Member Art & Bios

Barbra Felix

Barbara Felix, a San Antonio native of African American and Chicana descent, is a rising voice in contemporary figurative and multimedia art. A graphic artist by day. Barbara earned a BFA in Graphic Communication from Texas State University, where her love for fine art and the figure began. She later received a certificate in drawing, painting and printmaking from the Southwest School of Art. At SSA she developed her signature
style of fluid gesture line drawing to create unique monotypes for her ongoing body of work, Bailando con Mi Misma-Dancing with My Self. Barbara also creates images with physical movement through stop motion animation. In 2016, she participated in Luminaria Contemporary Arts Festival as part of a collaborative multi genre and media installation, The Proximity of Being. Barbara’s most recent work is a performance art/experimental film, I Belong Here, that uses movement combined with poetry and sound effects, to examine belonging and the plight of DACA recipients.

Claudette Hopkins – Scholarship Chairman

Claudette Hopkins has been an active member of SAEAS since 1990. She sat as President for 15 years and served as secretary twice. Although she has completed many works of art using acrylics and pen and ink, her medium of choice is pastels. Most of her work is focused on portraying the beauty of women of color, a subject she has been drawn to for most of her artistic life. Her subjects include women from all walks of life. Claudette likes to intensify
life as she sees it in her realistic portraits. Emphasis on facial details and the sensuous lines of bodies distinguishes her work and maximizes the personalities of the figures she creates. Claudette, originally from Dallas, Texas, attended Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas before moving to San Antonio. She has enjoyed many one-woman shows and exhibited extensively with SAEAS. Through the years, she has received numerous awards and accommodations for her work. She created the 2007 poster for San Antonio’s Jazz’s Alive festival, illustrated a children’s book written by Dr. Raye Adkins “When a  Deer Rings Your Doorbell” and is currently teaching pastel drawing and acrylic painting to students in the SAEAS Scholarship Program.

Gracie Poe

Gracie Poe was born in Giddings, Texas, and raised and educated in San Antonio. After retiring as a Sears executive, she began dedicating herself to her passion: art in the clay medium. She had always been an art enthusiast and poet. Although self-taught, she has studied and developed her art with some of the finest artists in San Antonio. She focuses on sculptural forms of African influence, inspired by ceremonial masks and Africa’s rich textures and symbols. They are depicted in her masks as well as her figurines and vessels. Many of her art pieces are based on the concept that all we do and all we are, has to do with the natural order of our life history from the beginning of time. Some of her sculptures inspire poems, while at other times a poem inspires a sculpture. In these instances, her ultimate goal is to externalize and fuse her literary art with the visual. Most of her artwork is a sculptured form of bia-relief, which is her main and preferred style. She finishes most of the projects with “cold” paint techniques of oxide washes or acrylic paints to provide a “patina”. “I try to interpret and reflect from my research, my ideas and beliefs that Africa evolves and is the axis of my life. I am centered.”

Isaiah Jones

“Born and raised in San Antonio, I have had an interest in Art all my life. My middle school teacher notice my potential and placed me in Advanced Art.
From the age of 12 to now, I have occasionally been commissioned for my work, but delayed advancing in my work while serving in the military from 2009
through late 2013. During my senior year in High School, I was a student in the SAEAS scholarship Program. I am back where I belong, and as a member of SAEAS I am ready to show my work, and what art means to me.” – Isaiah Jones

Paul Hurd

Paul is a native of Phoenix, Arizona where he was first exposed to art after being “booted” out of the high school band. After completion of high school he entered the United States Air Force, which he retired from after 30 years of service and obtaining the rank of Chief Master Sergeant. Paul Hurd is a self taught sculptor and above all a story teller. His artistic interest spans from clay-sculpture to woodcarving. Paul has a particular passion for furniture making in which he incorporates one-of-a-kind artistic motifs and religious iconography. His work fuses his own style with the influence of southwest and Latino themes that derive from his many years in San Antonio. His clay arrangements, which consists of both single and multiple groupings, convey narrative themes that range from commentary on social mores to representations of cultural heritage. Paul is very precise with his imageries, every thing he creates, whether in wood or clay, is done to scale.

Trudy Rafelson

“My lifelong passion for archaeology led my art to reflect the cultural diversity found in the human figure, masks and jewelry. As a sculptor of the human figure for 20 years, I decided five years ago to switch to welding and metalsmithing as a continuation of sculptural expression through texture, color and movement. I am currently working in metalsmithing, producing jewelry and ethnic masks. Both forms can be a means of body decoration where in older cultures, they could be used in ceremonies or rituals that marked various passages of life. Because of the pressures of modernization and westernization, some governments have deflected artists away from the so called ‘primitive’ ornamentation of those rich cultural/historical traditions to more sophisticated forms and new traditions. Unfortunately many of these forms are being lost. It is my hope to preserve and celebrate the past creative spirit and talents of those artisans, by interpreting or duplicating those traditions before they are lost and to remind the wearers or collectors of this rich cultural diversity of lost art.” – Trudy Rafelson

Glen Franklin

Glen “Frank” Franklin’s pictorial emphasis features real African American living: a lifestyle that is dying and the struggle, which began on plantations in the Deep South and continued after the Emancipation. Frank’s mediums of choice are pen & ink, watercolor and oils. He combines his commercial art training with fine art, rendering the finely detailed characters expressed in the full range of his work. Frank has a full library of work, one favorite being “The Last Hobo” that suggests narratives of independent lives, hard work and optimism. Frank has participated in and been honored with awards in numerous exhibits. “Art is an expression of self, past experiences and an expression of a culture. True art should involve feelings of emotions to the observer. This is the unique essence of my work.”

Angela N. Weddle

 

Angela N. Weddle is a professional visual artist with autism, cerebral palsy, and congenital right hemisphere brain damage. Weddle is a neurological anomaly and savant, who is not supposed to have any artistic ability, but always has. She has taught students ranging from young children to adults art privately in San Antonio, TX. She is a published poet and a contributing blogger for the international blog The Art of Autism Weddle is known for her sketchbooks, in particular, and has been mentioned in the San Antonio  Current.

 

Ronney Stevens

Ronney Stevens graduated from Brackenridge High School in 1974. Shortly afterwards, he moved to Los Angeles, California to attended college. Ronney attended Otis Art Institute and the American Animation Institute, where developed a love for portraiture. Upon moving back to San Antonio in 1999, Ronney studied oil painting at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center. Even though he studied at these institutions, he still considerers himself to be a self-taught artist, from the trial and error that was required to gain hands-on experience. Ronney currently displays his work at the African Market Place in Los Angeles. He has been on display at the State Capital of Texas. He currently volunteers time to community youth at a local shelter. In addition to SAEAS, he was a member of the Austin Pastel Society. Ronney has displayed his work at Prairie View A&M University on several occasions, most recently in February 2016. Ronney also displays on a regular basis at the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles, CA.

Wardell Picquet

“I am originally from New Orleans, Louisiana, having moved here to San Antonio in 2005. I am a fine artist, graphic designer, illustrator and teacher. My Fine Art interests include drawing, illustration, painting, collage, mixed media, printmaking, sculpture, sequential art and 3D design. I like dealing with color, pattern, texture, shape, contrast, abstraction and the overwhelming magnificence of the human form. My personal quest continues to blend all of these artistic pursuits into a cohesive and aesthetic whole.” Wardell, a graduate of Xavier University in LA, studied under the famous late artist, John T. Scott. His degree in art uniquely included multiple areas of concentration in drawing, graphic designs and printmaking.