“We started a couple of years ago,” says Jaqueline Overby about Mothership Studios, the San Marcos art space she co-founded with her friend Courtney Peterson. “and we have been slowly building out studios and, most recently, a gallery. We have this space we’re just trying to fill with artists and an art community.”
“Me and Jackie actually met in a shared art studio complex in Austin, so that’s kind of where our friendship started,” Peterson adds. “And we both agreed how important it is for an artist's career to have some kind of shared space that people can call home and be around other creatives.”
Since creating Mothership, Overby and Peterson have made it their mission to connect San Marcos artists to one another and to connect the people of San Marcos to their local artists. One of the big ways they’re working on both of those goals is with this weekend’s inaugural San Marcos Studio Tour.
“We have, over the past couple of months… been reaching out to the San Marcos community and trying to get as many artists involved as possible,” Overby says. And we have 64 plus artists involved right now. And that includes Eye of the Dog [Art Center] as well as the [Texas State] University galleries and the university building.So that was really exciting for us to get their involvement. I think they'll maybe be doing a couple of demos as well in the sculpture room.”
The tour will kick off with a reception at Mothership Studios on Friday, including an art show in the new gallery space, live music, and drinks donated by Thirsty Planet, Austin Beerworks, Still Austin whiskey, and Middleton Brewery.
“All of the artists got a chance to submit a piece to our group exhibition that we're having at Mothership Studios, and they will also be in the catalog that we will have at Mothership Studios and there will be a free map that will show everybody's information,” Overby says. That tour map will take you to warehouse spaces, established galleries, and a selection of home studios around the San Marcos/Martindale area.
“We definitely are not keeping it a secret that we did use a lot of inspiration from the Austin Studio Tour,” Peterson says. “They were a great guide for us. And [this tour is] definitely at a smaller scale because San Marcos is smaller. But it's almost to our benefit, you know, because you can… hit all the studios in one or two days.”
Overby and Peterson say that one of the goals of their studio and the tour is to help San Marcos’ local artist population connect with each other more. “That was one of our main draws to San Marcos, is that there are so many great artists,” Overby says. “And none of them know each other. It was very interesting. It’s nobody's fault – it's just how it is, you know?”
Because of that, when they started organizing the tour, Peterson and Overby weren’t sure how many artists they’d find who were willing and eager to participate.
“I actually was really concerned about getting enough people,” Overby says. “Originally, I was like, ok, I'll be surprised if we can get 15 or 30. And we have 64 people involved and it just really blew all of our expectations out of the water.”
“We did go on the search for them though,” Peterson adds. “We were like, finding those little pockets of artists that don't talk to people. Like, yeah, we found you.”
