Everything Nac

The SFA Gardens at Stephen F. Austin State University will host the monthly Theresa and Les Reeves Lecture Series at 7 p.m. Thursday, June 20, in the Agriculture Building, Room 110, at 1924 Wilson Drive.

Darrin Duling, director of Mercer Arboretum and Botanical Gardens in Humble, will present “Making Mercer Magnificent – Opportunities and Challenges.”

A native of Richmond, Va., Duling received a Master of Science in plant taxonomy from the University of Reading in Whiteknights, England; a Diploma of Horticulture from Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, England; and a Certificate of Horticultural Training from The Royal Horticultural Society in Wisley, England. He previously served as the director of the Native Plant Center in Valhalla, N.Y.; the curator of glasshouse collections for the New York Botanical Garden; and director of horticulture for the American Orchid Society. His career path has led him to far-flung places such as Brazil, Borneo, Crete, Oman, Peru, Thailand and Singapore.

Mercer Arboretum and Botanic Gardens is a nationally recognized public garden showcasing the Gulf Coast Region’s largest collection of native and cultivated plants in more than 325 acres of East Texas Pineywoods. Free to the public, Mercer boasts several theme gardens, programs for all ages, annual plant sales, miles of woodland trails, and picnic areas that provide recreational and educational opportunities to families, school groups, bird watchers, joggers, walkers and photographers.

The Theresa and Les Reeves Garden Lecture Series is normally held the third Thursday of each month at the Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture’s SFA Mast Arboretum. A rare plant raffle will be held after the program. The lecture is free and open to the public, but donations to the Theresa and Les Reeves lecture series endowed fund always are appreciated.

For more information, call (936) 468-1832 or email ggrantgardens@yahoo.com.

Is your garden is overflowing with tomatoes or squash? Are you a faithful purchaser of fresh produce at the Farmer’s Market? Would you like to put away some of this summer’s goodness for next winter?

If so, plan to attend a garden seminar titled “Preserving Your Fruits and Vegetables” from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, June 15, in Room 211 of the Human Sciences North Building at Stephen F. Austin State University.

The workshop will be co-hosted by SFA Gardens and the university’s hospitality administration and food nutrition and dietetics and programs. Glenda Taylor, a lifelong gardener and owner of Earthsprings Retreat Center near Crockett, will offer a hands-on introduction to canning, freezing, pickling, jelling and other methods of preserving fruits and vegetables. Whether you are completely new to this experience or an old hand at preserving food, you will enjoy learning basics and sharing tips.

“If you are health conscious and concerned about what goes into the foods you eat or serve your family, preserving foods yourself is one way of being certain of the wholesomeness of your food,” Taylor said.

Each participant will have the opportunity to preserve something at the workshop to take home, she said.

“We are excited that Glenda has agreed to share her extensive knowledge of food preservation with our workshop participants,” said Kerry Lemon, assistant education coordinator at SFA Gardens. “She grows bountiful gardens and always preserves what she grows. Plus, she makes the most delicious pickles I have ever eaten!”

Class size is limited, so please register before June 13 by contacting the SFA Gardens education office at (936) 468-1832 or sfagardens@sfasu.edu. Cost is $25 for SFA Garden members and $30 for non-members.

The SFA Friends of the Visual Arts board recently established a scholarship in honor of Charles D. Jones, long-time Stephen F. Austin State University School of Art professor.

The Charles D. Jones Art Scholarship will be awarded annually to a junior, senior or graduate level student with drawing or printmaking as his or her major study area. This year’s recipient is Lufkin senior printmaker Caleb Rose.

Jones is professor emeritus in the SFA School of Art where he taught printmaking, drawing, Mexican art history and the “Art of The Book” from 1971 to 2011. During that time, he was named a Regents Professor and received a Distinguished Professor Award from the Alumni Association and a Teaching Excellence Award from the university. He is now the director and master printer for the LaNana Creek Press in the College of Fine Arts and is continuing to work in the other printmaking media.

“I think this may possibly be the greatest honor I have achieved at SFA,” Jones said of the scholarship. “Having achieved honors and been recognized for teaching over the years was very satisfying. But I think this is the most rewarding honor. It’s just the most wonderful thing to happen to me after 40-plus years of teaching.”

LaNana Creek Press, founded in 1997, has a goal of publishing a major title in the fine press tradition each year. “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Bird,” by Wallace Stevens, “The Knight’s Tale,” by Geoffery Chaucer, and “Hölderlins Conscience” by Uwe Kolbe are some recent titles published. Books under the imprint of LaNana Creek Press are in the collections of the Pushkin Museum, Moscow, Russia, Bodleian Library, Oxford University, the Victoria & Albert Library in England and the National Library of Taiwan, as well as many special collections libraries through out the United States. A trade edition of “Chopper Blues,” an expanded version of an earlier fine press book, written and illustrated by Jones is in national distribution. Jones learned just last week that “Chopper Blues” won first prize in the 2013 International Book Awards in one category and was a finalist in another.

Jones has been an active exhibiting artist throughout his career with more than 30 one-person exhibitions in as many years. His solo exhibitions have been mounted at the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe, N.M.; The Museum of Printing History, Houston; Tyler Museum of Art; the Museum of East Texas, Lufkin; Longview Museum of Fine Arts; and the Galveston Art Center. His exhibition “The Vietnam Suite” toured the Mid-West under the auspices of Mid-America Arts Alliance and toured Europe during 1987-88 with exhibitions in England, The Netherlands and France. His recent international exhibition record includes Novosibirsk, Nizny Tagil and Ufa, Russia, Paris and Rennes, France, England, Holland, Italy and Mexico. Jones was co-curator for “Octopus Dreams: Contemporary Native American Works on Paper,” an exhibition sponsored by the American Consulate in Ekaterinburg, Russia, that toured museums through out the Russian Federation during the past year. This exhibition will open in Albuquerque, N.M., on June 29 after which it will travel to other venues in the United States and Japan.

Jones has been an active supporter of the SFA Friends of the Visual Arts for more than 15 years by providing original art work for the organization’s scholarship fundraising auctions as well as making significant contributions to the efforts of establishing The Cole Art Center @ The Old Opera House in downtown Nacogdoches, according to Linda Mock, business manager for the School of Art.

“Without his support and encouragement, the FVA would not have been able to reach our goal of providing monetary assistance for students in the School of Art through grants and scholarships, as well as raising money for the renovation of the Cole Art Center,” Mock said.

A senior art major at SFA, Rose, who grew up in Laredo, is studying printmaking with a minor in Spanish. In addition to the financial help the scholarship will provide, being nominated and selected as the first Jones Scholarship recipient has increased his confidence and enthusiasm for striving for greater achievement in his studies, he said.

“The scholarship is obviously a financial help,” Rose said. “At this stage, all help in that area is appreciated and welcome. However, since I was nominated for this (and I’m not certain who did it), it is an incredible morale and confidence booster.”

Rose plans to graduate next spring. He is working on a business idea he has titled Vagabond Industries.

“It is still in the infant planning stages,” he said, “but, I hope to combine my love for art, music and travel into an entity to promote my work, the work of other artists and musicians, and eventually grow to something that can give back to students or kids who have a harder time reaching for their dreams.”

The Stephen F. Austin State University School of Art and Friends of the Visual Arts will present a one-night screening of “Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Impassioned Eye” at 7 p.m. Friday, June 7, at The Cole Art Center @ The Old Opera House. The free screening is part of the School of Art’s First Friday Film Series.

In this 72-minute documentary directed by Heinz Bütler, Cartier-Bresson pulls out photographs, comments briefly, and holds them up to Bütler’s camera, according to information at www.imdb.com.

A few others share observations, including Isabelle Huppert, Arthur Miller and Josef Koudelka. Cartier-Bresson talks about his travels – Mexico in the 1930s, imprisonment during World War II, being with Gandhi moments before his assassination, and returning to sketching late in life. He talks about becoming and being a photographer, about composition, and about some of his secrets to “capture the moment,” the website says.

“For me, the camera is a sketchbook, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity, the master of the instant which, in visual terms, questions and decides simultaneously,” the late Cartier-Bresson is quoted at www.henricartierbresson.org.

“To take a photograph is to hold one’s breath when all faculties converge in a face of fleeting reality,” he said. “It is at that moment that mastering an image becomes a great physical and intellectual joy.”

Upon his death in 2004 at the age of 96, Cartier-Bresson was mourned as “the father of photojournalism.”

The film series is sponsored in part by the Nacogdoches Junior Forum.

The Cole Art Center is located at 329 E. Main St. in downtown Nacogdoches. For more information, call (936) 468-1131.