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S p e n c e ’ s Photographs Show Extraordinary Eye

by Andy Coughlan

Cathy Spence’s last solo exhibition at The Art Studio, Inc. was two decades ago, when she was a recent college graduate. Now she’s back with “The Crooked Eye,” a new collection of photographs, opening Feb. 6.

The show focuses on 13-year-old Wesley, who Spence describes as “an ordinary boy with an extraordinary appearance.” Wesley has oculocutaneous albinism. “Being that he has albinism, he’s been singled out so often,” Spence said. “When walking through a mall, he’s very aware of people looking at him. Sometimes, it’s really it’s really wonderful. They’ll stop and say, ‘I love your hair’ and ‘Man, you look so cool with your sunglasses’ and things like that, yet it’s still being singled out. That was that was always kind of an issue for him. “And here I am doing it again with my photography, but I hope that it reflects the all sides of it.”

Spence said most people see the obvious physical traits — lack of melatonin, light hair, light skin — but Wesley also has issues with his vision, which led to the title of the show.

“He has what’s called strabismus, which is the lazy eye,” Spence said. “That’s normal for people with albinism, they have a lots of vision issues — I can get caught up in talking about the whole science behind it, nerves are rerouted the wrong way. And his eyes, his muscles are weak, and some blonde fundus, which gives them the appearance sometimes of the pink, or red eyes, it’s just light reflecting off the back of their eyes. That doesn’t happen for people with melatonin.

“The idea is people telling him, he had a lazy eye. One day he told his sister, ‘It’s not a lazy eye, it’s a crooked eye.’ That’s his way of dealing it. (He didn’t like) the connotation of lazy, it’s just crooked. “With a lot of my photographs, I tend to not worry about the highlights being blown out, or soft depth of field, or, you know, just little blurriness to some of them, because that’s how he sees.”

People with albinism are perceived as having an other-worldliness about them, a magical mix, that separates them from ordinary people, Spence said, with the media portraying them as evil monks or having a supernatural quality, like the character in the movie “Powder.”

“They’re really just regular people, you know,” she said. “He’s an ordinary boy with an extraordinary appearance.

“It’s hard not to play upon the skin and the hair, but I hope there’s more to it than just that. With these (photos), I hope you catch on that he is just this kid, you know, to get sunburned, who has issues with vision, who feels isolated occasionally, because of it.” Spence’s photographs in “The Crooked Eye” conjure up magical, ethereal qualities, but one image wonderfully captures his ordinariness. Wesley sits cross legged in front of a TV, game console in hand, completely lost in a video game. Rather than focusing on Wesley, our eyes are drawn to the dog on the left side of the image, who positively cries out for attention. Spence earned a studio art photography degree from Lamar University in 1997. She said she didn’t really know what she wanted to major in until she took a class from renowned photographer Keith Carter. “I took the class and I’m going to tell you, I was terrible — but I loved it,” Spence said. “Keith will even tell you how I was not one of the top students by any means.” Spence said Carter had a huge library of photography books in his office and she would pore through them, learning everything she could.

“While prints were washing or I had any downtime, I’d go in there and pull out books and books and books, and sit there and just study them,” she said. “You can go now and, thanks to the internet, you can see all these great photographs that I didn’t really have the opportunity to see except through these books. Now you can go on Instagram and see wonderful photographs.

“But I’m telling you, the computer is not made for you to sit there and study this stuff. Not like a book is. It’s designed for you to flip and swipe and and never really rest — it’s called surfing for a reason, right? If you can get good books, you have the opportunity to just sit there and study these photographs.”

“With a lot of my photographs, I tend to not worry about the highlights being blown out, or soft depth of field, or, you know, just little blurriness to some of them, because that’s how

People with albinism are perceived as having an other-worldliness about them, a magical mix, that separates them from ordinary people, Spence said, with the media portraying them as evil monks or having a supernatural quality, like the character in the movie “Powder.”

“They’re really just regular people, you know,” she said. “He’s an ordinary boy with an extraordinary appearance.

“It’s hard not to play upon the skin and the hair, but I hope there’s more to it than just that. With these (photos), I hope you catch on that he is just this kid, you know, to get sunburned, who has issues with vision, who feels isolated occasionally, because of it.”

Spence’s photographs in “The Crooked Eye” conjure up magical, ethereal qualities, but one image wonderfully captures his ordinariness. Wesley sits cross legged in front of a TV, game console in hand, completely lost in a video game. Rather than focusing on Wesley, our eyes are drawn to the dog on the left side of the image, who positively cries out for attention. Spence earned a studio art photography degree from Lamar University in 1997. She said she didn’t really know what she wanted to major in until she took a class from renowned photographer Keith Carter.

“I took the class and I’m going to tell you, I was terrible — but I loved it,” Spence said. “Keith will even tell you how I was not one of the top students by any means.”

Spence said Carter had a huge library of photography books in his office and she would pore through them, learning everything she

“While prints were washing or I had any downtime, I’d go in there and pull out books and books and books, and sit there and just study them,” she said. “You can go now and, thanks to the internet, you can see all these great photographs that I didn’t really have the opportunity to see except through these books. Now you can go on Instagram and see wonderful photographs. “But I’m telling you, the computer is not made for you to sit there and study this stuff. Not like a book is. It’s designed for you to flip and swipe and and never really rest — it’s called surfing for a reason, right? If you can get good books, you have the opportunity to just sit there and study these photographs.” As time went on, Spence’s studies paid off.

“Keith will tell you he used to tell students, ‘I don’t know what happened with Cathy. She was an average student, and suddenly a light went on,’” Spence said. “It’s like, no, that’s not how it happened at all. I studied it. I didn’t realize it was affecting me like it did. I didn’t know it was going to actually make a difference. So, I looked at these images, looked at his books book over and over again. Even photographers I didn’t care for, I studied this stuff. And so, that’s how it started, being a very average student who just took a real interest in it.”

photographs by Cathy Spence above: “Lost Cat Found” opposite: “Crooked Eye”

“The Crooked Eye” is on view at The Art Studio, Inc. Feb. 6 through Feb. 27 during regular hours or virtually at www.artstudio.org

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PICTORIAL MUSCLE “Dear Lynn… Affectionately, Maudee”

by Michelle Cate

Two artists that were involved very early on with the Art Studio, Inc. were Maudee Carron and Lynn Sweat.

Maudee hailed from Louisiana and Houston and eventually found her way to Beaumont. As a young woman she had modeled for a student of Diego Rivera. She soon decided to dedicate herself to art. She went to school in Houston and was involved with a WPA project there. Maudee moved to Beaumont and became an extremely active member of the TX/LA art scene which included the Beaumont Art League. In the early 1950s, BAL experienced a skism and split into two orgs. The Beaumont Art Museum was formed and moved into the neighborhood we now know as “The Oaks Historic District.”

In the mid 1950s, Lynn met Maudee as his art career was beginning. Even as a young artist he already had a wide understanding of art. He had attended Lamar and earned a commercial art degree. He would pour over books in the Tyrrell Library. He and wife had started their family. At Lamar he worked at the Lamar student newspaper. Soon he began working at the Beaumont TV stations and the Beaumont Enterprise doing layouts. Not one to rest on his laurels as his family continued to grow he must have had a gut feeling that Fine Art might hold the key to greater things.

At age 24, Lynn had a solo show at the Beaumont Art Museum and he found that the local arts community supported him wholeheartedly. Maudee and Lynn met around this time and they became big fans of one another. In a couple years, Lynn had another show at BAM (AMSET.) Maudee wrote an introduction for that show which placed him in context with his contemporaries such as Andrew Wyeth and DeKooning. Lynn eventually moved to New York and worked as a freelance artist for publishing companies like McMillan and Co. and Scholastic. He was the illustrator of the Amelia Bedelia series for over 30 years.

Maudee and Lynn stayed in touch with letters. Both Maudee and Lynn would eventually become active members of The Art Studio, Inc. in the 1980s. Friends in art for many years, these photos, letters and art show how they made a bridge across generations… something that respect and a mutual love of art is especially good at creating.