University Star

Members of the San Marcos Arts Commission and local Art2Art group have banded together to sponsor the first of what organizers plan to be a monthly art market with food for sale by vendors at The Hitch: A Mobile Eatery. The event will take place from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday.

Charlotte Wattigny, San Marcos Convention and Visitor Bureau innovation manager, said the concept for Art UnHitched began last year during a commission meeting to discuss strategies for promoting the city’s art.

Appointed by the San Marcos City Council, the commission works to promote tourism and enrich area cultural heritage by advancing arts education and supporting local artists.

The commission meeting also led to the creation of Art2Art, a quarterly social group for artists.

“We realized most San Marcos artists didn’t know each other,” said Wattigny, one of the Art UnHitched organizers. “There’s not a place for artists to exhibit and sell work in town.”

Lisa Morris, recreation manager of the commission, said Art UnHitched coincides with National Arts and Humanities Month. To celebrate this holiday, Morris said the event will raise awareness for the arts and connect the community to local artists, as well as those who are in the field.

“It will allow the community to see what great artists we do have,” she said.

Art UnHitched will provide local artists, such as San Marcos resident Ronnie Borden, with the opportunity to display and sell their handmade merchandise in an effort to bolster the city’s art scene.

Ronnie Borden, a retired U.S. Postal Service employee, has been creating abstract art for about eight years. In 2007, he joined forces with Texas State alumnus Topher Sipes for an art show at Tantra Coffeehouse, where he sold his first piece. His multicolored paintings can now be seen on walls worldwide.

Ronnie Borden hoped to rekindle San Marcos’ creativity and love of art when Borden returned to San Marcos from Rhode Island last December.

He said about two months ago he and his wife Garrie Borden attended an Art2Art meeting at a local coffee shop and met Wattigny, who discussed with them the idea of a monthly art market.

Ronnie Borden said his wife came up with the event name, Art UnHitched.

After much deliberation and a chance drive past The Hitch, Wattigny said Art UnHitched has already proven to be a success with all 20 of the vendor spaces filled by artists.

“(Art UnHitched) is a place where people can go with artists selling real art,” Ronnie Borden said.