Raw 1899

01/13/2025

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01/09/2025

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01/08/2025

12/29/2024

Check out Terry Browder! Coming in March to Raw 1899! We are so excited! Get ready! AMAZING!

Our first art show of the year features the work of Terry Browder. We look forward to seeing you at its opening Saturday, Jan. 11.

Terry shares the inspiration for his Big Magic—

“How could I have known when I walked into the office of a land title company in Weatherford, Texas, that the pile of ancient abstract records lying on the floor would have such a profound impact on and application to my creative work?

“. . . I was told that they were preparing to move their office location and that the documents had been digitally scanned and the brittle, decrepit books were going to be hauled to the landfill.  I asked if I might haul the “dirty old things” to the “landfill” for them and they heartily accepted my offer . . . I had no clue what I would do with them, but they were a beautiful treasure and I was elated with the timing of my office visit at the title company that day!

“In 2018, after a forty-year break, I started seriously painting again . . .  From the very first painting, I used the old documents, gluing them to the canvas and painting on top of them, leaving areas of the archaic script to show through the paint.  My initial interest was in the tactile quality of the 120-year-old paper and the beautiful script, but soon it occurred to me that there was an otherworldly connection between the historic documents and the stories I was painting.

“I slowly made the connection that these documents were from Parker County, where Weatherford is the county seat…AND a bit of research revealed that Parker County was named after Isaac Parker who was an early settler and legislator from that area….AND Isaac Parker was the uncle of Cynthia Ann Parker . . . who at age 12 . . .

“I was embedding actual relics from the time, place, and subject of the stories I was telling into my artwork . . .
Elizabeth Elliott in her book, Big Magic, describes inspiration as an independent entity that visits the artist.  She calls that muse or “Big Magic”.