SWTJC rodeo voted top event in Southern Region

For the first time in school history, the Southwest Texas Junior College Rodeo has been voted the top rodeo in the Southern Region of the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association (NIRA).

Held annually in October for fifty years, the event is one of ten rodeos sanctioned each school year by the NIRA's Southern Region, one of twelve regions throughout the U.S.

Members of the SWTJC women's team, which finished third overall during the recently concluded the 2012-13 Southern Region rodeo season, along with county and college officials, gathered at the Garner Museum on Wednesday afternoon to mark the milestone.

"We've always prided ourselves in putting on a great rodeo and it is certainly nice to finally be recognized for our efforts," SWTJC rodeo coach Roy Angermiller said. "We share this recognition with all the individuals and businesses in town and across the region whose generous support has made it possible for us to keep college rodeo alive and well in Uvalde."
Angermiller and SWTJC President-Elect Hector Gonzales, Ph.D., offered special thanks to Uvalde County for allowing the event to find a new home at the Uvalde County Fairplex Arena.

"There is no doubt that being able to use the fantastic new facility the county recently built was a big reason we received this recognition," Angermiller said. "We can't thank Judge Mitchell and all his staff enough for their support of our rodeo. We hope this will be our home for many, many years to come."

In addition, president-elect Gonzales thanked the entire SWTJC staff for their work in securing the top rodeo award.

"Roy and his wife Pam deserve most of the credit, but everything we do at SWTJC is a team effort and the success of our rodeo is no different," Gonzales said. "I want to personally thank all the SWTJC staff for working together to put on the best rodeo in the Southern Region."

Del Rio art show will feature SWTJC instructor Abel Ortiz

SWTJC art instructor Abel Ortiz will be the solo exhibitor Friday, May 3, in an art show at the Adrian J. Falcon Gallery in Del Rio. The opening reception starts at 7:30 p.m. and the gallery will remain open until midnight.

 The show's title is "Chronicles from the Border", which consists mainly of new works made in the past four months mixed with a few older pieces.

What follows is the artist's statement on the show:
by Abel Ortiz
My work has consistently explored the Border culture I was raised in, both positive and negative aspects of the experience. "Chronicles from the Border", is continued exploration of the theme with a transition in mind. The transition to explore more "universal" ideas of what a border is and what it might mean to individuals or society, whether, cultural, physical, geo-political or psychological.
The exhibit is divided into two parts, the representational and the abstract. The representational imagery is focused on the continued exploration of what happens along the US-Mexican Border. I see myself as a witness to these events. Love, violence, the fusion and modification of language, music, the border patrol, myths and legends and other themes are addressed through much of this new body of work.
I visually document the fusion and culture clash that occurs along this border region, from Southern California to Southern Texas, through art. I have included a few older works to tie this new work to previous ideas. Some of the images are surrealistic with a hint of Pop Art, but this is a reflection of the Border itself, a surreal/pop world.

The second part of the exhibit focuses on the more "universal" idea of what "border" is. Borders divide spaces as they divide cultures and people, they divide emotions and ideas, ideals and time. Borders divide, but at the same time unite, they identify the parameters of an idea, a culture, a period in time. Borders can be fluid or static.

History if full of shifting borders; cultures fuse, change and are reinvented. I am now exploring these universal aspects of the idea of "border" through abstract imagery. As my abstraction has evolved, my ideas of borders between persons, ideas, emotions, places, things and psychological spaces have evolved as well.  Much of the abstract work is derived from the Dada idea of automatic drawing, later adopted by the Surrealist movement. I think that Surrealism with is exploration of dreams and the psychological is a fitting reference for such work, specifically the biomorphic works of Joan Miro.

The audience might experience the idea of a border between the two parts of the exhibit, the border between representation and abstraction. The viewer will walk through a border as they view the pieces of art. This idea of the border between abstraction and representation has always intrigued me and will be the catalyst for new works to come.