Willie Forever

Willie Nelson unveiled and on hand: Last night's sneak peek at his new 2ndStreet statue

Willie and Stephen Harrigan
Photo by Jon Shapley
From left, CAST board members Elizabeth Avellán, Stephen Harrigan, Artist CleteShields, Willie, board member Bill Witliff and board President Lawrence Wright
Photo by Jon Shapley
Witliff at left next to board member Marcia Ball, Shields and Wright
Photo by Jon Shapley
The unveiling
Photo by Jon Shapley
Willie stares into the eyes of his image
Photo by Jon Shapley
Photo by Jon Shapley
Artist Clete Shields with a bust he created for Spy Kids
Photo by Jon Shapley
Robert Rodriguez
Photo by Jon Shapley
Willie with sister Bobbi
Photo by Jon Shapley

Serendipity comes in many forms. For Clete Shields, it was in 1995 at the San Diego Comic-Con, where he met two video store guys who would change his life with a fateful introduction to film producer Elizabeth Avellán and filmmaker Robert Rodriguez—both of whom would lead Shields to Willie Nelson.

On Wednesday night during a very exclusive reception at Avellán's Troublemaker Studios, Shields unveiled an 8-foot sculpture of Willie Nelson in front of Nelson himself and the private fundraising group Capital Area Statues, Inc. (CAST). "It's taken from a different time in [Nelson's] life, but it’s that 'minds eye' Willie—that image of Willie that we all think of, and I hope we captured that," explained Shields.

Some in the crowd suggested passers-by might stop and look to Willie for advice. He had some, "Do as I say, not as I do."

The bronze won't be publicly unveiled until next year, when it will be affixed before the stairs leading to ACL Live—overlooking the street named after him (formerly 2nd Street) and in front of the theater for an iconic television show he helped make famous.

The story behind the unveiling makes for the kind of "good guy makes good" story movies are made of.

Artist Clete Shields started drawing caricatures in Las Vegas, dressed in a jester suit no less. He also enjoyed sculpting comic book and movie characters, and it was at Comic-Con in San Diego where he met two video store guys professing to know Quentin Tarentino and Robert Rodriguez. Turns out they actually did, and they encouraged Shields to show off one of his Pulp Fiction models to Rodriguez and Avellán, who were deep into editing From Dusk Till Dawn. Tarentino introduced the trio, and Rodriguez and Avellán loved the model so much that they had it bronzed and began collecting more of Shields' work—which lead to Shields' contributing sculptural work to the Spy Kids series, as well.

Fast forward a few years—Avellán is now on the CAST board, looking for a sculptor capable of re-creating a legend in bronze.

"She gave me three things they were really looking for [in the sculpture]," Shields said. "Willie could not be playing guitar; he had to be addressing the audience, approachable; and he had to have that twinkle in his eye. When someone gives you an opportunity to sculpt Willie Nelson, that’s a once in lifetime opportunity. I wasn’t going to let anything stop me."

Avellán said choosing Shields for the project was easy. "This kid will do it," she explained to the board. "He's obsessed."

"I called him and said, 'Clete, two words—Willie Nelson.' He did a bust over the weekend, and he captured the Willie we wanted—iconic, late 80s—and he captured the twinkle in his eye."

A crowd filled with a who's who of Austin arts patrons and artists witnessed the unveiling. CAST board members include, among others, Avellán, author Stephen Harrigan, screenwriter and producer Bill Witliff, songwriter and performer Marcia Ball. Pulitzer prize winning author Lawrence Wright serves as president.

"[Nelson] is someone whose music expresses the soul of our community," said Wright as he introduced the unveiling. "Our work is meant to enhance our community by creating monumental works of art to enrich our public places. These works are produced privately and given as a gift to the city."

Willie's likeness stands as the third CAST "gift to the city." They previously donated Philosopher's Rock at the entrance to Barton Springs and Angelina Eberly on Congress Avenue.

Asked about his vision for the work, Shields explained, "I hope people just feel warm, you know? They’re walking by having a bad day and they look up, and there’s Willie. And they hear his song in their mind and they see his face, and it gives them a little pep in their step."

As the piece was unveiled, Nelson smiled widely and walked up close, looking over every detail. Then he stepped back to look directly into his own image. He clearly approved.

Like Philosopher's Rock, some in the crowd suggested passers-by might stop and look to Nelson's model for advice. He had some, "Do as I say, not as I do."

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Bring on the rasquachismo

Irreverent Chicano art exhibit in San Antonio breaks the museum mold

Weird cactus sculpture at the McNay Art Museum

Photo courtesy of Salvador Jiménez Flores

“La resistencia de los nopales híbridos / The Resistance of Hybrid Cacti,” 2016, by Salvador Jiménez Flores.

Museums may largely be imagined with pristine exhibits and austere art, but San Antonio's McNay Art Museum is dipping into an inherently practical and irreverent Mexican-American aesthetic for its next exhibit. Rasquachismo: 35 years of a Chicano Sensibility celebrates art inspired by homes, lawns, flea markets, and more from December 19 to March 16.

Rasquachismo is a term referring to the often irreverent aesthetic of the underdog, derived from — and reclaiming — a term meaning "poor" or "vulgar." The words "resourceful" and "playful" also come up often in describing rasquache art. Think of camp or kitsch as similar, if not completely parallel, ideas.

Of course, intellectuals cannot resist trying to define this style that is inherently resistant to being nailed down. One of them, critic and scholar of Latinx art Tomás Ybarra-Frausto, coined the term in a 1989 essay called “Rasquachismo: A Chicano Sensibility," which now serves as an anchor for the McNay exhibit.

"This outsider viewpoint stems from a funky, irreverent stance that debunks convention and spoofs protocol," Ybarra-Frausto wrote. "To be rasquache is to posit a bawdy, spunky consciousness seeking to subvert and turn ruling paradigms upside down—a witty, irreverent, and impertinent posture that recodes and moves outside established boundaries."

$Salvador Jim\u00e9nez Flores sculpture$ Part of the exhibit: “La resistencia de los nopales híbridos / The Resistance of Hybrid Cacti,” 2016.Sculpture by Salvador Jiménez Flores

In the case of the much more easily defined museum exhibit, this will mean centering San Antonio artists who work with DIY elements and who reference aesthetics and items found on city streets, in religious shrines, in graffiti designs, and more, often incorporating found objects. Fittingly, the works won't be bound to a single physical exhibit and will instead be scattered throughout the museum.

Some of the works on display for this exhibit come from the museum's collection, by artists like Margarita Cabrera, Chelo, Luis Jiménez, Yolanda López, César Martinez, Juan de Dios Mora, Chuck Ramirez, and Kathy Vargas. Some other works are on loan from elsewhere in San Antonio and other cities.

The works will also demonstrate the related and only slightly newer idea of domesticana. Artist and curator Amalia Mesa-Bains coined it in 1992 in response to Ybarra-Frausto's essay; it refers to "aesthetic interventions of women in the domestic sphere," as the museum summarizes it.

Nivia Gonzalez painting McNay A subtler piece: “Untitled,” ca. 1985-1995.Painting by Nivia Gonzalez

Ybarra-Frausto himself has given the exhibit his stamp of approval and has even loaned some works from his own collection. He helped shape the exhibit as a whole and has complimentary words to offer about the McNay.

“The McNay has always stood as an example of inclusivity and a celebration of diverse cultures,” said Ybarra-Frausto in a press release. “It is heartening to have [curator Mia Lopez] mount this exhibition in honor of that legacy and in celebration of our vibrant community, whose contributions to the cultural landscape are vast and significant.”

This will be Lopez's first show at the McNay, about a year after she was hired into the brand-new position.

“Rasquachismois not a cohesive movement but instead an ethos or aesthetic,” said Lopez in the release. “And to capture that spirit, we’re presenting this exhibition in a slightly different way.”

Just paragraphs after his initial definition in the landmark essay, Ybarra-Frausto points out the futility of putting it all into words; something that makes a museum exhibit both a fascinating attempt at the impossible and a fun way to keep turning the concept on its head.

Margarita Cabrera sculpture McNay A plant made of border patrol uniform: “Space in Between: Carrizos (Teresa Sanchez Garay),” 2010.Sculpture by Margarita Cabrera

"Rasquachismo is a visceral response to lived reality, not an intellectual cognition," he wrote. "To encapsulate a sensibility into words is already a short circuit of its dynamism. What follows then is a nonlinear, exploratory, and unsolemn attempt at tracking this irrepressible spirit manifested in the art and life of the Chicano community."

For more unsolemn attempts in less complicated language, Ybarra-Frausto and Lopez will get together on November 17 at 6 pm for a public conversation at the museum.

“This exhibition is a celebration,” said Lopez. “And it’s an exploration of how Chicano and Latinx art have embodied a spirit of resilience and defiance.”

The McNay museum is located at 6000 N. New Braunfels Ave. More information about the museum is available at mcnayart.org.

visual art mexican american culture