Bexar County Line

Bexar County Line

Close to a decade ago, I was fresh in San Antonio, and I had a chance to have a professional exposition, like a gallery display, with my artwork up in a coffee shop, in what is now trendy South Town — but the coffee shop is long gone. The artwork, bits, and pieces are still around.

The show itself was a marginal success. My first — and probably last — attempt at doing an art that gets displayed on a wall someplace. Think I sold one or two pieces, but against the cost of printing, and mounting, the photos?

Besides, let’s be really honest, my media is digital ink, nothing else.

The photos were fun. I can honestly say that I’ve had artwork in a gallery in San Antonio.

What prompted my morning meandering, train-wreck of a thought process?

The question was about what was the scariest piece of writing I’ve done.

Writing the press releases then hitting “send” on them? Trying to promote my “artwork,” and there wasn’t much, if any, of an opening night gala.

Bexar County Line

Previously, I’ve pushed, pulled, and tweaked other promotional materials, and I did apply for some art grants because, what I’ve been told, that’s the way an artiste earns a livelihood in this current environment.

Yeah, none of that worked for me. Perhaps the project itself is too undefined. Perhaps the focus doesn’t match up with the defined goals of corporate sponsors. Maybe it is just a side-project, too, and that means I don’t have to have a reason for it to be there.

Bexar County Line

Digital photography has largely been subsumed by the giant sharing sites(1), video shorts are playing an increasingly important role of what’s available; although, for the way I work? I prefer to read text. I can gather granular information faster that way.

That just might be me.

The side project is a little less joyful these days, if only because there isn’t as much interesting material now that I don’t live downtown.

On a map, the East-West juggernaut, Interstate 10 starts in Houston, and runs through El Paso, and as a sidebar, usually a trivia item? LA is closer to El Paso than Houston. So they tell me.

North-South is Interstate 35, from Canada to Mexico. Maybe that’s where the last rush of frozen air was from, imported along that line. Hauled down here in some semi.

Thanks, Canada.

Finally, there’s the spur of a federal road, from the gleaming city by the bay, Interstate 37, stretches from Corpus Christi, to downtown San Antonio. The logo for the site is from that highway, and, that road, more than anything else was the original genesis of the site’s name. Part of where the idea originated. Mostly where it was from.

Bexar County Line

Those three great roads intersect in downtown San Antonio, makes a five-pointed structure, looking at the map. A lopsided star, of sorts, at least, that’s how I would see it. Right in the center?

Downtown San Antonio. The Alamo, &c.

That intersection, tight little square mile or two of weirdness where cultures run over each other, cross-breed, then infect, and affect, each other. It is the weirdest combination of elements, at once modern and ancient, all in their same breath.

Trying to write the original promo material for that showing, maybe a half-dozen years ago? Scariest writing I’ve ever done.

Bexar County Line

These days, it’s a catch-all spot for whatever images I still find interesting, alluring, or — personally — important. The guidelines changed, too.

It started out as a “cheap cameras only” website and, anymore, the last few years are primarily iPhone images, and while I had a rule about no “Photoshopping” the images, that’s changed, as I get to play with a few filters and crop — still, not much more than a few clicks. Face it, I’m lazy.

One rule, more like a guiding principle, remains: image must be from within the confines of Bexar County.

Bexar County Line

One image of the side of a cop car, or probably a sheriff’s vehicle(2) garnered some attention. Folks from other parts of the country don’t always realize that Bexar County has been a municipal district — for that long. Predates the current federal government.

So what’s the scariest thing to write?

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(1) What I heard? “If you don‘t ’gram it, it didn’t happen.” (Instagram)

(2) One image is here.