LIVE! at the Downtown San Angelo Art Walk

Starting from the corner of Twohig Ave. and Chadbourne Street, music is heard in the direction of Tarpley Music. There, Del Velasquez explained, members of the U.S. Air Force Band of the West were attracting an appreciative crowd of passers by with their playful renditions of popular Nashville country (see video). “They were passing through and asked if they can perform. I said, ‘Of course!’,” Velasquez said.

Velasquez, a former staffer for President George H.W. Bush had just returned from a birthday celebration for his former boss. I enjoyed paging through his Android, viewing all of the pictures of the team that won Desert Storm. And the picture of Velasquez with the former president was priceless.

Vending booths were arranged around the Tarpley Music parking lot selling everything from homemade crafts to nutritional supplements.

Across the street in the Cactus Hotel, the wine was flowing. In the lobby, Lori Jo Thomas provided enjoyable music. It was folksy music, like what you’d hear at the Chicken Farm. Her band featured an upright bass.

Upstairs around the lobby balcony, I spotted the first artists.

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Mickey Lanty is a photographer with a unique twist. He uses a 10-year-old, seven-megapixel Fuji camera to capture primarily wildlife around the Concho Valley.

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You’re getting old when you write about making retro art with a digital camera, but he is. Lanty’s latest works are photos of the baby buffalo and their mothers at the San Angelo State Park. How did you get so close without spooking them, I asked. “I just took them from the fence line,” Lanty explained. Does he use Adobe Photoshop to enhance his photos? “The only thing I use Photoshop for is to crop the photos as needed,” Lanty promised.

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At the corner, an Angelo State University chemistry professor was making bowties. Real bowties! Of every color and pattern. Rigel Rilling said that his bowtie business is his passion. “I made a few a couple years ago and the business just snowballed,” he said.

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In the far corner near the Crystal Ballroom, 84-year-old Betty Otis is displaying her landscapes. “Sometimes I like to throw in a little wildlife in them,” Otis explained. She was there with her husband, a retired U.S. Air Force veteran. This was her first art walk.

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Leaving the Cactus, I found another center of gravity of Thursday’s art walk at the lawn of the Concho Valley Winery. There, Crystal Goodman was exhibiting her oils of Miss Hattie’s restaurant. On canvas, it appears stately and sturdy. The building where the restaurant is today was actually a bank in yesteryear. The strong and sturdy features of the architecture of the building are accented in her painting.

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Next to her, Alejandro Castanon said that he has taken the plunge and is owner/operator of the Vino Dipinte Art Gallery fulltime now. He was commissioned by several clients in Houston and Dallas to create original art and he’s been busy with his passion—painting--ever since.  Castanon’s latest are his Wild Bill and Sitting Bull abstracts. The originals of the Wild Bill series are $500 each. More popular, Casanon said, are the prints, most of which go for less than $100 each.

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This is only a sampling of the many things to see during the monthly art walks in Downtown San Angelo. The events are programmed by Downtown San Angelo every third Thursday of the month. It’s guaranteed you’ll find something interesting to see and many interesting people with whom to have engaging conversations. Especially where there’s wine.