Arts Alive San Antonio

By JASMINA WELLINGHOFF, Editor

How does it feel to be the winner of SAALM’s 2023 Juried Exhibition?
It was wonderful. I was really surprised. I remember telling my husband that it was nice to be included in the show. Usually, the museum will send you an invitation to the opening if you are one of the winners but I had not received it. However, when I got here, someone said “You won!” I was shocked. There are so many wonderful works in the show.

Tell us about your drawing. What did you want to convey?
This work is a surrealistic abstraction of our world. Think about it as a dreamscape where desperate images are put together in an unfamiliar way to assist the dreamer in viewing his/her world in a different way. What I want the viewer to think about is community, temporality, our relationship to the natural world, adornment, and sense of place. The butterflies, in the right-hand corner are a grouping of individuals drawn together (community). Their lives are short (temporality), the wings are patterned (adornment). The central figure is a self-sustaining eco system comprised of humans (represented by the hair), insects, birds, and plant life (nature) This figure situated at a distance from the carnival (back right) references our human relationship to the natural world and provides a sense of place. The conclusion one draws when attempting to relate these items is up to the viewer. I have laid the groundwork and brought you into a world that you must now supply the narrative for.

I am always interested in what people see in it. Despite the artist’s intentions, everyone brings to it something different. The viewer may ask himself, where am I? Where’s this place? … We just want people to look at things in a different way. I don’t need for a viewer to get a specific story line.

How did you become an artist?
I was encouraged by my family to be creative. My father told stories. We would sit at his knee in the evening and listen. He would ask us to pick three things and he would tell us stories about those three unrelated things. Also, I am a visual thinker. I see pictures. I dream very vividly and I dream in color. And I remember my dreams. So, those things help.  The way I communicate art-wise is by creating images. You don’t necessarily understand what that narrative is but it’s something I am saving in my head.

Can you support yourself with your art?
No, I have not been able to do that. I am not the kind of artist who can do the same thing repetitively. I don’t have “a product” like landscapes or flowers. I jump around. I process the world through my artwork. I taught at UTSA for 20 years. When I was at SAC, I taught ceramics.

Have you had solo exhibits?
 Yes! My first foray into that was with my colleague Steve Reynolds who also taught at UTSA. Both of us had entered a craft exhibition at a Corpus Christi Museum and both of us won. So, we had a two-person exhibition. That was very exciting. I had the biggest solo show in Tulsa, OK In 2016. It was titled “The Other Side of Logic” and it was a large retrospective of sculpture and drawings, and it was a really wonderful show.  (Altogether she had 13 solo exhibits)

Are you represented by a gallery that sells your work?
Again, no. As I said, I don’t have something that I do consistently. I couldn’t sustain a regular output since I was working and had a family. It would have been too much. But now that I am retired, I am working more on my art.

How many children do you have?
I have three children and five grandchildren. We have a big family.

What other careers could you have pursued?
Hmm, probably an as anthropologist or an entomologist. Those are the things I thought about when I was younger. I like the notion of discovery. In my art work I deal with society and structures, organizations, and how we all come together – man, nature, machines. Donna Haroway wrote a book called “The Manifesto of a Cyborg” in which she talks about how human beings are the cyborg.

What do you consider your most important success?
My family. If I had to give up everything else tomorrow, I would still have my family. As for my work, that’s a hard question because there have been so many wonderful things. I was amazed when I went to the Hardesty Art Center in Tulsa, and saw one of my largest sculptures installed in a showcase window with the lighting just right. It was phenomenal and humbling. That was a moment when you just say, “Wow!”

Are your sculptures abstract or representational?
They are very much like the drawings. They incorporate human and animal and insect elements. They are fantastical and figurative.

What brought you to San Antonio?
 (laughs) Family brought me to San Antonio. My husband and I were living in Colorado. We met in Colorado. We had both left our original homes. He was in the Peace Corp and I was in Chicago. But one day I loaded everything up into VW bus, and said, “I am going to be an artist.” I decided to go to school to learn graphic arts because it’s very difficult to make a living with fine arts. When we decided to marry and have children, we had to look around the world and decide where we wanted to live. We wanted to live close to family members who would have children near the age of our children in an area that we thought would offer a pleasant lifestyle. I am so fortunate that we came here. There were people like Ken Little, Kent Rush, Connie Lowe, people at UTSA, The Art League, Linda Pace was here. It was a nexus of creativity. It was an amazing time, in the early 80s.

You also ran the Cactus Bra Gallery for a while. Tell us about that.
You’ve done your research! I ran that gallery for almost 20 years with Leigh Anne Lester. The gallery was amazing. We had artists from all over. We even had an artist from London who showed in our space. We were always looking for something that was exciting.

Why did you close?
Gentrification! The rent went up and we couldn’t afford it. the Blue Star complex started changing.

Let’s shift to other topics: What characteristics do you value most in people and which ones annoy you?
I value honesty; it’s very important to me. Also, positivity. I like people who are willing to listen and I like seekers. Close-minded, arrogant, self-centered people annoy me.

What do you feel is the most worrisome aspect of contemporary life? What issues need to be dealt with?
The violence that’s occurring today. It’s very frightening. And the anger that people have. The things that separate us and keep us apart. People tend to see the differences rather than commonalities. I think that’s a huge problem.

Are you politically involved in any way?
If you vote, you are politically involved. And, I would go to a City Hall meeting if an issue that matters to me was on the agenda.

What’s the best life advice you have ever received?
Oh, that’s a good question! I think there’s an old adage that I can’t remember exactly, but it’s something about not judging other people until you have walked a mile in their shoes. That was the philosophy of my parents, instilled in me. Give people some slack!

Do you have a favorite place in San Antonio to hang out?
I love the Botanical Garden. It’s a nice place to sit and relax. Also, to draw. I enjoy the zoo, too.

Do you think that San Antonio museums support local artists?
Yes, I do. They make a real effort to include local artists. And Public Art in San Antonio is exploding.

If you were the ALL-POWERFULL ruler of San Antonio, what would you change, implement, introduce, correct, in our city?
Oh, I don’t know! (Thinks) I would improve education. I don’t think it’s fair. I would like to see all the districts in the city have money to support the children and the teachers.

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