This week, I discovered a few new online resources to help my research: The JStor academic database, which has a free tier during the pandemic The SFASU East Texas Research Center online libraries The Texas Historical Commission library AND, yesterday, I received my copy of “They Left No Monuments,” a volume of East Texas human interest stories by the late historian Bob Bowman. I’m just scratching the surface of these resources, but I have already learned so much! It’s really exciting to read this information, find archival images, and think… Read more Researching East Texas History →
In rural East Texas, your first best friends are your cousins and your neighbors. And often, your cousin IS your neighbor! In my case, my cousin spent lots of time visiting my grandmother, who lived just one stop sign and few houses away. So, almost a neighbor.I’m an only child, and people often ask “Weren’t you lonely growing up?” Because of my cousin and my neighbor, I really can’t relate to that question. How could I be lonely when one bestie lived at the far end of my driveway and… Read more Besties →
Today is the first day of fall, and here in Texas it is finally cooler and a bit rainy. “Hygge Weather,” I call it, and for this year at least, at my house late September to late February is “Hygge Season.” No one knows what Halloween and the holidays will look like, but we can be pretty sure that being cozy at home is still the best way to go, at least for those of us city-dwellers. So, I decided to try and take a bit of control over these… Read more Art on a Rainy Tuesday →
“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.”― Thomas Merton , No Man Is an Island It’s Monday in “Studio No-Name,” and I’m still thinking on what to call my creative space. It won’t be Studio No-Name! The process of naming my studio makes me think of the saying, “you must name it to claim it.” I have struggled with “claiming” my identity as an artist over the years, for all the reasons that many people do. I’m not conventionally educated. It’s not my primary… Read more Art on a Monday →
My corner of the ‘curtain is Homer, Texas, an unincorporated community about twelve miles outside of Lufkin, Texas off of Highway 69-S, on the edge of the Big Thicket National Preserve. Homer is an interesting place. It was once the Angelina County seat, and was thriving and poised for growth until a major railway chose Lufkin for its main route in the 1800s. Its history includes brawls and bloody feuds, at least one of which is said to have left haunted energy on the land my family still lives on.… Read more Homer, Texas →
