Black Tie Cowboy
Art in Uncommon Places presents
Black Tie Cowboy
Black Tie Cowboy is a 3 block art installation donated to the City of San Angelo by Art in Uncommon Places. The addition of sculptures, murals, vinyl mesh photos in windows, and seating is a welcomed site to our newly developed Chadbourne Streetscape. The theme Black Tie Cowboy represents the history of San Angelo’s tie to famous cowboys and cowgirls in multiple arenas of life. From the rodeo arena to the historical Downtown businesses that continue to make this city A True Western Town in Texas. As the Visual Arts Capitol of Texas, our downtown area needed assistance in reflecting that title. Our installation begins at Chadbourne by the river winding ramp across from Twisted Root Burger Co. and ends at the Corner of Beauregard.
The art path starts at the ramp on Chadbourne just across the bridge. The first sculpture, is at the top of the ramp, a glass and cement piece created by Joe Gorski. Gorski was a handyman for Art in Uncommon Places for many years before his passing in 2023. Next is a woman walking a dog. W3, a workcamp in West Texas, helped create the wire people that are found along this path and beyond as they are way finders for the city. On the hotel windows, we’ve included images of Billie McBride, William “Bill” Ward, and the Fat Stock Show entrance gate.
Downtown Strong San Angelo muscle arms, artist Zo Flores, celebrates our historical downtown in a fun slant on the sheep culture. Across the street, the Vintage Cowgirls welcome visitors on a vinyl print of a photo taken by Jim Bean of an old postcard. A little further down we honor our Texas designations as the True Western Town and Music Friendly City with black and white painted man and woman with mosaic outfits.
Central to the art are the main attraction, the Black Tie Cowboys. Artist Julie Raymond with fabricators Able Rodriguez and Neil Grigg collaborated to design these for the corners of Twohig and Chadbourne. Along the path you will find a black bench and 21 stools, 6 with a cactus and 15 black and white with flowers on top. These stools were all created by community members throughout the years.
The block between of Twohig and Beauregard, we added two murals and two sculptures. One of the murals, The Lens of San Angelo, was digitally created by Joni Abel located on the once Texas Optical building. The next mural, is by Ben Sum placed on the front of The Man Shop, an addition of white horses. Our kissing couple, also created by W3, is located diagonally from the Historic Fuentes restaurant.
Join us for our grand opening. We will be shutting down the three blocks of Chadbourne for San Angelo Gives day May 7, from 5PM-7PM. We will have live entertainment from the Concho Cowboys, Doug Whitaker gun slinging and trick roping, Patrick Bubenik spinning fire, and Thomas our cowboy statue. Local business along Chadbourne will offer some refreshments, and beautiful art available for all to walk around and enjoy.
