Thursday's Internet Edition, December 04, 2008.
welcomes visitors to Hamilton
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| Gallery of Art |
For years, various groups and individuals discussed the attractiveness of a mural downtown that would reflect Hamilton’s history and culture. Some had progressed as far as working on designs and getting estimates of cost from artists and masonry contractors, but that was as far as the project got.
But at a meeting of the Hamilton Economic Develop-ment Corporation’s Downtown Revitalization Committee early in 2007, the idea was revived by Riney Jordan.
Jordan conceived the design of a gallery of original art and photographs as a way to avoid the problems associated with painting a large stucco wall and to reduce the cost of production by using locally contributed work. With the Clark’s consent, the group selected the north wall of their building for the project. Six Spokes Signs was asked to do a computer mock-up of the proposed project.
The project was approved by the EDC Board as part of its Downtown Revitalization pro-ject with funds to finance it and made a directive to form a committee to make the final decisions.
Jordan, Sharla Wenzel, Frances Gardner, the Clarks and Kent Wenzel were given the task of choosing the most appropriate and attractive art that would reflect the com-munity and make the collection work. Diana Stokely and Jane Crouch were asked to staff the project.
More than a 100 paintings and photographs were sub-mitted along with signed releases for their use. By the end of the summer of 2007, 16 images were selected and the City of Hamilton logo was approved. Six Spokes Signs digitized the images, enlarged and printed them on vinyl, mounted them on composite metal substrate and laminated them for added life.
The frames were designed by Ronnie Wenzel and welded by Charlie Snell.
On Tuesday, Feb. 19, the gallery was installed by Jason Turner and his company, TNT Construction, of Whitney. The frames are permanently in-stalled, but the images may be changed from time to time.
Plans are being made to add a legend for the gallery and provide brochures which explain their history or sig-nificance of each of the images.
The images displayed in-clude:
“Daisy Doggett, Sponsor for the Confederate Veteran’s Reunion” circa 1900. Daisy is the grandmother of Dixie Herring and Bubba Gerald of Hamilton. The photograph was produced by W.M. Sparkman of Hamilton;
“Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,” a spring, 2007 storm that frightened many area residents. Photographed by Diana Ani Stokely of Cranfills Gap;
“General James Hamilton,” the man for whom Hamilton is named. This is a copy of a painting done in the mid 1800s, submitted by the Hamilton County Historical Museum;
“Sunflower,” a June 2007 image of Hamilton’s flower. Photography by Diana Ani Stokely of Cranfills Gap;
“St Mary’s Episcopal Church,” the oldest Hamilton church building remaining on its original site. Submitted by Mr. and Mrs. Abner Teague. Watercolor by Joan Crumrine of Hamilton;
“Hereford Cattle,” a spring image of local livestock. Photo-graphy by Koby Rogers, Jr., a student from Hamilton;
“Hamilton Logo,” a 2006 design for the www.hamiltontexas.com website. Graphics by Marcie Finney.
“Hen and Chick’s,” an image of local bantams taken in the spring of 2007. Photo-graphy by Diana Ani Stokely of Cranfills Gap;
“But Some Day You Will See,” a 2006 oil painting of a local scene. Painting by Carl Rice Embrey, a nationally known artists who graduated from High School in 1957 and a descendent of one of Hamilton’s founding families. He now lives in San Antonio;
“Hamilton General Hospital,” photographed just after it opened January 12, 2005;
“Buck,” a whitetail deer. Photography by Pete Smith of Hamilton;
“Butterfly and Thistle.” Photography by Kimi A Phillips of Hamilton;
“Graves House,” the oldest house in Hamilton currently owned by Carolyn and John David Pool. Pen and ink drawing by Joan Crumrine of Hamilton;
“Retired,” plow and bluebonnets. Photography by Kimi A. Phillips of Hamilton;
“Poppies,” grown from seed brought home from Flanders Field in World War I. Photography by Dewayne Clover of Hamilton;
“Bison,” taken during 2007’s snowy Easter weekend. Photography by Sharla Wenzel of Hamilton;
“Walk in the Park,” one of the bridges in Hamilton’s downtown Pecan Creek Park. Photography by Kim Howard of Hamilton.