P

rolific Western novelist Louis L’Amour once said, “I could sit in the middle of Sunset Boulevard and write with my typewriter on my knees. Temperamental I am not.”

A workspace can say a lot about one’s temperament.

Do you need noise cancelling headphones and a temperature of 72 degrees for optimum productivity? Are disorganized piles of papers a chaotic comfort? Is everything in its place?

Three fulltime Oak Cliff artists let us into their home studios to see the where they work and ultimately, who they are.

Hustle hard

Patricia Rodriguez

A large color picture of Patricia Rodriguez’s father hangs behind the workspace of her home studio in Kings Highway.

Juan Antonio Rodriguez was an auto-body mechanic, an immigrant from Mexico who took handyman work around Oak Cliff when he could get it.

“He’s my inspiration to keep working as hard as I can,” says Rodriguez, who was born in Oak Cliff and has never left. “He was really supportive of me being an artist.”

The year her dad died, 2010, Rodriguez developed a painful bulging disc in her spine from her job in shipping/ receiving at the Dallas Museum of Art. It was a slow recovery, but she looked at it as an opportunity, so she quit her job to paint fulltime.

She had taken art classes at Mountain View College after graduating from Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. But she developed her unique style from painting on record albums. It was kind of a fluke.

She had agreed to enter work into a Beatles-themed show at the nowdefunct Soda Gallery in Bishop Arts. The deadline was approaching, and she was so broke that she couldn’t afford to buy canvases. Rodriguez, who also is known in Dallas nightlife as DJ Tigerbee, had plenty of LPs lying around, some of which were scratched. So she used spray paint and acrylic to depict

Sunday, December 20, 6:30 pm

Sunday, December 20, 6:30 pm

Sunday, December 20, 6:30 pm

EDCC Chancel Choir & Handbell Choir

EDCC Chancel Choir & Handbell Choir

EDCC Chancel Choir & Handbell Choir

Guest Soloists

Guest Soloists

Guest Soloists

Alfrelynn Roberts, Coretta Smith, Paul Mason, Bobby Tinnion

Guest Choir

Alfrelynn Roberts, Coretta Smith, Paul Mason, Bobby Tinnion

Alfrelynn Roberts, Coretta Smith, Paul Mason, Bobby Tinnion

Guest Choir

Guest Choir

Booker T. Washington High School Treble Choir

Booker T. Washington High School Treble Choir

Booker T. Washington High School Treble Choir

Musicians of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra

Musicians of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra

Musicians of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra

East Dallas Christian Church 629 N. Peak Street ♦ Dallas, TX 75246 www.edcc.org

East Dallas Christian Church 629 N. Peak Street ♦ Dallas, TX 75246 www.edcc.org

Daniel Pardo’s From A Land Far Away

Daniel Pardo’s From A Land Far Away

Daniel Pardo’s From A Land Far Away www.edcc.org

Concert Series

Concert Series

Free admission and open seating

Free admission and open seating

Free admission and open seating

Donations accepted for EDCC Concert Series

Concert Series

Donations accepted for EDCC Concert Series

Donations accepted for EDCC Concert Series

Reception following with Christmas Cookies

Reception following with Christmas Cookies

Reception following with Christmas Cookies an octopus with a Ringo Starr moustache. It sold right away.

Over the past five years, she’s perfected her technique, which results in dense and fanciful botanic scenes in unexpected color combinations. Discretely painted in each canvas is often a bat or beetle or worm, something a little unsettling amid the enchantment. Like graffiti artists, she often works without a detailed plan. She starts with the spray-painted background and lets the painting take her away.

“I get lost in creating these tight details,” she says.

Rodriguez’s canvasses fetch around $400-$1,000. But she still takes commissions for painted LPs: portraits, mostly, of people and pets. They cost $75.

Since she doesn’t have any other income, Rodriguez really hustles to keep the lights on. She takes mural commissions, including for home interiors. And she collaborates with makers. San Francisco retailer Vida recently printed her work on silk blouses and scarves. Dallas-based Cykochik Custom Handbags also printed her designs on purses and totes.

“I like seeing my stuff in 3-D,” she says.

She recently began offering it on iPhone cases, coffee mugs, tote bags, throw pillows and T-shirts via society6.com.

Rodriguez, who has endometriosis along with her back problem, is curating a show next summer at the Baylor Medical Gallery called “Artists in Pain,” featuring the work of local artists who live in chronic pain.

Find Rodriguez’s paintings at tigerbeearts.com and gifts at society6.com/tigerbee.

All hat, no cattle

Ray-Mel Cornelius

A stuffed jackalope hovers in one corner. Scanning the room, there are others: a felt-covered plastic jackalope and a small painting or two of the mythological half-rabbit/half-antelope.

Ray-Mel Cornelius’ home studio has a touch of kitsch. It has great light, too, in a windowed corner facing the Cedar Creek greenbelt in Elmwood.

The home he shares with wife, Becky, is a few miles from Downtown, but it’s close to nature.

“I grew up on a farm/ranch, but I never connected to that lifestyle,” he says.

He does relate to the myths of the American West and its dramatic portrayals, he says.

A Baby Boomer born and reared in Royse City, he eschewed horses and cattle in favor of TV and movies. Two brothers are 20-plus years older than him, so Ray-Mel and his mom were usually together at home, on top of a hill with the big Texas landscape all around.

“The first art I saw was comic strips and book illustrations. The color palette had a big effect on me,” he says.

There were no art classes in Royse City schools in the ’60s, but one “little old lady” in town gave him oil painting lessons.

“People thought it was a hobby for housewives,” he says. “But I knew that somebody made those illustrations.”

He enrolled in the nearest college, what is now known as Texas A&M UniversityCommerce. Thanks to that East Texas institution and its outstanding art program, RayMel became a commercial artist, creating graphic illustrations for many publications, including The Dallas Morning News. He also teaches graphic design at Brookhaven College, and a few years ago, he quit freelancing to focus on his own artwork.

Mostly he paints acrylic on canvas in “scrumbling” brush-strokes that create textured landscapes and animal scenes. Occasionally, he makes pen-and-watercolor drawings. And he’s prolific. On days when he doesn’t teach, he’ll work for eight to 10 hours. He keeps the TV on for company, usually an old movie or whatever is on HBO or Showtime.

An 8-by-10 photo of George Reeves as TV’s “Superman” in one corner reminds him of his childhood. And above that, a letterpress by Oak Cliff-based artist Lily SmithKirkley reads, “All hat, no cattle.” his hobbies, and he knew he wanted to be an artist at age 5, when he won a camera in a coloring contest at Albertsons.

“I used to reject that, and I never wanted to be associated with it,” Ray-Mel says of rural Texas culture.

Now he is a painter of Texas and Western landscapes.

See more of Cornelius’ paintings at raymelcornelius.com.

He paid his way through art school at the University of North Texas, where he took every art class possible, and then he was a fulltime factory worker for five or six years before taking up art again.

“I have to stay busy,” he says. “It’s not in my nature to sit around.”

Stinnett has two studios. One is the den at the front of the Hampton Hills home he shares with wife, Lanette, an elementary school principal. This room is painted pale blue and its walls are empty. There’s a tasteful velvet sofa and an artists’ desk and shelves.

Stinnett’s other studio is about a block away in the low second story of a hardware store. Entering this studio is like walking into “Fangoria.” There are Halloween masks, black metal flags, posters, old furniture and art supplies everywhere.

Preparing for a big show, he might wake around 5 a.m. to do watercolors in the den and then head to the loft around 8 or 9 to work on oil paintings until 6 p.m.

“My creativity comes down to perseverance,” he says. “It comes down to staying active constantly and continuing to make. If you do that daily, that is going to be rewarded on some level.”

See and shop his work at claystinnett.wix.com/home.

By Oak Cliff Writer Kim Batchelor

holiday gift

Lakehill Preparatory School

Leading to Success. 2720 Hillside Dr., Dallas 75214 / 214.826.2931 / lakehillprep.org

Kindergarten through Grade 12 - Lakehill Preparatory School takes the word preparatory in its name very seriously. Throughout a student’s academic career, Lakehill builds an educational program that achieves its goal of enabling graduates to attend the finest, most rigorous universities of choice. Lakehill combines a robust, college-preparatory curriculum with opportunities for personal growth, individual enrichment, and community involvement. From kindergarten through high school, every Lakehill student is encouraged to strive, challenged to succeed, and inspired to excel.

ST. ELIZABETH OF HUNGARY CATHOLIC SCHOOL

4019 S. Hampton Rd. Dallas 75224/ 214.331.5139 / www.saintspride.com

At St. Elizabeth of Hungary, our fundamental task is the education of the whole child combining learning with faith, Catholic doctrines and moral teachings. We introduce all PK3-8th Grade students to the integrated ways of STEM. This approach to education is designed to revolutionize the teaching of subject areas such as mathematics and science by incorporating technology and engineering into regular curriculum. Over the past 10 years, 95% of St. Elizabeth 8th graders were accepted to their first choice high school. Join us for an informational school tour and see for yourself how easy it is to become a Saint! Call 214.331.5139 for information.

ST. JOHN’S EPISCOPAL SCHOOL

848 Harter Rd., Dallas 75218 / 214.328.9131 / stjohnsschool.org Founded in 1953, St. John’s is an independent, co-educational day school for Pre-K through Grade 8. With a tradition for academic excellence, St. John’s programs include a challenging curriculum in a Christian environment along with instruction in the visual and performing arts, Spanish, German, French, and opportunities for athletics and community service. St. John’s goal for its students is to develop a love for learning, service to others, and leadership grounded in love, humility, and wisdom. Accredited by ISAS, SAES, and the Texas Education Agency.

Nonprofits

Methodist Health System Foundation named Jack Lowe Jr. its 2015 Robert S. Folsom Leadership Award recipient. The award recognizes individuals whose demonstrated commitment and excellence in community leadership emulate the achievements of former Dallas Mayor Robert S. Folsom.

Schools

Oak Cliff-based Dallas Can Academy recently opened a new campus in southeast Oak Cliff. The Grant East campus is named after Dallas Can Academy’s founder and will serve as many as 400 students. The campus includes classrooms for high schoolers as well as daycare and after-school care center for children ages 6-weeks to 13 years.

Mockingbird Lane Bridal Boutique donated 150 bridesmaid dresses to Sunset High School students for the school’s homecoming dance this fall. Teachers and counselors chose 100 students to attend a “shopping experience” the weekend before the event to pick out their free dress.

Churches

The Oak Cliff Christian Church celebrated its 125th anniversary with a concert and supper in October. The church also dedicated a signature cross to mark the occasion. Joe Whitney and Craig and Riley Davis of Davis Metal Stamping Inc. and Obed Navarro of NSG Contractors donated the 14-foot cross, which was installed in front of the church on Zang. The church started in 1890 with original members meeting in the second-floor of an old building. They later had buildings on Ninth at Beckley and Tenth at Crawford before moving to Kiest near Polk in the 1960s. The church now resides on Zang near Brooklyn.

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