Piney Woods Live – March 2014

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priceless -– take one

Live

March 2014

March 2014!

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athering an array of artists in the historic Texan Theater and the Kilgore History & Arts Center, the 2014 KilGogh Art Exhibition & Wine Tasting includes heavy hors d'oeuvres, samples of East Texas wineries' stock, classical entertainment and the opportunity for guests to bid on and buy exclusive pieces tied to this year's theme "Expressions of Kilgore" and other original artwork in several mediums. Proceeds from the fundraiser benefit the Downtown Historic Theater Renovation Fund, Kilgore Historical Preservation Foundation and the 2015 KilGogh Arts Festival. Come, relax, enjoy yourself and experience the arts in East Texas.

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Celebrating the 161st anniversary of the birth of KilGogh's namesake, Vincent van Gogh, Kilgore will host an all-day FREE arts festival and the KidsGogh art activity area from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. March 29 on South Kilgore Street, culminating in a Cinema Under the Stars outdoor movie from Longview-Kilgore Cable TV. Hosted by iServe volunteers, KidsGogh includes a wide variety of free art projects for kids & adults: q )LQJHU 3DLQWLQJ q &KDUFRDO 'UDZLQJ q &OD\ VFXOSWLQJ q 6DQG DUW q :DWHU FRORUV q )DFH 3DLQWLQJ q +HQQD 7DWWRRV 0XFK 0RUH 7KH DOO GD\ IHVWLYDO LV IUHH DQG JXHVWV DUH LQYLWHG WR EULQJ D QRQ SHULVKDEOH IRRG LWHP IRU .LOJRUH V +HOSLQJ +DQGV FKDULW\

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At 23, pop violinist Peter Lee Johnson’s covers of contemporary songs have garnered more than 16.5 million views on YouTube, from Katy Perry and Kanye to Lorde, Justin Bieber, Drake, Taio Cruz, the Black Eyed Peas, BeyoncÊ, Adele, & more. He’ll perform in Kilgore at 7 p.m. Saturday, March 8, in Kilgore College’s Dodson Auditorium at 817 Nolan Street. Preview PLJ's music at tinyurl.com/PeterLeeJohnson 9,3 $GPLVVLRQ IRU LQFOXGHV \RXU FRQFHUW WLFNHW ZLWK UHVHUYHG VHDWLQJ SOXV HQWU\ WR D SULYDWH VKRZ DW S P )ULGD\ 0DUFK DW WKH 0HDGRZEURRN *ROI (YHQW &HQWHU +RXVWRQ 6W DV ZHOO DV DQ DXWRJUDSKHG VRXYHQLU

BUY TICKETS AT PLJ.KILGOGH.COM OR CALL 903-984-2593 Proceeds benefit KHS Orchestra & the KilGogh Arts Festival

PineyWoodsLive.com

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ROLLER R OLLER DER DERBY RBY by Crystal Davis

Put on your skates and join us as staff writer Crystal Davis gives us a glimpse into the world of Roller Derby and the tough ladies who have what it takes to stay in the game.

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Dance St Dance S Studios tudios of East Eas st Te T Texas ex xa as

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AT Time ime T To o Dance

by Shea Vogel

Inspired by music and movement, dance is a form of expression. This issue we take a look at what dance has to offer the East Texas area.

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Cover Design by

by Jeremy G. Butler

by Claudia Lowery

Down H Down Home ome Clogger Cloggers rs by Crystal Davis

Jeremiah Shepherd

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Artist’s A rti tist st’s ’s IInterview nterview with wit itth Frank H Frank Herbert erbert by Jan Statman

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Zumb Zumba mba

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AC Community ommunity of Dan Dance nce

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by Crystal Davis

by Crystal Davis

In R In Review: evie ew: Barbara Shapiro’s Shap piiro o’s ’s The Art The Art Forger Forger by Jan Statman

Cent nter er S Sta tag ta ge Cuis isin ine by Claudia Lowery

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Ar istt’s Arti sW Wor o lld d by Jan Statman

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Let’s G Let’s Go oD Dancing ancing

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The T The True rue St. Paddy’s D Day ay ay

by Tony McCullough

by Crystal Davis

by Crystal Davis

The “B Th B” Si Sd de e of Mu us sicc by Randy Brown

March 2014 - Page 3

Publisher’s

NOTE Tracy Magness Co-Publisher

Inspiration comes in many forms. For some, it’s the adrenalin rush that comes from watching a favorite team win a match. For others, it’s a good book or hearing about how a person overcame obstacles in life to become successful. For many of us, it’s experiencing something that lifts our spirits and helps us remember that we are all connected. For me, the latter happens when I witness the arts, which includes both the visual arts and music. When those two are combined, as in dance, the synergy created effects me in a profound, spiritual way. Dance is emotion set to music using the gift of the human body. And, as Claudia Lowery tells us in her story, “A Time to Dance,” it is something that we can easily participate in, which can add yet another dimension to the powerful effect of dance in our lives. This month’s issue of Piney Woods Live honors dance in a slightly different way. Instead of telling you about one of our many great dancers from the area, we have elected to tell you more about how you can feel comfortable dancing the night (or day) away. Tony McCullough reminds us that we are all descendents of dancers. Throughout history, dance has served as a popular social function in all of society. Shea Vogel tells us about a few of the many great dance studios in East Texas, giving you a look into their histories. We also throw in something a little different with our story about clogging, interviewing Tiffany Lane Hill from the Down Home Cloggers. Then we really go outside the box and talk about Zumba®, which combines exercise with dance incorporating salsa and merengue. In dance, there really is something for everyone! We’ve started adding some book reviews this year, and this month Jan Statman reviews the book The Art Forger by Barbara Shapiro, which has become the next book on my to read list. Jan also talks to Frank Herbert, artist and teacher, who has had a big influence in the East Texas art scene. And for some added fun, we threw in a story by Crystal Davis about local women who participate in the roller derby. And we didn’t forget the music. Jeremy Butler writes about Jeremy Peyton, a Red Dirt Texas Country musician who is determined to bring country music back to its roots. Crystal Davis tells us about Jodi Mitchell, a Sabine High School senior, who is getting attention with her singing per- Martha Graham formances. You may have already heard, but I just have to mention the fact that the T-Bone Walker Blues Festival organization has announced that Longview, Texas, is the new home of the festival! Our staff is heavily involved in the planning stages for the event, which is slated to be held the weekend of September 12 at Maude Cobb Convention Center. It is going to be a wonderful addition to the calendar in Longview and the city will be able to bring in larger crowds for the festival. We have been involved with the festival as sponsors for several years, so we could not be more excited! See you next month, and enjoy your life.

“Dance is the hidden language of the soul.”

STAFF Publishers / Editors Tracy Magness & Gary Krell Man naging Editor Ben Valencia Publiciistt Andrea Johnson Adv vertising g Dire ector Suzanne Warren Conttriibu uting g Wriiterrs Tony McCullough, Randy Brown, Crystal Davis, Claudia Lowery, Jeremy G. Butler, Jan Statman Grraphic Artists Jeremiah Shepherd, Joni Guess, Ben Valencia, Andrea Johnson Sales Ben Valencia, Andrea Johnson,Carolee Chandler, Kathy Hollan, Cookie Bias, Lori Martin, Shea Vogel, Tracy Stopani

Sign up for our newsletter by going to our website: PineyWoodsLive.com m

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903-665-3733 March 2014 - Page 5

ance DSTUDIOS

These dance studios are only a small part of the dance community in the area. Whether you are a beginner or aspiring professional, there is a studio in East Texas that can help to produce a great dancer!

by

Shea Vogel

Center Stage Dance Company (903) 657-8876 309 S Marshall St, Henderson, TX

of East Texas

Encore Elite Dance Studio

“Do it big, do it right, and do it with style,” Fred Astaire once said. And if any part of the country knows about dancing and doing it big, it’s East Texas. Birthplace to the world famous Rangerettes and Apache Belles, the Piney Woods is packed full of drill teams, dance studios, and competition teams. These organizations have produced ballerinas, Broadway stars, drill team members, and Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, to name a few. Candy Crocker School of Dance

Dottie Hunt School of Dance

In business since 1977, Candy Crocker school of dance is known as a Tyler tradition. Candy Crocker Jordan studied dance her entire life beginning in Woodbridge, England. She was proud to be named The World’s Ideal Miss, Miss Tyler, and Miss Louisiana. One of her most memorable performances was onstage in Atlantic City at The Miss America Pageant. Whether you are a beginner or an aspiring professional, this studio is sure to offer a class you will enjoy, which include ballet, pointe, tap, jazz, jazz technique, hip hop, and a specialized preschool program. Each year, students perform in Christmas shows, dance competitions, and an annual dance production.

An institution rich in history, Dottie Hunt School of Dance has been cultivating the creative arts in the east Texas area since its establishment in 1958. Founded by Dottie Hunt, a former New York City Rockette, her daughter, Michelle Woods went on to take over the position of director after Dottie retired. Offering instruction in all phases of dance and two professionally equipped studios, DHS accepts student applications from ages three to adult. The studio is led by instructors laden with years of professional, artistic and instructional experience. Offering instruction from early afternoon into the evening, courses are available in tap, ballet, jazz, lyrical, contemporary dance, hip hop, clogging, preparatory cheerleading and precision dance.

9914 County Road 2331 Tyler, Texas 75707 903-530-7895

Dance-N-Drill Dance-N-Drill began 30 years ago when founder Lynn Ramey began teaching her first class while also holding auditions for the first ever city-wide drill team, the Tyler Golden Girls. While her beginnings may have been small, Dance-N-Drill is now one of the largest, most prestigious studios in Texas. Her desire is that you enjoy an atmosphere where students are educated, equipped, and encouraged in a fun, loving, and nuturing environment. The studio offers adult tap classes, ballet, children’s classes, contemporary dance, hip hop classes, cheer classes, musical theater, and power tumbling classes.

4010 Donnybrook Tyler, TX 75701 US (903)509-9090 March 2014 - Page 6

1605 Pine Tree Rd Longview, Texas 75604 (903) 759-1141

The Dance Studio The Dance Studio offers ballet, pointe, jazz, tap, hip hop, and modern dance. Accepting students at four years and over, The Dance Studio provides a structured but nurturing environment. They believe that a child comes to dance class to learn how to dance. Quality training is a top priority, but equally important is the development of a student’s confidence and character. Their annual recital will be held at the Belcher Center on Sunday, May 18 at 3:00 p.m. The Dance Studio was founded in 1994 by Tena ScalcoVogel. She began her training with Pat Mitchell, the director of Longview Ballet Theatre and is now a charter member of Longview Ballet Theatre. Tena went on to train at The School of American Ballet under the New York City Ballet.

(903)521-2717 102 S College Ave, Tyler, TX

Elite Dance Studio (903) 988-0000 360 Houston St, Kilgore, TX

Fusion Dance (903) 297-5359 408 Pine Tree Rd, Longview, TX

Hip Tap Toe School of Dance She danced with the Fort Worth Ballet as a soloist while attending TCU. Tena was a Kilgore College Rangerette and has choreographed for Longview Ballet Theatre and the Rangerette organization. Several students have gone on to get degrees in dance, are dance teachers at studios, are drill team directors or have started their own companies. Many students have been and are a part of the Rangerette organization.

2309 Gilmer Rd Suite 102, Longview, Texas 75604 (903)553-9930

(903) 806-0206 4300 N Us-259, Longview, TX

Nancy Ables Dance Studio (903) 553-1144 521 Castlemaine Cir, Longview, TX

Pat George Mitchell Studio of Creative Arts (903)758-3822 116 N 3rd Street Longview, TX

Star Maker Dance Studio (903) 834-6200 Overton, TX

In-Step Dance Co. In-Step Dance Co. is located in the heart of downtown Kilgore. It is in its fourth year of operation and welcomes any and all dancers who share a passion for vibrant performance art. Their goal is to provide dance classes that will bring much joy to their students’ lives as they grow into disciplined, confident, and poised showstoppers, on and off the stage. In-Step Dance Co. offers classes in ballet, tap, jazz, hip hop, and drill team preparation on a weekly basis. They also offer private lessons and private choreography for individuals and/or teams upon request. Amy Mims is the owner/head instructor at InStep Dance Co. She is a graduate of Kilgore High School, Kilgore College, and the University of Texas at Tyler. While at Kilgore College, Amy was a member of the 67th line of Kilgore College Rangerettes and still remains active within the organization, serving as a director on the Rangerettes Forever Board. Amy also holds her bachelors degree in interdisciplinary studies and is certified to teach prekindergarten through fourth grades in the state of Texas. She has 23 years of dance experience and nine years experience as a dance instructor. She can’t remember a day that dance hasn’t been a part of her life!

Tap ‘n’ Toe Dance Studio (903) 984-5422 118 E North St, Kilgore, TX

Tina Grider School of Dance (903) 753-2001 510 N 5th St, Longview, TX

5678 Dance Studio (903)849-5688 112 E Dobbs St, Tyler, TX

209 E. Main St. Kilgore, TX 75662 903-987-0527 PineyWoodsLive.com

by Jeremy Butler There’s a lot to be said for progress when it comes to music, with artists building upon what came before, adding something fresh, creating something new and leaving a platform for the next generation to build upon. But what happens if you’re a part of that new generation and you don’t like where that progression is headed? Well, if you’re Jeremy Peyton, you dig in your heels and you try to bring things back to their roots. The roots in question? Red Dirt Texas Country. A native of East Texas, Peyton grew up in the heyday of Texas’ country music scene – a time when one could turn on the radio and hear everything from George Strait to Jerry Jeff Walker to Robert Earl Keen to Guy Clark. And when Peyton first started playing music sometime around 1998, those were the musicians that he chose to cover on stage. But as time went by, there came a point where the music that was being played on the radio became unrecognizable. Progress had started pulling Nashville in a different direction and, well, Peyton discovered he just didn’t like it. PineyWoodsLive.com

From that point on, he traded the covers for original songs, and the Jeremy Peyton Band was established. Which isn’t to say that songwriting is something someone can just decide to do; it’s an art form in and of itself. And the fact that Peyton approaches it with that mindset only helps to further him from the increasingly manufactured and commercial nature of popular Nashville country. There’s more to songwriting than just stringing words along in a particular rhythm and cadence. Like all art, it’s about communicating something to the audience about the artist. And whether it’s a major chapter in his life or a simple reference to a ten minute conversation that managed to stick with him, he puts all of it into his lyrics. As Peyton puts it, “You won’t find a single line in any of my songs that I haven’t lived.” And it’s that same sense of artistic integrity that influences how he deals with the record industry at large. There’s no question that money has a tendency to manipulate and distort art (no matter the medium), and it’s Peyton’s insistence that he maintains control over what his music is and does.

But all the artistic integrity in the world isn’t worth a whole lot on its own, so what exactly is Jeremy Peyton doing with it? Well, for starters, he and his new lineup are looking to branch out from the regional shows they’ve been playing and spread their influence a bit. In terms of recording, he has a demo album that he’s been passing around, but he’s also gearing up to release a brand new LP later this summer, with the first single slated to start showhowing up on East Texas radio towards the end of this month. And if you don’t on’t want to wait for that, you can find him on YouTube, be, Reverbnation and Facecebook. Just make sure re you search the Jeremy y Peyton Band, becausee there are apparently at least two other musicians named Jeremy Peyton. Small world! I suppose it would be easy for some people to write him off as yet another nother East Texan with a ballcap and an acoustic

guitar, but the fact remains that East Texas has a knack for producing legitimately talented and relevant country artists. Peyton’s come a long, long way since his first show at a frat party in Nacogdoches, and while it’s still a bit too soon to know where he’s going to end up, you can bet that every step he takes will be in service of legacy and tradition. And I don’t think that anyone who listens to country music these days can say that isn’t progress.

March 2014 - Page 7

A Time To

DANCE by Claudia Lowery

Whether quoting Ecclesiastes 3 or singing along with The Byrds’ hit “Turn, Turn, Turn,” the message remains that there is eventually a time to dance. Something inside the human spirit longs to sway to the rhythm of life, express joy, or get lost in the graceful flow of an arched back and undulating hip. When the song “Everybody Dance Now” begins to play, skilled or not, we all comply. As a chubby 4-year-old child, I longed to be a ballerina, and more than one old home movie recorded me in an awkward hop and twirl as I wiggled around in a costume tutu. My daddy would let me stand on his feet as he danced me around the living room to Glen Miller Orchestra records playing on the stereo. I was his grand ballroom dance partner, and it made me feel beautiful. I never became an accomplished dancer, but I will never forget the one time a boy in junior high asked me to dance. All these are cherished memories. Dance speaks to our inner life that must be expressed outwardly. It is about being lost in the moment, one big nerve moving to the beat of time. We laugh at the antics of toddlers shaking their baby booties. We sit enthralled at the graceful, athletic moves March 2014 - Page 8

of ballet dancers who arabesque, pirouette, and leap across an empty stage. Choreographed ballroom dancers mystify our eyes with the unity of two bodies doing the tango, salsa, or jitterbug. Churches now incorporate praise dance into worship, recognizing that even King David danced down the streets praising God. Elaine on Seinfeld brings tears to our eyes from laughing at her out-of-rhythm gyrations that sort of look like dancing, but we’re just not sure. My husband and I once visited a Cajun restaurant in Louisiana where a large dance floor was filled with life. A rather rotund man wearing suspenders asked me to dance, and my husband said to go ahead because he doesn’t dance … EVER. Well, I giggled and laughed as Mr. Dupree spun me around that floor until I was dizzy. I’d never done Cajun-style dancing, but my partner was a pro and took charge. After thanking him and returning to my chair, I found out my crazy husband had asked him to dance with me when I’d stepped out

momentarily to the ladies’ room. He knew dancing was special to me so he “set me up.” I will never forget that night. There is a “time to dance” and it is NOW. I once met a lady named Ruby who was known for seizing the moment and dancing. She was a living testament that when you have the chance to dance … just do it! We never know when that dance will be our last. I’m still a little selfconscious about dancing in front of a stage when I go to hear live music, but here’s the thing … I LOVE TO DANCE. After meeting Ruby, I decided that life is too short to sit around

grumbling about NOT getting to dance. I came to realize that no one REALLY cares what I look like on the dance floor, and even if I do look a little like a floppy, chubby, out-of-shape lady trying to bust a move, I’m going to say “WHAT-EVER!” I plan to dance like nobody’s looking … well, maybe not EXACTLY like I dance at home, but with enough freedom to let my spirit soar and soar, lifting me out of this world and up to the rhythm of the universe’s atmosphere. There’s “a time to mourn, and a time to dance,” but really … who can be sad when they’re dancing? May I have this dance?

I came to realize that no one REALLY

cares what I look like on the dance floor, and even if I do look a little like a floppy,

chubby, out-of-shape lady trying to bust a move, I’m going to say “WHAT-EVER!” PineyWoodsLive.com

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8623 SH 43 N KARNACK, TX 75661

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STUDENT INVITATIONAL Featuring WORKS BY

RICARDO PANIAGUA J U R O R F O R T H E I N V I TA T I O N A L

Sunday

MARCH 23, 2014 1:30 PM TO 3:30 PM

Sidewalk Art Show and Art in the Evening, Saturday, March 29, with jazz music and food at the Longview Museum of Fine Arts in downtown Longview at 215 Tyler Street. The Sidewalk Art activities will start at 9 a.m. on Tyler Street in front of the museum. This event is free to the public. The Art Walk will showcase artists in a wide variety of mediums such as painting, sculpture, photography, pottery, jewelry and much more. There will also be a Kidney Bean Cook-off. Contestants will be business representatives from the area. This event will kick off the Southwest Transplant Alliance awareness campaign. Entertainment will be by area groups from Tyler, Marshall, Rusk and Longview. The Longview Metro Chamber of Commerce invites the public to attend this event for a day of art, food, entertainment and fun. PineyWoodsLive.com

Light Refreshments Served

2:00 PM

Gallery Talk and Award Presentation by Mr. Paniagua

EXHIBITS WILL REMAIN UP MARCH 23 TO APRIL 26.

215 E. Tyler Ő Longview, Texas Ő 9 03. 753.8 103 Ő w w w.L MFA .org March 2014 - Page 9

CenterStage

A Taste from Near or Far with Claudia Lowery

C|U|I|S|I|N|E

PIZZA KING 50 Year Reign

If you don’t like pizza, you may need to check your heartbeat. It’s that great, big merry-go-round of flavors that keeps pizza lovers coming full circle back to that loveable, foldable slice of pie time after time. Even the worst pizza is edible, if not enjoyable, and good pizza is satisfying, if not perfection. But when pizza is delicious, it becomes legendary. Meet the reigning monarch of pizza in Longview ~ PIZZA KING! Fifty years ago in Corsicana, brothers Bill and Hal Inman installed a pizza oven in their hamburger joint. The pizza became a favorite so quickly that the family opened the first Pizza King soon after in Tyler, and eventually Hal and Wanda Inman opened Pizza King on Highway 80 in Longview. Over time, the Inman’s children, Lisa Knight, Tracy Alford, and Hal Inman III took over management of the legendary family business. They attribute their success to God and the loyalty of returning generations of customers. It’s common that families will be in town for holidays or business and they March 2014 - Page 10

will make the effort to come back to Pizza King because so many memories and lots of great food are there. Grandparents bring their grandchildren, friends bring friends, and business associates have lunch there. Loyalty is the lifeblood of a thriving, surviving business. Today we are spoiled by speed and convenience and have forgotten that quality is lost in the deal. Visit Pizza King when you are not in a hurry because they have chosen to stay away from conveyor ovens and have opted for deck ovens. That translates into slower cooking times and a better quality pizza. They take a lot of phone orders for carry out. Friday and Saturday nights can be daunting due to the high volume, but the food gets made, customers are happy, and the quality remains. Anything of excellence is worth waiting for. When I visited Pizza King, one of the managers, Lisa, explained to me why their pizza is so good. “We make the dough and sauce from scratch. Our sausage used on the sausage pizza is made from scratch and so is the creamy garlic dressing. We make about 14 gallons of dressing a week because people love it, not just for their salad, but to dip their pizza in. I never understood why people wanted to dip their pizza in dressing until I tried it, but once I did … well, I’m a ‘dipper’ now.” It’s true, they are also known for the super thick dressing that almost stands alone as a food group. It was delicious and dense – the garlic not overwhelming the flavors, but perfectly balanced. Other PineyWoodsLive.com

menu options include a gluten-free crust available on request, a sub sandwich, spinach lasagna, spaghetti, dessert pizzas, ice cream floats, and beer on tap. We enjoyed a half and half pizza, one side hamburger and onion, the other side a veggie. The first thing I noticed is that the cheese is underneath the toppings, and it revealed just how much topping was on the pie. It was generous; no complaints. The crust was somewhere in-between thick and thin, with a nice edge to grasp, a bottom soft and thin enough to fold, not so heavily laden with toppings that everything slid off, and a true one-handed delight. Someone’s been working at perfection! The sauce had actual flavor! I could taste the savory spices as the sauce complimented the whole pizza. The pre-pizza small dinner salad we enjoyed was a basic iceberg lettuce variety with a few slices of radish, purple cabbage, and carrot. It may seem like a small thing to notice, but I’ve always preferred a carrot that was peeled and sliced in-house as compared to the baby carrots or those hard little toothpick shredded ones. Although I didn’t ask, from appearances I think they prepped their own because the shapes were irregular and I could see they’d been hand sliced. Paired with the house specialty dressing, we were pleased with our entire meal. Renovations have provided ample parking, dining space, and an unforgettable 50s diner-style restaurant that customers have come to love. Black and white checkerboard décor, chrome, retro peddle cars, a jukebox, and neon lights fill the diner. It feels “fun” the minute you walk in. The staff we encountered were friendly and attentive. It’s a comfortable place for dates, friends, families, and sports teams. Prices are very reasonable ranging from $4 for small 8” pizzas to $11-$15 for large, loaded pizzas. Pizza King has been voted Best Pizza in East Texas numerous times, and it’s not hard to understand why. Of course, there really are many good pizzas out there, but Pizza King’s reputation for consistent quality has stood the test of time. They are not a franchise or chain store, but a small town, familyowned operation that cares about passing on their legacy. Hopefully future generations will want to join in too, as nothing is more profitable than doing something that brings happiness and joy to others. A nice slice of pizza pie could sure do it for me, and hopefully it will for you. The Pizza King motto is, “A Smile in Every Bite.” My smile was like the gentle curve of the crust’s edge on a pizza … mmmmm! Pizza King is located on Highway 80, 1100 E. Marshall Avenue in Longview. Phone: 903-753-0912. Hours: Monday ~ CLOSED, Tuesday-Thursday ~ 11 a.m. - 10 p.m., Friday-Saturday ~ 11 a.m. -11 p.m., Sunday ~ 4 p.m. -10 p.m. The opinions expressed here were based on the writer’s personal experience. Please be sure to visit and form your own opinion.

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March 2014 - Page 11

by C by Crystal Cry ysttall D Dav Davis avis av iss Dancing has been a certifiable certifiable stress reliever and art form throughout our history. Clogging, a form of rhythmic dancing, has diverse origins. Some sources provide evidence that it began in early England and Wales, while others believe it is primarily an American folk dance, originating in the Appalachians. Much like tap dancing or Irish step dancing, clogging uses the dancers’ shoes to create percussive cadences with heel and toe combinations. It wasn’t until the fifteenth century that the traditional wooden clogs were replaced with more comfortable alternatives with leather on

March 2014 - Page 12

top and wooden soles. It is often considered the first form of street dancing because it made enormous developments during the Industrial Revolution. In East Texas, clogging has become a part of life for the Lane family, the founding members of the Down Home Cloggers, who perform at numerous East Texas parades and festivals every year, including the Yamboree, The East Texas Multi-Cultural Event, the Henderson Syrup Festival as well as all local Christmas parades. Tiffany Lane Hill, daughter of the original founders of the group and one of the directors, said while there are many conflicting stories about clogging’s origins, the kind they practice began as a dance called “flat footing” that was performed by men. The Down Home Cloggers practice weekly – every Monday and Thursday night. Both nights’ practice times are approximately 6:30 p.m. - 8:45 p.m., and anyone interested in joining can contact them via their Facebook page. Monday nights they meet at First

Street United Methodist on Fredonia Stree et in downtown Longview, and Thursday nights they meet at the Longview Community Center on Highway 80. Tiffany also instructs a children’s group of clogging known as the Down Home Cloggers Ignited. Hill says the Down Home Cloggers offer beginners’ classes twice yearly. The program consists of a 12-week course, and no partner is needed to join. “I’ve been clogging since I was three,” Hill said. “The most challenging aspect of clogging for a beginner may be just learning to coordinate your body and finding your rhythm. Everyone has rhythm; you just have to learn to use it.” Although admittedly, Hill says there is always a challenge to clogging. For her it’s mixing all the different styles, the intensity of steps and constantly adapting to the diversity of musical arrangments. The Down Home Cloggers also perform at regional, state and national exhibitions. The Texas Clogging Council, promoted on their website as “the heart and sole of Texas,” is holding its annual rally March 14-15 at the Waco Convention Center. During the day, T.C.C. will host workshops for the dancers and exhibitions will take place in the evening. Teams from the Piney Woods will be

classifi clas cl asssi sified d as as contestants from the Northeast area competing against four other areas in the state. Anyone interested in participating or just being a spectator can find the necessary information at www.texas-clogging.com. Hill is currently serving Vice President for the Northeast area. “For me, clogging is a stress-reliever, a hobby … It’s in my blood,” she said. The longest running national clogging events began in 1974 but eventually became incorporated into C.L.O.G., the National Clogging Association. Additionally, there is a hall of fame for clogging, which honors clogging as well as square dancing. Founded in 1981 by Dan and Sandy Angel, the American Clogging Hall of Fame is located in Maggie Valley, North Carolina. The ACHF hosts several competitions year-round for teams and individuals to qualify for a chance to compete in a large-scale dance-off. The lucky soloist that wins the final round earns the privilege to perform at The Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tenn. Whether catching a glimpse at the next community celebration or local parade, dancers and admirers from all walks of life can appreciate this original discipline that is a continued tradition by those honoring America’s rich history.

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Artist’s Interview with

Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert’s art often comes from his memories and his daydreams. “These visual impulses keep coming back until I make something with them,” he explained. “Sometimes they are snakes in my mother’s gardens, campfires behind the levee, billboards, boats sharing the bayou with alligators, fallen trees after hurricanes, ferns growing out of brick walls and an island of monkeys at the Audubon Zoo.” His work combines all of these recognizable images until they become what he calls “containers of meaning,” much like words on a page might be for a writer. “When I make art today, it is often based on childhood memories and pictures that are in that big well of my imagination that was built when I was a kid growing up and had adults around us that were interested in the arts, visual images, music, reading,” he said. “The overall effect would be open to the viewer making up their own story from their experiences.” The artist grew up in New Orleans. He was the middle child of seven children in a large Catholic family. “Being a Catholic family, we went to Catholic schools. New Orleans is a Catholic city,” he said. “When I was a child, I figured everybody had the experience of New Orleans, with all the churches, with images and statues of the Blessed Mother and Saint Joseph, and the Mardi Gras, with all the visual imagery that surrounded us. Because of all the imagery that was part of my childhood, I thought that having a lot of visual imagery was a natural thing,” he added. “What affects my art today is that I filled my mind at an early age with images that had meaning.” Frank Herbert has always considered himself to be an artist. His earliest memories of art might well have started in the first grade. He smiled as he remembered his first grade teacher. “Miss Lynch was young and pretty and she included art in our class lessons. I can remember drawing a landscape with Crayolas – and also a portrait of a dog. Everyone in the class drew the same thing, but she chose my drawing and my landscape to put up on the

March 2014 - Page 14

wall. That probably gave me a spark to be able to do art. You might say it was my very first exhibit!” His interest in art grew when his fifth grade teacher took his class on an excursion to the Delgado Museum of Art, now the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA). “That gave us the idea that art was important,” he said. “I was fascinated by paintings and sculpture, specifically some Max Ernst surrealist paintings that were in the collection. For some reason, the museum had quite a lot of surrealist paintings as part of their permanent collection. I ended up going to high school near the museum. Often I would be able to take a bus down Elysian Fields and over to City Park Avenue and hang out in the museum after school while my mom thought I was at wrestling practice. “Wrestling practice was over because the season had ended, but I didn’t tell my mom that so I would have some more time to spend at the museum. With so many children it was kind of hard for my mother to keep track of everybody and where they were. That’s why I was able to sneak off for a while. “In 1973 or so, the museum had an exhibition by an artist who created big panels of colored lights that gradually changed as you watched them. It was set up in a dark, enclosed room. Coming out of the Woodstock era, it was a sort of psychedelic experience.” Herbert took art classes in high school, but he also had the opportunity to take filmmaking classes. The ease and simplicity of videos had not yet been invented so that he and his filmmaking classmates were creating movies on eight-millimeter reels of film with an eight-millimeter camera. He took all the classes that were offered in high school. He wanted to go to college to study filmmaking, but since his family was so large, he and his brothers and sisters were expected to attend state universities in Louisiana. None of the state universities offered filmmaking as an art form at that time. Many of his high school friends and classmates went to Louisiana State University. It was a reasonable choice. It was

by Jan Statman

only an hour away from New Orleans. They could get away from home, but they could also get home easily. That was not exactly what he wanted to do. He chose to attend Louisiana Tech at the far northern end of the state. It was as far as he could get from home in New Orleans while still staying in Louisiana. Although he wanted the adventure of living in a different place with different attitudes and different thoughts, he was not entirely prepared for a totally different culture. “I thought every place would be the same as New Orleans and every neighborhood was the same as the neighborhood I grew up in. North Louisiana was very different from anything I knew. They didn’t take the day off for Mardi Gras. They didn’t even know what Mardi Gras was. I was suddenly ‘different.’ I was a Catholic in the Bible Belt, and some people looked down at me for it. That was weird. I didn’t understand it. But I found a community there of fellow art students and drama students,” he said. “At that time, we only had about ten thousand students, so I got to know a lot of people who were interested in the same things. Every art student had a studio on campus. It was a wonderful chance to spread your paints out and work as a supportive community. We fed off each other’s ideas.” He was particularly influenced by one of his teachers, Bob Berguson. “Bob Berguson somehow recognized that, even as a first semester freshman, I was searching for something other than the obvious, that I wanted to do things out of the box,” he explained. “He let me do that. Not many of the other freshman level teachers would give their students that freedom because they had an agenda they wanted their students to follow to build procedures and discipline and learn the academic ways of doing things. Berguson let me follow my own muse because he saw that I was serious about what I was doing. And I think he found it interesting. He was as curious about what I was going to come up with as I was. I was able to stick with him for a couple of

years of art classes, which was lucky for me. I kind of did it backwards. Then I took classes with some of the teachers who were known to be more academic and more focused on processes and disciplined approaches to drawing and painting. Often you do that first and in the upper level years they let you explore and find your own way. That was good for me too. As a student you ought to try everything you can and have as many different teachers as you can.” By the time he graduated with his bachelor of fine arts degree in 1978 he had fallen in love with another art student, Ellen Carlton, who was completing her MFA. They were married, and they took a year away from school to save money. “Ellen was finished with her education with her MFA, but we both had plans for me to go on and get a further degree. We rented a nice little farmhouse on a busy highway for seventy-five dollars a month.” He described their newlywed idyll: “We had a dog and a lot of little cats that adopted us. What a great place it was for a young, newlywed couple. I took a job as a dump truck driver with the Lincoln Parish highway department. That certainly was my next education! It gave me a totally different perspective. I was a twenty-two-year-old college graduate, and I was working with mostly older men in their fifties and sixties who were retired farmers and long haul truck drivers. They were all interested in ‘schooling’ the young, newlywed boy in matters of love, of truck driving, of farming, of how to kill a hog, and how to use hunting dogs. I grew up in New Orleans as a city boy, and I knew none of these things. They were a little intimidated that I had a college degree, but they would say, ‘That young man’s got book sense but he ain’t got no common sense.’ And I would demonstrate it to them on a regular basis. A couple of them died that year in accidents or in shootouts on Saturday night gambling sessions, drinking too much. It was colorful. It was like a TV drama. I’d go home and tell my wife all about it.”

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After the dump truck driving year, he was accepted to the graduate program at Colorado State University. Here again he found new experiences. He had become part of the community at Louisiana Tech. He met an entirely different situation at Colorado State where students came from all across the country, bringing different ideas and different sets of rules about what art should be. Although it was unexpected, he felt that the new influences, critiques and different points of view were valuable learning experiences. “I had mostly worked in painting and drawing at Louisiana Tech, so I focused on drawing in my graduate work. It just happened that the textile artist Tom Lundberg was an advisor on my graduate committee. He brought me a whole different way of thinking about images from the textile perspective, working with pattern, imagery that is repeated, looking at images as ‘containers of meeting.’ Tom became the biggest influence on the way I make art today. He had been a painter in his undergraduate school, so his approach to textile images is the way a painter would approach them. Seeing his work and taking classes with him, being exposed to the traditions of the world of folk art, seeing the same images used all over the world to convey visual ideas ... My drawings linked together pieces of memory by using individual emblems or icons I would combine in patterns, much like the pages of an encyclopedia.� After receiving his master of fine arts degree from Colorado State University in 1982, he wanted to continue on in a college environment and considered the best way to do that would be by becoming a teacher. He and Ellen had two children and wanted to leave Colorado to get the babies closer to their grandparents. “Ellen’s mom was in Shreveport, and my parents were still in New Orleans, so I applied for college teaching jobs in Louisiana and in the bordering states,� he said. “I got a phone call from Gary Frields, who was then Chairman of the Art department at Kilgore College. His colleague Jean Velde was going to retire at the end of the year. He liked the look of my portfolio and my resume, and he wanted me to come act as a juror for an upcoming student competition and art symposium so we could meet and he could observe me conduct a lecture. I said, “Kilgore College, is that the college with those dancing girls?� I did some research about Kilgore, Texas, and it all fit well. There were lots of positive reviews of it in the College Blue Book, and it was only an hour from Ellen’s Mom in Shreveport. I was hired to start teaching at Kilgore in 1984. “Gary Frields was my mentor and my cheerleader. I learned so much by just being around him during the two years we worked together. He was remarkably creative, which made every workday sort of play. Unfortunately, after two years he left and went off to Stephen F. Austin State University where he spent the rest of his career and the rest of his life. Working with Gary gave me enough of an approach to teaching art at the college level that has lasted my own career.� When the American with Disabilities Act was passed in the early ‘90s, Frields started to see hearing-impaired students in his art classes. This led to Herbert’s fascination with learning PineyWoodsLive.com

everything he could learn about sign language. He returned to school at Tyler Junior College to learn American Sign Language as part of their Interpretive Training Program. In 2000, he was offered a position as the American Sign Language teacher at Longview High School. He dropped to adjunct teaching of art appreciation at Kilgore College in order to take this position. The sign language images and some of the cultural aspects of deaf culture have started to become part of his artwork. “This is how I want it,� Herbert said. “It allows me to participate in all the things I’m interested in. As an artist, I find it hard to always be able to stay with painting because other responsibilities in my life get in the way. There are responsibilities of teaching, my family, and my home, just the everyday business of life. My sculpture teacher told me once, ‘Focus on the work. Be sure you are always working. Don’t worry about the rest of it.’ That stuck with me. That is what I do.� Herbert’s paintings have been exhibited nationally and internationally. His collections and publications include among others: Digital Archive of American Artists; National Museum of American Art/Smithsonian Institution; Who’s Who in American Art; Who’s Who Among American Teachers; Marwick, Mitchell and Company, Denver, Colo.; Sullivan Bisenius Gallery, Denver, Colo.; East Carolina University, Greenville, N.C.; Colorado State University, Ft. Collins, Colo.; Poudre Valley Regional Hospital, Ft. Collins, Colo.; James E. Rutledge, Architect, Springfield, Mo.; and Joseph D’Urso, Interior Design, New York, N.Y.

No matter the medium, we’re pleased to support the Arts in East Texas. “There is incredible power in the arts to inspire and influence.� Julie Taymor American Director

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March 2014 - Page 15

R Roller derby is a contact sport that originated in the United States around 1935 and has gained mass amounts of popularity world-wide due to the physicality and theatrics of the event. In East Texas, roller derby has been taking place for the better part of 15 years. Local leagues play a version known as flat track roller derby, and all the teams follow the rules set forth by the Women’s Flat Track Association, which will be holding The Roller Derby World Cup in Dallas later this year. The matches, called “bouts,” consist of two teams of five players. There is one jammer per team whose object is to lap all the opposing players, ultimately scoring points. The other four teammates assist their jammer by holding back the opposition’s jammer from passing them — it is one of the only organized sports in existence where each team is simultaneously playing offense and defense. “Roller derby is played by approximately 1,250 amateur leagues worldwide, nearly half of them outside the U.S.,” according to a study by the Wall Street Journal. Whip It, a movie released in 2009 featuring Ellen Page, Drew Barrymore and Kristen Wiig, provided a sensational insight to the world of roller derby and was set in Austin. The film is based off a novel by Shauna Cross, and the characters resemble rockabilly pin-ups and use fun roller derby identities like “Babe Ruthless,” “Smashley Simpson,” and “Iron Maven.” In East Texas, there is almost a team for every town: the Backwoods Bombshells of Longview, the Quad State Derby Dames and Dolls of Destruction from Texarkana, the East Texas Bombers of Tyler and Greenville’s Madames of Massacre. The Backwoods Bombshells are hosting ng an upcoming upcom ming benben nefit derby, “Claws v. Paws,” on March Maude ch 29 at the M a e Cobb aud au C bb b Convention Center. One hundred percent ent of proceeds ds go o toward d helping the Humane Society of Northeast ast Texas and d the the Upshurr th County Hope House for Pets. Tickets are $10 in advance adv dvaance and dv an nd $15 at the door. They can be purchased online at www www.brownpaw.brownpa-pertickets.com. Most roller derby bouts in the Pineyy Woods Woods are actually benefits for charities like Toys forr Tots and aid aid d for local veterans. Team Captain of the Backwoods Bombers, bers, Delta Burt, Burt, takes pride in making considerable contributions ns to the community comm o unity through roller derby events. “Recently, on December 8, we were able to give $2100 $2 2100 to the Longview PD’s Blue Santa Toy Drive. They were then n able to reopen their applications, and everyone that needed their ded thei ir aassistance ssistance got it. It was such a success for them, it will be donee again again this year in early November,” Burt said. Also, the Maude Cobb Convention Complex a carx is hosting hossting st nival July 4, where they are creating an outdoor track rack to o showcase roller derby preceding the holiday fireworks show. w. Burt, a former speed skater, is a big proponentt of roller rol ro olle ler derbyy because of the empowerment it gives women from m all skill ski killl levels ls and how welcoming the league’s community is to newcomers. ew wcome mers. Every dollar the Backwoods Bombshells raise goes ess tto o ch charitiess in the community. The team consists of five business esss me members rs who see to all the legal and financial logistics including in ng an ng n insur-ance bond to cover the venues they use for competitions. ons. on ad St ate te Paula Cochran, #095 AKA “Lea Enforcer” for the Quad State derb in n Derby Dames, gives a behind-the-scenes look at rollerr derby East Texas. y n ames. es. s.. “We all have different ways we gained our derby names. yeers, an nd Sometimes they are names given to us by other derby players, and kother times we make them up. I chose ‘Lea’ because it wass a nick nicknforcer’ nfo r’’ name my best friend gave to me when I was a teenager. ‘Enforcer’ is because I am in law enforcement, and my number, #095,, is myy badge number,” she said.

March 2014 - Page 16

H O O R 5 rb e D

photo courtesy of Shutter Junkies P

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photo courtesy of Shutter Junkies Photography

Cochran’s daughter, Courtney, a student at New Boston High School, is also on the team as “Ella Bo Baggins,” #626. Still, Cochran admits one of the most challenging aspects of an already challenging sport is finding venues for practices/matches and living down hype created by the sensationalism of the sport. th “People expect to see the rough sport on TV and movies where players often fight, purposely injuring each other and see lots of blood. There are plenty of skaters bumping and po hitting each other out of the way, but we have regulations and rules to follow. When a player hi violates those rules, there are penalties. The sport is about teamwork, skill and strategy, not vi about who can beat up the other players,” said Cochran. “Roller derby has a strong sisterhood ab that includes members of teams from different areas, not just your local team.” th Information for upcoming charity bouts can be found at www.easttexasbombers.com and each team has an individual Facebook fan page. ea Even with protection in place and assurance that roller derby is not actually as vicious as it is in movies, it is still a contact sport, and one can expect to see players injured from time to time. “The worst parts of playing are the injuries. We all wear pads and mouth guards, but no m matter how experienced of a skater you are, there will always be the chance of injuries,” Coch chran said. Anyone who likes sports will find this one just as enticing as the others, with the added be benefit of it being right in one’s backyard. Undoubtedly, roller derby is an exciting, fast-paced ac activity that has all the elements of an intriguing game: contact, speed, skill, team spirit and ev even a profound sense of pride in the community.

Photography

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March 2014 - Page 17

umba Z by Crystal Dav Davis vis

Taking a simple drive through town, one might see the purple-lettered Zumba® logo donning the windows of fitness facilities everywhere. With its unusual name and number of infomercials, those who haven’t experienced a high cardio workout recently can find themselves easily slipping into a routine that gets the blood pumping with a Zumba® class. Zumba® is an exercise program that combines aerobics and dance fundamentals to achieve and maintain an optimal heart rate, burning the most possible calories in a shorter period. It has become a world-wide workout phenomenon since its conception in the early 90s and was created by Beto Perez in Columbia when he forgot to bring the music for an aerobics class he was teaching. He substituted his salsa and merengue tapes that day, and the result has become a multi-million dollar success. In 2001, Perez brought his idea to the U.S. This fitness routine craze made its way to the Piney Woods a few years ago and is being offered throughout most gyms in East Texas. One gym offers a class almost every day of the week and even has an Aqua Zumba® class in the lap pool for added resistance and strength training. Rachel Norwood, a certified Zumba® instructor, holds class every Tuesday at 6:45 p.m. at Good Shepherd’s Institute for Healthy Living. She passionately advocates the benefits of the workout program for anyone looking to lose weight or maintain the weight they’re at with a routine that’s anything but boring, no matter how much or how often one partakes.

March 2014 - Page 18

“There are definite cardio benefits. Those wearing monitors in my classes report burning 500-800 calories in an hour. You get out of it what you put in. If you dance like no one is watching and let your inner rock star shine, the calories will burn, burn, burn!” said Norwood. Dance has long earned its place in the history books as one of the most athletic, expressive disciplines, and even though the concept of designing a program that incorporates elements of dance into an aerobic program is not new, the Latin/ international factors provide a fresh take. Norwood claims the benefits of Zumba® extend beyond the normal expectations of exercise due to the level of fun the classes provide. “It’s fun and fairly easy to learn, so it’s a program people can stick with. I leave feeling like I’ve just gone out to the club with a big group of friends! And as a mom, believe me when I say, there’s no time to go to the club anymore,” she said. “It’s such a stress reliever. There’s nothing like dancing your problems away! You won’t have time to think about anything else in a Zumba® class.” In addition to taking a class with your gym, Zumba® also offers DVDs for home use and even video games. Sarah Wehring, a stay-at-home mom, has been using Zumba® videos for almost two years. According to her, the best part is you’re constantly moving. “It’s fast paced with very little break time,” she said. Wehring said that she would definitely use some of the Salsa moves she’s learned from Zumba® during a night out dancing with friends. Zumba® undoubtedly has a little something to offer everyone. It can be done in any environment that’s comfortable and with any medium with which one learns best. There is even a male Zumba® instructor on Wednesday nights at GSIHL for any men who are interested in trying the program without feeling singled out.

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A Community of Dance

Dance by Crystal Davis

A look at thriving dance groups in a small corner of East Texas.

Just a short drive south on Highway 259, in the cities of Nacogdoches and Lufkin, beats the thriving heart of an intricate dance community with a much broader focus than the typical barroom boogie you might imagine with Stephen F. Austin University and the infamous Banita Creek Hall close at hand. Ballet, tap, ballroom, Latin, line dancing, two-stepping plus just about any other form of dance one can imagine has graced the hardwood floors of Nacogdoches and Lufkin for decades. More than just a hometown hobby, dancing has become a way of life for an increasing number of people from every age group within the community. The Nacogdoches Guild of Ballet and Dance is a newly formed organization dedicated to encouraging students to pursue dance education and performance, as well as host local social dances and workshops. The guild works collaboratively with studios and dance companies in the area to combine efforts for the sake of premier performance. “I was so amazed by the quality of performance,” said Cathy Blackwell, Secretary for the guild, after attending a local ballet. Blackwell and husband Stan, President for the guild, recently moved here from Michigan and took up dance as a form of social activity and artistic discipline they could continuously develop together. The pair also performed in the Gobel School of Dance’s rendition of ballets, Sleeping Beauty, in 2012 and Giselle, 2013. Together, they joined David and Diane McDowell to form the guild as a non-profit organization with the main objective of assembling scholarships for dance students wanting to continue their education in the art. The guild also hosts social dances monthly for the community and is holding two meetings in March to discuss studio alliance and student scholarships. Anyone looking to get involved or receive more information can email nacdanceguild@att.net. Similar to the dance community’s new benefactors, the Gobel Dance School is notorious for excellence in dance. GSD has been in Nacogdoches for over 35 years, with Katie Parr assuming the director position over the last six years after founder, Maryse Gobel retired. “Our studio’s focus is classical ballet with an emphasis on technical training.

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Having been a professional dancer who became injured years ago, I hope to help dancers in many styles of dance receive the technique needed to be stronger, injury-free dancers!” she said. “We teach this philosophy in our jazz/contemporary, hip hop and ballroom classes as well as our ballet classes.” For more information on enrolling or attending future performances, one can visit www.gobelschoolofdance.com. In Lufkin, the Lufkin Dance Club is another diverse dance company with interests in every aspect of the art: two-step, waltz, jitterbug, polka, cha-cha and more. In March, LDC will have dance lessons every Tuesday, 7 p.m.- 9 p.m. at the SPJST Lodge. Those needing to register should arrive at 6:30 p.m. Anyone looking for more information on the Lufkin Dance Club can visit lufkindanceclub.com. No matter your style or preference, there is a little something for everybody wanting to do a little dance in Nacogdoches and Lufkin. Whether it’s a mere social activity or performance aptitude, this Piney Woods community has a plethora of dancing shoes just waiting for feet to slip them on and join the fun. March 2014 - Page 19

IN REVIEW The Art Forger by Barbara Shapiro | Book Review by Jan Statman | An art forger might seem like a strange character to consider as the heroine of a novel, but Claire Roth didn’t start out to be an art forger. When author Barbara Shapiro introduces the reader to Claire, she is an incredibly talented but sadly unsuccessful artist with a heart of gold, just trying to get by any way she can. While she was a young and impressionable graduate student she became involved with her former professor and mentor, the very famous and very married artist, Isaac Cullion. Cullion had been invited to exhibit a new work in an important show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, but it turned out he was having one of those awful creative blocks artists sometimes have, and he simply could not paint a thing. As an act of love and misplaced adoration, Claire painted a work that was close enough to Cullion’s style to fool the critics. They titled it 4D, meaning “Time as the Fourth Dimension.” He entered it into the show under his own name, and it turned out to be an immediate success. Not only that, it was declared to be his “finest work.” Critics said it was far better than anything he had ever done before, and the museum hurried to purchase it for their permanent collection. He became the star of the art scene. His photograph appeared in all the newspapers. He was interviewed by all the major magazines. He appeared on late-night TV talk shows. He enjoyed major gallery exhibits. His other paintings sold like proverbial hotcakes. He accepted all the glory, fame and money, but he never mentioned Claire or the fact that she had actually painted the piece. In fact, he began to convince himself that he really was the artist who had created the famous painting, which brought him such success. The only act of conscience he displayed was that he immediately dismissed Claire. He abruptly ended their affair, would not answer her phone calls, and would not even speak with her again. She was too dangerous for him. She knew too much. She knew the truth about his so-called masterpiece. Furious, she attempted to tell the director of the museum that she was the artist who had painted 4D. When the museum director confronted Cullion, he simply insisted that Claire was the fraud. He said she was a disappointed March 2014 - Page 20

sweetheart, and he denied that it was not his work. The sympathetic museum director allowed Claire to paint another version of the now famous 4D while a socially prominent museum board member watched her work. The woman was convinced that Claire had, in fact, painted 4D, but because of the combination of prestige and money, the museum chose not to admit that they had been hoodwinked. Rumors persisted. The question about the art’s value was raised. An editorial in Artworld Magazine demanded to know whether 4D would still be considered a masterpiece if it was painted by an art student instead of by the famous artist, Isaac Cuillion. Claire’s name was linked to the potential disgrace, which was a disaster for her in the close-knit art world. If that were not enough of a scandal, Cullion became so distraught over his deceptions that he committed suicide. His wife, his friends, and the eager media considered his suicide to be the result of Claire’s falsely accusing him of fraud. She became a total outcast. All doors to gallery and museum exhibits were slammed shut to her. This would have been a powerful novel if it were only about the sometimes twisted workings of the art business, but that is merely one part of a 3-part story with 3 distinct plot lines that move back and forth through time as eagerly as the 4D painting was supposed to move through space. Each section is different, but each deals with secrets, deceptions, and scandals. In 1990, two men dressed as police officers bound and gagged the night

guards at Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and stole thirteen paintings, including Rembrandt’s Storm on the Sea of Galilee, Vermeer’s The Concert and works by Degas and Manet from the collection. It was, and still is the greatest unsolved theft in art history. In spite of thousands of hours of police investigations and a five million dollar reward, the missing paintings have never been found. Eager to keep the story alive, the press implicated suspects that were as different as the international mafia and the Vatican, but no suspects were ever caught. The thieves have never been arrested. As Claire’s disgrace seemed to destroy her world, the novel describes another scandal that took place a hundred years earlier. The author invents a large scale Degas painting of three nudes, titled After the Bath, as one of the works that was stolen in the famous art heist. Although this painting does not exist, it is described as a true Degas masterpiece, having his typically brilliant colors and exuberant lines. The author also invents a romantic scandal between Isabella Stewart Gardner and Edgar Degas. Of course, this impossible relationship could never have

happened. It is presented as a series of letters Gardner wrote home to her beloved niece, describing her adventures in Europe. It is true that Gardner liked to travel to Europe in order to buy paintings, and it is also true that she enjoyed doing all kinds of outrageous things that would scandalize the proper Boston society of her time. In the novel, the unlikely relationship between the wealthy collector and the artist resulted in Mrs. Gardner posing nude for Degas. Meanwhile, Claire Roth suffered the consequences of her own scandal. Her reputation was discredited. Her work was ignored. The only way it was possible for her to eke out a meager living through her art was by reproducing famous paintings to be sold as copies by an online retailer. Handsome and powerful gallery owner Aiden Markel appeared unexpectedly in Claire’s studio. He offered her a devil’s bargain. In exchange for forging a copy of a Degas painting for one of his clients, he would not only give her a sizeable and much needed amount of money, but he also promised her a coveted one-artist show in his famous upscale gallery, the Markel B. He made her an offer she could not refuse. PineyWoodsLive.com

The original painting was delivered to her Boston studio so that she could forge a copy. When the painting arrived, she realized it was After The Bath, one of the paintings that was stolen from the Gardner Museum. Using the oil painting techniques of Dutch art forger Hans van Meegeren to create her own forgery, she gradually became more involved with the painting and with the style of Degas. As she worked on her forgery, she realized there were some discrepancies in the painting. There were some things that did not seem true to Degas’ hand. Aiden Markel took advantage of Claire’s sensitive heart. He seduced her both romantically and emotionally. She fell in love with him as she worked on the forgery, but she came to believe the original of After the Bath, which Markel brought her and which had hung in the Elizabeth Stewart Gardner Museum for over a hundred years, may itself have been a forgery. She realized she was making a forgery of a forgery. But where was the original? Her adventures in trying to discover what was honest while she herself was involved in work that was completely dishonest led her through contacts with upscale Boston society, police investigations, and other questionable romances. Real people, real places and events are involved with fictitious people, places and events for a wild carousel ride through the sometimes cloudy, sometimes confusing, sometimes dangerous, and always complicated world of art and business, ambition, reputation and talent. The Boston Globe has described author Barbara Shapiro as a “master of mystery.� In addition to being an author, she is also a sociologist whose specialty is in deviant behavior and criminology. As a teacher, she has taught at Tufts University in the Boston area. Shapiro teaches creative writing at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education. She is the co-founder of Novel Enterprises, where she produces and teaches workshops and seminars on writing. She is a member of the board of directors of the New England Chapter of Mystery Writers of America, and she is also past president of the New England Chapter of Sisters in Crime, which is an international organization dedicated to the professional development and advancement of women crime writers. She is author of four other suspense novels set in the Boston area. They are Blind Spot, See No Evil, Blameless, and Shattered Echoes. Shapiro is also the author of a non-fiction book, The Big Squeeze: Balancing the Needs of Aging Parents, Dependent Children and You. The author lives in the Boston area with her husband and children. PineyWoodsLive.com

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I

n March 2013, the KilGogh Arts Festival, held in part as a celebration of the anniversary of Vincent van Gogh’s birth, raised more than $13,000 in a one-night art exhibition in downtown Kilgore. Following the success of last year’s inaugural event, the arts festival committee has planned a number of activities for March 2014 aimed at raising funds for local nonprofit organizations while celebrating the arts in East Texas. The festival kicks off in early March with a visit from Los Angeles-based pop violinist Peter Lee Johnson and includes a series of events from a KilGogh-themed golf tournament to a second art exhibition and wine tasting and an all day arts festival March 29. Once again, the majority of all proceeds will be donated to charities in the Kilgore area, the remainder set aside for next year’s festivities, already on the drawing board. Last year’s inaugural event, which was set on March 30 on van Gogh’s 160th birthday, recruited 21 artists, which included local painters and photographers to a metal sculptor and a found-art craftsman to exhibit their pieces and submit a competition/auction item under 2013’s “City of Starry Nights� theme. Longview High School art teacher Jeffery R. Hull’s metal-and-paint homage to van Gogh’s

Starry Night won the first competition. The sculptor is KilGogh’s featured artist for 2014. “I’m excited. It seems like it’s going to be much bigger than last year. Sounds like the committee has great plans,� he said. “It was such a fun event in 2013. It was electric, energy was just throughout the building, people were excited. From what I could see there was lots of buying activity, people were enjoying what the artists brought. Anytime artists can showcase their works and have a venue, it’s a win-win for everybody. Artists love to create, and it’s fun to get our artwork out in the public’s eye. If people like what we do, that’s encouraging.� As an official Kilgore Main Street Program event, for the 2013 kick-off, the arts festival committee applied for and received a $4,500 loan from the City of Kilgore’s Hotel Occupancy Tax Fund. With revenues far in excess of the seed money, the festival repaid the loan and this year applied for $10,000 from the HOT Advisory Board, which reviews applications for use of Hotel Occupancy Tax Funds. The funds from the second loan, coupled with the net revenues of the 2013 event, are being used to draw in new community partners and add new events for the fundraising effort. The 2013 exhibition was just the warm-up

– a fundraiser to build capital for an ongoing series of festivals and to assist the Kilgore Historical Preservation Foundation and the City of Kilgore in raising funds for the renovation of the Kilgore History & Arts Center and the Downtown Historic Theater Renovation Fund, respectively. The KilGogh Arts Festival committee has negotiated with local hoteliers for a discounted rate on all overnight stays – guests, artists and others – tied to KilGogh. Find a list of participating hotels at KilGogh.com. Coming off the success of last year’s inaugural event, for the second year the arts committee set out to craft a series of events that truly merit the word “festival.� The activities kick off March 7-8 with two events featuring YouTube sensation Peter Lee Johnson – the 23-year-old’s covers of contemporary hits and pop mash-ups with classical pieces have garnered more than 16.5 million views online. He’ll be playing on stage with Kilgore High School Orchestra members and other local performers at 7 p.m. Saturday, March 8 at Kilgore College’s Dodson Auditorium (817 Nolan St.). General admission tickets for the weekend concert are $12 for adults and $8 for students, available from KHSO members, through the Kilgore News Herald (610 E. Main Street), online at plj.kilgogh.com or by calling 903-9842593. Prior to the Saturday concert, Johnson will perform a private show at 7 p.m. Friday, March 7, at the Meadowbrook Golf & Events Center (1306 Houston St.). Tickets for the Meet the Artist VIP Reception are $50 and include dinner, the mini-concert and a piece of autographed merchandise as well as reserved seating at Saturday’s concert. For more information or to buy tickets, follow “Peter Lee Johnson Live in Kilgore� on Facebook. The next event on tap for the arts festival will be KilGolf, which includes two days of activities at Meadowbrook Golf & Events Center. Set March 27-28, the golf outing includes two mini-tournaments on Thursday and Friday morning as well as a disc golf tournament Thursday afternoon at Meadowbrook Park and a concert in the Firehouse Bar & Grill Thursday evening. Hosted by the Kilgore Fire Department, 90 percent of proceeds benefit the 2014 Special Abilities Family Fun Event Day held in September, an all-day festival tailored to children and adults with special needs and their families. Registration for KilGolf – with hole challenges and other prizes – is $150 per individual golfer for one day or $200 for both tournaments and includes cart rental. Two-man team registration receives a discount – one day, per pair,

is $200 or duos can register for both days for $300. For more information, call Meadowbrook at 903-984-3155, follow “Kilgore Fire Department� on Facebook or log on to KilGogh.com After raising $6,100 in net proceeds in 2013, the second annual KilGogh Art Exhibition & Wine Tasting is set for 7 p.m. Friday, March 28, featuring local and visiting artists as well as samples of East Texas wineries’ stock, heavy hors d’oeuvres and live entertainment. The Kilgore History & Arts Center (the old Kilgore Post Office at 224 S. Kilgore St.) was KilGogh’s primary venue for 2013 – expanding in the second year, the nearby Texan Theater (225 S. Kilgore St.) will allow space for the exhibition to double in size. Inviting the 2013 artists to return for another year, KilGogh is actively recruiting new participants from throughout East Texas and beyond. Artists can find more information online at KilGogh.com or via Facebook through the “KilGogh� page. In an effort to draw more guests, the arts festival committee has decreased the 2013 admission price of $75 to $50 for 2014 – tickets are available on the festival’s website, at the Kilgore News Herald or by calling 903-9842593. Net revenues will once again benefit the Kilgore History & Arts Center, the city’s Downtown Historic Theater Renovation Fund and next year’s arts festival. KilGogh’s 2014 events culminate in an allday arts festival in Kilgore’s Downtown Entertainment District March 29. Set from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., the free event will feature professional and amateur artists (including a student art competition), live entertainment and other activities on South Kilgore Street. New in 2014, the arts festival committee has partnered with volunteers from iServe for KidsGogh, tailored for children but welcoming all ages to experience the arts in Kilgore. Free to the public, attendees are encouraged to bring a nonperishable food item to donate to Kilgore’s Helping Hands food closet. Activities include art lessons and projects like charcoal drawing, clay sculpting, finger painting, sand art, and watercolors with free facepainting and henna tattoos by JuJubilee of Tyler and much more. Pairing with Longview-Kilgore Cable TV, the arts festival will conclude with a Cinema Under the Stars event – including a birthday cake in van Gogh’s honor – at sunset. Attendees are asked to bring their own lawn chairs and blankets for the outdoor movie, free with courtesy popcorn and drinks. For more information, log on to KilGogh. com or call 903-984-2593.

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usic and dance have always been complementary in pop culture. What is dance without music? And what good music doesn’t touch the soul and make someone want to express that emotion through movement? An energetic tune makes you want to move with a tapping of a foot, an expressive freestyle dance, or a choreographed sequence of steps. A love ballad makes you want to hold that special someone close as you slowly make your way around the dance floor. Dance is the rhythmic human expression of a musical beat. The term “social dance� is not a reference to performance dance such as ballet, jazz, ballroom or Broadway. Social dancing refers to the dancing that has been done throughout history on an amateur level for entertainment. Social dance is the reason we have dance halls, juke joints, honky-tonks, nightclubs, discotheques, and ballrooms. As part of our cultural past, if a boy or man really wanted to impress a girl or lady, he took her dancing. When there were no movies, no bowling alleys, and no miniature golf, a young man took the young lady he was courting to community dances where local musicians played for public entertainment. If a boy did not know how to dance, he surely lost the girl to those who did. So most mothers, and many sisters, took on the responsibility of teaching their sons and younger brothers to dance at an early age. As our culture has evolved, new genres of music have been born, and with any new music of impact, a new genre of dance has followed closely behind. As “mountain music� (the origins of today’s country music) spread throughout the nation, many new forms of dance were developed such as the waltz, clogging, and the square dance. Almost every ten to twenty years in the 20th century, a new wave of popular music has grabbed the public ear and made people want to dance. When the ragtime music of the early 1900s swept the nation like wildfire, the Jitterbug, the Charleston, the Lindy

Hop, and so many more of the innocent, feel-good dances of the century were born. Hollywood’s Golden Age introduced some of the greatest dancers of the 20th century such as Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Gene Kelly, Danny Kaye, Bing Crosby. These were the BIG stars of the time, and they were dancers. They were also the pop heroes of the time. Social dancing rose in popularity once again. In the 1940s, as soldiers prepared to depart for Europe to join the world war, the popular orchestras around the world had discovered swing music and introduced the upbeat music of the big band swing era, which made every young recruit long to grab his girl and hit the dance floor to show the high energy moves of swing dancing. The American music of the 1950s changed the world as rock and roll took center stage. The artists breaking into this new music scene were almost as numerous as the new dances created by the hundreds by teenagers listening to their favorite records. The 1960s revolution, led by British rock acts, seemed to wash away the innocence of the 50s, and brought not only miniskirt-wearing “go-go� dancers but grew quickly into the era of “free love� and “no rules.� The music and dance became free, explorative, and boundless. Through the 70’s, the nation caught “Saturday Night Fever� and discotheques with lighted dance floors were found in every city in our nation. Dance steps were rehearsed tediously before making a showing to impress not only your date but entire dance clubs. Hollywood continued to keep America dancing through the 1980s. With the release of Urban Cowboy in 1980, the nation went scampering for boots and feather-crested cowboy hats. “Two stepping� was the new fad and the way to proceed to the in crowd. In 1984, the dance cry was returned as every high school boy in America dreamed of dancing like Kevin Bacon in Footloose, which was followed soon by Dirty Dancing

in 1987 when every girl wanted to dance with Patrick Swayze, and every boy wanted to be Patrick Swayze. Dancing was “cool.â€? The late early 90’s song, “Achy Breaky Heartâ€? introduced the still-popular, partnerless line dancing. Although it seemed fewer and fewer young men were actually learning to dance, a dancer male or female didn’t need a partner. Anyone could learn a few moves and join right in. Although line dancing started with the country music genre, it has since been adapted to the beat of modern hip-hop music. Today it seems that going dancing as a couple is becoming less and less of a popular choice for the ideal date. Although still glamorized by Hollywood with the popularity of modern movie stars in television dance competitions, more and more it seems today’s modern man has lost interest in the age-old activity of social dancing. The number of clubs, honky-tonks, and dance halls seems to be declining in America. Although most women will ask their husbands for a romantic night of dinner and dancing, somehow begrudgingly, many men will agree to go only after great efforts of encouragement from their spouses or dates. Social dancing is perhaps one of the oldest forms of entertainment in cultural history. Many of the venues one used to find fully staffed on a Friday or Saturday evening, complete with a live band ready to pack the dancers onto the floor with their great music, have now opted for a live DJ or even a karaoke night to attempt to pull patrons into their businesses. As it has often recently been witnessed by live bands in East Texas, the interest in live music and social dance has been waning. The beat is still there. The dance floors are still there. The bands are waiting. Music and dancing go hand in hand. The next time you hear your favorite song and notice your foot tapping along with the beat, take a second to realize ‌ the dance is somewhere down inside of you still. Your foot moving means it’s just trying to get out. PineyWoodsLive.com

by Crystal Davis

Jodi Mitchell

Move over Joni ‌ Miss Jodi Mitchell, a Sabine High School senior, is mapping out her performance career plan and getting a notable head start. Mitchell recently competed in the Texas Music Educators Association’s All-State Choir contest at Texas A&M Commerce on January 12. Mitchell received high honors and won first chair soprano one, chair 2 out of 20, one of the most coveted positions for a choral student. She travelled with another Sabine HS choral student, Oliver Tan, a bass vocalist, who also placed chair three out of 20. There were only seven firstchairs available for Soprano One in the mixed choir with about 15,000 students competing for a position. In the competition, there are seven areas with four regions in the state, ultimately competing for a chance to perform with one of the 13 music ensembles consisting of bands, orchestras and choirs. Mitchell’s area consisted of roughly 200 school districts and overall, 55,000 students statewide are narrowed down to three choral groups totaling about 360 singers combined. Both she and Tan performed with the Texas All-State Choir in San Antonio on February 15. Mitchell has been singing in choir for eight years under the direction of Sabine ISD’s Choral Director, Clara Dickerson, as well as taking private lessons from Lora Robison of Gilmer. Upon graduation, Mitchell has received a scholarship to East Texas Baptist University and plans on majoring in performance arts. She aspires to be an opera singer. Mitchell will graduate third in her class with about 40 hours of college already completed. She was recently named to the Kilgore College President’s List and was inducted into Phi Theta Kappa. Along with all her recent successes, Mitchell has also received a fair amount of publicity for her efforts and talent. She was recently featured in three local East Texas newspapers and appeared on a brief TV spot for a local X-Factor try-out in the spring of 2013. She sings with the choir at the First Presbyterian Church of Longview and occasionally solos. She has performed the national anthem at multiple events, including the Pump Jacks baseball game in Kilgore this past summer. She was also cast in the Longview ArtsView production of The Sound of Music last November. “She strives to be the best in everything she does,â€? said her mother, Angela Mitchell. Several samples of Jodi’s performance singing can be found on a YouTube channel entitled, “Jodi Mitchell’s Fan Club,â€? as well as her own personal channel where in one video she performs “Think of Me,â€? an aria from Phantom of the Opera, displaying a strong vibrato and clear pitch with an extremely broad range. Hard to believe this songbird from the Piney Woods was once too shy to sing in front of other people.

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won lots and lots of prizes and awards. It feels nice. It is a lovely ego booster. It is a validation of sorts. It is even more appealing when it includes a nice, big box of cash to go along with a pretty, blue ribbon, but it is not as satisfying as creating the work in the first place. The public, on the other hand, sets great store by awards and prizes. It’s kind of like those No Child Left Behind tests our school children are forced to endure. They don’t really prove anything more thoughtful than the child’s ability to perform under pressure while regurgitating facts, which have been memorized for the occasion. Artists’ reputations can be built on the thin fabric of being accepted into a collection of competitive shows. It often becomes a matter of professional life or death. It becomes the “publish or perish” of the painter’s lifestyle. Competitive art exhibits have quite a few shortcomings. All artists are aware of the shortcomings. To begin with, these shows always demand that the artists “submit” their work. The very word “submit” humbles the artist. It makes it seem like the poor artist is standing outside the door, hat in hand, begging for scraps. More than that, most of these competitive exhibits demand that the artists pay rather hefty entrance fees for the privilege of “submitting.” This turns the whole thing into a pay-to-play situation. Everybody pays. Not everybody gets to play. Some will be accepted. Many will be rejected. Entrance fees are not refundable. By doing this, the organization that is putting on the exhibit uses the artists, who are the least able to finance the organization’s activities, to underwrite their decision to have a show. The public does not know or care how these things are operated. They are impressed by the list of prizewinners. Some groups prefer to exhibit only traditional works. They will select jurors who will agree to their preferences. Other groups are only interested in contemporary works. They will also select jurors who will agree to their preferences. Some groups will even instruct their jurors about their preferences in advance. Many times they don’t even announce the names of the jurors. With a few notable exceptions, nobody bothers to warn the artists about what they are getting into, or why. Some museums insist on a jury composed of a museum director or curator, an artist, and a critic. Three less likely companions would be hard to find. The things they choose sometimes make for a puzzling exhibit. Some competitions announce the jurors as a committee of five to fifteen people. In those situations, a majority vote is necessary before they will even accept a work of art into a show. It would be difficult for that many people to agree on any subject, let alone the arts. Congress can function

AArtirtist's World by JANSTATMAN

It seems hard to imagine, but artists are faced with all sorts of difficult situations. I have had paintings that chose to commit suicide by leaping off gallery walls to crash to the floor, splintering their frames and poking holes in their canvases. I have had huge paintings catch a wayward wind and threaten to carry me away, most likely to the Land of Oz. My art has been lost, stolen, erased, defaced, and hung in dark corners. I’ve dealt with grumpy gallery owners, maudlin museum directors, crabby critics, and proud parents who believe their three year olds can do exactly what I do – and

March 2014 - Page 26

do it with Crayolas. Working in the studio is physically challenging and emotionally draining, demanding an intensity of focus. With all of that, the prize winning and award winning “show business” of art ranks high among the most difficult aspects of the artist’s life. For an artist to say, “I painted a spectacular painting today. My painting is moving, it is creative and it accomplishes everything I set out to do,” is really important. For the same artist to say, “I won a prize today,” just doesn’t have the same level of importance. Once upon a time I entered lots and lots of exhibits. I

more effectively than this crowd! Other groups simplify matters by asking only one lone juror. They freely admit that the show will be selected on the basis of that one person’s taste and interests. One system of selection lets the jurors look at everything that has been entered and then decide which will be in and which will be out. Another exhibiting group will decide to pre-judge the work that has been submitted before the juror or jurors have the chance to look at anything. In some selection processes, the artworks go through several rounds of choice. First, all amateurish and really bad works are taken out. Then the cream is lifted up to definitely be included. After that, the questionable but possibly acceptable work is viewed and the show is completed. Many fine paintings are rejected at this point because the space will only allow for a certain number of pieces. Other perfectly nice paintings are rejected because their color fights with the walls. Some are rejected because they are too big or too small for the exhibit space, or the color is unpleasant next to the most popular paintings, or the jurors are so tired of looking at the work they are sick of looking at anybody’s paintings altogether. Those of us who serve as jurors should always keep in mind that we are responsible for an artist’s success or failure. We know how hard it is to stay impartial. Some jurors don’t like orange or green and will hang a very nearly blue show. Others hate blue and will hang a radiantly red show. Some jurors are so nearsighted they will pick only enormous paintings they can easily see. Others are dainty and prefer the tiny, complicated pieces. Some are turned on by fancy frames. Others are turned off by fancy frames that distract from the work. Jurors are only human. Although a juror may have fabulous taste, skill, and understanding, he or she also has human likes and dislikes. If the day has gone badly, it might seem like a good idea to reject everything and pick a very small show. If the sun is shining, the juror might be happy with most of what is entered. The professional artists who understand the system can keep their heads sitting comfortably on their shoulders in the business of art competitions. They will not be crushed by defeat, and they won’t be overwhelmed by success. They will simply tell you that, “I am the same good artist today as I was yesterday, only today I won another prize. It is a lovely ego trip. I am pleased that the jurors liked it. Tomorrow I will paint something really and truly spectacular.”

Jan Statman’s paintings are owned by museums in Europe and by public and private collections across the USA. She is author of several books and is listed in Who’s Who in American Art, Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who of American Women, and various other professional publications.

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“B si ”

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by Randy Brown

The Trouble With Me The

trouble with me Is I think too much My wheels spin around They never slow down There’s no brake or clutch By Randy Brown - 2013

I am going to use my own lyrics this month. They are from the opening verse of a brand new song I wrote between Christmas and New Year’s Day. It is a rather sad and ominous song. For some reason that seems to be what I write that time of year. But the portion of lyrics included get to the root of one of my biggest problems in life and the creative business in general. Hopefully, most of you don’t have this problem. But I suspect a significant number are dealing with the same thing. For the purpose of clarity, when I refer to thinking, I am referencing analytical/critical thinking and not the intuitive thinking also known as creativity or inspiration. I wanted to point out that difference before I dug in and confused you. So, now back to our regularly scheduled program. A career in music or the arts, as with any serious endeavor, requires a lot of planning, calculation and execution. Considering that an artist lies at the center of

March 2014 - Page 28

ofmusic time and freedom there is no art to build a career. So, how do we manage these seemingly opposing views? Sounds a little like herding cats, doesn’t it? Well, in truth, that is exactly what it is like. I will freely admit to the fact that I think too much, just like the song says. That thinking is not always linear. I often tend to make warp drive-like jumps from one side of my thought universe to the totally opposite side and back again every few minutes. A good example of that is as I was writing this paragraph, I picked up my guitar twice (almost always in reach) when what I was writing gave me and idea for a song. Then, in the middle of that, I realized I had left my column incomplete, which needed to be finished because of deadlines, so I came back to this paragraph. That sort of thing often leaves me feeling rather scattered and disorganized. Feel familiar? My best suggestion for those kind of days is to let them happen. Sometimes you can’t be truly creative on command, although I am sure there are those who can. I have to take it as it comes, accept it, and when the muse leaves, go back to the logical,

all this busy-ness, it seems to me that too much preparation can actually slow us down or even completely stifle the creative process. Creating art can have us walking a fine line between creation and organization – the classic right brain/left brain conundrum. On one hand, we need to be free to let our spirits fly wherever the creative muse leads us: writing songs, following creative trails, hanging out with inspiring people, being in the moment. But on the other hand, that freedom has to be moderated by some semblance of organization and propriety in order to handle the business side of what we do: meeting deadlines, showing up for shows, demoing new I believe that regularly material, managing a website, networking and all the making yourself available for other non-creative stuff we all have to do to keep our creative or logistical work can careers between the ditches. reign it in a tad and wrest This is an especially difficult juggling act for those of us control from some of the who either by choice, by ecorandomness. nomics or both are total “do it yourselfers.” Thinking is very important in this business because we have to logistical world. Sounds rather chaotic, meet deadlines, book shows, plan tours, but it tends to work for me. record demos and promote ourselves For many of us, when we finally reusing a business, logical, logistical, straally get focused on either logistical or tegic, linear kind of thinking that is recreative thinking, we can at times be quired to move our careers forward. almost laser-like in our ability to focus This can feel totally opposite to the – to the extent that we often don’t hear creative work that lets our brains flitter or see anything else going on around around in the stratosphere wherever it us. I become totally absorbed in what I desires to see what it brings back in the am doing to the exclusion of the rest of form of words or music. While all that the world. That is a heady time where I planning and logistics is certainly imporget seemingly days worth of work done tant to a music career, without creative in minutes. I wish I could say this is a

controllable thing, but it is not. After 60 plus years on this planet, I have finally learned to simply allow for those times. When they come, forget about an agenda and let it happen. Revel in it. What was difficult for me to even begin yesterday simply melts away almost effortlessly. It is a wonderful and special time. When that happens for you, my suggestion is let it. If you can, call in sick, put off any other deadlines and simply go with it. If not, then steal what moments you can to make the most of it. Despite how it sounds, I am not necessarily advocating a life of total chaos ruled by the whims of an overactive brain. I will admit that can seem pretty enticing, but it would make it difficult to have friends or family who wanted to be around you. So, for the most part, I plan, schedule and allow time for life and leisure. But sometimes the magic happens, and if we try to put it off, it is simply gone. Why waste that? In a way it is expecting the unexpected. I try hard to leave enough time in my schedule to let these randomly occurring, logistical or creative fugue states happen. But it can be impossible to predict when these things are going to happen. The best I can do is hope it happens in the free part of my schedule. However, I believe that regularly making yourself available for creative or logistical work can reign it in a tad and wrest control from some of the randomness. In fact, I believe I talked about just that in last month’s column, “Slip Sliding Away.” So, what have we learned here today? That as artists our creativity is not predicable and that the best thing to do when it hits you is lock the door, take the phone off the hook and run with it. Wow!! I could have saved a lot of ink here by saying that in the first paragraph. But I tricked you and made you read it all. Gotcha!!! See ya next month. Randy Brown is an award-winning East Texas-based singer-songwriter and self- proclaimed “performing philosopher” bent on deciphering the intersection of spirit, faith and science with a sense of wonder and whimsy in smartly clever folk-Americanastyle songs and stories. He has yet to find a really suitable cure for brain over-activity but has simply learned to live with it and hope for the best.

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To many East Texans, St. Paddy’s Day is a time of frivolity, binge drinking, and pinching those who aren’t wearing green, but there is something about Irish culture that’s very relatable to us all … we just might not know exactly why. According to a study by the U.S. Census Bureau, “36.9 million is the number of U.S. residents who claimed Irish ancestry in 2009. This number was more than eight times the population of Ireland itself (4.5 million). Irish was the nation’s second most frequently reported ancestry, trailing only German.” In fact, the American government has declared March Irish-American Heritage Month, and even though the highest concentration of Irish and their descendants reside in the northern states, it doesn’t mean the Celtic influence hasn’t found its way to the Piney Woods. The Irish started immigrating to Texas as early as 1602. The state even had a Spanish governor in office from 1767-1770 that was born in Ireland – Hugh O’Conor (who later changed his name to Hugh Oconór). At the Battle of the Alamo, 12 of the brave men who fought and died for our independence were Irish-born, and 14 others had Irish surnames. “The 1850 census in Texas listed 1,403 Irish; by 1860, there were 3,480,” according to www.texasalma nac.com, which was more than 1.5% of the population of the state during that time period. Texas even has cities named Shamrock and Dublin to pay homage to the beloved island. Today, much of what we know and recognize about Irish culture is largely due to the commercialization of stereotypes, but our intertwined history still

bears evidence of our influence on one another. For one thing, faith is an essential value of life in either place. Ireland, once a place of religious discrimination, has evolved into a republic of loving acceptance and friendship. Protestant and Catholic clergy often attend the services of one another and members of the community that do not belong to their respective congregations. That’s not to say we don’t also share a sense of passion and patriotism. There is a very spirited debate among scholars about Ireland’s most famous patron saint, Patricius, as records from 5th century Europe are so few and vague in their existence. One author, Frank Delaney, retells a common tale of St. Patrick where he was actually Scottish and stolen by pirates to be a slave. According to this version of the legend, he tended sheep for many years in Ireland until he escaped captivity. He returned to his native land, where Patrick received religious training and was ordained a Bishop. Then he went back to the place of his imprisonment where he used the shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity to the pagan Celts, his former captors. The original color associated with Patrick was actually blue, but was changed as the legends spread, and the shamrock was incorporated into the storytelling. There are several documentaries on the History Channel’s website regarding other notorious accounts of St. Patrick that are informative as well as entertaining at www.history.com. This March 17, whether your celebrations are small or grand, never forget that our heritage as Texans is directly linked to the customs of many nations. The Irish are a spiritual, charitable and dedicated people that are one of the major forbearers of our own proud history. Happy St. Patrick’s Day! PineyWoodsLive.com

pineywoodslive.com/events

EVENTS

The go-to spot for everything happening in the Piney Woods Area

FINE ART EXHIBITIONS Coffee House Photo Exhibit, n-Focus Photography Club of Winnsboro, Franklin County Cultural Arts Center, Mount Vernon, March 8 Mauro Manetti, Harmonium, Selected Works, Griffith Gallery, Nacogdoches, through March 7 Light/Dark, Gallery Main Street, Tyler, through March 8 Sacred Spaces: Connecting with the Land, The Stone Fort Museum, Nacogdoches, through March 8 Bayou Landscapes: Photographs by Jenny Ellerbe, TCC Photo Gallery, Longview, through March 14

By the Light of the Moon- Shakespeare Under the Stars, Otstott Gazebo & Band Stand, Jefferson, March 20-22

The Dogwood Special Brunch Train, enjoy a tasty brunch while riding through the East Texas Forest Country, March 30

Disney’s The Little Mermaid, ArtsView Children’s Theatre, Longview, March 21-22 The Mystery of Irma Vep, Liberty Hall, Tyler, March 21-23

FESTIVALS Big Al’s 2nd Annual Rock, Paper, Scissor Tournament, Benefiting Habitat for Humanity, Vaca & Kirby Dental Group, Longview, March 1

Ghost of a Chance, Texas Theatre, Palestine, March 28

Mardi Gras Upriver, Jefferson, Feb 28, March 1-2

MUSIC Jake Penrod performs Hank Williams Remembered, Nacogdoches County Exposition and Civic Center, March 8

Mardi Gras Celebration Extraordinaire, proceeds benefit the Longview Symphony, The Shopka Center, Longview, March 1

Take 2 Band in Concert, Liberty Hall, Tyler, March 8

Dulcimer And Old Time Music Festival, Museum of East Texas Culture, Palestine, March 29-30

Illuminating Nature: Recent Paintings and Works on Paper by Billy Hassell, Tyler Museum of Art, through March 23

Rodney Crowell Concert, Music City Texas Theater, Linden, March 8

Azalea and Spring Flower Trail, Downtown Azalea District, Tyler, March 21 through April 6

At the Vantage Point, Scott M. Lieberman, M.D., Tyler Museum of Art, March 23 through July 14

Tyler Civic Chorale – She Walks in Beauty, First Presbyterian Church, Longview, March 9

Dogwood Trails Festival, Palestine Main Street District, Palestine, March 21 through April 6

Texas Art Quilts 1993-2011, Cole Art Center at Old Opera House, Nacogdoches, through March 29

All Stars Youth Banjo Band, Dogwood Jamboree, Palestine Civic Center, March 15.

Four Winds Canterbury Faire, Whitehouse, Saturday and Sundays through April 27

Latino Folk Tales: Cuentos Populares, Michelson Museum Of Art, Marshall, through March 29

Louise Mosrie, Live Original Folk Music Concert, The Old Firehouse, Edom, March 15

FILM Man of a Thousand Faces, Classic Movies in the Park, Palestine, March 1

Blak-uh n-hwahyt: Truth in Black and White, An exhibition of black and white prints, The UT Tyler Meadows Gallery, Tyler, through April 4

Annie Moses Band in Concert, First United Methodist Church, Longview, March 19

LIVE THEATER I Am Jack, Liberty Hall, Tyler, February 28 Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, Longview Community Center, March 1-2 Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, a musical thriller, Tyler Junior College Wise Auditorium, Feb 27-28, March 1 Blood Wedding, a classic tale of passion, conflicting loyalties and vengeance, W.M. Turner Auditorium at SFA, Nacogdoches, Feb 25-28, March 1 Edward Albee’s At Home At The Zoo, APEX Theatre 20 @ Potter Place, Tyler, Feb. 28, March 1-2, 6-8 George Orwell’s Animal Farm, KC Van Cliburn Auditorium, Kilgore, Feb 25-28, March 2 Godspell, Cowan Center, Tyler, March 3. The Miracle Worker, Belcher Center, Longview, March 6.

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Cary Cooper, Keepin’ Original Music ALIVE Concerts, Longview Museum of Fine Arts, March 21 Matthew West – Hello, My Name Is Tour, Belcher Center, Longview, March 21

Endings, Independent Film Showing, The Old Firehouse, Edom, March 8. COMEDY Opera Buffa by Gian Carlo Menotti, one-act comic opera, East Texas Baptist University, Marshall, March 1

Longview Symphony Orchestra, Blast of Brass, Belcher Center, March 22

MISCELLANEOUS Masquerade Ball benefiting the United Negro College Fund, Jarvis Christian College, Hawkins, March 1

East Texas Symphony Orchestra Concert: On Nature, Cowan Center, Tyler, March 22

Rose City Artisans & Flower Market, Goodman Museum, Tyler, March 21-22

Damon Clark and his Jazz Band, Food, Live Music and Dancing benefiting the Longview Metro Chamber of Commerce, Longview Museum of Fine Arts, March 29

East Texas CASA Blue Jeans & Ball Gowns, fundraiser with dinner, dancing, band and drinks, Maude Cobb Convention Center, Longview, March 29

Bob Schneider in Concert, Liberty Hall, March 29 DINING The Official Texas Gumbo Cook-Off, public admission for sampling, Pirtle United Methodist Church, Overton, March 1 Taste of the Arts, local restaurants provide a sample of their best dishes while vendors and artists show their wares, Marshall Convention Center, March 4

Sidewalk Art Show and Art in the Evening, Saturday, March 29, with jazz music and food at the Longview Museum of Fine Arts in downtown Longview at 215 Tyler Street. The Sidewalk Art activities will start at 9 a.m. on Tyler Street in front of the museum. This event is free to the public. The Art Walk will showcase artists in a wide variety of mediums such as painting, sculpture, photography, pottery, jewelry and much more. There will also be a Kidney Bean Cook-off. Contestants will be business representatives from the area. This event will kick off the Southwest Transplant Alliance awareness campaign. Entertainment will be by area groups from Tyler, Marshall, Rusk and Longview. The Longview Metro Chamber of Commerce invites the public to attend this event for a day of art, food, entertainment and fun. March 2014 - Page 31

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