Hope Fest

A day of healing for paralyzed S.A. woman

Six bands, auctions (including a hat autographed by George Strait) and barbecue are on the menu for Hope Fest, a benefit for S.A.’s Patricia Jansky Quick. The festive fundraiser for a serious cause is coming up Saturday, Aug. 21, from 1-10 p.m. at Texas Pride Barbecue.

Quick is the younger sister of Clifton Jansky, the well-known country artist who recorded “Amarillo By Morning” before Strait and has won awards from the Christian Country Music Association.

Quick became paralyzed from the waist down after surgery in December for scoliosis, or curvature of the spine.

Women of Art: Profiles in Courage

On “Neither Model Nor Muse” at the McNay

A Scene in S.A. online exclusive

by Marcia Gygli King

(See Marcia King’s “Top Ten” in the August print edition of Scene in S.A. magazine, now on sale at H-E-B stores, Wal-Mart and Walgreen’s.)

The current exhibit at the McNay Art Museum is “Neither Model Nor Muse: Women As Artists.” The title alludes to the courage it took for women to stand outside the usual support role of the feminine, and make works of art themselves.

For more than half the twentieth century, artists and critics were said to be purifying the elements of art. In this show, in the first of the McNay’s Margaret Tobin and Robert Tobin Galleries, we see Natalia Gontcharova, a pioneer member of the Russian avant-garde. In 1916, Goncharova was commissioned to design sets for a Spanish-themed ballet. In theatrical design, freed from the dictates of “high purifying” art, the natural feminine aesthetic of pattern and decoration shines through – some fifty years before the women’s movement granted that permission to women in traditional visual art. Using the shallow space and overlapping planes of cubism, these strikingly beautiful works are reminiscent of patchwork quilts, which themselves would become a major influence in later women’s art.

The Politics of Art

by Ron Aaron Eisenberg

Gene Elder’s eyes sparkle as he talks. The words tumble out, trying to keep pace with a brain that clearly runs on high octane.

He is an artist who delights in challenging the world in which he lives. He thinks big. Take his latest idea–Political Art Month.

“I thought since they moved Contemporary Art Month from July to March we had an opportunity to come up with something for July. Why not Political Art Month? Galleries are always looking for something to drive traffic.”