio Sanchez Valderas, she owned and operated a succesful flower/ceramic shop in McAllen, Texas-the family owned business was a means to the future. In the hey day of the shop operation her clients included the gift departments of major department stores like J.C. Penny, Dillards, and Jones & Jones at La Plaza Mall(the largest mall in McAllen back then).
It was a family business and everyone came together to work on every aspect of the business, including the mass production of coronas(funeral wreaths) for Mother's Day, Father's Day, and Dia de los Muertos. Everyone had a job in the process: the ribbon cutting, wax leaf making, the bow folding, and wreath tying and wrapping all were carefully organized as duties for every family member.
In the spirit of honoring of her deceased husband on Dia de los Muertos, she has collaborated with her son, Luis Valderas, to create an altar. One of the main iconic symbols used on this installation is the corona(funeral wreath). The brightly colored wreaths represent the respect, honor, hope, love and endearment that embody the spirit of Dia de los Muertos in our ever-changing Mexican-American cultura.

The Installation of the Altar
The installation of the altar was done on the evening before the event opening. November 1st, All Souls Day, is believed to be the day that all souls of the dead come back to visit. It is on that evening that the altar is set up and the ceremonial burning of Copal, the laying out of food and lighting of candles occurs in order to guide the loved one back to visit. For this task I counted on help from two of my friends and well known San Antonio artists-Kim Bishop and Martin Rodriguez.
The entire installation process was filmed and is in the process of being edited. I will post it as soon as it is available. It took about 7 hours to install the altar and the entire night I shared stories about my father and stories of the many adventures that he would tell us. He was truly with us that evening. I enjoyed sharing these stories with my close friends, but more importantly, I enjoyed their genuine amazement over hearing of my 94 year old father's life and adventures.
Finally, at the end of the night, as we were walking out of the gallery and were about to lock the door, an unexpected event happened. The tow topmost coronas on the installation gently fell. We all looked at each other and smiled noticing that we al had goosebumps. He didn't want us to leave yet... ,)

Suite # 2... Finally Out!!!

El Macuiltochtli Micro-Fund is a funding project.

“Rivers Tween The Earth and Sky” is the first body of work that will be released for the initial Micro Fund start up. It consists of a series of 11 Suites(groups) of original drawings (9 drawings per suite) that are being made available for purchase at $100 per framed(18" x 14") drawing.

• All signed original drawings, framed ready to hang, with letter of authenticity
• These pieces are foundational drawings for the next major body of work by artist Luis Valderas consisting of:
• Prints- woodcuts and serigraphs
• Paintings
• Low relief sculptures

El Macuiltochtli Micro-Fund

Update! Suite:  #1 is SOLD OUT!!! 

!!!Suite #2 Release Date 06.07.09!!!

El Macuiltochtli Micro-Fund is a funding project. 

“Rivers Tween The Earth and Sky”  is the first body of work that will be released for the initial Micro Fund start up. It consists of a series of 11 Suites(groups) of original drawings (9 drawings per suite) that are being made available for purchase at $100 per framed(18" x 14") drawing.

• All signed original drawings, framed ready to hang, with letter of authenticity
• These pieces are foundational drawings for the next major body of work by artist Luis Valderas consisting of:
• Prints- woodcuts and serigraphs
• Paintings
• Low relief sculptures

What is this for?

To fund various projects that Luis Valderas is producing in the Fall 2009 Exhibit Season, 100 original ready-framed drawings are being released to the public. The purchasers will be acknowledged on the soon to be released new micro-fund weblog as contributors to the specific public projects that are being produced Fall 2009 Exhibit Season. Internet updates on the blogspot will allow collectors and the general public to view the progress of El Macuiltochtli Micro-Fund.

About Luis Valderas

"Born and raised deep in the heart of the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, Luis Valderas is a prolific native son whose work frequently includes references to both modern and ancient cultural roots," said Arturo Almeida-Curator UTSA Art Collection. "In an ever-growing and evolving body of work, his contemporary narratives, inimitably expressed through a filter of Meso-American myth and iconography, chronicle the Chicano experience on the borderlands and beyond."

Collectors of Suite#1

• Nina Hassele
• Ray & Laura Gonzalez
• Deborah Livingston
• Karen Grimley

Major Collections and Publications featuring Luis Valderas

Public Collections

University of Texas-San Antonio- San Antonio, Texas

Arizona State University- Tempe, Arizona

International Museum of Art and Science- McAllen. Texas

Mexic-Arte Museum- Austin, Texas

Art Museum of South Texas- Corpus Christi, Texas

South Texas Blood and Tissue Center- San Antonio. Texas

Insituto For Latino Studies/Notre Dame- Notre Dame, Indiana

Publications

Chicano Art for Our Millennium: Collected Works from the Arizona State University Community-Bilingual Review Press

Triumph of Our Communities: Four Decades of Mexican American Art-Bilingual Review Press

Latin Cultural Center 2003 Inaugural Juried Exhibition of Dallas-Fort Worth Latino Artists Catalogue- City of Dallas Publication

Chicano Art Magazine- Project:M.A.S.A. #1

The Poet Magazine- Dia de Los Muertos

Aztlan:A Journal of Chicano Studies vol. 33, issue 1 spring 2008- UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center Press

 

3D video at Luminaria Night

The 3D video for the Luminaria evening is almost done!!! I hope to see everyone there...Saturday March 14th, 2009 from 6pm to 1am. 

This project is a collaboration between artists Paul Karam, Martin Rodriguez, and Luis Valderas.

We are organizing a mass 3D glass wearing Group Photo at 10pm in front of the video. 

Volunteers needed!!

Supplies are limited so show up promptly if you want to get a 3D glass and be in the group photo. We will be posting pix and video of the evening on this blog, so stay tuned...more updates coming soon.

PHOTO UPDATE ON LUMINARIA NIGHT...

The crowd that evening was phenomenal. 

The Luminaria footprint was twice as large as last years event. The conservative final count of people at the event that evening was was 175k, but I have a feeling that it may have been more if the weather had been a little better during the day-it drizzeled all morning long until about noon.

 

That made it all the more stressful, but worth it after seeing the way they were captivated by the 3D video. 

There were only 450 3D glasses used that evening and these glasses were released to the crowd at 10pm Luminaria night. San Antonio College art-student volunteers help us pass out the glasses at key points in the audience. At that time we began to collect photographs and video of the crowd that gathered round to view the 3D video. It was all very exciting to see happen. The audience was joined together in mass participation. 

The video loop ran a full 8 minutes and people seemed to watch all 8 minutes of the 3D video. People who were done watching the video began sharing the glasses throughout the night and more of the crowd was able to watch the 3D video.

We are currently working on the video wrap up of the installation day and the event night. Martin Rodriguez collected video the entire evening and we were able to accumulat a large amount of raw footage of the entire day. This video will be released in a future update where we will be posting additional photos and information.

At this point we would like to extend thanks and recognition to our sponsors without whom the entire project would not have been possible: MK1 Construction Services, Urban -15, MARAKGREEN, TPI,L.L.C. We would also like to thank the art student volunteers from San Antonio College that were organized by art student Megan Quinn.