I hit town last night. And, good or bad, I’m back in the belly of the San Antonio art scene. The most pressing thing I need to get up to speed with is Noche de Recuerdos. It’s happening this Saturday. I’m looking at a list of 28 artists who’ve agreed to construct a floating, illuminated altar. Some of them we’ve not contacted in two or three weeks, so I’m a bit troubled that not al will come through. So, we are hoping some last minute folks will decide to make something and join the fun. So, if you’re reading this and think it might be fun to create something, do so. Come on and join us at the Casting Pool across from Woodlawn Lake Saturday afternoon. We will be there at noon. All art needs to be in place by 6pm, when the event begins. At 9pm we will begin removing the art from the water. Let’s hope nothing sinks!

I had planned on doing an altar in tribute to my father. The idea was to get a photo of him, heavily process the image with high contrast until it became basically a two-tone image. I would then send it to a balloon printing place and have them print the picture onto several largish balloons. I’d fill them with helium and attach about ten of them to objects floating in the water (loosely tied together to keep them from drifting too far apart) which would represent some of my father’s passions, such as books, revolvers, beer, coffee, cowboy attire, wrestling magazines, cheese enchiladas, country music, flying saucers, Marie Windsor, etc. But I soon realized I’d frittered my time away and was unable to get the balloons printed in time.

I’ve moved to plan “B.” I’m planting my video projector on the shore. I hope the loaner generator comes through. And I will project a silent film onto a screen which will be floating on the pond.

I was at the Guadalupe Lumber Company over on Zarzamora (the Mother Road here in San Antonio) where I picked up some supplies to construct my altar. I don’t know why it took me so long to finally make an appearance at this iconic San Antonio retailer. And so now I finally feel like a true San Antonian. I’m all stocked up with PVC pipe. I now need to cut it all down and fit the pieces together to make a rectangular frame. 8′ x 5′ x 2′. Then I’ll zip-tie the contraptions to six bicycle inner tubes (double-stacked) as my flotation platform. The frame will be fitted with four layers of hanging gauzy white material, each six inches from the other. The light from the projector will passthrough and hit all layers, giving the piece a sense of depth, while also increasing the level of illumination.

That’s all quite do-able. But I also have to come up with some images to project. I do have some clips I can use in a pinch. But I’d rather shoot some new material.

We’ll see how much time I have to do this.

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My day started out with a meeting of the Locos. Ramon, Deborah, and I met at the restaurant across a side street from the Woodlawn Lake casting pool. I should have made a note of what it’s called. Something like Camarco…. Not Camargo, that much I know. Anyway, they make a damn good chilaquiles plate.

As we were sitting there eating, jawing, drinking coffee, we got a call from one of the local morning TV shows. They wanted one of the Noche de Recuerdos artists to come on their show for a short interview Thursday morning. And so the three of us each lifted a cell phone and dialed who we thought would be a good representative artist. And when the dust settled, the one artist who answered the phone and wasn’t otherwise involved on Thursday morning was Suchil Coffman-Guerra. In retrospect, we all we’re quite pleased. She’s a wonderful artist and will do a great job promoting the event.

After our late breakfast we walked across the street to the casting pool. The water had dropped about three feet since our last visit. The parks department had been out and cleaned up the shoreline. We spoke with a man and his son who were fishing of the raised metal deck. They were quite familiar with the casting pool and they raved about the sizes of the resident turtles.

Here is Deborah looking serious.

And Ramon, unshaved. As an elder to the Tap Pilam tribe of the Coahuiltecan people, even he knows he’s looking fairly un-Indian with his beard.

And here’s a picture of the entrance to the park where we will be Saturday.

We’re going to see you all Saturday, right? Don’t let us come looking for you.