SAC Creativity on Display in District’s 80th Anniversary “Made by You” Exhibit

As the Alamo Colleges District celebrates its 80th anniversary, the exhibition “Made by You” highlights the creativity, stories, and lived experiences of the people who have shaped the institution across generations.

The exhibit features artwork created by employees, retirees, and alumni from across the district – offering a collective portrait of a community built not only by programs and policies, but by people.

Two San Antonio College faculty members – Richard Varner, director of the Scobee Education Center, and Ty Wilcox, professor of art – were among those selected to display their work, showcasing both the technical skill and personal inspiration behind their creative practices.

Presented by the district’s Arts, Culture, and Community Impact department, the exhibition reflects the artistic talent found throughout the Alamo Colleges community.

“This exhibit was a genuine labor of love,” said Dr. Eric Castillo, Associate Vice Chancellor of Arts, Culture, and Community Impact. “Our employees are wonderfully gifted, but we did not realize how many of them are artists. We’ve already been asked to do this show on a routine basis.”

The exhibit will remain on display through early May 2026.

Richard Varner: Science, History, and Artistic Legacy
Richard Varner contributed two pencil works that reflect both his scientific background and his deep appreciation for history.

One piece, “Queen’s Crown,” captures a striking view across the top of Mission San José, often referred to as the “Queen of the Missions.” Varner began sketching San Antonio’s historic missions during the city’s 2018 tricentennial celebration, when he joined the River Art Group in the historic La Villita district. His sketches and prints from that period were exhibited and sold locally, and the Made by You exhibit gave him the opportunity to create a new perspective on the landmark.

His second piece, “Apollo: Real and Imagined,” merges art with space exploration. The drawing overlays a pencil sketch onto an original NASA Lunar Orbiter IV negative, an image captured in 1967 to help plan the Apollo landing sites. Varner received the duplicate negatives while working as an educator at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, where materials from the archive were shared with educators for lunar and meteorite training programs. He continued to use the negatives in educator workshops at the Scobee Education Center for years.

Although Varner’s career has focused on science education, drawing has long been part of his life. He recalls illustrating his science notebooks in college and often sketching structures and animals from photographs. His artistic inclination also traces back to family history – his grandfather, a German immigrant and master craftsman, held patents for inventions and designed an early hardwood “chair desk” used at Yale University.

Varner sees his work as a quiet tribute to that legacy.

“I’d like to think my creations honor my grandfather and the many talents he shared with students and innovators of his time,” he said.

Ty Wilcox: Exploring the Meaning Behind the Summit
While Varner approaches art as a longtime personal practice, Ty Wilcox, who has taught at San Antonio College since 2007, brings decades of professional artistic experience to the exhibit.

Wilcox submitted works from his ongoing “In Sight of Glory and Death Series,” a body of work he has developed for more than a decade. At first glance, the pieces appear to be paintings, but they are fine art screen prints created through an intensive printmaking process.

Each color in a print is drawn and printed as a separate layer – often requiring a sheet of paper to pass through a printing press six to eight times to build the final image. Some of Wilcox’s larger works contain dozens of layers, and even his medium-sized prints can take one to three months to complete.

“It’s all handmade,” Wilcox explained. “Every layer is individually drawn and printed to build the image.”

The In Sight of Glory and Death Series” reflects Wilcox’s passion for the outdoors and his fascination with the psychology of exploration. Inspired during a visit to Mount Rainier in Washington state, he began creating prints of dramatic mountain landscapes – many of them among the most dangerous peaks in the world.

The works capture a tension between beauty and risk.

“These mountains are visually majestic,” Wilcox said. “But many of them also have difficult histories – people are drawn to them even knowing the danger.”

His prints often feature metallic inks that shimmer under gallery lighting, evoking the reflective qualities of snow and ice on high-altitude peaks.

For Wilcox, the motivation to create art is deeply personal.

“When I’m in the studio, I’m in a happy place,” he said. “It’s therapeutic. I’m focused completely on the process of making something.”

Celebrating Creativity Across the District
The Made by You exhibit highlights the creativity that exists throughout the Alamo Colleges District community, bringing together diverse voices and perspectives in a shared celebration of art.

For San Antonio College, participation in the exhibition also carries special meaning.

As the district marks 80 years of service, San Antonio College – now celebrating its own centennial year – is proud to see its faculty represented among the artists whose work reflects the passion, talent, and dedication that define the Alamo Colleges.

Together, the works in Made by You serve as a reminder that the district’s story is shaped not only in classrooms, but also through the creativity and experiences of the people who call it home.

-SAC-

Note: the artwork by Ty Wilcox is titled "into the thin air of ambition and destiny (2022)."  The summit name is Fitz Roy and it is located in Patagonia on the border with Argentina and Chile.