Bob and Amy Niederhauser opened up COSAS in 2000 after years of being avid collectors of art and fine hand-made crafts. Their philosophy as collectors is to get to know the artists and their work, go to their homes and studios, and meet their families. They now work with many of the Great Masters of Mexican Folk Art who regularly make custom pieces just for COSAS. For the Niederhauser’s the thrill is in finding new and exciting artisans and new techniques. Photographs and paintings have been added to the collections at COSAS. Artists include many of the known working artists and artisans from Mexico and Latin America today.

COSAS is the Spanish word for things, used as an endearing term in some parts of Mexico. The cosas found at COSAS are from master craftspersons and artists in Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, Ecuador and other interesting places that Bob and Amy have travelled and shopped. The store does not carry craft from sales representatives or mass wholesalers.

This year, as part of FOTOSEPTIEMBRE USA, COSAS features Los Ojos De Cosas, an assemblage of selected photographs from Bob and Amy’s travels. The images are of people they love, humorous situations, and the beauty of the places they have visited.

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For those who have not gotten wind of it yet, the City of Boerne in the Texas Hill Country is making a concerted all-out effort to become an art destination. Don’t get me wrong, the impressive number of artists and craftspersons residing in the area have worked on this for many years. But there is currently a coalescing of critical mass, political will and business support that is going to up the ante significantly.

Boerne’s Second Saturday Art Walks are a huge draw for regional visitors. The Boerne Convention and Visitor’s Bureau has seriously bought into the notion of developing a haven for the Creative Industry. And there is a solid base of interested, high-net-worth individuals and families residing in the Boerne area providing local sustainability. The best part is that the effort is driven by good business sense.

As an example: In June 2003, eight artists came together to form the Carriage House Gallery of Artists. They were a diverse group, representing several different media and styles, who decided to equally share the space, expenses and work load in the form of a limited liability company partnership. Surprisingly, this group of relative strangers have made it all work. Although only three of those original artists remain with the gallery, the model for eight artists working together and sharing expenses, along with exhibiting high quality, diverse artwork, still creates a unique artistic environment.

Two years ago, the gallery moved to its current location at 110 Rosewood near the center of downtown Boerne. There was painting to be done, construction of wall space, and track lighting installation. Imagine eight artists choosing a new wall color… It was an interesting and time-consuming challenge. The result, however, is that six years after its inception, the artist-owned Carriage House Gallery offers visitors an unusual opportunity to view exceptional fine art, and to converse one-on-one with the partner and guest artists. The current Carriage House Gallery partners are: Angie Carney, Linda Chalberg, Don Darst, Pamela Gardner, Bonnie Mann, Teri McReynolds, Doug Roper and Charles Schubert.

Angie Carney, along with Boerne photographer Beth Coyle, are featured in The Found Image, the Carriage House Gallery FOTOSEPTIEMBRE USA exhibit. In an effort to encourage emerging artists, the gallery has included the images of two young photographers, Sean Van Slycke and Tucker Muncy.

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Owned by artist Cindy Palmer, and located on the Eastern edge of the Tobin Hill neighborhood, just North of downtown San Antonio, High Wire Arts is a contemporary art gallery with a community-based focus emphasizing a broad spectrum of artistic expressions including film, performance art, and installations as well as traditional media. With an emerging artist-in-residence program, High Wire also offers national and international artists a venue for working on-site and showing their work. High Wire Arts is also a an eclectic performance space for original works in music, film, dance, and art installations, and a meeting place for for special interest group meetings or functions. High Wire offers free wireless internet and film projection facilities. Gourmet catered food services are also available.

Having just opened a few months ago, High Wire Arts is already a busy hub for artists and art enthusiasts who come out for the newly established Tobin Hill Arts Alliance Second Friday Art Walks.

The participation of High Wire Arts in FOTOSEPTIEMBRE USA was coordinated by photographer, photography instructor, friend and featured artist Rebecca Dietz, whose series of images Closer, is on display in High Wire Arts front gallery. Also in the front gallery is Beneath The Tropic Of Cancer, a series of images by designer-cum-photographer Warren Borror, a long-time friend of FOTSEPTIEMBRE USA. The rear gallery spaces of the High Wire Arts space showcase the group exhibit From Here To F-Stop 64, which includes images by Emily Blase, Eduardo Juarez, Jennifer Khoshbin, Philip Luna, Steve Lewis, Asenet Martinez, Leland Outz, Caroline Royall, Elva Salinas, and Kelly Shannon Fichter.

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Our long-time friends at River City Silver, Hank and Susan Auderer, in their unique down-home, aw-shucks manner, are proud to present Race Fans: Portraits From The Day of The Drag Race, a series of images by Austin photographer George Brainard. As Susan noted: Vintage cars and hot rods will be on display during the opening reception. Hot dogs, chips, moon pies, Lone Star beer and RC Cola will be served up to complete the race day feel. And that it did. Breaking our cardinal rule of not consuming any foodstuffs at opening receptions, we were so hungry we managed to splurge on BBQ sausage and Twinkies. Never had a regret. Though the sugar from the twinkies does permeate one’s teeth for a long time.

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It was eight years ago that Joseph Dial had his first FOTOSEPTIEMBRE USA exhibit, which consisted of not much more than a few photoshop-manipulated images he had recently made. Throughout the years we have witnessed Joseph’s progress, both in and out of FOTOSEPTIEMBRE USA. This year, we feel, he has finally come into his own, with a mature, well formulated body of work. The images in Sueños, his exhibit at AnArte Gallery, are lyrical abstractions of horses; a subject matter close to Joseph’s heart, coming as he does from a South Texas ranching family.

Ana Montoya has long been a fixture in the San Antonio gallery scene, having held court in multiple locations that have at one time or another defined her trajectory as an art dealer. Her current gallery space, at the Collection Shopping Center on Broadway and Sunset, is in our estimation, the most suitable space to-date. It is small and simple, which forces the viewer to focus on the work on display, and makes artists more aware of the consistency (or lack of) of their work.

Opening receptions at AnArte Gallery are always lively affairs, this one was no exception.

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The Carver Community Cultural Center is hosting the FOTOSEPTIEMBRE USA exhibit, So Much Art So Little Time, a survey of works Joan Frederick has produced in the last thirty years.

Joan says: I am pleased to be exhibiting new work at the Carver along with a retrospective of my career in the arts. My work has evolved into a predominately photo-based format, but I want people to see that I went to art school and I can draw and paint, but I just happen to now use photographs predominately in my work. It is exciting to have some of my best artwork in ONE space, so people can see what I have done. Since some are so large and unusual, they never sold, but now I am glad. I have also included some of the quirky things such as ceramics and glass that I have kept for myself alongside my latest projects, which include photo montage, mixed media and Photoshop images. I keep getting new ideas I want to include in the show, but there just isn’t enough time… (Hence the title of the show So Much Art, So Little Time.)

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