Carter to hold first museum show at Art Museum of Southeast Texas
Resident artist teaches life drawing at Arts Center
By SHARON KERR Staff writer

Newsboy photo/ Charles Kerr CALVIN CARTER says Texas Baptism is country contemporary southern religious art with modern ideas. Carter's first museum showing of his paintings will be a tribute to his mentor, Jerry Newman of Lamar University who died a few months ago.

Calvin Carter, the resident studio artist at the East Texas Arts Center in Jasper, will hold his first museum exhibition at the Art Museum of Southeast Texas in Beaumont next month.

It is, in many ways, a tribute to his mentor Jerry Newman, a professor at Lamar University who taught for almost 40 years. Newman died May 27.

Carter said the funeral drew artists and friends from all over the world. By Lamar's estimate, Newman taught more than 10,000 students, including Carter.

During the school year, Carter teaches at West Sabine Secondary School in Pineland (junior high and high school combined).

"I've been involved in art since I was old enough to pick up a pencil," Carter said. "My dad and grandad would just sit around the table and draw, and they pushed me to pursue it."

Carter said he was discovered by Gib DeLisle at the Waller County Fair, who teamed with Newman to convince Carter he needed to develop his artistic talent at Lamar.

"Newman was a huge inspiration. He helped me get into Lamar, but he was more than a teacher. He was like a father to me," Carter said.

Carter's style is selfdescribed as country contemporary southern religious art with modern ideas. Many of his paintings represent Bible stories and memories of growing up in a small Texas community.

Carter's Texas Baptism is layered with details. In it, a small boy appears to be standing waist deep in an impossibly deep puddle, but Carter says "anything is possible with God." the boy's baptism is witnessed by animals, but each creature has significance. The three longhorns represent three crosses, the cows the number of disciples, and the blaze on center cow's forehead is in the image of Christ.

Until the museum show in August, these paintings are in his studio, upstairs at the Arts Center on Milam.

Carter teaches life drawing classes at the center until school starts. He hasn't committed to a future schedule of classes, saying, "I'll have to wait to see what school year is like."

Carter came to East Texas at the urging of Susan Jackson, principal at West Sabine, who urged him to go back to college and get his teaching certificate. At the time, he was an art handler in Houston.

"Those are the people who handle the really expensive art with plastic gloves," Carter explained.

"If it's a $50,000 painting, you want someone who knows what they are doing. I did things like build crates for The Menil Collection, where we were handling the kind of art where police meet you at an airplane and escort you to the museum or the home," Carter said. "It got to the point we didn't put labels on our vehicles because it was like being in a Brinks truck or something, you knew you could be a target.

"I wanted to get out of Houston, and teaching frees me up a lot. I take summer off to paint (for myself), but during the school year I do a lot of artwork for the school, and I even paint faces for the football games."

Carter said Jasper is a very art-oriented community. He has enjoyed the camaraderie of the art league and the enthusiasm of the student in the life drawing classes he teaches there.

His goals for the next 10 years are fairly simple.

"I don't want to be one of those people who become famous and lose touch. I never wanted to be a person where I couldn't go back home. In 10 years I want to still be painting. Realistically, that would be enough to make me happy," Carter said.

And following the example of his mentor Newman, Carter said he feels an obligation to "pay it back" in community service and helping other aspiring artists.

"My 'bucket list' is that I'd like to be a teacher at the university level, I want to travel, and I'd like to help a student become famous artist. I want to help kids get into college and have shows, and I'd like to have one painting hanging in a museum," Carter said.

The reception for his new show will be Aug. 9, 3 to 5 p.m. at The Museum of Southeast Texas, 500 Main St. in Beaumont; www.amset.org