We're delighted that ‘Artists in the Texas Hill Country’ (the first in our series of books about Texas artists) is now in the hands of our distinguished publisher, Lamar University Literary Press. We hope to have it into your hands and on bookshelves by spring, 2021. In the meantime, here is a micro-version of some of our favorite pages.
The artists tell their own stories in their own words.
The artists tell their own stories in their own words.
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P. Cleve Ragan
I found out the challenges of being an artist pretty early. When I was about three years old I made some drawings and showed them to my mother. I was all excited. But, I didn’t get the reaction that I wanted. She was not happy because I’d made the drawings in the family Bible. Little figures drawn all through the Bible. I can understand why she freaked out. After all it was the family Bible. Actually, that moment has probably held me back a lot. When you show somebody one of your creations and they have a hissy fit, it tends to make you hesitate.
I found out the challenges of being an artist pretty early. When I was about three years old I made some drawings and showed them to my mother. I was all excited. But, I didn’t get the reaction that I wanted. She was not happy because I’d made the drawings in the family Bible. Little figures drawn all through the Bible. I can understand why she freaked out. After all it was the family Bible. Actually, that moment has probably held me back a lot. When you show somebody one of your creations and they have a hissy fit, it tends to make you hesitate.
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Bert Ray
All of us in the arts have a lot to be thankful for. Art…the big word ‘Art’ covers a lot of things. We don’t have to divide art into cubbyholes. There are so many fun things out there to try your hand at. When you think about it there are an astounding number of incredible artists in this little place. We need to revel in the glory of this environment and living in a place dedicated to creativity. After all, art is to make us enjoy the world.
All of us in the arts have a lot to be thankful for. Art…the big word ‘Art’ covers a lot of things. We don’t have to divide art into cubbyholes. There are so many fun things out there to try your hand at. When you think about it there are an astounding number of incredible artists in this little place. We need to revel in the glory of this environment and living in a place dedicated to creativity. After all, art is to make us enjoy the world.
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Jim McDonald
If you walk away from the work while you’re painting and turn your back… it’s like cleaning your palette. I’m more objective at that point than I would be if I were staring at the canvas the whole time. When I turn around again I can see what I need to do next. Painting is like drilling a tunnel through a mountain of unknown distance. Every day you maybe make a quarter of a mile through the mountain. But you have no idea how much farther you need to go. And then one day ‘Pow’!! You break through… and all of a sudden bingo it’s there! That’s when you quit. When you hear ‘Bingo’ you quit.
If you walk away from the work while you’re painting and turn your back… it’s like cleaning your palette. I’m more objective at that point than I would be if I were staring at the canvas the whole time. When I turn around again I can see what I need to do next. Painting is like drilling a tunnel through a mountain of unknown distance. Every day you maybe make a quarter of a mile through the mountain. But you have no idea how much farther you need to go. And then one day ‘Pow’!! You break through… and all of a sudden bingo it’s there! That’s when you quit. When you hear ‘Bingo’ you quit.
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Trisha McWaters
Sometimes I might click the shutter and have no idea what the image will later become or what it will mean. Sometimes it becomes clear when I review it on the computer screen, but it might be a year or two later when the image or the meaning is revealed to me. Oftentimes, it makes a statement about the world or spirit or goodness, or what's not so good, rather than just being an image.
Sometimes I might click the shutter and have no idea what the image will later become or what it will mean. Sometimes it becomes clear when I review it on the computer screen, but it might be a year or two later when the image or the meaning is revealed to me. Oftentimes, it makes a statement about the world or spirit or goodness, or what's not so good, rather than just being an image.
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Bob Cook
There is an age-old art war between painters and photographers. The photographers complain that they don’t win the awards and they aren’t typically rolling in the money of the lucrative field of fine art. The painters complain that photographers push a button and make as many prints of a photograph as they want. I do both and I can tell you the only painters who suffer are those who paint Plein Air. Photographers buy gasoline, drive for nine hours to Big Bend, sleep in a lumpy bed in a junk motel, get up before daylight to go out in the freezing cold and hope for a sunrise. Painters relax in their studio, make languid brush strokes and are fed grapes by their spouse.
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Tim Leibrock
I went to a commercial art school after a couple of years of college. Then I found myself in Japan for eight years as an apprentice kimono dyer in Kyoto. When I got off the train the people who met me exclaimed, ‘What are you doing here’? They were expecting a young woman. I stayed there eight years and left two years shy of an actual finished apprenticeship, because I knew I wasn’t going to stay in Japan and be a kimono maker. Since I’ve gotten here to Wimberley, I’ve started again to dye natural fabrics. I feel like it’s a sin for me NOT to do that because I was given this extraordinary opportunity in Japan, and my teachers are still alive and they’re encouraging me. It may be a dyeing art, but it’s not dying in Wimberley, Texas.
I went to a commercial art school after a couple of years of college. Then I found myself in Japan for eight years as an apprentice kimono dyer in Kyoto. When I got off the train the people who met me exclaimed, ‘What are you doing here’? They were expecting a young woman. I stayed there eight years and left two years shy of an actual finished apprenticeship, because I knew I wasn’t going to stay in Japan and be a kimono maker. Since I’ve gotten here to Wimberley, I’ve started again to dye natural fabrics. I feel like it’s a sin for me NOT to do that because I was given this extraordinary opportunity in Japan, and my teachers are still alive and they’re encouraging me. It may be a dyeing art, but it’s not dying in Wimberley, Texas.
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Dennis Darling
I’ve done photo projects with Hell’s Angels and the Klan, and now the Holocaust. You know, just family stuff (laughs). While I was in Paris I got in contact with a connection to a holocaust survivor: a survivor of Terezine. Somebody said he had died and I thought, ‘Aw shit’, but then I thought I’d just give him a call and see. And he answered, and he said, ‘Oh yeah, why don’t you come right over’. I was so excited. I went to photograph him, but when I got there, I realized I didn’t bring a damn camera.
I’ve done photo projects with Hell’s Angels and the Klan, and now the Holocaust. You know, just family stuff (laughs). While I was in Paris I got in contact with a connection to a holocaust survivor: a survivor of Terezine. Somebody said he had died and I thought, ‘Aw shit’, but then I thought I’d just give him a call and see. And he answered, and he said, ‘Oh yeah, why don’t you come right over’. I was so excited. I went to photograph him, but when I got there, I realized I didn’t bring a damn camera.
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Ron Bullied
I remember the first new car my Dad brought home was a 1954 Chevrolet. I was six and I thought that’s about as cool as it gets. When I came to Texas, I started to explore the backroads and I’d see something in a farmer’s field or behind some gas station in a little town, and sometimes even trespassing was required. I rarely got a whole car to work with, so I’d end up with a perspective of it… Anytime anyone has a look at these, they have a story to tell. Everybody has a car story.
I remember the first new car my Dad brought home was a 1954 Chevrolet. I was six and I thought that’s about as cool as it gets. When I came to Texas, I started to explore the backroads and I’d see something in a farmer’s field or behind some gas station in a little town, and sometimes even trespassing was required. I rarely got a whole car to work with, so I’d end up with a perspective of it… Anytime anyone has a look at these, they have a story to tell. Everybody has a car story.