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“An Art Festival Weekend”

Recently I received an invitation to participate in an art festival in my hometown, Uvalde, Texas. It is a farming and ranching community about seventy-five miles west of San Antonio. Its location is kind of the beginning of West Texas.

Coming from the east, it is mostly farm land up to Uvalde. West of Uvalde, the trees begin to thin out and get smaller, the land gets rocky, the hills begin and then it is mostly ranch land all the way to California. The southern edge of the Texas hill country is just a few miles north of town and on the south side is the beginning of The Rio Grande Plain called the Texas brush country. 

At the center of Uvalde, US 90 intersects US 83. These two highways are among the longest in the United States. US 90, starting in Florida on the east coast, extends all the way to California in the west. US 83 starting at the international bridge to Mexico in Brownsville, Texas, goes north all the way up to Canada. 

I was born in 1934 in a small house on East Main Street ( US 90). The house is long gone and now people are eating Big Mac's in a MacDonalds Restaurant where I used to play. 

In the center of the town, on the northeast corner of this downtown intersection of US 90 and US 83 is the County Courthouse. The City Hall Building is on the southeast corner and the US Post Office Building is on the southwest corner. There is a beautiful plaza of trees and fountains on the northwest corner. The local art group, the Uvalde Visual Arts League, sponsored an art festival this past weekend to be in this plaza and I had a booth in this festival.

The library in Uvalde is located on West Main Street ( US 90) and is named El Progreso Memorial Library. It has a beautiful new building of an unusual design. The design reflects the design of The West Main School that was demolished for the construction of the library. The school was designed like a wagon wheel. The hub or central part of the school was the auditorium and support facilities and the spokes were the classrooms. Of course, as a child I was student at that school.

As part of the weekend activities, this library had invited me to be the “Artist of the Month.” The Friends of El Progresso Memorial Library gave me a reception there Friday evening. At the reception I gave a talk about my journey to learn to draw and paint again after a thirty five year layoff. (Friday morning, my daughter, Karen Duban, and I had set up the “Artist of the Month” exhibit in the library of my pen and ink drawings and the watercolor portraits of the big cats from PrideRock Wildlife Refuge.) The reception was a lot of fun and was attended by many of the local artists, some of my former classmates, and relatives who still live there.

The local newspaper, The Uvalde Leader News, published the article above, written by their reporter, Jessica Chavez, about me and my return to the art world. I think she did a great job.

A number of people that I have not seen since we moved away in 1964 read the article in the paper and came to the art festival to visit on Saturday and Sunday. Getting to visit with these people was so much fun. We didn’t sell much, but we had a good time and got to meet and visit with the other artists.

Recently, I bought a cargo trailer to haul my art booth tent, panels and art work to the art festivals. This trip to Uvalde, 290 miles, was my first trip with the trailer. For the first 100 miles I anxiously watched the trailer in the rear view mirror; however it did well.

On the return trip back to Houston on Monday morning, I slowed down to go through the little town of Sabinal, Texas. The speed limit sign said 40 MPH. About this time, I called my wife on my cell phone to let her know that I was on the way home. Of course, we had to talk some about the trip. I told her that I had received a call on Saturday afternoon from the Watercolor Art Society - Houston telling me that my painting “The Beginning of a New Day” (the painting that was sent out in the last newsletter) had won Honorable Mention in the big annual Membership Show. It is my first award since returning to painting.  

As I was passing through the only traffic signal in the little town, I noticed a local sheriff’s patrol car parked in a vacant service station. I saw the deputy look at me, flip on the overhead lights, start his engine, and pull in behind me. I stopped and got out and started getting my proof of insurance papers.

The deputy sheriff got out of his patrol car acting mad-as-hell and stomped up to me and said. “I just got you going 38 MPH in a 20 MPH school zone and that’s going to be a $300 fine. Also, you were talking on your cell phone, that’s going to be another $200. Show me your proof of insurance and drivers license.” There were no schools along the highway and I didn’t see any School Zone signs.

After we talked a little bit and he calmed down, he gave me a warning ticket with no fine. He said that if he ever caught me again speeding in his town, he would “sock it to me.” Greatly relieved, I got back in the Tahoe and pulled the trailer on home.

As Shakespeare said “All’s well that ends well.”

Cheers,

Acree

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