In an effort to break the monotony of hospital stays by adding interest to an otherwise static setting, Leah and her students contribute brightly- painted ceiling tiles to patients’ rooms in the newly renovated children’s wing at ERMC. Created personally by the students, each tile is an original design, depicting subjects from a brave Ennis lion to scenes based on themes that appeal to children. “With this program kids, who are lying sick in a hospital bed, can look up at a piece of art that brings [comfort],” Leah said. “And it’s touching to know we have been able to help them get through that experience.”

“I told her to go back in the house,” Kevin said.

This same scenario played itself out numerous times before Kevin finally relented. As LaNae looks back on her “first lesson,” she can’t help but laugh out loud. “It was somewhat of a disaster. I got burned almost immediately,” she recalled, still wincing at the memory of the pain. She learned that weld slag, the elements found in the sparks coming out of the weld, fly. In this case, they flew and landed inside her shoe.

Six months after that first encounter, LaNae went back to ask Kevin for another try. “I was more determined than ever to learn how to weld,” she said. “Kevin would create something really cool and give it away. I wanted him to teach me so I could make decorations and artwork for my home.” This time she didn’t get burned, thus starting a journey that has brought her tremendous joy. As she looks around their Waxahachie home, she finds great pride and satisfaction in what she has been able to create.

When visitors come into the home, they can look in any direction and find evidence of the “monster” Kevin created. The fireplace screen is one of many she has handcrafted over the years. The “kissing fish,” which hang over the dining room window, were hammered out of copper and welded into a stylish metal frame. The wall art found in the entryway is fittingly named A Day in the Life. The collage includes a half-sun, half-moon and two brass birds. The sun is constructed from copper, while the moon is metal, with a few touches of brass. Just recently, LaNae created her “bottle puppies,” designed from scrap metal and random nuts, bolts and washers. Some of the items guests admire most include the plate racks. At first glance, they appear to be identical, but on closer inspection, it is apparent each of the four have their own distinct qualities. “I don’t  care how many of the same piece I do,” she stated. “No two will ever be alike.”

One request she had from a friend was for a unique Halloween costume. “She wanted a ‘Queen of the Damned’ costume,” LaNae said, explaining this particular character was the lead in a recent vampire movie. LaNae outfitted her friend in a breastplate, belt, headdress and necklace, all constructed from a variety of metals. “She won third place in the costume contest,” she said. “I can only imagine how detailed the first and second place costumes were.”

As Kevin described LaNae’s second “first real lesson,” his pride regarding his wife was evident. “She was a little bit nervous, but her determination was everything,” he admitted. “She picked the process up a lot faster than some of the students I’ve had.”

“Kevin was real impressed with what I was able to do,” she smiled. “He’ll tell

you that I can cut better than he can.” These two share so much more

artwork than merely welding. The tools of the trade include Mig welders, Tig welders and several sizes of plasma torches. Each of the three is used for a specific type of welding, which in most cases is dependent on the type of metal being used at the time. “Mig welding

is wire-fed welding,” LaNae explained. “It’s what I use most of the time.” Mig welding is primarily used for commercial metals and heavy steel.

The Tig welder is used on cooper and aluminum. “It’s a much stronger weld,” Kevin added. “The penetration of the weld is deeper.”

The plasma torch has become one of LaNae’s favorite tools, with which she effortlessly cuts raw metal into the shapes and sizes she desires for whatever project she is working on at the moment. “It’s all done freehand,” she said.

Back in 1995, the couple realized there was a demand for the products they were crafting, so they turned their craft into a family-owned business, Steel Images Welding & Design. The smaller items they crafted for family and friends locally turned into much larger pieces that are displayed throughout the world from Singapore and Russia to Tokyo, Kuwait and Dubai. The art, although beautiful, also possesses a great deal of functionality. One overhead gate they made is hinged on one side to allow 18-wheelers entrance to the owner’s property. “I like taking the idea someone had on paper and bringing it to life; giving it dimension,” she said. “I think I can make anything, but Kevin’s the quality-control guy. He makes sure its functionality will withstand the test of time.”

“We really do work well together 90 percent of the time,” Kevin said. “We haven’t strangled one another or divorced. Overall, I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”

Written by Sandra Strong.

Helen’s talent and skill with art was hard won, with many lessons behind her. Born and reared in a small town in northern Oklahoma, Helen has lived all over the country. She got into art when the family moved to Lubbock, Texas, from Los Angeles. “One of my neighbors encouraged me to take an art class with her. That was in 1980, and I have been taking classes ever since.

I had never done any artwork in my life. It was very intimidating, at first, because the other people in class knew how to paint. My neighbor was very encouraging, so I stuck with it. As we moved around the country again, I tried to take lessons wherever I was. I am still taking lessons.”

Although Helen did not grow up painting or creating art, she still has a very important ingredient any artist must have. “I think one of the major factors in being able to do artwork is being able to see it,” she explained. “For example, to see a tree and not just see an object, but to look at it and say, ‘Oh, the tree is round. It has leaves on it. It has holes in it where you can see the sky.’ You can look at it and think it is a beautiful tree with the shapes of the leaves and of the branches. You look for those things when you are doing a painting. You have to be observant.” Helen learned to be more observant, with the assistance of her art classes. Another key point she learned was how to make a flat piece of paper look three-dimensional. “You do that with different colors and your light,” she said. “If you are working in pencil, then you do it with shading.”

When Helen first learned to paint, she started out with oil painting and then learned the other different ways to paint. “My favorite is pastels. I’ve been doing pastels since 1990.” Laughing, she explained why she enjoyed pastels so much. “You get in and get your hands dirty. It just seemed like a fun thing to do. I enjoy it a lot. I can do watercolors and acrylics — it just depends on the painting and what I want to accomplish. I’ve gotten a little back into oil, with water-based oil paint. I get bored with one thing, so I move on to the other mediums.” Helen’s art studio is a testament to her style of creating, with a different project going on in just about every corner. Implements for woodcutting are set up on one table. On another, she works on completing a painting of the Texas flag for her
son’s office. Helen also enjoys pastels because that style “lends itself very well to portraits of people and object paintings where you have one subject in the painting.” This has proven to be very effective with one of the ways in which she derives inspiration for painting. Many people collect postcards of different places they have visited. Bringing home a picture she took during a trip, to be painted later, is Helen’s forte. “I’ve traveled extensively, and I take pictures in many places.” Those pictures are the impetus for many of her paintings. One such example from her trip to Morocco is a painting of a man riding a donkey. From Peru, a pastel painting titled, The Care Giver, is of a striking little girl, holding a goat, dressed in a wide-brimmed green hat and a garment of vivid red, green and purple, who is holding a goat.

One of Helen’s more creative works of art is a water-based oil painting of a buffalo on handmade paper and mounted on Egyptian papyrus (an ancient form of paper-like material made from the papyrus plant). Each corner embellished with block printing adds another dimension to the painting. “I made the blocks out of wood that I dipped in paint and then stamped it onto the material,” she stated.
One very interesting painting with a three-dimensional element is of a woman in the evacuation of New Orleans during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. “I saw this black and white picture in the newspaper of a lady misplaced from Katrina, and she was wearing this cap with all of these items pinned on it.” In Helen’s rendition of the picture, she painted the lady with her knitted cap and placed various miniature items, such as a guitar, duck, elaborate pins and buttons, onto the painting.

Not all of Helen’s work is of photos from different places. “I am not fond of doing landscapes, so I tend to do things in series. Maybe I’ll do a bunch of people or a series on Mardi Gras masks. I’ve done a lot of fish.” In addition to the beautiful peacock bass displayed in her home, there are several different paintings of brightly colored fish. One koi fish grabs your attention, with its glitzy accents. Koi are naturally beautiful, just as they are, but Helen added grandeur to her artwork by painting the fish swimming to the bottom leaving a trail of swirling blue and gold. To achieve the multitude of rich colors in the painting, she used mixed media of watercolors, pastels and gold leafing.

Helen has also painted florals. One room in her home is brought to life with the painting of a flower in brilliant red, highlighted with bright yellow. The combination of yellow meeting red could be interpreted as a flower ablaze, but unconsumed by flames.

Helen stresses that she is not a professional artist. “I do this for fun,” she said. “I don’t try to sell them.” Smiling, she pointed out that “her family has an obligation to hang her paintings.” No doubt, that is a beautiful obligation to have.

Written by Betty Tryon.

Phillip grew up listening to his dad play 12-bar blues, gospel and country music on a prized 1956 Silvertone guitar. “He started teaching me to play when I was about 11 years old,” Phillip said. “My dad was a teacher at Mansfield High School, and he eventually signed me up to take lessons from the music director.”

After high school, Phillip enrolled at Tarrant County Junior College and joined the jazz band. “I didn’t know any jazz chords,” he said, “so I had to learn them. One day I got the chance to jam out with a bunch of guys in the school union. It was my first time to play in front of people, and suddenly I wasn’t just a guy who played chords.”

Life for most young men in their 20s is about opportunity and discovery. “I had been volunteering for the Rendon and Burleson fire departments since I was 18,” Phillip said, “so I decided to become a fireman in 1991. I was married in 1992, and when we began to have a family, I put the guitar down.”

Phillip joined the Mansfield Fire Department and the Fire Safety Clown program. “Safety clowns travel all over Texas teaching fire education in elementary schools,” he said. “I think we’ve reached about 450,000 kids.” To children, Phillip is known as “Res-Q the Clown,” and while he has a lot of fun “clowning” around, he and the three other Mansfield Safety Clowns are extremely dedicated to their mission.

Firefighters work long, 24-hour shifts alternating with 48 hours off. They are much like a family during their stays at the station, and music is often a way to occupy and enjoy their time. When his firefighting career began, Phillip had imagined his music days were gone, yet destiny clearly had other plans. “I started playing my guitar again with a friend at the station, and it wasn’t long before we met a couple of musicians and decided to form a band. We needed someone to play bass,” he explained, “so I got an electric bass and began to teach myself to play.”

After practicing only a couple of songs, the group concluded their sound was so good they needed to find a real gig. They adopted the name “281 South,” landed a job and took the leap. “I was still learning to play bass,” Phillip laughed, “and had to move page through page of each song.” That was five years ago and, today, 281 South is a rising band in the Texas music scene.

“We play a blend of Texas country, Southern rock and blues,” he explained, “and that makes us a Texas Red Dirt band.” Phillip plays bass and Jimmy Sliger is lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist. “Wyatt Norman sings backup and plays lead guitar,” he added. “Tobie Tatum is on drums and Mason Mathews is our full-time sound man. We’re a tight- knit group. Tobie, Mason and I live in Burleson. The whole band travels and plays well together.”

Red Dirt music can be a little tough to define since no specific sound can be attributed to all Red Dirt bands. The sound originated in Oklahoma somewhere in the ’80s and, as it spread to Texas, a version known as Texas Red Dirt evolved. “Red Dirt is a lot of old and new Oklahoma and Texas music with some rock ’n’ roll, country, folk, western swing and blues,” Phillip explained. “It’s about honoring the old, mixing in some new and adding your own spin. For example, if you take Texas swing, add a bit of rock ’n’ roll, throw in a little Stevie Ray Vaughan, Stoney LaRue and Cross Canadian Ragweed, that’s Texas Red Dirt. It’s music with an attitude.”

Working at the fire station, traveling with the safety clowns, playing in the band and spending time with his kids is a real juggling act for Phillip. His marriage did not survive the struggle, yet his commitments to children, career and music remain strong. “I love spending time with my kids. I have been a fireman since volunteering at 18 and have loved music since I can remember. Overall, I’m very lucky.” The new tattoo on his arm, with ink barely dry, symbolizes his love for music, a daughter who died at birth and his five surviving children. “I also included a stargazer lily,” he said, “to represent my fiance?e, Laura, and her three children.”

Laura handles the band promotions and artist development. “This is not an easy business,” Phillip explained. “There are lots of bands, and the business is all about profit. It’s important to network and develop relationships. The good news is once you’re in with the Texas music business, you’re in. Many commitments are done on a handshake.”

It’s safe to say that 281 South has earned a place in the Texas music scene. The band has opened for established artists like Stoney LaRue, Reckless Kelly, Mickey and the Motorcars, Ryan Turner, Mark McKinney and Tommy Alverson. Their first studio album, Third Time’s a Charm, was produced by Hat Creek Records in 2008 and their single “Coming Home Tonight” played on radio stations in Texas and Oklahoma and was featured by the group on Fox 4’s Good Day Texas. Their new single, “Oilfield Outlaw,” has just been released to great response. “We’re known for high octane shows,” Phillip said. “We usually dress in pearl snap or tee shirts, jeans and boots, and there’s a whole lot of energy when we’re on stage.”

Phillip and Laura plan to marry this June, and are looking forward to sharing time with family and their two cats, Ragweed and Zoey. “I want to be a firefighter for as long as I can,” Phillip said. “And at some point, when and if I retire, I would love to be in one of those big buses, traveling around from concert to concert, playing my Texas Red Dirt music.”

Written by Carolyn Wills

MIDLOTHIAN, TX — Belting out a country western song in his usual nightclub, everything felt familiar and routine. Corby LaCroix did not know that by the end of his song nothing would feel familiar or routine. As a young musician, this was what he wanted to do, what he was trained to do, and country music was his pleasure. “I was right in the middle of a song, and all of a sudden, I knew that I was done with that,” he said. “Every fiber of my being hated what I was doing, where I was, what I was singing and the place I was singing in. It was like God got inside and flipped a switch. I told the club owner that I was not going to be coming back.”

The roots of Corby’s dilemma began long ago. Playing the piano as a young boy seemed to be the outlet for his musical talent. However, the piano did not appeal to him as much as the guitar. He remembered the first time he picked up the guitar, at age 10. “At my grandmother’s house, I was messing around with a guitar and managed to eke out a song, playing by ear.” By trial and error, he discovered that he could indeed play a song on the guitar just by listening to the tune and figuring out where the notes were on the guitar. His playing by ear style extended to piano playing and caused his teacher some consternation. “I would frustrate my piano teachers. They would put the music in front of me, and I would act like I was reading it because I knew where to turn the page, but I was playing by ear. My teachers were fooled for a while, but then they caught on,” he admitted smiling.

Even though Corby’s teachers were distressed at his lack of knowledge regarding note reading, Corby knew his way of expressing music was

playing by ear. He acknowledged, “Reading music was never a gift of mine. I can read it, but it takes me a while. It is so much more efficient for me to hear the song and play.”

Though his interest in the guitar began at age 10, Corby did not seriously pursue it until his senior year in high school. “I was really into country music at the time. I listened to songs on the radio to try and figure out what they were doing and how the chords fit together. After a while, I thought, Maybe I should sit down with someone who has been doing this for a while and shave some time off of my learning curve.” During this time, Corby was a part of an organization called Young Life. The guitarist who played for their club meetings agreed to teach him some of the finer points of guitar playing. After high school, Corby followed Cari, his girlfriend and now wife, to Waco to attend McLennan Community College (MCC). “I didn’t know what I wanted to do until I stumbled upon their commercial music program. It turns out there were only two programs like it in the whole state.” In the program, the students could study the music business, music production, audio tech and commercial vocal and instrument performance.

Corby had found the perfect program for his needs. “It was everything from vocal training, ear training, music business, copyright, publishing to management. It was just how to make it in the music business,” he stated. An integral part of the program consisted of students who formed bands together within the program. Elaborating, Corby stated, “They had a rock band, a Christian band and a country band to play gigs on campus.”

Corby graduated with an Associate of Applied Science in commercial music performance. After graduation, he formed a band named Corby LaCroix and Cuttin’ Loose. The band became popular and started opening for Nashville acts such as the Dixie Chicks, Tracy Lawrence and Diamond Rio. Corby enjoyed a degree of success with his band singing country music, until that night, right in the middle of a song. He felt God was saying that was not where He wanted him to be. Corby remembers telling his band members that night that he could no longer continue. “My band members got mad at me, and the club owner got really mad, and rightly so, because we were supposed to play three nights, and that was just the first night. That was a mistake. I should’ve honored that commitment. But at the time, I couldn’t. I could hardly make it through the first night. This was in November. I did play the rest of the gigs on the calendar, and that was it.”

After Corby quit the band, playing the guitar was not a priority again for almost two years. It wasn’t until he joined Midlothian Bible Church (MBC) that he again picked up his guitar. “I recognized the call to do Christian music and wanted to participate in worship,” he said. “Six or seven months into my job here [at MBC], I went to a worship conference in Kansas City where I was in a songwriter’s forum with Matt Maher. He was talking about his approach to writing songs. It started opening my eyes. Before the forum, I looked at Scripture and noticed that certain songs came out of this verse or that verse. But after that forum, writing songs from Scripture was brought into perspective. I started writing songs and realized God was allowing me to see the Scriptures lyrically and to see patterns, especially in the Psalms and in some of

David’s writings. So I started writing with Brady Goodwin.”

With a collection of songs written, the CD named Declaration took shape. Eight of the songs in the album are original, with two of those co-written with Brady. The other two are “re- worked” hymns. “The CD was done in a way to cause people to seek the Lord,” Corby explained. “My songwriting style right now is to take Scripture and write songs out of them. I have Scripture references for all of the songs, and Layne Mershimer (pastor of MBC) wrote a devotion for each song. I want it to be not just a music CD but a study guide kind of thing, too — a way to sit down and worship the Lord in music and then to go to His word.”

Corby now believes “we are to use our gifts, our resources, our time and our efforts to bring praise and honor to the name Jesus.” Doing just that, he has moved from country music and clubs to Christian music and church, using his talent in a way that brings fulfillment to his life.

Written by Betty Tryon.

The freedom the small entourage has, minus a guide, allows them to “go where we want to go” and “see what we want to see” on “our” timetable. The biggest obstacle they had to overcome was the driving. “I’m one of the designated drivers,” Kathleen laughed. “Now that we travel as tourists, we do all our own driving. The only thing I miss about not having a guide is being able to look out the window at the sites.”

Thankfully for Kathleen, the steering wheel is on the left side of the car and driving is done on the same side of the road as in America. To keep everyone safe on their journeys, Kathleen did her “homework.” She studied several pages of street signs before actually taking on the European roadways. One of the funniest signs resembles a contour bra. “We call it the sign with the bra in the road,” Kathleen said, laughing aloud. “It looks like two bra cups, but it means you’re about to drive over uneven pavement. Driving really isn’t so bad once you get the hang of it.”

Getting over her fears and learning to drive opened so many doors for the group. As the five meet at Elaine’s house before leaving Ennis, they all have ideas on what they want to see and sites they have a desire to visit, sometimes for the second, third and fourth times. “We always have a long list of things we want to do and places we want to go,” Kathleen reiterated, “and castles are always on the ‘to do’ list.”

Several years ago, Kathleen and her mom met family members from Frystak, one of the many small villages located in the Czech Republic. “Our Czech cousins were even able to locate the house where my great-grandmother was born.” Thanks to this family, going back has been simpler, and much more relaxed, because of their hospitality. “They have a small apartment we stay in when we travel in that particular area,” Kathleen explained. “When we’re in other areas, we try to stay at penzions, the equivalent of a bed and breakfast here in America, because they’re cheaper than hotels.”

Last year when trying to locate the Edison 7, a penzion in Slovakia, the group ended up getting lost. “We pulled up in front of this house,” Kathleen shared. “A guy was getting out of his car, so we asked him directions.” She laughed as she remembers him turning around and walking back to his own vehicle. “He loaned us his GPS. He programmed in the address and told us to ask the manager of the Edison 7 to store the GPS in his safe and he’d be by in a few days to retrieve it. How many people in America would trust five strangers with their GPS?”

When asked what her favorite part of the Czech Republic is, Kathleen answered, “All of it. I love the architecture, the landscape, the small villages and towns. I find I have a great time looking in the various shops, even hardware shops,” she added with a grin. “If you look long enough, you’ll find something unique, something you won’t find in an American hardware store.”

Attending the wedding of one of her newfound cousins a couple of years ago gave Kathleen a couple more lessons in Czech tradition. “After they were married, they were given a white dish which was dropped on purpose before them. As the new bride and groom, they must clean it up together,” Kathleen said. “Soup was the first course of the wedding meal. The couple was draped as one in a large white cloth. They were given one bowl and one spoon. They began their married life feeding one another. These two traditions represent a picture of the married life to come; to help one another in all things.”

The Festival of Kings, in the Moravian village of Vlcnov, is similar to the annual Polka Festival here in Ennis. “There are various bands, craft items to buy and lots of food. It’s a day of drinking, eating

and dancing. The men and women in the procession and even the horses in the parade are dressed in very detailed costumes.” According to legend, the king must be a virgin, and is now a boy of 10 or 12. As a person who loves taking photos, Kathleen has been able to memorialize this event in an album that she loves to share with visitors.

So many keepsakes and memories that reflect her Czech heritage have been purchased abroad and now have a special place in Kathleen’s home. Memories with meaning are definitely being made. Her modest collection of hand-painted Czech plates is displayed on the walls, a collection her mom started for her many years ago. Christmas ornaments manufactured at the Irisa Ornament Company in the Czech Republic are some of Kathleen’s most favorite memorabilia. “We have toured the factory several times and once they allowed us to try blowing the glass ourselves,” she said. “The glass is very thin and lightweight. The ornaments are very detailed and delicate.”

“As long as my mom is able to make the trip and she wants to go, I’m going to do all I can to make it happen.”

Authentic Czech lace curtains adorn Kathleen’s kitchen windows while a Bohemian Czech lead crystal dish is home to scented potpourri. “I also collect calendars from the Czech Republic,” she admitted. The reason she almost came home last year without one was due to a rather nasty accident. “A friend on her first trip with us took a very nasty fall,” Kathleen explained. “She broke her ankle so badly that she had to be hospitalized.” The surgery she underwent at the hospital in Zlin included a plate and several screws. When she got home a week later, her American physicians said the European surgeon had done a stellar job.

The group’s next trip to the Czech Republic is slated for the last week of August and will extend into September. In order for Kathleen to make the trip happen as often as it does, she has adopted a somewhat frugal lifestyle — a lifestyle well worth the memories it reaps. “As long as my mom is able to make the trip and she wants to go,” Kathleen said, “I’m going to do all I can to make it happen.”

Written by Sandra Strong

Kevin’s mother and grandmother encouraged him to play classical music from the age of 6, and for over 30 years, Kevin has written songs just like somebody writing a poem. “It’s never been about the commercial end of it. I talk to guys all the time who have written 400 tunes, and they send each one to Nashville or LA. Their whole point is that maybe one of the tunes will make them a fortune. For me, it’s never been about anything but the feeling I had at the time, and I made the decision to put it down to see if people close to me might feel that way, too.”

In fact, this last song from Kevin’s heart — the song that won him the 2009 Song of the Year Award from the Fort Worth Songwriters Association — is the first tune he wrote with the intention to sell. “I actually sat down and wrote using what I felt about a line that was given to me, a hook that goes, ‘If you’re not here after what I’m here after, then you’ll be here after I’m gone.’ One day, we were sitting in the office of my business associate and friend, Tom James, a general contractor in Dallas, and he said, ‘Kevin, I’ve got a hook for you, and if you can write a song for it, it’s yours.’ Another musician was in the room with us, and I said, ‘It sounds like a waltz to me,’ and they all kind of laughed, and that’s what it ended up being,” Kevin said. “You don’t hear waltzes anymore, hardly.”

Other songwriters have expressed appreciation for “After I’m Gone,” calling the song well-written. Kevin will eventually shop the song around, as soon as he gets a copyright. “I submitted it back in January 2010, and still haven’t heard from the copyright office. Once I’ve got some protection, I’ll try to submit it,” Kevin said. “I think it’s a great tune for somebody like Toby Keith or Brad Paisley, who sing those kinds of songs. If it never happens, well, it’s still a good song in my estimation.”

Kevin enjoys a lot of today’s country, but prefers Merle Haggard, George Jones or Marty Robbins. “Those are the guys I listened to. They were very influential on how I sing,” said Kevin, who also credits his progressive sound to Gino Vannelli, Steely Dan and Jimi Hendrix. He sings in a duo called Slippery When Wett with guitar player Rusty Hayley, a fellow he graduated with from Irving High School in 1974. Their band has a full sound, because Kevin produces all the instrumentation and vocals out in his office, which is set up like a professional recording studio. “I’m also in the construction business — you gotta do something to make a living,” Kevin said. “Rusty and I sit and practice out there. We try to get together usually twice a month, to go over stuff and learn. I use computer technology, sequencing programs, to create the music. When you come see us play, it’s not a piano and a guitar; it’s drums, strings, horns, the whole gamut of music that I’ve played onto the computer for us to play along with so you’re getting a full band sound with two players.”

When he is not on stage, Kevin plays good husband as well as good father, encouraging his sons Bobby and Brock in their academics, athletics and musicianship. He also takes time to write songs when the feeling hits. “I’m not one of those songwriters who takes eight hours a day and starts banging out lyrics,”

Kevin said. “But if there’s something that strikes me as being worthy of putting words to, I’ll sit down and do it. It might take three weeks, three months or a year to finish, but I do finish.”

Patience has served Kevin well. “Life was always pretty tough,” he said. “Through my life, there’s been a whole lot of disappointments. I am happy with my wife, Kerry — I have been for over 20 years now. But I’m a Leo, so I love hard and I hurt hard. Through my younger days, I went through some pretty heartbreaking things with relationships. Those things give me the knowledge inside to know what I want to say. It’s a lot easier to reflect on ’em now. I wrote a lot of songs when I was in the position, but never finished ’em. After years go by, you can sit down and reflect and be able to finish the work. Then it’s just a matter of putting it to music. The real important part is making sure the music tells the same story. You want to make sure the music and vocals match the story.

Interestingly, Kevin sees a correlation between the process of songwriting and his chosen profession. “You lay down a bass track and start putting your puzzle together. You go ground up, starting with an idea, which would be similar to a set of plans. Next you have a basis, like laying down the drum track, which would be like the foundation, and then multiple layers, like your wall design and decoration. Your finish work (like painting and colors) would be the final vocal tracks. When you have put it all together, you mix it down,” Kevin said. “Building a song is the same as building a house or a piece of property. You start at point A and use steps to get to point Z to finish; then you hope your product is appealing enough for a homeowner or a major artist who might be interested in recording it for themselves.”

An artist needs discipline and talent to take a mental concept or some heartfelt emotion and put it to paper, canvas, keyboards, tape, disc or hard drive. For Kevin, it also takes a desire to connect with another person’s heart. “Maybe that’s simpleton. The thing about art is, maybe nobody understands it or likes it, but it’s what you feel,” Kevin said. “Sooner or later, somebody’s going to like it and go, ‘I know exactly what you were thinking or feeling at the time.’”

“As a child, I was always pretty crafty when it came to school projects that involved making models or posters. But I really didn’t start drawing until I was a student at East Middle School. I had art in elementary school and one class in eighth grade, but in high school, I really began to draw seriously,” Kelsey reminisced. “My art teacher for all four years, three of which were AP classes, was Chuck Singleton. He was my biggest influence — he’s such a good teacher.”

Mr. Singleton held off his retirement in order to teach Kelsey through her senior year at DeSoto High School.

Originally interested in becoming a zoologist, Kelsey has drawn a lot of animals. She works from photographs.

Some she finds online, some are photos she has taken. Her elephant took a long time — about 20 hours — but every wrinkle is worth it. You can almost feel each wrinkle oozing elephantine personality. Her gorilla, with the blue-green swath of color, contemplates your evaluation of him, just as he would in the zoo. The giraffe is so life-like, you expect him to start chewing any minute. Kelsey’s Avatar, done in oil stick, took only one or two days: “It was easy to cover the large surface and blend the shades of blue,” Kelsey stated.
“I work mostly with pencils and charcoal,” explained the sophomore who is working on a drawing and painting major at University of North Texas (UNT). “I like portraits best. I am putting together a body of work, portraits,” Kelsey remarked, “in the hopes of getting some scholarships.

“I can draw a lot faster now,” she commented, referencing her elephant drawing. “Nothing about portraits is really hard. I guess you could say the ‘hardest’ part is the initial sketch, which involves proportions — getting the features in the right places, so it will look like the photo. I use pencil, so I can erase as needed.” Kelsey’s preliminary drawing becomes the portrait as she Duncanville NOW are my favorite part. They’re not moves from pencil to charcoals. “Eyes challenging at all, but they are the most interesting part of a portrait.”

Awards she has won at the State Fair of Texas the past three years hang on the mattings of many works of art: four 1st places, one 2nd place, two honorable mentions and one best of show. Kelsey has done about five commissioned portraits. One was from a 1948 photo of the mother of a lady at Kelsey’s church. Kelsey is still working on her self-portrait, which will become another speed drawing. “I saw speed drawings online and decided to try it. It’s a fun way to watch yourself draw. I’d like to send them to Ellen DeGeneres and see if I could get on her show,” Kelsey added quietly.

Not only does Kelsey draw, she is also an accomplished photographer, who is still learning and improving her raw, natural talent. “My mom showed me how to use her Canon film camera right before I began high school. After that, I began experimenting on my own. Now I am in a digital photography class in college. I like both film and digital. Mostly I take photos of flowers. I enjoy the color of photography, since most of my drawings are black and white,” Kelsey said.
Kelsey just got a macro lens for her camera. “I love taking close-ups of small things. I guess you could say I am kind of a detail-addict in both photography and my artwork. Details capture realism. I think it would be really cool to travel and be a photographer for something like National Geographic. That’s what I always wanted to be, but now I think my future might lie in my artwork,” Kelsey confided.

“I am not as good at painting. It’s a whole different medium, but I am learning. The color on my gorilla is acrylic paint, which is kind of unforgiving because it dries so fast. Oils dry slower, so you can blend them more. And oil pastels, like what I used for my butterfly, never dry, making it harder to get the details in,” Kelsey explained.

She has also created collage scratch boards — masonite boards covered with white clay and then coated with a very thin layer of black ink. “You actually it hard to do shading. I use some cross hatching,” Kelsey remarked. Her collage is definitely another showcase of her amazing talent. It looks hand-drawn, with amazing depth, perspective and shading.

“I am pretty excited about my latest project. I have never done anything like this before,” she shared as she unrolled a large drawing of a macaw. “This will be an applique? quilt of over 100 pieces.”

The beautiful colors of fabric mirror photos she has taken of macaws at the zoo. Kelsey began to sew quilts when she worked for Sew Southward Bernina. “I sewed sample quilts — three wall hangings from a pattern. This one I am designing myself and choosing all the fabrics myself. It’s turned out a bit bigger than I had intended. I think it will be about 4 by 4 1?2 feet,” she shrugged somewhat sheepishly. “When I quilt it, I will change the thread color to match each piece of fabric, because I will stitch in the details on the feathers. I think this will take a lot of hours of work,” Kelsey sighed with a mixture of anticipation and apprehension from which she quickly rallied. “I want to enter it in some quilt shows like the one in Ellis County.

“I guess you could say I came by my artistic talent honestly. My father does woodworking,” she said, showing off his chess table and pieces. “And my mother is an amazing seamstress. So I have a lot to live up to, as well as my own artistic venue to pursue.”

Written by Beverly Shay.