Issue Magazine - April 2015

THE ARTS MAGAZINE O F T H E A RT S T U D I O , I N C .

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ISSUE Vol. 21, No. 7 Publisher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Art Studio, Inc.

A View From The Top Greg Busceme, TASI Director

Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Andy Coughlan Copy Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tracy Danna Contributing Writers . . . . . . . . . . . . Elena Ivanova, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jacqueline Hays Contributing Photographers . . . . Jacqueline Hays, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JoLee Tanner Distribution. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jac’Quor Williams

NOTICE ANYTHING DIFFERENT ABOUT this ISSUE? How about everything! After many years with Four Star Press, the printer of our good old black-and-white publication, they are no longer in business and we had to seek a new printer for our beloved rag.

With a little research, we found Port Arthur News to print our publication. They published our mag before Four Star, so we were in familiar territory. As luck would have it, editor Andy Coughlan and I went to the publisher and got a great quote. The price was so good we decided it would be a great time to try color! — COLOR! We rejoiced. No longer did we have to settle for the grey splatters that represent paintings but we could show real hues, giving us unprecedented imagery in our publication.

I know our editor of 14 years appreciates

The Art Studio, Inc. Board of Directors President Ex-Officio . . . . . . . . . . . . Greg Busceme Vice-President. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Angela Busceme Chair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Roberts Members at Large: . . . . . . . . . . . Sheila Busceme, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Elizabeth French, . . . . . . . . . . Andy Ledesma, Stephan Malick, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Heather Butler The Art Studio, Inc. 720 Franklin Beaumont, TX 77701 409-838-5393 www.artstudio.org info@artstudio.org The ISSUE is a monthly publication of The Art Studio, Inc. Its mission is to publicize The Art Studio and its tenants, and to promote the growth of the arts in Southeast Texas. ISSUE is also charged with informing TASI members of projects, progress, achievements and setbacks in TASI’s well-being. Further, ISSUE strives to promote and distribute the writings of local authors in its “Thoughtcrime” feature.

ISSUE is provided free of charge to members of TASI and is also available, free of charge, at more than 30 locations in Southeast Texas.

Regular features include local artists of note and reputation who are not currently exhibiting at TASI; artists currently or soon to be exhibiting at TASI; Instructional articles for artists; news stories regarding the state of TASI’s organization; and arts news features dealing with general philosophical issues of interest to artists.

Contents Spindletop Unitarians at TASI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 4 Pride Coming Out Ball . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 6 TASIMJAE 2015 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 7 Ines Alvidres’ “Friendly Abstract” . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 8 Rubens at MFAH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 10 Around & About . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 13 Thoughtcrime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 15 Cover photo: Ines Alvidres by Andy Coughlan

it, I love it, and I hope it opens vistas for you, too.

It sounds like I’m gushing over a small change, but in times when progress is slow, any victory toward advancement is a hardwon battle. So it’s kind of a big deal that we have color and a different format.

I hope you enjoy reading and seeing the new ISSUE as much as we enjoy presenting it to you.

Classes are booming these days. A sharp increase in students at The Studio has teachers jumping as clay classes and life drawing both showed a leap in participation. This has been a trend for a year. We are used to the usual three to five students, not the 15 we are getting now. It all points

See VIEW on page 15

UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS AT THE ART STUDIO APRIL

MAY

TASIMJAE (The Art Studio, Inc. Member Jurored Art Exhibition) Opening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . April 4

Riah Lee, TASIMJAE 2014 Winner Opening. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . May 2

BECOME A MEMBER OF THE ART STUDIO Membership in The Art Studio, Inc., provides invitations to all exhibitions and one year of ISSUE, the monthly arts magazine of The Art Studio. It also gives free eligibility for members to enter the annual membership art exhibition (TASIMJAE) and participate in various exhibitions throughout the year.

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4 • ISSUE April 2015

Volume 21, No. 7

Putting the Spritual in Art SPINDLETOP UNITARIANS FIND SHELTER AT ART STUDIO DURING TRANSITION DRAKE WALDREP, THREE AND a half (the half is important at that age), dances next to his mother, Jill, as the sounds of David Bowie’s “Changes” fill the classroom at The Art Studio, Inc. It is close to 11 a.m. on a chilly March morning, and Jill is using the song to set up the morning’s message, or sermon. The Spindletop Unitarian Church is in temporary residence as they change locations, and the eclectic service seems like a perfect fit with TASI’s mission of artistic inclusion.

The service is lay-led (there is no permanent minister and the congregation volunteers to take turns leading the service), and Waldrep’s theme is change, hence the Bowie. The service opened with Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changing.”

The church is in the midst of change, having sold their location on the outskirts of Beaumont, where they had been since 1967, and the group is looking for a more central location.

“Nobody realized we are there, we were in the middle of nowhere,” Waldrep, a church board member, says. “We decided that it would be best for our congregation — to be more involved in the community, we needed to be seen.

The goal of all of it is to move to where we can be seen — not hiding out in the woods by ourselves, keeping our message to ourselves.”

When it came time to pick a transitional venue, The Studio’s history of inclusion and diversity pushed it to the forefront.

“We were trying to decide on a temporary location, and all of us on the board had spent time here at one point or another, and realized it was a pretty special place for us,” Waldrep said. “My husband and I, before we were married, before we were even dating, spent a whole lot of time here about ten years ago. So it all lined up that we thought it would be the perfect place to create new memories as a church together.”

Cathy Saur Allen, a Unitarian since she was five and a Spindletop member since she was eight, agrees.

“Each person on the board, we didn’t realize we had a connection to the place,” she said. “I used to come and see my boyfriend, now my husband, play in bands when I was in high school.”

The church plans to be there for a couple of months while they are looking for a new property.

“We are thinking Old Town or downtown are our areas,” Allen says. “We always say target area, but I feel

Story by Andy Coughlan

ISSUE photo by Jacqueline Hays

Members of the Spindletop Unitarian Church, above, are meeting at The Art Studio, Inc. while they seek a new venue. Jill Waldrep, right, reads the sermon, March 8. The congregation is lay-led, with members taking turns to lead the service. uncomfortable saying that because I don’t want to say we only want to attract a certain kind of people — that’s not it at all. We think that people who are more in tune with our way of thinking may be in those areas. We are open to anywhere, but we like those areas and think they would be a good fit for us.”

Spindletop Unitarian Church takes its name from its recently sold church property on the edge of the Texas oil field and the first gusher. It is a member of the Unitarian Universalist denomination, but since the congregation formed before the merger of the two denominations, it retained its original Unitarian name.

Formed on Nov. 3, 1948, as the “Beaumont Unitarian Fellowship,” it is one of the first Unitarian Fellowships organized in the United States. After some years of meeting in homes, hotels and the YWCA, the lay-led fellowship acquired a Meeting House on Alabama Street near Lamar College in 1955, and the name was changed to the “Unitarian Fellowship of the Sabine Area.”

ISSUE photo by Andy Coughlan

Volume 21, No. 7

Early in 1966, Lamar planned an expansion program which took in Alabama Street and made necessary the sale of the church property to the college. A plan was made to build a church, and on June 11, 1967, Spindletop Unitarian Church was dedicated. The first minister, Rev. James L. Jones, served from 1966 to 1969. He was followed by five other ministers.

Allen says the Unitarians offer a different way of thinking about church.

“A lot of people think of church as, ‘You must believe this’ or ‘You must believe that’ and ‘Do I believe the same thing as the rest of the people?’” she says. “You don’t have to do that here. We believe that we don’t all have to believe the exact same thing to be a church community together.

You may be sitting next to someone who has a Buddhist leaning and you have a Christian leaning, and you listen to each other’s ideas. You may say, ‘Oh, that’s interesting and I am glad that works for you but I don’t agree, but OK, let’s get some coffee.’

Allen laughs (there does seem to be a genial atmosphere about the whole service).

“We don’t have to be signing on to things we are uncomfortable with or something we disagree with,” she says. “We are free to disagree, but we can still be a religious community together.

“It’s a funny concept for people to think about — that we can all not necessarily be on the same path, but we are still one community, together.”

Universal Unitarianism is guided by seven principles: The inherent worth and dignity of every person; Justice, equity and compassion in human relations; Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations; A free and responsible search for truth and meaning; The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large; The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all; and Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

“We leave our individual theologies or beliefs at the door,” Waldrep says. “The first time me and my husband attended, it was said, ‘We are here to inspire you in your walk, in your faith, in your beliefs, not in ours — not with a certain agenda.’ Children are not indoctrinated. My husband’s an atheist and I am somewhere in between. It’s a perfect place if you want to be inspired and grow without being forced to grow in one direction or one belief.”

On this particular Sunday, there are around 15 in the congregation (20 if you include the children, who join in the first half of the service, until the “Story For All” section, which this particular day was about a dinosaur, after which they are taken off to play).

The move is designed to increase the church’s visibility and allow it to grow, Allen said. A larger congregation will also offer the opportunity to have a minister.

“We have had full-time ministers and part-time ministers in the past,” she said. “We’d like to grow enough to be able to get a minister at some point, but at this time we are lay-led, which can be good and bad. It’s a rotation of people wanting to do it, but it’s also, ‘OK, somebody do it.”

With the move to The Studio, and eventually to central

April 2015 ISSUE • 5

Guest speaker Patti Henry reads the “Story For All,” a regular part of the Spindletop Unitarian church service.

Beaumont, Allen says she hopes that people will be drawn to the church’s message of community. They believe that there is value in sharing ideas from all religions and philosophies.

“A lot of our people are humanists,” she says. “It’s a kind of theist or atheist, which one are you? We always have these dichotomies of people on opposite sides of things, but that makes it interesting.

“It’s all a journey for all of us. At certain points you may think you are on one path and then hear something or read something and decide, ‘Oh, I really think that’s speaking to me now’ — and you don’t have to change churches.”

ISSUE photo by Jacqueline Hays

The Unitarians follow their services with “Coffee and Coversation,” and there is a potluck lunch on the third Thursday of every month.

“Come and meet a great group of people who accept you the way you are and the way you think,” Allen said.

“We can’t wait to meet you and help on your journey, and be a community for you wherever you are on the path.”

For more information on the Spindletop Unitarian Church, visit their Facebook page, or www.spindletopuuchurch.org.

For more in the Unitarian Universalist Association, visit www.uua.org.

6 • ISSUE April 2015

Volume 21, No. 7

PRIDE TO HOLD SPRING FUNDRAISER AT DISHMAN ART MUSEUM, APRIL 18 THE DISHMAN ART MUSEUM will be filled with candlelight, smooth jazz and decadently-dressed partygoers for the Beaumont Pride 2015 Coming Out Ball, April 18.

Fourteen LGBTQIA debutantes will be presented.

The ball is a chance for Golden Triangle residents and visitors to get dressed up and enjoy local cuisine and an open bar, and the musical stylings of the Blue Tones Jazz Quartet, Jenny Carson, and DJ collective, Son of Hot Damn.

The event begins at 7:30 p.m., and money raised will fund the second annual Pride Festival, scheduled for June 13.

“I am really excited,” Christi Alli, a local restaurant manager, said, adding that she bought her and her husband’s tickets and an outfit as soon as the tickets went on sale.

“I can’t wait to see what the debs are wearing,” she said.

“It is going to be a night of fun — music, dancing, fun.”

Tickets are $50 and may be purchesed at www.beau mont-pride.org.

Story and photos by Jacqueline Hays

“Beaumont is extremely supportive of its LGBTQIA community,” Chance Henson, Pride marketing and public relations chair, said. “So we expect to sell all 200 tickets rather quickly.”

People in the community recognize that it is incredibly difficult for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex and Asexual people to come out of the closet, Henson said.

“It takes a huge amount of courage,” he said. “Often, we are met with extreme prejudice and rejection from our friends and families. I think Southeast Texas is on board with giving these debutantes the coming out experience that all queer people deserve — patrons will be supporting the annual Pride celebration in the process.”

Debutante Jacob Wills agrees.

The Nederland native said he had an “interesting” coming out in high school.

“My last year in high school, my grandparents found a note in my room from my then boyfriend,” Wills said. “So I was actually forced out to my family.”

Wills said he wasn’t ready to have the conversation.

“I was totally caught off guard — it wasn’t the most pleasant experience,” he said. “I think that in coming out,

you want it to be on your terms and when you are ready — and that was not the case.”

Wills said he thinks the community is supportive, which hasn’t always been the case.

“There have been instances where my partner and I have had food thrown at us,” he said. “We have had vulgar things screamed across the parking lot at us and we weren’t even holding hands or standing close to one another — so I am excited to see Beaumont do something that is so affirming and welcoming.”

Wills said the community as a whole is moving in the right direction.

“I feel like there hasn’t always been a community that has supported each other and I think we are getting to that place,” Wills said. “Supporting each other is the only way we can achieve the goals that we all collectively have.”

Alli said that although her brother is gay, her husband doesn’t have any family who identifies as queer. The couple say they want to support the community as a whole.

“You don’t have to be a part of the LGBTQIA community

See BALL on page 14

Volume 21, No. 7

April 2015 ISSUE • 7

TASIMJAE THE ART STUDIO, INC. MEMBERS JURORED ART EXHIBITION

ANNUAL SHOW HIGHLIGHTS WORK OF STUDIO MEMBERS DAVID CARGILL, RENOWNED BEAUMONT sculptor, has been named juror of The Art Studio, Inc. Member Jurored Art Exhibition (TASIMJAE), which opens with a free reception, 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. April 4.

Riah Lee won last year’s show, jurored by Megan Young, and will be the exhibiting artist at The Studio in May. TASIMJAE regularly draws an eclectic group of artists working in all media.

TASI director Greg Busceme said that the exhibition is a chance to showcase the work of The Studio’s membership.

“We get people to show work they haven’t shown before and we are also interested in getting new memberships from the constituents out there,” he said.

First prize is $100 plus an exhibition of the artist’s work in May 2011. Prizes are also awarded for second and third places.

Membership in The Art Studio begins at $35 for adults. Student memberships begin at $20 with valid ID. “We really encourage folks to enter the show,” Busceme said. “It’s really important that artists of all kinds — be they established or up-and-coming — show their work and get feedback from the public.”

Tenant Andy Coughlan said that TASIMJAE is his favorite show of the year.

“I love seeing the solo shows throughout the year, but they are normally established artists that have been chosen to exhibit,” he said. “TASIMJAE offersw the chance to see the unexpected. You never know what to expect until the doors open. It is a chance for relatively unknown artists to hang side by side with established creators — and often, they are the most exciting works.”

The opening reception will feature most of the exhibiting artists and offers visitors an opportunity to talk with them about their work — and to get involved with The Studio’s community arts efforts.

For more information, call 409-838-5393.

Volume 21, No. 7

FRIENDLY

8 • ISSUE April 2015

a b s t r a c t

INES ALVIDRES DRAWS INSPIRATION FROM HERITAGE, HOME, FRIENDS Story and photos by Andy Coughlan

INES ALVIDRES SMILES. So what’s the big deal, you may ask? Lots of people smile. But Ines smiles a lot and it’s contagious.

The 31-year old Mexico native creates bright paintings that reflect her personality — she describes her work as “Friendly Abstract.”

“I think the essence of my work will always be color,” she says.

“I say that it is very colorful, Mexico-in-your-face, and happy — and when I finish that phrase, I always say, ‘When you see it, you will understand.”

The notion of abstract painting can be divisive, Ines says, people either love it or hate it.

“So if I can paint an abstract piece that somebody who hates abstracts says, ‘Ah, it’s friendly’ — it’s a way of introducing it,” she says.

On April 4, visitors will have the opportunity be introduced to her work at an exhibition at Finder’s Fayre Antiques.

Ines’ work is ornately patterned, another trait which reflects her heritage, especially the Tarahumara, the indigenous peoples of Chihuaha. Many of her pieces involve covering panels with oil

Volume 21, No. 7

April 2015 ISSUE • 9

pastels which she then etches, removing the pastel to reveal the underpainting through detailed swirls and images.

Ines is as passionate about her town as she is about her work, crediting the people of Southeast Texas for inspiration.

“You find sense in life,” she says. “When you wake up, work, do things and just life goes on, when you find what you love from the very bottom of your heart and you create it, then you say, ‘This is what life is about.’ You find your purpose in life. And that is what happened with me with these magnificent people I met here in Beaumont.

“Beaumont sounds exciting to me now. People say to me, ‘I don’t understand,’ and I say, ‘Just wait.’

“A depressed person can be in the most exciting city in the world and they will be sad, so it’s not the town. It’s the eyes who are looking at it, it’s the feet that are walking in it — it’s not the town, it’s the person.”

Ines moved from Chihuahua, Mexico, in 2000, to Beaumont, where her parents lived in the 1970s.

“My older brother was already in the U.S. and we grew up very close,” she says. “It only took two years of being away from him for my parents to say, ‘We have to move back.”

Ines says her parents met in Southeast Texas.

“My father is from the north, Chihuahua, and she is from the south. They would never have met in Mexico, but they found each other in Beaumont, and that’s crazy, I think,” she says.

Although Ines says she is relatively new to the profession of art, she was always creative.

“I always knew that I liked color, but you are a young kid, you don’t know what art is,” she says. “Kindergarten was one of my favorite stages in school — the whole process of just creating and painting and coloring — that was the beginning. My teachers were always so encouraging, they were very supportive of anything I did as a little girl. They saw something I didn’t know I was going to be drawn to later.”

Ines credits her Central High School Spanish teacher for pushing her into art.

I had to take art,” she says. “My Spanish teacher, Miss Wall, she was just, “Ines, you have talent. You need to help me with the murals for the programs.’ And I said, ‘Yes, a group of us, we can do it.’ And she said, ‘No, I want you to do it.’”

Ines still has the mural she created for the Cinco de Mayo program.

“And nothing happened after that,” she says. “I think it took me really years and years until I encountered The Art Studio, and I met all these talented artists. It was everyone that did something. I remember thinking, ‘I like to paint, too, but I could never imagine me showing like they were doing it — but my life changed. My view of creating completely changed. That’s what made it, really.”

That was in 2011, the same year she met Homer Pilsbury.

“I like to mention him because he put Beaumont in a dif-

See FRIENDLY on page 12

Ines Alvidres poses with some of her work, left, which will be on display at Finder’s Fayre Antiques, beginning April 4.

Her work draws on her Mexican heritage, with bright colors and intricate patterns, above, etched into oil pastels.

10 • ISSUE April 2015

Volume 21, No. 7

A Roman Holiday for the Senses: “The world of high principles and intense feelings that he [Rubens] creates is so well forgotten, so complete, so definitive, that it takes on the aura of the canonical… It is Rubens’ pictorial language that seduces us.”

— Alejandro Vergara, senior curator of Flemish and Northern European paintings, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid.

THEY FLY, TWISTING AND turning in space, as if carried by a powerful wind. All you notice at first is a swirl of arms and legs, muscular and expressive, and then the bodies to which they belong come into focus. People, animals, demons and angels seem to be seized by the same frenzy, unable to cope with the unknown force that controls them. As we stand in front of this breathtaking scene we can almost feel the flow of the same energy running through our veins. We become a part of the drama which is unfolding in this 17th century tapestry, “The Victory of Truth over Heresy,” created after the designs by Peter Paul Rubens.

This spring, Houstonians have a rare chance to experience the awesome power of the most striking example of the Counter-Reformation art ever created. MFAH is one of only two American venues (the other one being the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, Calif.) to host a special exhibition from Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid, “Spectacular Rubens.” The exhibition features four large-size tapestries, along with Rubens’ six paintings, called modelli, and preliminary oil sketches on the subject of the “Triumph of the Eucharist.”

The Atrium of the Caroline Weiss Law Building, which houses the display, is barely recognizable. Instead of the familiar white walls, visitors are welcomed into an interior of the deepest blue. This somber background provides a striking contrast to the predominantly light brown, gold and yellow colors of the tapestries. From a distance it seems as if the tapestries are levitating in front of the walls.

Famous Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) needs no introduction. He is one of the greatest in the history of West-European art, standing next to such giants as Michelangelo and Titian, who were his near predecessors. Even those of us who have never have laid eyes on his paintings are familiar with the term “rubenesque,” which describes a voluptuously-shaped woman.

It is a well-known fact that quite a few paintings that came out of Rubens’ workshop were painted by his assistants, with the master adding a finishing touch, which was a common practice of the time.

This makes the paintings that are known to be painted by Rubens himself very special. The six modelli now on view at MFAH have this distinction.

The tapestries which were created after Rubens’s designs also are unique. Not only are they among the largest ever produced (their dimensions vary from 196 x195 inches to 193 x 295 1/2 inches), their quality is unparalleled. The weavers of two prominent workshops in Brussels, one run by Jan Raes I and the other one by Jacob Geubels II, managed to achieve the unimaginable: they recreated Rubens’s complex compositions, with their nuanced light and shade technique and subtle color variations, in the medium of dyed wool and silk. The weavers used a low-warp loom which allowed them to produce a horizontal strip of only a few inches wide at a time.

Tapestries were the most expensive art works of the time. So who was the patron and what was the occasion that demanded that the best artist and the finest weavers in the land devote themselves uncondition-

Story by Elena Ivanova

Peter Paul Rubens, THE VICTORY OF TRUTH OVER HERESY, above, c.

1625, oil on panel, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid.

WOVEN BY JACOB GEUBELS II AFTER DESIGNS BY PETER PAUL RUBENS, THE VICTORY OF TRUTH OVER HERESY, right, c. 1625–33, wool and silk, Patrimonio Nacional, Madrid, Monasterio de las Descalzas Reales.

Volume 21, No. 7

April 2015 ISSUE • 11

Spectacular Rubens at MFAH ally to this lofty project?

It was Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia (1566-1633), daughter of Phillip II of Spain and the governor-general of Southern Netherlands, who commissioned the set of 20 tapestries. It is estimated that she paid an amount equaling her monthly budget for military expenditures. The set was Infanta’s gift to the Franciscan Monasterio de las Dezscalas Reales (Convent of the Barefoot Royals) in Madrid. Today the tapestries still belong to the convent while at the same time they are cared for by Patrimonio Nacional (National Heritage Agency.)

The convent was a place of retirement for noblewomen, including members of the royal family, who wished to join the Order of Saint Clare, popularly known as “The Poor Clares.” It also served as a residence for the queen and royal children when the king traveled to other regions of the country. Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia spent her young years in Dezscalas Reales surrounded by powerful, devout women who actively participated in the affairs of the state.

Later in life, after becoming a widow, she took vows as a poor Clare herself, although at the request of the new king, her nephew Phillip IV, she stayed in the Southern Netherlands as governor-general.

Rubens painted a portrait of Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia in the poor Clare’s habit in 1625, the same year she commissioned him the “Triumph of the Eucharist” tapestry set. Although this portrait is not in the exhibition at MFAH, the face of the artist’s august patron is looking at us from the modello titled “The Defenders of the Eucharist.” Rubens gave Infanta’s features to St. Clare of Assisi, the only woman in the scene. While other saints are arguing the doctrine of transubstantiation (the transformation of bread into Christ’s body during the mass), St. Clare seems uninvolved. Standing in the center of the composition, with a monstrance in her hands, she is looking directly at the viewers. Her face is serene and confident: she seems to be one step ahead of the rest of the group — her decision has already been made.

There is evidence that the tapestries were commissioned by Infanta as an ex-voto — an offering to the church in fulfillment of a vow — after the Spanish army captured the city of Breda, thus having sealed a crucial victory over Protestant forces, in June of 1625. “Triumph of the Eucharist” was conceived as a celebration of the ultimate victory of the Counter-Reformation. Following his patron’s vision, Rubens, himself a devout Catholic, created allegorical tableaux which glorified the Catholic Church and cast into infamy its enemies – Protestants and adherents of other religions.

Today it may seem ironic that Rubens turned to images from the pagan antiquity to convey a Christian message.

The female figure that symbolizes the Catholic Church in the tapestries looks like a Roman goddess as she drives a chariot which is pulled sometimes by lions, sometimes by horses. People in her entourage have the athletic figures of ancient heroes that decorate pediments, triumphal arches

Peter Paul Rubens, THE TRIUMPH OF THE CHURCH, top, c. 1625, oil on panel, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid. WOVEN BY JAN RAES I AFTER DESIGNS BY PETER PAUL RUBENS, THE TRIUMPH OF THE CHURCH, above, c. 1625–33, wool and silk, Patrimonio Nacional, Madrid, Monasterio de las Descalzas Reales.

and columns. If it were not for Latin inscriptions that make references to the Eucharist and such symbols of the Christian faith as monstrances, one might assume that the artist portrayed some kind of a Roman holiday.

However, for Rubens and his contemporaries, there was no contradiction. In fact, the artist followed a long-established tradition of West-European religious painting that held Greek and Roman art as the highest standard. Rubens saw the goal of his art in bringing back the grandeur of antiquity for the glory of the Christian faith.

The artist’s knowledge of antique sculptures allowed him to conclude that ancients were physically and, hence, spiritually superior to modern people. Therefore, he freely applied Greco-Roman artistic formulas to portray Christian saints and biblical characters, casting them as superheroes of antiquity.

Rubens’ ideas of beauty were based in Pythagorean numeric relations found in nature. Since mathematical beauty implies clarity, he identified it with truth and moral honesty.

His heroes always look orderly and proportionate while the

evil ones are contorted and disorderly. In “The Victory of Truth over Heresy,” the perfect female figure of Truth is being carried through the air by a winged male figure of Time. The graceful movement of their intertwined bodies reminds us that the artist often chose his models among dancers.

By contrast, the figures of heretics — Calvin, Luther and Tanchelm of Antwerp — as well as those of a Muslim, a Jew and an iconoclast, are unnaturally twisted and lumped together in a shapeless mass as they try in vain to flee from the relentless advance of Truth.

Rubens frequently uses visual metaphors to underscore his point. In the same scene, in the foreground, he portrayed a lion and a fox engaged in a mortal combat. The muscular lion, his brow furrowed in the expression of an extreme mental and physical concentration, is holding in his grip the limp body of a fox whose tongue is sticking out as if the animal is gasping for air. Rubens was undoubtedly familiar with the writings of St. Augustine and St. Jerome in which heresy was compared to a cunning fox. However, one does not need to read these sources to understand the meaning of the allegory. In the popular mind, the lion is associated with everything noble and brave, while the fox represents deceit and malicious backstabbing.

Other visual metaphors are seen in “The Triumph of the Church,” the largest of the twenty tapestries. As the culminating scene in the story, it probably occupied the central place above the altar of the church at Dezcalas Reales.

Rubens depicts a festive procession which evokes associations with Roman parades in celebration of an important military victory. The Church, epitomized in the female figure holding a monstrance, is riding in a golden chariot surrounded by a jubilant crowd.

Her victory over heresy is complete, as the last recalcitrant adversaries are being crushed under the gem-studded wheel of her chariot. Next to the wheel, two men are walking looking glum and withdrawn. One of them, with a cover over his eyes, is bound with ropes while the other has donkey ears. They are oblivious to the light of the burning lamp in the hand of a woman behind them. The meaning of this metaphor is clear: only a blind or an ignorant person would continue to refuse to see the light of the true creed.

But figuring out the stories and visual metaphors, exciting as it is, is hardly the most rewarding part of the experience when we are in the presence of Rubens’ work. The beauty of his painting technique affects — or rather attacks — us on a physiological level. We are mesmerized by the luscious and luminous flesh, rich and almost palpable textures, and the glowing colors that look so vibrant as if the artist applied them yesterday.

In comparison to the paintings, the textiles look washed out — some dyes faded so much that only traces of the original color are still visible. The red pigment has been all but

See RUBENS on page 12

12 • ISSUE April 2015

Volume 21, No. 7

FRIENDLY from page 9 ferent place for me,” she says. “All the people that say Beaumont is not exciting, Homer showed me the exciting Beaumont from decades (ago), what it was and what it still is, and all the history we have. That really excited me about it — the music, the people he knew. And he really pushed me, ‘Let’s do Art in the Park in Orange, I will carry your paintings, get them in the car and I’ll drive you there.”

Pilsbury introduced Ines to Delle Bates and Tom Windham and other artists, and she soon found herself sharing ideas and working processes with them.

“These talented artists were telling me there was something there — that really blew me away, because I was inspired by their work,” she says.

As she continues to work and surround herself with artistic friends, the work continues to evolve and she finds ideas continue to develop.

“It’s just a matter of keep doing things so they can come out,” she says. “I think they are always in you, it’s just a matter of getting them out. When you do one, you are ready for the next stage and the next part of you, because you have layers.”

Ines has shown at Beaumont’s High Street Gallery and Port Arthur’s Texas Artist Museum. Her work is also available at Wine Styles in Beaumont.

“The openings are always a big party and I think it is a reward for all the work I go through,” she says.

Ines met Finder’s Fayre’s Dexter Augier around a decade ago, she says, and he gave her a book on how to be successful. Seven or eight years later, Augier went to the opening of the show at High Street Gallery. She says she was happy to see him and they discussed the story behind a piece and he decided to buy it.

“We completed the transaction and I said, ‘You know, I always remember the time you gave me this little book,’ and his eyes went, ‘Who are you? When did I give you that book?’ I said, ‘Do you remember giving me that book?’ and he said, ‘Oh, my god, it’s you.’ He had never connected the two girls. All the time I had been talking to him thinking he remembered me and he didn’t.”

RUBENS from page 11 lost, surviving only in the areas where the tapestries suffered the least light exposure. Nevertheless, they haven’t lost any of their commanding presence and are still capable of making us feel small and insignificant, which was undoubtedly the vision of the artist and his royal patron, Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia.

It is an exciting pursuit to look for differences between the paintings and the tapestries. For starters, we notice that the tapestries show Rubens’ paintings in reverse. However, the compositions that the artist intended for the viewers are actually the ones we see in the tapestries. Rubens was well aware of the fact that we, Europeans, were “culturally programmed” to reading scenes from left to right. Therefore, in

Tarahumara III by Ines Alvidres Augier invited Ines to visit Finder’s Fayre to talk about a showing, but she didn’t for a year or two because she didn’t think she was ready, she says. But in April last year, she took the leap and they agreed on a date for the exhibit.

“Between last April and this, everything has changed in my life,” she says. “It is a year that has transformed who Ines is — for the better.

“I really do want to say how emotional and how inspired I have been in this town, and embrace what we are. There’s

a group of us that are going to make this town a better place — and I’m ready, because the future looks really, really appetizing.”

Visitors to her show will find it is not only her abstracts that are “friendly” — the friendliest thing in the room will be the artist herself.

Finder’s Fayre is located in the Mildred Building on the corner of Calder and MLK Parkway in Beaumont. Ines Alvidres’ show will open 5 p.m. to 9 p.m..

his modelli, he deliberately painted the movement as unfolding from right to left, so when the scenes were reversed during the weaving process, we would see them “the right way.”

One cannot but marvel at the ingenious ways by which Rubens maintains the balance between illusion and disbelief. On one hand, all characters in the tapestries are extremely lifelike and the space seems to be three-dimensional. On the other hand, at a closer look, we notice that each scene is painted on a curtain which is being held at the edges by putti. The lower edge of the curtain is rolled up and sometimes pushed aside to reveal an object, such as a globe, or fighting animals.

In some cases, Rubens painted a shadow cast by a putto on the curtain, to reinforce the impression that we are looking at the painted surface. At the same time, a character oc-

casionally appears to be “stepping off” the curtain, his foot precariously hanging over the ledge, thus supporting the illusion of reality.

The columns that frame each scene are depicted in amazing detail. One can imagine that when the tapestries were displayed at the church, these columns must have blended with the surrounding architecture and looked convincingly real.

However, Rubens is not a painter of trompe-l’oeil. He is not interested in luring us with a perfect illusion of reality.

He creates complex compositions, with a painting within a painting within a painting, and challenges us to discover multiple layers of artistic and religious contents while staging a Roman holiday for our senses.

“Spectacular Rubens” is on view at MFAH through May 10. For more information, visit www.mfah.org.

Volume 21, No. 7

April 2015 ISSUE • 13

Around & About If you come across any interesting exhibitions, museums or other places on your travels, share them with us. Call 409-838-5393, or contact us through our web site at www.artstudio.org. Be sure to include the location and dates of the subject, as well as any costs.

BCP to present ‘Circle Mirror Transformation’ beginning April 10 IN A SMALL TOWN acting class, the drama and humor of everyday life takes center stage.

Beaumont Community Players’ production of “Circle Mirror Transformation,” by Annie Baker, will run for three weekends beginning April 10.

“Circle Mirror Transformation” explores the lives of four souls who enroll in Marty’s six-week-long, community center drama class. As the class begins to experiment with harmless games, hearts are quietly torn apart, and tiny wars of epic proportions are waged and won. In this beautifully crafted play we see, with hilarious detail and clarity, the antic sadness of a motley quintet.

The production features an ensemble comprising Rachel Cain (Marty), Michael Mason (Schultz), Gretchen Randall (Theresa), Clifford Teasley (James) and Anselyn Joya (Lauren).

Listed among the top 10 plays of 2009 by The New Yorker, The New York Times and Time Out New York, this quirky “indie charmer” (Los Angeles Times) won the 2010 Obie Award for Best New American

Play and received a Drama Desk nomination for best play. Charles Isherwood raved in The New York Times calling the play, “Rich, unforgettable theater. The kind of unheralded gem that sends people into the streets babbling and bright-eyed with the desire to spread the word. For lovers of real acting, Ms. Baker’s play is an absolute feast.”

BCP’s production is directed by Michael Saar.

“Circle Mirror Transformation achieves what great theatre aims to do, it captures the human experience and is simultaneously engaging, funny and inspiring. This is a real actor-driven production with beautifully written, flawed and recognizable characters,” Saar said. “The talented cast of actors are al- The cast rehearse a scene from “Circle Mirror Transformation,” opening April 11 at Beaumont Community ready blowing me away and I can’t wait for Courtesy photo Players. them to get in front of an audience.” seniors. Student rush tickets, sold 30 minMcMillan Studio Theatre at Beaumont “Circle Mirror Transformation” is rated Community Players’ Betty Greenberg Cenutes before showtime when seats are availPG-13 for adult language. ter for the Performing Arts, 4155 Laurel able, are $8.

Performances are 7:30 p.m. April 10-11, Ave. in Beaumont.

For tickets, call 409-833-4664 or visit 17-18 and 23-25, and 2 p.m. April. 18. www.beaumontcommunityplayers.com.

Tickets are $18 for adults and $16 for Performances will be in the Jerry L. THE HIGH STREET GALLERY will host an exhibition of woodblock prints by MAURICE ABELMAN, 7-10 p.m., April 17.

The gallery is located in Victoria House, 2110 Victoria St. in Beaumont.

Lamar graduate Abelman’s work is influenced by street artists like Shepard Fairey, Banksy, and Swoon.

“I’ve been influence by various contemporary printmakers from the Dirty Printmakers of America to greats like Tom Huck, Ryan O’Malley, Joseph Velasquez, Peeter Allik and Xenia Fedorchenko,” Abelman said. “Other artist in history that I constantly look to for inspiration are Francisco Goya, Albrecht Durer, and William Hogarth.

“My work is a reflection of the people around me and the society in which I live. I try to express the concerns and desires, drives and passions of people that I interact with and that I’m a part of. In the past I’ve relied upon the news and social media to derive the content from my work, but I have started to expand that to the stories of indi-

vidual people that they may tell me about their lives. I am most interested in the things that motive people and that keep them living together as a family, as a community, and as a society. I am also interested in the issues (small and great) that guide and govern American society as a whole.

The title of the exhibition is “The Struggle for Prosperity in a Colorless World.”

“Since graduating from Lamar last year I've been struggling to survive in this area off my skills as a designer and as an artist, “ he said. “For some reason people don't show artists the respect they deserve. This show is about this struggle. “ For more information visit the High Street Gallery Facebook page, Victoria House’s website at www.NakedDads.com, or www.AbelmanArt.com. __________ The BEAUMONT ART LEAGUE will host the NECHES RIVER FESTIVAL SHOW, April 15 through April 25, with a re-

ception 2 p.m to 4 p.m., April 19th.

Submissions for the show will be accepted April 8 through April 11, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The League is located at 4375 Gulf in Beaumont.

For information, visit www.beaumontartleague.org. __________ The ART MUSEUM OF SOUTHEAST TEXAS will host WILL-AMELIA STERNS PRICE: MIKE'S ROAD TO TAOS, April 25 to Aug. 30.

Born in Denison in 1907, Price was a major figure in the development of Beaumont's art scene. This exhibition includes paintings and drawings focusing on her time in Taos, New Mexico. Sterns Price assisted in the founding of the Beaumont Art Museum.

AMSET is located at 500 Main St. in downtown Beaumont.

For more, visit www.amset.org.

14 • ISSUE April 2015

Volume 21, No. 7

BALL from page 6 to support it,” Alli said.

Debutante balls are not a new idea. They are a tradition that dates back centuries.

They originated in the 16th century, as Queen Elizabeth I began presenting the ladies of the court. Until this time, girls were usually hidden from the public until the age of 18. Queen Victoria followed suit and added a formal presentation of the young women adding the traditional wearing of a white gown and the official bow called a “curtsey.”

According to Jennifer Edson Escalas’ 1993 article, “The Consumption of Insignificant Rituals: a Look At Debutante Balls”, the debs’ presentation to society meant that they were formally allowed to begin courtship.

This tradition continued after England settled North America. It fell out of fashion in the mid-20th Century, but returned in the 1980s.

Helen Peiler, a 25-year-old debutante from Beaumont who identifies as asexual, participated in the Neches River Festival when she was in high school.

She said all the debs in the Neches River Festival had to wear white, making it difficult to distinguish one girl from the next.

Peiler agreed to participate in the NRF with a friend and thought, “Oh, this will be fun — we can be princesses in high school.”

Her friend dropped out and Peiler had to participate alone; restrictions included her choice in escort, which had to be a boy in her grade and from her school.

“The only person I knew who fit into that category ended up being a friend’s boyfriend, and that led to a little bit of trouble,” she said. “Even though we were friends, we just didn’t know how to talk to each other without other people around.”

Peiler said the Coming Out Ball gives her a chance to make the debutante experience more personal — including the freedom to choose her escort.

“I have asked my best friend, Julianna Babington, to be my escort,” Peiler said. “We have been friends since I was 13 and she was 12 — we met at a Bible camp.”

The color scheme for the ball reflects the rainbow flag traditionally associated with queer causes.

“We get to pick whichever color we like and fits in,” Peiler said. “So we get to add a little bit more personality in this one.”

The term “coming out” originated from the queer debutante balls of the early 20th Century.

In the 1994 book, “Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World,” historian George Chauncey writes, “Gay people in the prewar years did not speak of coming out of what we now call the ‘gay closet’ but rather of coming out into what they called ‘homosexual society’ or the ‘gay world,’ a world neither so small, nor so isolated, nor, often, so hidden as ‘closet’ implies.

“Like much of campy gay terminology, ‘coming out’ was an arch play on the language of women’s culture — in this case the expression used to refer to the ritual of a debutante’s being formally introduced to, or ‘coming out’ into the society of her cultural peers.”

According to Chauncey, gay male culture was integrated into

Mission Statement Founded in 1983, The Art Studio, Inc. is devoted to: providing opportunities for interaction between the public and the Southeast Texas community of artists; furnishing affordable studio space to originating artists of every medium; promoting cultural growth and diversity of all art forms in Southeast Texas; and providing art educational opportunities to everyone, of every age, regardless of income level, race, national origin, sex or religion.

PURPOSE

Helen Peiler shops for a gown for the Pride Coming Out Ball to be held ISSUE photo by JoLee Tanner April 18 in the Dishman Art Museum straight society and it wasn’t until after prohibition that new social norms restructured gay culture.

“To use the modern idiom,” he writes, “the state built a closet in the 1930s and forced gay people to hide in it.”

Peiler said even though she came out as asexual in high school, and in the past few years made it “Facebook official,” some people still ask when she is going to get a boyfriend.

“Some just aren’t on Facebook, so they didn’t get that memo,” she said. “I have told (some friends and family) but they just sort of blew it off. And then I tried to give them material to read and they blew that off, too.

“With the ball, and with other members of the family supporting me, I think it is finally starting to click that this is real.”

Besides being a life-affirming celebration for debs, and an opportunity to mingle with a varied social circle, the ball is an important fundraiser for Pride, the area’s biggest queer event.

“Approximately 3,000 people attended last year’s festival, and we are expecting thousands more in 2015,” Henson said. “It is typical for Pride events to nearly double in size each year, and events like that cost money.”

Beaumont Pride is a nonprofit organization.

“We rely on sponsorship, donations and fundraising to put on events like Pride that educate the public and make our community a safer place,” Henson said. “It is wonderful that it is growing and we can do things like this formal event.”

For more information, visit the website or email BeaumontPride@gmail.com.

The Dishman Art Museum is located at 1030 E. Lavaca St. on the Lamar University campus.

The purpose of The Art Studio, Inc. is to (1) provide educational opportunities between the general public and the community of artists and (2) to offer sustained support for the artist by operating a non-profit cooperative to provide studio space and exhibition space to working artists and crafts people, and to provide an area for group work sessions for those artists and crafts people to jointly offer their labor, ideas, and enthusiasm to each other.

1.

2.

3.

4.

GOALS To present public exhibitions To provide educational opportunities To provide accessible equipment for artists To provide peer feedback through association with other artists and crafts people

OBJECTIVES 1. To present 10 art exhibitions per year 2. To maintain equipment for artists in a safe working environment 3. To provide better access to artists for the public 4. To offer regularly scheduled adult and children’s classes 5. To develop and maintain public activities with all sectors of the community 6. To develop and maintain equipment to aid artists in their work 7. To provide a display retail outlet for artists 8. To expand programming and activities with increased facility space This project was funded in part by the B.A. & E.W. Steinhagen Benevolent Trust through the Southeast Texas Arts Council.

Volume 21, No. 7

April 2015 ISSUE • 15

Thoughtcrime

Submission Guidelines and Disclaimer ISSUE solicits and publishes the work of local authors. Poetry, short fiction, scholarly works and opinion pieces may be submitted for review. All works must be typed and may be sent to TASI by email or by messaging the ISSUE Facebook page.

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Between the Frets

Archaeology

The message is among the notes Syncopated notes, Major, minor notes Weave in and out seductively beautiful and carry the message into the next stanza Weaving a story through each fret On and on into the horizon

Egyptian copper, salt, and kohl, twisted rope to trade.

Tombs to find to hide our dead and tell the future well of what we were today.

Jesse Doiron

Like jasper, clear as crystal At His solstice, among the wood and stone, with silent windows whose holy art could not sing from mere candle-points of light both billions of miles and billions of years away, it was neither love nor fear but Majesty that swept me up, only to have me kneel.

That unclouded and knowing night I recall like jasper, clear as crystal.

At His table, among the marble and linen, with gleaming ware He would not have used, the sanctuary was a kaleidoscope: infinite shards blessing the very air, anointing and alighting each communicant.

Divided from myself I stood with cup and plate and observed me chanting that afternoon like jasper, clear as crystal.

Memories lie between the notes, The said ones, the felt ones The brush of music between the Frets, singing my song, my soul healed once again among the notes, between the frets

Two doves, inspecting the painting, planting, cleaning, nod approvingly.

But oh, in that most gloomy closet where neither face nor form are sanctified, where neither face nor form are profaned by taper, sun, or star; where neither name nor clan are respected and conversion is unknown; where neither prayers nor hymns have been uttered, we were still held to be His: precious like jasper, clear as crystal.

Cathy Atkinson

Andy Coughlan

Marti Martinson

Yard Work Haiku

VIEW from page 3

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to the driving need for a creative outlet and having funds to do it.

The decrease in gas prices could have had a positive effect on class participation.

Artist win! I don’t know if it’s a trend or a flash in the pan, but I’m excited anytime I have students who want to learn something as fascinating as the arts.

The Sculpture Invitational in March was the brainchild of Elizabeth French who, against her better judgement, chose a gaggle of sculptors — known and unknown — to present an exhibition at The Art Studio.

Herding cats is the description of her task at hand. Iron-willed Elizabeth persevered and an art show congealed.

Thanks to all the artists that participated in the show, thanks to the hundreds of people who came to see the show, and a special thanks to Eli for putting together a memorable exhibition. There will be more to come.

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