LifeLong Learning-San Marcos
Becky Duval Reese
Becky Duval Reese is LLL-smtx's resident art historian. Since moving to San Marcos in 2014, she has presented numerous art history courses that range from a guide to looking at and understanding art to French Impressionism to, most recently, the history of Texas art and artists. She is currently preparing a course on Vincent van Gogh for the spring.
Becky worked for over a decade at UT-Austin's Huntington Art Gallery (now the Blanton Museum of Art) before moving to El Paso to direct the city’s art museum. During her 15-year tenure, she professionalized the staff, created exhibitions and educational programs that more reflected the community, and oversaw the construction of a new building for the museum's growing collections. As a city-funded museum, Becky fought to ensure that admission to the new building remain free and it continues to this day. Largely based on Becky’s interest in the art of Texas, over 1,000 new objects were secured during her time as director.
As a result of her more than 30-year career and her curatorial and publication focus on the art and artists of Texas, Becky has become one of the state’s leading authorities on the subject. Her recent book showcases the work of Austin artist David Everett (www.davideverett.com), whose art is displayed throughout the Wittliff Collections at Texas State University and is held in many public and private collections. Becky and David presented their new book (published by Texas A&M University Press) at the 2021 Texas Book Festival; click here to watch their discussion on the Festival website.
David in his studio
"Agave" woodcut
"Rubaiyat" wood sculpture
STEVE BEEBE Publishes New Book on C.S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis, based on the popularity of his books and essays, is one of the best communicators of the twentieth century. During his lifetime he was hailed for his talents as author, speaker, educator, and broadcaster; he continues to be a best-selling author more than a half-century after his death.
C. S. Lewis and the Craft of Communication analyzes Lewis’s communication skill. A comprehensive review of Lewis’s work reveals five communication principles that explain his success as a communicator. Based on Lewis’s own advice about communication in his books, essays, and letters, as well as his communication practice, being a skilled communicator is to be holistic, intentional, transpositional, evocative, and audience-centered. These five principles are memorably summarized by the acronym HI TEA. Dr. Steven Beebe, past president of the National Communication Association, internationally-recognized communication author and educator, and LifeLong Learning presenter, uses Lewis’s own words to examine these five principles in a most engaging style.
For additional information, or to order the book directly from the publisher, go to stevenabeebe.com. The book is also available on amazon.com.
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STEVEN L. DAVIS, curator at the Wittliff Collections at Texas State University in San Marcos
Davis is a past president of the Texas Institute of Letters. A PEN USA award-winning author, his writing has been described as "lively, groundbreaking, and illuminating."
His most recent book, co-authored with Bill Minutaglio, is The Most Dangerous Man in America: Timothy Leary, Richard Nixon & the Hunt for the Fugitive King of LSD.
His previous books include:
Dallas 1963, winner of the PEN Center USA Literary Award for Research Nonfiction.
J. Frank Dobie: A Liberated Mind.
Texas Literary Outlaws: Six Writers in the Sixties and Beyond.
His edited books include The Essential J. Frank Dobie.
Website: www.stevenldavis.org
Contact: https://stevenldavis.org/contact
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JIM KIMMEL, Author
JERRY TOUCHSTONE KIMMEL, Photographer
Jim was educated in biology, limnology, sociology, cultural ecology, and geography at Baylor, Yale, and the University of Texas-Austin.
Jim is the author of The San Marcos: A River’s Story and Exploring the Brazos River, with photography by Jerry Touchstone Kimmel. Both books were published by the TAMU University Press. Exploring the Brazos River received the Association of American Geographer's Globe Book Award for Public Understanding of Geography.
Jim received the Distinguished Teaching Service Award from the National Council for Geographic Education. He is Professor Emeritus of Environmental Geography at Texas State University where he taught for over 20 years.
Jim currently works in self-directed and place-based learning design, multimedia, aerial and underwater videography/photography, carving, and boat-building. Please see Jim's video on Woodworking as Contemplation at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhOyutOAdgk&t=1s.
Jerry was educated in biology, English, and art/photography at Baylor, Texas State University, and the University of Texas-Austin.
She did all the original photography for the San Marcos and Brazos books authored by Jim.
Please see more about Jerry and examples of her art in Enjoy Great Art.
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ENJOY GREAT ART
We all need beauty and new ideas to revive our creativity. Discover stimulating art from some of our artist presenters below.
SUZANNE SHIELD-POLK, Artist/Educator
I grew up in central Texas where I first studied ceramics at Southwest Texas State University. I worked as a production potter in San Marcos, then went on to complete a BFA in Art History and Studio Art at UT, Austin. I relocated to California where I embarked on a career in set decorating and art direction for the motion picture industry. I left the film industry to teach art and focus on my work as a visual artist, concurrently completing an MFA degree in at California State University, Northridge. I returned to Texas to establish and head the ceramics department at the new Lone Star College, Cy-Fair in Houston. After many years at LSC, I moved to San Marcos to open a studio where I am producing ceramic and sculptural forms in several media which reference my response to the human experience and my love of the natural world. I offer instructional courses and workshops in a variety of art processes and the history of ceramics. My work has been exhibited in San Marcos, Houston, across Texas, and nationally.
Website: Contact: RocketFireCeramics@gmail.com
suzanneshieldpolk.com
FB (2 pages): Rocketfire Ceramics, Charcoal Injection firing
Instagram: sshieldpolk
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Aloha Leaf Series Tray and Vase
Aspirant Triptych
Two Bottles-Charcoal Fired
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TRACY WEINBERG, Artist and Musician
Tracy Weinberg is a relative newcomer to the art world, specializing in collage and three-dimensional assemblages with found and recycled objects. Growing up in the Chicago area, he always enjoyed art, and frequently visited Chicago’s Art Institute with his mother and grandmother, both art hobbyists. His wife, Joan Nagel, is an artist and art educator, and she further encouraged his interest and, ultimately, his own artistic creations. He is especially inspired by modern artists Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, Joseph Cornell, and others.
WEBSITE: www.talkingobjects.art Email: trweinberg@yahoo.com or 512-665-6674
The Happy Couple
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The End of the Beginning
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NEAL WILSON, Retired Professor Emeritus Texas State University
Neal Wilson received his Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in painting from the University of Texas at Austin in 1963. After serving in the U. S. Army for two years he returned to the University of Texas where he received his Masters of Fine Arts in painting and drawing in 1970. He joined the faculty at Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas in January 1971.
Upon retirement in 2009. he was designated Distinguished Professor Emeritus.
His work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally for over 35 years and is included in numerous private and public collections. These include the McNey Museum of Art in San Antonio, Texas, The Longview Museum of Art, Longview, Texas, The Tenneco Collection of American Art, Houston TX, The Texaco Collection of Modern Art in Athens, Greece, The Hallmark Collection of Art, Kansas City, MO., the Frost National Bank of San Antonio, The McCoy School of Business, Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas.
Over the years Neal has worked in oils, acrylics, watercolors, drawing and sculpture. The work includes both representational and abstract images. The recent paintings are influenced by memories of visits to archaeological sites in Greece and Italy. He is fascinated by the sense of history embedded in the abandoned ruins. He tries to create his version of a lost civilization. The things we see from the past may foretell our future.
Entrophy, acrylic on canvas, 24x 24
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JUDY ROW, Retired
I have been involved with fiber arts since the 1960’s. I have had a commission-based weaving business, a women and children’s clothing business and always a sculptural fiber art component to my life. My work has been ishown at galleries and museums in Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, Texas and the state of Washington.
Working in fiber, I coil, wrap, knit, crochet and weave because these techniques allow for the slow building of the form and the idea behind each piece. The quiet repetition of this activity, the slight changes in pattern, texture and color mark the object as different today than it was yesterday. These small changes make the piece move forward to completion. My work reflects parts of my life and my state of mind as I select color and composition for each piece.
Website: www.judyrow.com Contact: Judyrow@anvilcom.com
Emblem
Stop
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George
MICHAEL HANNON, Artist, Designer, Poet
Much of my artwork has long combined visual images with writing. My interest in pictures and in writing have both been developed through the lens of my being rather dyslexic. My early interest in practicing visual art was an obvious way of coping, and my late acquisition of reading, and even later of writing, has lead me to embrace them with perhaps a degree of the ardor of a convert, though I still like having visual images with words, in some sense to fall back on. My poetry tends to be fairly structured, usually metrical, and my art is largely figurative.
I have been influenced especially by Chinese brush paint, European & Middle Eastern medieval manuscript illumination (decorations and miniatures in medieval books), and the works of William Blake. All of these sources often involve the combination of writing and (visual) images. I largely work in watercolor, whether with calligraphy, or in Chinese brush painting, though also do much work in pen & ink, some acrylics, and other media.
Website: www.HannonArts.com. Contact: HannonArts@gmail.com, 512 923 6717
Shadows
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CHRISTINE TERRELL, adaptive reuse jewelry, Owner | Designer
Adaptive reuse jewelry is ethical adornment for bohemians, mavericks, individualists & iconoclasts. Each one-of-a-kind piece of upcycled tin jewelry is individually handcrafted by Christine Terrell from locally sourced, free-range decorative tins.
Follow along on Instagram @christineterrell or shop online at www.adaptivereuser.com
WEBSITE: www.adaptivereuser.com CONTACT: christineterrell@icloud.com
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SHEILA HARGETT, Artist, Costume Designer
Since retiring from Texas State University as the costume design professor in the Department of Theatre for 45 years, I have begun to explore other kinds of art in various media-- pencil, ink, watercolor, gouache and oil, primarily. After illustrating thousands of costume designs for the theatre at TSU, I am now discovering so many new ways of painting a variety of subjects. I am continuing to enjoy a lifelong passion for art and the need to create it.
Contact: sheilaann@austin.rr.com Website: In Progress
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JERRY TOUCHSTONE KIMMEL, Artist
Jerry was educated in biology, English, and art/photography at Baylor, Texas State University, and the University of Texas-Austin.
Jerry’s watercolor paintings and photographs have been represented in galleries throughout the Southwest including Santa Fe, Austin, Houston, Galveston, and New Orleans, Her photos are in art collections of AT&T, Motorola, McCoy School of Business, and the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment at Texas State University. She did all the original photography for the San Marcos and Brazos books authored by Jim Kimmel (see the previous information in Read a Book).
Jerry is a Certified Kundalini Yoga Teacher with over 700 hours of training. She owned and co-operated the Community Yoga Center in San Marcos for several years. She currently teaches online yoga/meditation classes.
She and her husband Jim also teach classes at the School of Wisdom at Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church in San Marcos (currently online.).
Keyholes Fish 30x22 inches
Santa Elena 30x22 inches