LOCAL ARTISTS
The San Marcos Studio tour is the biggest art event in San Marcos, involving 87 stops this year and growing annually. The two-weekend event, that occurred the first and second weekend in April, was organized by MotherShip Studios and was a chance to see artists in their element, creating in their natural habitats — their studios.
Among the many stops, there were artists of all kinds — photographers, printmakers, potters and painters as well as many other mediums. There was a beautifully printed San Marcos Studio Tour 2025 book with a piece of work, a bio and an address for each artist to assist in planning a custom tour to suit one’s interests.
Emily Shigut makes her pieces using pen and watercolor; they are filled with black hard-lined, intricate patterns that resemble the rings in a very old tree contrasted by a soft wash of color that looks almost tie dyed. The forms appear mountainous in some ways and molecular in others but most certainly reflect shapes often seen in nature. For Shigut, the fun of art is more in the process itself than the final outcome, zoning out while listening to books on tape.
“The lines just really let me go some place,” Shigut said.
George McRedmond is an oil painter and video artist that, when painting, generally works with kitschy still-life collectors items in order to show how these mundane baubles can be cultivated by humans. McRedmond gravitates towards items made with glass or metal — such as a glass horse or chicken cake pan — to work to imitate the light that shines through/ on them as well as the conductive properties of the metal pieces. At this point, McRedmond is enjoying playing around and finding a style as a Texas State University English major and Studio Art minor.
“I would say currently, these [paintings] are just studies I’m doing to help build out and flesh out what I would want to explore conceptually in the future,” McRedmond said, while applying a new layer of oils to the painting of a glass horse. “Right now, I am still more concerned about the formal qualities of a work and my ability to execute paintings in a way that I personally like, which I’m very concerned with realism and representational art.”
Elijah Cuminato was working on a piece that spanned about half of the open garage wall and was a Frankenstein mashup of various canvasses and wood-worked materials that were all painted using a variety of different techniques and color schemes; the interlocking pieces featured feet, hands, arms and even a wolf ’s head.
“My whole thing is I like to juxtapose realism with graphic art and combine the two, see how the two can occupy a space together,” Cuminato said.
Rebekah Porter likes to use her time creating art as a chance for “explorative play.” She works in various mediums — illustration, needle felting, woodworking and welding, among others — that she combines to create interactive installation art.
“I make a lot of experiential interactive work,” Porter said. “Because, to me, you can go see a painting, you can see a drawing, and those are very valuable experiences. But when you can put yourself into the artwork — when you can interact with it and touch it and be a part of this weird creative energy — I think that’s very impactful.”
Mary Garibay is a former art teacher at Travis Elementary who grew up in a small town heavily populated by migrant workers in New Mexico, which she said is reflected in her work in addition to her love of the ocean. She makes intricate ceramic faces using a plethora of different shapes and textures that are glazed using mostly earthy tones with small pops of vibrant colors.
“I feel like my style is very New Mexican,” she said.
Karly Schlievert is a ceramic artist that makes both heads and full busts with long eyelashes and pouty lips that exude femininity and are “somewhat of self portrait work.” She noted that making small reflections of herself is never really the goal, but they all end up representing a small part of her regardless.
“I like to think that they’re like the more fabulous version of me or the more outspoken version of me as it relates to wanting to be your full self and wanting to go out looking however you’d like or dressing however you’d like but also being subconsciously aware of the male gaze and how you’re being perceived,” Schlievert said. “And then just doing it anyway.”
Jacqueline Overby, MotherShip Studios cofounder and director, pointed out the local art scene is filled with people that were born here or came from Austin and San Antonio as well as students, both past and present, of the university. She pointed to a lack of unity between what people refer to as the local art scene and the university art scene; She hopes the Studio Tour will be a good way to bridge that divide.
Porter agreed that the chance to merge two different artistic worlds is what makes the Studio Tour so special.
“It levels the playing field for everyone, and it shows you that we are all here — from students to local yokels, to newcomers who are just excited to have a place to show their art,” Porter said, adding that despite the divide, the San Marcos art scene is accessible. “Everyone is invited. Everyone’s welcome. We have places and institutions, from the Price Center to the Art League. You can get involved with Mothership. You can be involved in the studio tour. You can go to Texas State and see galleries. There’s endless amounts of people doing house shows; My first show here ten years ago was in someone’s house show, and there were people moshing next to my stuck-on taped photos on the wall. I’m like, ‘This is it!’”
Schlievert also discussed the push to become a more “interconnected” art scene as a whole.
“We have, in the past, been so separated,” Schlievert said. “Even just within the city of the older art generation and the newer art generation, but then between that and Texas State being part of the newer generation. I feel like we’re all coming together with events like the Studio Tour that are bridging the gaps there.”
While Shigut is newer to the San Marcos Art Scene, she called it “inviting” and said there’s always something going on and she always feels comfortable attending even when she doesn’t know many of the artists.
McRedmond pointed to the youthful nature of the art scene in San Marcos due to the large population of university students and said it is very much defined by do-it-yourself culture.
“People are really just trying to be artists in any way that they can,” McRedmond said. “Elijah recently put on a show with a bunch of other students in the back of a U-haul. And it was off the square at Sean Patrick’s, so it was next to a bar. And then they just pulled up these two U-hauls that had all of the paintings inside and lit it themselves, and then anyone could come in, grab a drink and then see these paintings.”
Cuminato agreed with McRedmond in that a lot of the art scene is based on a DIY model and credited MotherShip Studios as a fantastic “grassroots” resource for local artists.
“When events like this happen — a lot of it is artists coming together to support each other — it’s not so much about selling and making money,” Cuminato said. “I think a lot of the people in San Marcos, especially at Texas State, bounce off of each other and inspire each other.”
Garibay said, during the Studio Tour, she met a lot of people that she didn’t even know were artists and felt it was a reflection of the state of the scene.
“It’s really thriving,” she said.
See more photos and learn more about the studio tour and MotherShip Studios at mothershipstu diostx.com, and follow the studio on instagram: @mothershipstudios. smtx.
