2019 October Oak Cliff

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Lasting legacy

Longtime Oak Cliff resident “Smokey” John Reaves died from complications of diabetes in August at age 74. Reaves, a former mortgage broker, and his wife, Gloria, opened Big John’s, the predecessor to Smokey John’s Bar-B-Que and Home Cooking, on West Mockingbird Lane near Harry Hines, in 1976. They lived in the Oak Park Estates neighborhood and sent their two sons, Juan and Brent, to Bishop Dunne Catholic School. Juan and Brent Reaves now own Smokey John’s, and they had to rebuild it after a fire in September 2017. The restaurant reopened in February.

In film

Did you know that the new horror camp film “Satanic Panic” was filmed partially in Oak Cliff? The main character is a pizza delivery gal, and some scenes were shot inside Home Run Pizza on Jefferson Boulevard.

Our recent mention of Top Ten Records, the 66-year-old record store on Jefferson Boulevard, drew two very different responses.

“I remember buying 45s at Top Ten with my allowance, over 35 years ago or longer. Wow!”

- Criss Luna

“I remember buying CDs. South Park Mexican and Juan Gotti.”

- Abraham Rangel

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ABOUT THE COVER

Steve Hunter’s “Bat Girl” mural in the Bishop Arts District. See page 26 for an interview with Hunter.

Photography by Danny Fulgencio.

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CONTENTS

UP FRONT

8 Going with the flow

Artist Haylee Ryan rides the mural craze wave.

14 If you build it, they will come

Elijah Salazar just wanted a nice coffee close to home.

16 Looky-lou

See inside these stunning OC abodes.

FEATURES

18 How to mural fest

24 Visit the Fabrication Yard

30 Get to know Doyle Bramhall

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PHOTO BY DANNY FULGENCIO

THE ROUNDUP

PIECE OF THE PAST

COMING AND GOING

[+] COMING

Trompo Bishop Arts was expected to open at 407 W. Tenth St. in September. Luis Olvera spent years planning a Bishop Arts expansion while running Trompo on Singleton Boulevard in West Dallas. This version of the barebones but beloved taquería has B.A.D. flair, including an outdoor dining space.

[–] GOING

Mi Lindo Oaxaca closed after less than a year in its second location, a two-story building on North Willomet at West Davis. This locally owned Mexican restaurant did well enough in its former location on Fort Worth Avenue that the owners moved to a bigger space in early 2019. We hear they now have plans to open a taquería in another location.

[+] COMING

THE OAK CLIFF HOTEL

Thomas L. Marsalis built the Oak Cliff hotel at Jefferson and Crawford, where the Oak Cliff Municipal Building is now, in 1889. Building it cost $100,000, which would be about $3 million today. It opened on July 10, 1890, and had 100 rooms. The magnificent hotel announced it would close for the winter in November 1891, and it never reopened. Marsalis overextended himself developing Oak Cliff and was in so much financial trouble that he moved his family to New York that year. He sold the hotel, and it served as the Oak Cliff College For Young Ladies starting in 1892. By 1904, it was a hotel again. It operated as the Hotel Cliff and the Forest Inn and was demolished in 1945. —RACHEL STONE

Raising Cane’s is expected to open at Wynnewood Village Shopping Center Oct. 8. The Louisiana-based fast-food chain has 484 stores nationwide, including this one. Brixmor Property Group is planning a $30 million renovation of Wynnewood and signed leases with LA Fitness and Maya Cinemas.

[–] GOING

There are no longer Zang Boulevard exits from Interstate 35. The Texas Department of Transportation closed the Zang Boulevard exit from northbound Interstate 35 in September. The southbound exit closed several months ago, and Beckley Avenue is now the exit to take for Zang and 12th. It was an odd sweep of an exit, a quirky part of Oak Cliff traffic that’s been there since about 1956 when the interstate was built.

Images courtesy of DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University

The “igloo” on Zang. Polar Bear ice cream closed decades ago, but it’s one of Oak Cliffers’ favorite memories. The unique building on Zang fell into disrepair years ago, and its future remains in peril.

“My late husband and I had our second date there in ’71. Must have been magical because we got married a month later and lived “happily ever after” for over 35 years. Ah, the good old days.”

— Sharon Welling Gilbert

WE CAN’T STOP TALKING ABOUT

This music is important to us and to other people. This is our career. It’s what we do. For some reason, in rock ‘n’ roll, it’s like, aren’t you supposed to grow out of this? And it’s like, why? I want to be an artist. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

- JOHN DOE, WHO APPEARED AT A BOOK SIGNING AT THE WILD DETECTIVES IN SEPTEMBER, ON 40 YEARS WITH PIONEER LOS ANGELES PUNK ROCK BAND X.

the hot list

STICKUP ENDS WHEN COWBOY CLERK LASSOS ROBBER

24-YEAR-OLD FACES LIFE IN PRISON RELATED TO DRIVE-BY SHOOTINGS

WHY DID KIDD SPRINGS POOL CLOSE FOR THE SEASON AFTER TWO MONTHS?

WHAT STINKS AT OAK CLIFF NATURE PRESERVE?

EL JORDAN OWNER JOSÉ GONZALEZ DIES OF CANCER

OCT. 10

POKER RUN

It’s a bar crawl, scavenger hunt and poker game all in one. Visit five Bishop Arts District locations, draw a playing card at each one and receive a 6-ounce drink for $1. At the end, whichever team has the winning poker hand wins a prize. Best part? It’s a fundraiser for the philanthropic Oak Cliff Lions Club. $30 per person or $50 per couple.

Where: Dallas Grilled Cheese Co., 310 W. Seventh St. More info: oakclifflions.club

BIZ BUZZ

URBAN HIPPIE relocated to the Typo Campus, on West Davis at Tyler, last month. The business offers yoga, chiropractic, massage and other “wellness” services such as sound baths and infrared sauna.

THE BISHOP ARTS THEATRE CENTER received a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment of the Arts to support an arts workshop for seniors. The Silver Stories Storytelling Circle combats social isolation and loneliness among seniors through creative writing, improvisation, visual art and storytelling.

THE ROTARY CLUB OF DALLAS gave a “service above self” award to Megan Malone of Townview Magnet Center, who teaches AP Government and AP Economics. The award is given to educators who “go the extra mile” for their students. Malone coaches academic teams and coordinates Destination Imagination, which teaches STEM principles. She won $2,500 and a plaque.

THE BISHOP HIGHLINE APARTMENTS donated $5,000 to the Guide Dogs of Texas in honor of Denton-based artist John Bramblitt, who is legally blind and painted murals on two of their Bishop Arts area apartment buildings.

5 things to do in Oak Cliff this October

OCT. 3

Mammogram mamas

Kick up your heels at a first-Thursday wine walk in Bishop Arts and raise money for breast cancer prevention. The nonprofit Mammogram Poster Girls’ signature event, Shop, Eat, Drink, Pink! is from 6-9 p.m. with entertainment, food and drink and a wine tasting. Proceeds fund mammograms for women and men who otherwise couldn’t afford them.

$65

Where: House of Dirt, 408 W. Seventh St.

More info: mammogrampostergirls.org

OCT. 6

Kurosawa

Here is a chance to see “Seven Samurai” on the big screen. The 1954 Akira Kurosawa epic screens at 2 p.m. The American version, John Sturges’ 1960 “The Magnificent Seven” shows the following weekend, at 5 p.m. Oct. 13. $11

Where: The Texas Theatre, 231 W. Jefferson Blvd. More info: thetexastheatre.com

OCT. 26

Spooky comics

A family friendly Halloween comic fest offers comics and treats all day.

Where: Red Pegasus Comics, 319 N. Bishop Ave. More info: redpegasuscomics.org

OCT. 31-NOV. 2

Days of the dead

This three-day celebration of los Días de los Muertos features ofrendas designed by Ofelia Faz Garza, dance troupes from Anita N. Martinez Ballet Folklorico and choirs from Greiner middle school. Bring flowers, photos, food and candles to leave on the ofrendas.

Where: Arts Mission Oak Cliff, 410 S. Windomere Ave. More info: verdigrismusic.org

UP FRONT

Interview by RACHEL STONE | Photography by DANNY FULGENCIO

MEMORABLE MURALIST

Haylee Ryan turns streetscapes into a side hustle

Haylee Ryan paints attractive abstract figures and landscapes that often draw from historical photos and explore the concepts of memory and nostalgia. She also works as a parttime art teacher at Hogg Elementary.

But over the past five years or so, demand for murals took her career on a new turn.

“Murals have been a surprise side gig, and I’m riding the wave,” she says.

A few years ago, Exxir Capital asked Ryan and another artist, Courtney Miles, to paint murals on 120 feet of particleboard panels that concealed construction on their developments at Bishop and Melba. They painted colorful, oversized Texas animals and botanicals. Her mural work has been in demand since then.

The 33-year-old grew up in Irving, attending Uplift North Hills Prep and the University of Dallas, where she studied under Oak Cliff-based artist Kim Owens. She lived in Bend, Oregon, where she apprenticed with artist Glenn Ness for about a year before returning to Dallas and settling in Oak Cliff. She shares a studio at Tyler Station with her best friend and band-mate, Amanda Page of Zephyr Flora.

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Her first mural was for the 42 Murals project in Deep Ellum:

I love to paint large, but this was like enormous, and I didn’t know anything about murals. How do you get on a ladder this tall? I didn’t know about scaffolding or projection. It was a photo collage of what Deep Ellum looked like in the ’30s and ’40s. My friend Cindy McCord’s father was a photographer [M.F. Truelove], and I used his photos as a basis for the mural. The fact that I got to do that so large, for that many people and that I got to paint his name on the side of it was really special. Everything in the city is growing and changing so rapidly, so for me to paint it as it was then was really interesting.

Her style:

My style is this mixture of abstraction and realism. Also, negative space with layers. There’s hyper-detail, usually in oil and full color. It usually is the figure itself, the face and the skin. And then abstraction where things are not as clear in the memory.

My passion is to paint figures and tell stories. My best friend owns a floral shop, and she’s incredible. So I decided to try out my painting style that I use with figures … take out the figures and do it on plants and floral. I started painting her floral designs and installations. I would take photos of stuff that were just leftovers on the table and use them. I did a show at Neighborhood called “Pricks and Buds,” and it almost sold out. It’s my only show ever to do that.

Where murals take her:

I got a random email a few years ago asking if I wanted to paint inside a restaurant in

Tishomingo, Oklahoma. I was like, “probably not.” Because why would I want to go to Tishomingo? I’d never heard of that. But I looked into it and found out it was signage for something called Ole Red. It turns out it was Blake Shelton’s music venue chain that is blowing up all over the country. I’ve gone to Gatlinburg, and I’m going to Orlando for them in the fall. Somebody saw those and hired me in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, which I loved. These murals are starting to let me move around and travel. I did one in Mexico City for my friend who has a nonprofit down there.

Her mural of a woman on a horse on the side of Tejas restaurant:

It’s enormous. I had to get on a boom lift with Arturo, who has become my close friend. He is head of construction for Exxir. Totally wild. Those flowers are like 5-feet wide. That mural almost killed me. Unbelievable.

Her band, Sister:

It’s like blues rock with a lot of harmonies. We started as an acoustic duet. [Page] grew up as a musician. Her whole family was traveling musicians. When she and I met 16 years ago. I was fumbling through the guitar and couldn’t sing a lick. I’ve learned how to sing through her and her family. Our shtick is that we have one voice. We’re a full band now, and the heart of Sister is our voices. We have a 90-minute set now, so we’re moving up in the world. We just played at the Kessler, which is a dream come true. We opened for David Garza, which was unbelievable.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

“Everything in the city is growing and changing so rapidly, so for me to paint it as it was then was really interesting.”

Photo by Christina Childress

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CHALKING IT UP

THE ARTIST BEHIND THE TEXAS THEATRE’S COCKTAIL BOARDS

Interview by RACHEL STONE / Photography by DANNY FULGENCIO

THE TEXAS THEATRE matches its features to its cocktail menus.

“Uncle Ed-Nog” and “The Inventor” accompanied “Christmas Vacation” and “Edward Scissorhands” last holiday season, for example.

Every time the menu changes, artist Jenny Lane is there to chalk it up on the board. This is a small detail of the theater, their chalkboard cocktail menu, but it’s one that receives star treatment.

Lane creates a unique work of art for each one.

“Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” David Bowie, Prince and “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” are among her subjects.

A fine-arts painter, Lane started doing chalk art as a way to make quick cash.

“I was 23 and super broke and in an apartment I couldn’t afford,” she says. “I needed money for groceries.”

So she started going to entertainment districts like Bishop Arts and asking restaurant managers if she could write their chalkboard menus in exchange for cash, gift cards or sometimes, dinners.

She did that for about eight months before Look Cinemas hired her about six years ago to create chalk scenes on a huge slate wall in their Addison theater.

“They let me be as ambitious as I wanted,” she says.

She created an 8-foot chalk mural for “Star Wars: The Last of the Jedi” and another for “The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug.” That one featured a depiction of Smaug the dragon.

“I hated myself by the end of that because it took me over 20 hours,” she says. “I didn’t think about having to draw each individual scale.”

That’s where Barak Epstein of the Texas Theatre found her.

“The Texas Theatre is my favorite client,” she says. “I’ve never seen so much effort put into curating movies. They do so much, and they still have $3 Lone Stars.”

Using sticks of chalk is hard on the skin and can be inexact. Besides that, it’s easy to erase. So Lane usually uses chalk pens and liquid chalk.

Her first murals were done in chalk, and now murals are a big part of her income as an artist. She’s participating for the second year in the Wild West Mural Fest (see page 18).

Lane didn’t have the heart to erase her David Bowie board at the Texas Theatre, because he was her favorite artist. And there are some that the theater hangs onto. They still use the “Blade Runner” board that Lane painted three years ago for annual screenings.

But Lane has no hesitation when erasing a board.

“Now that I’ve done it for so long, I just have no attachment,” she says. “It taught me this beautiful lesson that nothing is permanent, and holding onto things is just going to hurt you.”

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MAKE COFFEE HAPPEN

KIESTWOOD NEEDED PEABERRY COFFEE

ELIJAH SALAZAR wanted a coffee shop in his neighborhood.

After the Oak Cliff native and his wife, Ann, moved to Kiestwood a few years ago, he missed having a convenient stop for good coffee on his way to work.

“Between here and 67, there’s a couple of gas stations and a doughnut place,” he says. “I just noticed that nothing was really popping up here the way it is in north Oak Cliff.”

He decided to take a year off from his job as a Dallas ISD teacher and start his own coffee shop.

Peaberry Coffee

2446 W. Kiest Blvd.

Hours: Monday-Friday, 6:30 a.m.-3 pm.; Saturday, 7 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sunday, 7 a.m.-12 p.m. peaberrycoffeeoc.com

Salazar opened Peaberry Coffee in the Kiestwood shopping center in January.

“I kind of lucked out,” he says. “You don’t have to be a derivative of Starbucks. You can have craft coffee and do things the right way, and people will respond.”

The menu is simple. Salazar calls it the “greatest hits of specialty coffee.” And they use single-origin coffee for their drip. Pastries come from Moreish Donuts and Hannah’s Gluten Free Bakery.

The shop itself is simple too. There are two long tables, a couch and room for kids to play. The walls are adorned with Wheron’s simplistic

Story by RACHEL STONE | Photography by KATHY TRAN

Above: An iced latte to go from Peaberry Coffee. Elijah Salazar opened the shop because he wanted a good cup of coffee on the way to work.

murals (see page 18).

They rely on good service and a quality cup.

The demand was there. Peaberry has a stable of loyal regulars.

Salazar says the shopping center’s owners have plans to resurface the parking lot and create outdoor seating. He expects that to draw in new customers.

Originally, Salazar had no intention of returning to work. But after a long-term sub gig at the end of the last school year, he realized he missed teaching.

“It’s fulfilling in a different way,” he says.

So he went back to teaching at Jimmie Tyler Brashear Elementary in August. Ann Salazar teaches at Christo Rey Dallas College Prep, and they have a 2-year-old.

His brother and an employee run the shop while they’re working.

“The whole purpose of our shop is to serve the community,” Salazar says. “To be here for the neighborhood. We’re trying to be reliable, as consistent as possible and quality focused.”

Above: Peaberry serves “the greatest hits of specialty coffee,” plus treats from Moreish Donuts and Hannah’s Gluten Free Bakery.

“You can have craft coffee and do things the way you want, and people will respond.”

UNIQUELY OAK CLIFF

LOOK INSIDE THAT HOUSE YOU’VE ALWAYS WANTED TO SEE

A PAIR OF ECLECTIC 1920S HOUSES will open their doors to the public this month, offering ticket holders a chance to check out their unique interiors.

Anyone who’s done a lap around Lake Cliff Park likely has noticed these shingle-covered homes tucked deep into their lots at the corner of Blaylock Drive and East Fifth Street.

The same family built 606 and 616 Blaylock in 1923 for a generational compound. An empty lot between the two homes served as private park space for the original family.

The homes — one now belongs to Eva Gordon and the other to Dale Dietert and Charles Hammett — are among 10 on this year’s Heritage Oak Cliff Fall Home Tour. This is the 45th-annual tour. It started in 1975 as the Urban Pioneer Tour and included 12 homes — five in East Dallas, three in Oak Lawn and four in Winnetka Heights.

While the tour has ventured as far south as Oak Park Estates and Bretton Woods, this year’s tour homes are mostly northern: Lake Cliff, Kessler and Stevens Park, Wynnewood

North, Bishop Arts and Winnetka.

The homes range from a 1956 mid-century modern single-story home built on a hill in Kessler Park to a Winnetka Heights “airplane bungalow” — similar to a craftsman but with a pop-up second story that resembles a cockpit — outfitted in Scandinavian style.

Viewing the collections, art, furnishings and personal style of the homeowners is reason enough to buy a ticket.

HERITAGE OAK CLIFF FALL HOME TOUR

When: Oct. 19-20

Cost: $15-$20

Tickets: Search “Heritage Oak Cliff Home Tour” at eventbrite.com.

Why: All proceeds fund grants awarded annually to neighborhood associations, which have used them for crime watch, sidewalks, sign toppers, landscaping, supporting neighborhood schools and other projects. Since 2014, the nonprofit has given $148,000 to neighborhood associations.

Story by RACHEL STONE | Photos courtesy of HERITAGE OAK CLIFF

Above: The kitchen at 606 Blaylock Drive was once featured in Cottage Living magazine. Below: The house at 616 Blaylock was built by the same family at the same time as the house next door. Opposite page: A dreamy pool on North Oak Cliff Boulevard.

A few of the homes, like the home of John Whittemore and Logan Ragsdale at 648 N. Manus, appear to be mild-mannered suburban-style ranchers. But when you step inside, it’s like a gallery with contemporary art and an inspired balance of traditional and modern furniture.

And then there are the pools.

Perhaps the most impressive is at 845 N. Oak Cliff Blvd., home of Enrique MacGregor and Mark Niermann, a one-of-a-kind mid-century modern house on Stevens Park Golf Course. The cabana, created from the home’s original garage, has a wall of glass doors that open on an expansive deck and infinity-edge fountain, which flows into a rectangular pool. The patio and landscape design drive home the modern angles. Workers on the pool and cabana additions found a cave, full of debris and yard waste, that the homeowners suspect could’ve been used as part of a moonshine distillery during prohibition.

Speaking of additions, 2018 Mayflower Drive was built in 1936, and its current owners moved there in 1992. Mary Alice and Monty Ayers lived in its original 1,100 square feet for 25 years until Mary Alice, who used the woodshop out back as her design and art studio, drafted up a plan for expansion. They doubled the size of the house, adding a huge library with built-in bookcases and a “universal design” master bath — it has no steps or ledges into the shower — for aging in place.

Go see all 10 houses if possible. After 45 years of planning a home tour, Heritage Oak Cliff has this down. Every house is a stunner.

Tickets/Info: heritageoakcliff.org

L ive N ation P remium T ickets

An eclectic selection of Oak Cliff’s unique residential architecture

WELCOME TO THE WILD WEST

MURAL FEST BRINGS PUBLIC ART TO WALLS NEAR YOU

Story by RACHEL STONE | Photography by DANNY FULGENCIO

ill Heron made his mark on Oak Cliff several years ago with a West Davis mural in his minimalist black-and-white style. The artist, known as Wheron, grew up in Dallas and knew from childhood that he wanted to be a professional artist. Now he’s a ninth-year veteran at a North Dallas charter school, where he teaches part-time. That allows him to work part-time out of his Old East Dallas studio.

West Dallas is perfect for a mural festival because of its mix of old one-story structures, which could be destined for redevelopment as high-end apartments and condos, Heron says. Wall space abounds, and property owners generally want murals.

Heron moved his studio when he moved to Lakewood a couple of years ago. Previously he lived in Oak Cliff and kept a studio in West Dallas and once painted a wall there, on a building that was torn down in 2014.

“I love the temporal nature of public art,” he says. “Knowing that murals will go up for a year or maybe less. The wall can get painted over. Just like life, it’s temporary.”

Last year, he pitched his idea to convene artists, mostly from the Dallas area, to paint 12 murals in one weekend, during Art Walk West. The West Dallas Chamber of Commerce was all in, along with property investor Butch MacGregor. This year, the Trinity River Conservancy is donating a few walls too.

Artists, asked to interpret “Wild West,” are paid a stipend and given full creative control.

Here’s everything you need to know about West Dallas Mural Fest.

Year one, 2018:

Twelve artists from Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin and Phoenix painted murals for the festival last year. All of the murals are still around, for now. “Some of these buildings will disappear,” Heron says. So catch a glimpse while you can.

Wild West Mural Fest 2019:

n Out-of-town artists are coming from Austin, Houston, Miami and Canada.

n Wheron will sit out of painting this year in favor of coordinator duties.

n All 12 walls are in new locations this year except for that of Jenny Lane (see page 12), who is adding to her “Whatever-burger” mural from 2018.

n Dallas-based artist Drigo returns to a new wall in collaboration with students from the Sidney Lanier Expressive Arts Vanguard school in West Dallas.

n Find a map of this year’s locations at oakcliff. advocatemag.com

n Provides public art and murals to West Dallas and an opportunity for paid artists to stretch themselves for a wide audience.

n Oct. 19-20

n Free

Art Walk West:

n Oct. 19

n 11 a.m.-5 p.m.

n Self-guided tour of 20 West Dallas studios

n Start at the Belmont Hotel, 901 Ft. Worth Ave.

n Parking and printed maps available.

n Free

CANADA DR.

SINGLETON BLVD.

HAMPTON RD.

n John “MDMN” Moody, 519 Singleton Blvd.

n Joe Skillz, 519 Singleton Blvd.

n Jenny Lane, 517 Singleton Blvd.

n Trey Wilder, 517 Singleton Blvd.

n Mariell Guzman, 515 Singleton Blvd.

n Drigo, 511 Singleton Blvd.

n SEKS183, 509 Singleton Blvd.

n Kevin Ortiz, 509 Singleton Blvd.

n Wheron, 435 Singleton Blvd.

n John “MDMN” Moody, 2001 Sylvan Ave.

n Brennen Bechtol and Wheron, 2000 Sylvan Ave.

n Lesli Marshall, 2720 Bataan St.

n Uplift Williams Preparatory, 2345 Hardwick St.

SINGLETON BLVD.

n Sour Grapes, 1900 Sylvan Ave.

Why mural fest?

“There’s definitely a national trend for more immersive public art, and that ranges the spectrum, from companies commissioning advertising or art for their own buildings, to artists doing it on their own and everything in between. I think riding that wave is great because it’s art that everyone can see and experience, and hopefully that will inspire kids to get into art. I love gallery work. I love museum work. But in my heart of hearts, it’s in this public art that anyone can get into.”

—Will Heron

This year’s artists:

n Adrian Landon Brooks (Austin)

n Augustin Chavez (Dallas)

n Brennen Bechtol (Oak Cliff)

n Drigo (Dallas)

n Eric Karbeling (Miami)

n Jenny Lane (Austin)

n Jill Stanton (Edmonton, Alberta in Canada)

n Mariel Pohlman (Dallas)

n Nicky Davis (Houston)

n Sour Grapes (Oak Cliff)

n Stephanie Sanz (Dallas)

n Tex Moton (Dallas)

MARKETPLACE

JOKER’S WILD

RUN

Thursday, October 10, 6-9 PM

Hosted by the Oak Cliff Lions Club Join us for a poker event in the Bishop Arts District.

Ticket Prices

Individual: $30

Couples $50 PRIZES. TROPHIES. RAFFLE

To register visit oakclifflions.club

Don’t

FREE WALLS

The Fabrication Yard won’t last forever

Story by RACHEL STONE

Photography by DANNY FULGENCIO

AFTER GRAFFITI ARTIST Eder Martinez was arrested for vandalism, he went to City Hall.

Martinez approached city management with the idea that Dallas should have a “free wall” where people could express themselves with spray paint.

“They let us scout 25 locations with a police officer,” Martinez says. “We rode around and looked for locations, and this was the best one.”

Now known as the Fabrication Yard, the industrial property at 611 Fabrication St. in West Dallas also had an agreeable owner, real estate investor Butch MacGregor.

MacGregor, who artists say is supportive of public art in West Dallas, opened the property to graffiti in 2011.

Not only is it a place for artists and hacks alike to express themselves, it’s a popular backdrop for Instagram models and rap videos. The rapper Riff Raff even filmed a video there.

Martinez, a guardian of sorts for the Fabrication Yard, says Erykah Badu once approached him about doing a show there. It didn’t work out because there are no restrooms, and security would be difficult.

The Fabrication Yard property is on the market, and developers already scooped up all of the property that surrounds it with plans for apartments and retail.

Martinez knows the Fabrication Yard’s days are numbered, and he thinks he’s found a new free wall, but it’s in Fort Worth.

“It’s a three-story building,” he says. “It would be a different setup because I would be living there, and it would be a lot safer.”

Even though the Fabrication Yard is filled with graffiti, Martinez says he wishes more artists would use it. He organizes “Go Paint Day” occasionally to encourage it. But he thinks the place should be packed every week.

“Go use it before it’s gone,” he says. “Take advantage of it. Have fun.”

The Fabrication Yard opened as a “free wall” for graffiti in 2011. It is on the market, and all of the surrounding property has sold to developers.

WHO IS LINDA DARNELL?

STEVE HUNTER BRINGS ANOTHER ICONIC OAK CLIFFER TO LIGHT

STEVE HUNTER wanted to do a mural of Stevie Ray Vaughan on Zang Boulevard.

But the apartment complex that hired him, Novel Bishop Arts, already had commissioned a sculpture tribute to the blues artist from Oak Cliff. And they named their pool and lounge area after him.

“It was like Stevie Ray Vaughan overload,” Hunter says. “And I get that.”

Art consultant Lesli Marshall suggested he paint Linda Darnell.

Hunter already depicted one iconic actress from Oak Cliff, Yvonne Craig. His “Raised in Oak Cliff” Bat Girl mural in Bishop Arts draws many an admirer. There are hundreds of photos under #oakcliffbatgirl on Instagram.

“I didn’t even know Linda Darnell was from Oak Cliff,” he says. “I had seen the old Vincent Price movies, but I didn’t know much about her other than that.”

Born in 1923, Linda Darnell grew up in Oak Cliff and attended Sunset High School. Her mother had six children, but she believed that Linda, born Monetta, had talent and pushed her into an entertainment career. Darnell appeared in theater in Dallas and was a hostess for the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition. The following year, a 20th Century Fox talent scout visiting Dallas invited Darnell to a screen test in Hollywood.

She landed a contract with RKO and was cast in grownup roles starting at age 15.

Between 1939 and 1965, she appeared in more than 40 films, and in the 1940s, she was considered to be one of the most beautiful women in the world.

She played the leading lady opposite Tyrone Power in “The Mark of Zorro” in 1940, and Hunter’s mural is a poster for that movie.

“I showed them my design for the mural, and they said, ‘Go paint it,’” Hunter says. “It’s rare that you get to paint something that’s cool and that you enjoy painting without the client making a lot of changes.”

Hunter has been working as a full time muralist for more than 20 years. Now that everyone wants a mural, he says he gets to be pickier about which jobs he takes.

He still wants to do a Vaughan mural; he restored another artists’ Stevie Ray Vaughan mural that had been tagged in Deep Ellum. And he wants to do a Pantera mural.

Since he’s done Yvonne Craig and Linda Darnell, might he paint another iconic Oak Cliff woman?

“I’d love it,” he says. “If someone commissions me for that, I would love to do it.”

Vote online: Which iconic Oak Cliff woman should Steve Hunter paint next?

Story by RACHEL STONE | Photography by DANNY FULGENCIO

Above: Steve Hunter’s mural on Zang at Davis depicts 1940s movie star Linda Darnell, who is from Oak Cliff.

WORSHIP

By SCOTT SHIRLEY

Inner peace in three easy steps

Enjoy this rare concrete advice

The Christian faith, as I see it, is two parallel journeys. One is an inward journey to nurture the spark of the divine within us. The second is an outward journey toward the incarnation of God in the world. These can be viewed through infinite lenses, depending on what aspect of the infinite Divine we’re talking about.

In the interest of finding peace within so that we can make peace in the world, I’m going to do something I don’t normally do and offer brief, concrete advice.

We try to hold answers lightly to make space for questions, but some things I think I know. You shouldn’t infer that I’m great at practicing what I preach, but when I do, I feel pretty good about the results. This is certainly easier said than done, but saying is maybe the first part of doing.

So, here is how to find inner peace:

1. Mindfulness. This can mean a lot of things and can come about through a variety of practices, but the goal is to become self-aware. We can learn to stand outside of ourselves and see our reactions to our circumstances as they are happening. Then we can decide what to do about it. We can move from reaction to response. When we fall headlong into rage or pity or self-abnegation, we are not in control, and neither is God. When we see that falling and decide not to fall, we bring the God-out-there and the God-in-here closer together because they are really the same thing.

2. Know what is your work to do. This comes out of mindfulness. As we become more aware, understanding better who we are, we will come to understand the precise role we can play in the world. We might call this a “calling.” Frederick Buechner describes it this way: “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” This means that you can pursue your work

with confidence, knowing it is yours to do. It means you can let go of the other stuff without guilt or shame because it is not your work to do.

3. Surround yourself with people who love you. It is hard for anyone to stay mindful and focus on their work if they are surrounded with people trying to throw them off course. This doesn’t mean cutting ourselves off from people who are distracting or diminishing. It just means you need to spend a significant amount of time around people who lift you up and help you out. This also does not mean that the people who love you won’t challenge you. Quite the opposite. They will challenge you to stay true to who you are and join you in the expectation of the work that is yours to do. Love means helping you to be the most who you are, seeing you with the eyes of God, not as a character in their story, but as the author of your own.

If we do all these things, we will be on the path to peace, not just inner peace, but peace in the world. People who are mindful and know their own work are the best at helping others to be mindful and the best at supporting the work of others because their egos aren’t tied up in knots over what is not theirs. There is a calm, a peace, a wholeness that is contagious. I’ll be honest and say that I don’t exactly know how that spirals up into world peace, but I know that the alternative is to spiral down into division and conflict as every ego grasps for control, for possession, for dominance. So let’s begin the inward journey and see how that prepares us to make peace.

Scott Shirley is the pastor of Church in the Cliff. The Worship section is underwritten by Advocate Publishing and the neighborhood businesses and churches listed here. For information about helping support the Worship section, call 214.560.4202.

WORSHIP

BAPTIST

CLIFF TEMPLE BAPTIST CHURCH / 125 Sunset Ave. / 214.942.8601

Serving Oak Cliff since 1898 / CliffTemple.org / English and Spanish

9 am Contemporary Worship / 10 am Sunday School / 11 am Traditional

GRACE TEMPLE BAPTIST Come to a Place of Grace!

Sunday Worship: English Service 9:30am / Spanish Service 11:00am 831 W. Tenth St. / 214.948.7587 / gracetempledallas.org

DISCIPLES OF CHRIST

EAST DALLAS CHRISTIAN CHURCH / 629 N. Peak Street / 214.824.8185

Sunday School 9:30 am / Worship 8:30 am - Chapel 10:50 am - Sanctuary / Rev. Deborah Morgan-Stokes / edcc.org

EPISCOPAL

CHRIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH / ChristChurchDallas.org

Sunday School: 11:15am /Mass: 9am & 10am English, 12:30pm Español

Wednesday Mass: 6pm English, 8pm Español / 534 W. Tenth Street

NON-DENOMINATIONAL

KESSLER COMMUNITY CHURCH / 2100 Leander Dr. at Hampton Rd. “Your Hometown Church Near the Heart of the City.” 10:30 am Contemporary Service / kesslercommunitychurch.com

TRINITY CHURCH OAK CLIFF / Love God. Love Others. Make Disciples.

Sundays 10:00 am / Worship & children’s Sunday School 1139 Turner Ave. / trinitychurchoakcliff.org

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IDEAL GARAGE DOORS • 972-757-5016 Install & Repair. 10% off to military/1st responders.

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MCDANIEL PEST CONTROL

Prices Start at $85 + Tax For General Treatment.

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214-328-2847. Lakewood Resident

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ADVOCATE PUBLISHING does not pre-screen, recommend or investigate the advertisements and/or Advertisers published in our magazines. As a result, Advocate Publishing is not responsible for your dealings with any Advertiser. Please ask each Advertiser that you contact to show you the necessary licenses and/or permits required to perform the work you are requesting. Advocate Publishing takes comments and/or complaints about Advertisers seriously, and we do not publish advertisements that we know are inaccurate, misleading and/or do not live up to the standards set by our publications. If you have a legitimate complaint or positive comment about an Advertiser, please contact us at 214-560-4203. Advocate Publishing recommends that you ask for and check references from each Advertiser that you contact, and we recommend that you obtain a written statement of work to be completed, and the price to be charged, prior to approving any work or providing an Advertiser with any deposit for work to be completed.

By RACHEL STONE

Double trouble

Doyle Bramhall’s influence on the Vaughan sound

When the single from Stevie Ray Vaughan’s posthumous 1991 album, “The Sky is Crying,” first came out, there was much pre-internet speculation as to its meaning.

“Life By the Drop” was about Vaughan’s struggle with addiction, virtually every radio DJ told us at the time. Clean and sober since 1986, Vaughan lived the last years of his life in recovery from addiction until he died in a plane crash in 1990.

Hello there my old friend

Not so long ago it was till the end We played outside in the pourin’ rain On our way up the road we started over again

But those DJs didn’t have the whole story. The song’s meaning is more straightforward than they guessed.

Vaughan didn’t even write it. Another neighborhood kid, Doyle Bramhall, did. Bramhall was born and raised in West Dallas and grew up with Jimmie and Stevie Ray Vaughan. They were high school buddies who played in bands together in Dallas and Austin. He wrote “Life by the Drop” about his friendship with Vaughan.

Up and down that road in our worn out shoes

Talkin’ ‘bout good things and singin’ the blues

You went your way and I stayed behind We both knew it was just a matter of time

Bramhall died of congestive heart failure at age 62 in 2011. His widow, Barbara Logan, told Texas Monthly in 2015 that although both men had drug problems,

the song was about living day-by-day, “one drop at a time.”

While Vaughan was out playing stadium tours and putting down guitar licks for David Bowie in the ’80s, Bramhall never reached that level of stardom.

“Doyle wasn’t jealous,” Logan told Texas Monthly. “He was proud of Stevie. It was a dream they had both had, and now Stevie was living it.”

Brahmhall, a drummer and singer, co-wrote some of Vaughan’s best-known songs, including “The House is Rockin’” and “Tightrope” on Vaughan’s 1989 album “In Step.”

Bramhall also wrote “Lookin’ Out the Window” and “Change It” from Vaughan’s album “Soul to Soul.”

He recorded an album with the

Vaughan Brothers, “Family Style.”

And he had two successful solo albums. The first was “Bird Nest on the Ground,” titled after his cover of a Muddy Waters tune and released in 1994.

Here’s how the Fort Worth Star-Telegram described Bramhall’s upbringing in a story that year:

“Bramhall spent his early childhood in what was virtually a family neighborhood in west Dallas, a closely organized community of Bramhall’s who worked for the most part at a nearby cement plant. So involved were Bramhall and his siblings in making music that formal lessons proved beside the point. Nor has Bramhall considered any career outside music.”

Brahmall told the newspaper that his mom worked in a West Dallas grocery

Doyle Bramhall plays with The Chessmen at the Holiday Inn in Fort Worth on New Year’s Eve 1967. Photo courtesy of Mike Leeman

store, where many cultures mixed: “On one side of the store, Mexican music was playing; on the other, R&B; and in the meat market, country and western.”

Bramhall and Jimmie Vaughan played together, with Beatles haircuts and matching suits, in Dallas party band The Chessmen in the late ’60s. They opened for Jimi Hendrix when he played Dallas in 1968. Bramhall later played drums for Freddie King and Lightnin’ Hopkins.

He moved to Austin around the same time as the Vaughan brothers and formed a band called the Nightcrawlers, which had Stevie on guitar. That’s when they wrote their first song together, “Dirty Pool,” which Vaughan later recorded on his album “Texas Flood.”

“To me, Stevie stood alone. There was no one like him. He left room in his music for his honesty and his soul to come through, and I think that’s what

people picked up on,” Bramhall told Guitar World before his death. “He was just completely dedicated and loved what he was doing. I had great admiration for him as a musician and a person because he always lived life to the fullest. Every time you were around him was a constant reminder that today is all we have.”

No waste of time we’re allowed today Churnin’ up the past, there’s no easier way Times been between us, a means to an end God its good to be here walkin’ together my friend

Bramhall’s wife says “Life By the Drop” wasn’t quite finished when Vaughan told them he wanted to record it in 1988. Although she’d never written a song before, Barbara Logan told Texas Monthly, she added a couple of lines about friendship that completed it.

“It speaks to so many people in so many ways,” she told the magazine. “Songs are like that — that’s something I learned from Doyle. Everybody hears songs in their own way.”

The Bramhall music legacy lives on with son Doyle Bramhall II, a prolific left-handed guitarist whose list of credits wouldn’t fit on the length of your arm.

The younger Bramhall spoke about Vaughan in an interview with My Global Mind earlier this year.

“It was just such a different thing because a year before he made it, so to speak, he was staying with his band in my step grandmother’s house,” he told the website. “All just sleeping on the floor and just hanging out, so he was just our buddy. It was pretty amazing to see the transition from that into what he would become, one of the most iconic blues guitarists of all times.”

Clockwise from above: Stevie Ray Vaughan performs a set at what is now Turtle Creek Park in 1980. Vaughan visits with Muddy Waters backstage at Mother Blues. The Chessmen, with Doyle Bramhall on drums, perform on the WFAA dance show “Sump’n Else.” Photos courtesy of Kirby Warnock