Westside Bike Ride con Murals, Friday July 17

San Anto Cultural Arts Offers "Westside Bike Ride con Murals"

Take a spin through the Westside and view some of San Anto’s community art work

Bring your ride and glide through the Westside with San Anto Cultural Arts (SACA) Co-founder Cruz Ortiz and Community Mural/Public Art Program Coordinator Ruth Buentello. Cruz and Ruth will conduct the tour through the back roads of the Westside’s museum of mural arts. San Anto Cultural Arts is rooted in the community and its murals tell rich narratives of cultura the Westside. Don’t miss the opportunity pick up some barrio art history and burn some calories at the same time. The mural bike tour will take you past 12 of SACA’s murals. Murals included in the tour will be Educación, a 1994 mural that became the vision and birth of the organization; La India (The Indian Woman), a mural about traditional curanderismo (Spanish for natural healing) with stained glass installations; and Lideres de La Comunidad (Spanish for Community Leaders), a vibrant tribute to Westside community leaders. Come be apart of our first mural bike tour.

Cyclists of all levels and abilities are welcomed to join this bike tour. The tour will cover approximately 3.5 miles and will be conducted at a moderate pace. Participants are strongly encouraged to bring and wear their helmet. Participants will be asked to sign a liability release.

Friday, July 17, 2009, 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

The tour will begin at San Anto Cultural Arts which is located at 1300 Chihuahua (78207). The tour cost is $10 per person payable by cash, check or credit card

This event is being held to increase awareness of the numerous artistic contributions made by SACA over the years to the city’s Westside, to promote physical activity within the Westside community, and to raise funds for the continuation of SACA’s mission to promote human and community development through community based arts.

For more information, please contact Community Mural /Public Art Program Coordinator Ruth Buentello at 210.226.7466 or via email at ruth@sananto.org.

Take five minutes to watch this powerpoint and save $$$ because you'll never want bottled water again!

If you've seen Chris Jordan's "Plastic Bottles" which depicts two million plastic beverage bottles, the number used in the US every five minutes and haven't yet stopped or reduced your consumption of bottled water, you might be persuaded by the fact filled powerpoint, Water-Disaster.pps.

You can download it from the NewsCorp Global Energy Initiative site.

Thanks to San Antonio Sustainable Living group member Melanie Wehmeyer of Mw Drywall LLC for passing this along.

Chris Jordan's "Running the Numbers" artistic depiction of our mass consumption continues

Chris Jordan of Seattle continues his "Running the Numbers" project to bring some sort of visual realization of our destructive consumption on the earth and our fellow citizens.

Chris visited San Antonio in July 2008. He gave a lecture at Municipal Auditorium and a number of his works were displayed at the central library and the Southwest School of Art and Craft.

But his work continues. Recent works include "Light Bulbs" which depicts 320,000 light bulbs a number equal to the number of kilowatt hours wasted every minute in the United States from inefficient residential electricity usage.

"Oil Barrels" depicts 28,000 42-gallon barrels, the amount of of oil consumed in the United States every two minutes (equal to the flow of a medium-sized river).

While "Packing Peanuts" shows 166,000 packing peanuts, equal to the number of overnight packages shipped by air in the U.S. every hour.

His other projects have included In Katrina's Wake: A portrait of an unnatural disaster, which resulted in a hardcover book published by Princeton Architectural Press and Intolerable Beauty in which he photographed the accumulated detritus of our mass consumption.