0.22 Leila mcconnell, b. 1927  (Page 2/2)

Other artists

We all knew each other at the Museum and we had a group…the Museum provided a room for us and we traded paintings—that’s how we got other people’s work. Then the CAA [Contemporary Arts Association] came along and so we all worked in that also. In those days everybody dressed up for the Museum openings. They were fun to go to; you saw everybody—artists and others who were collecting—and everybody knew each other. I met Mildred Dixon there (she’s Sherwood now), and Stella [Sullivan]I’d known from Rice. Lowell Collins taught a class. Robert Preusser taught a class. Miss [Ruth] Uhler taught a class. Frances Skinner taught a class. So I studied with all of them.

Mildred, when I met her she was a little bit older than I was and I called her Mrs. Sherwood once at the Museum class and she said, “For God’s sake don’t call me that. Call me Mildred.” And Stella and I were good friends and Bill Condon, he came back to Rice after the war. He had a car at that time and he piled as many people in as wanted to go; we’d all go to lunch and things like that. Bill was really a very remarkable person. He’s lost both legs in the war, stepped on a landmine. But he never made you feel bad about it or anything. One time we were sitting around talking about how much we weighed and he said he weighed 115 pounds. I said, “Bill, that’s ridiculous!” because he was six feel tall or so. And he said, “Not without legs.” That was the way he said it.

Frank Dolejska was a really fine artist. You know a lot of people thought of him as being Bohemian and stuff like that, but he wasn’t. He was a true artist. He and Preusser were great friends and then when the CAA opened he was the man behind the shows—decided how they would be hung and everything. Ruth Uhler—Henri always said she was like a ship, and she was full sail. She was an imposing figure. I don’t think she was really that tall, but she had the big, high hairdo, and you know, she was an imposing figure. She would come into a room and you knew she was there. She was great friends with Grace Spaulding John.

Showing work

I showed with Ben DuBose in 1960…I guess it was ’66. He opened the new gallery, his own gallery, on Kirby, so that’s when I went there. I had been with Polly Marsters and the Houston Artists Gallery down on Main Street in that building where she had the downstairs place on the left, and Handmakers was on the right. Handmakers was a sort of wonderful thing at this time also. So she was the first [gallery] I was with. Then after Polly closed, Mrs. Cushman asked me if I would come to exhibit at that gallery, so I did—until I picked DuBose.

Ben was always bright and happy and full of life; this is the way he treated customers and he kept you going. He’d say, “So-and-so wants something of yours,” so yes, he was a great catalyst. After DuBose, I don’t know what the timeline was on it, but I went with Leslie Muth and I think I had a couple of shows there. And that was good for a while. She was very interesting and knew what she was doing. Then after that I’ve never been with another gallery since.

Supportive friends

We [artists] were friends and so far as supporting [each other], I don’t think I ever knew of anybody working against anyone else. No acrimony that I ever knew about. I think that’s why all the painters are so different. In the other cities like Fort Worth and Dallas, there were schools of painting, and [here] there never was a school of painting. I mean, we went to the Museum, but there was not a school of painting where you could tell that this person was probably from that school or that group—which I think is good. That was sort of a wonderful time.

Leila McConnell was interviewed on May 19, 2006. You can listen to the interview here .