El Paso Times from El Paso, Texas • 60

Features Superior Quality In Handicrafts i Art Is Basis Of Lower Valley Design Center Sf: Bg Plf- 4 II By BARBARA FUNKIIOUSER The Jan Herring Design Center is the realization of a happy dream in the field of art, a reality that has achieved such quick and heady success that what was once a hobby is on the way to becoming a new and booming industry in the Lower Valley. The center occupies a complete house in the middle of a cotton field near Clint and while the setting may not sound particularly auspicious, its "products" were a highlight of the recent Decorators Showcase and interest in them as very high quality specialty items has already been evidenced by three of New York's top houses. These items include hooked rugs with brave bold colors making up the unique designs, massive candlesticks singly and in odd number sets up to seven in graduated heights as tall as 18 inches and topped with especially made candles, wall hangings and table top boxes in all sizes handmade to fit copper enameled tops. The dream was that of Jan Herring whose talent in oil painting has been established through winning entries in national competitions and one-man shows in leading museums and galleries of this country. While painting Is her forte, Mrs.

Herring has also devoted her talents in design and color to handicrafts as a hobby. She has always believed that the crafting of objects for practical use which incorporate the qualities of the fine arts is a legitimate part of the art field. The center, in operation only a few weeks, substantiates another belief: "People do want individual things made for specific areas of their homes and this is the need we are trying to fill. These people may compose a small group but It Is a very select one. The Interest we are seeing is amazing but we are not a factory," Mrs.

Herring said. However, in the press of this success the center has taken on a few overtones of an assembly line, the workers being the children of Jan and Henry Herring, those of Mrs. Kathryn Buckland and the neighbors. INDIVIDUAL DESIGN Mrs. Herring does the design and color of every piece and each, although it may fit into an ensemble, is individual yet related.

She also is the Instructor of those who help in other facets of the work. entered one of her rugs in a magazine contest and won $150. "I decided to spend it the way I wanted to so I went to Cloudcroft, N.M., and took my first formal lessons in painting from Frederic Taubes," she said. This is really the only formal instruction she has received and in recent years "she had taught hundreds of students in dozens of courses, classes and workshops throughout the Southwest. Also in these years, she won the 1956 New York City Center Prize for Oils, the Ford Foundation Program for Artists nomination in 1958, the One-Man Show Award of Burr Galleries in 1961, and a host of others.

She has had nearly two dozen one-man shows including two in New York, at the Santa Fe Museum, the Tulsa Art Center and cities in between. She is represented in El Paso by Two-Twenty-Two Gallery which featured her work at Decorators Showcase, and her others include the Chandler Gallery in Dallas, Patio Gallery in Fort Worth, the Cupboard in Houston, Allegro Gallery in Odessa and others in San Antonio and Austin. "My greatest Interest is in nature, not something that is man-made. I am interested in flowers, trees, the landscape and the human figure and interesting faces. You can never run out of interesting faces.

Art is so much a matter of opinion and I really don't know if a painting I have done is good, I doubt that any painter can tell this about his own work. I find great pleasure in seeing if I can do what I set out to do in capturing the subject. Every painter has his concept of what he is trying to do and he is trying to say something, to convey a message, ever how small. If this message is conveyed, then he has succeeded, she said. Mrs.

Herring is a prolific painter, completing about 300 canvases acceptable to her each year. She is averaging three one-man shows each year, each show featuring 30 to 40 not previously displayed works. She also does small paintings on mason-lte panel which she does not include in her estimated totals. "I try to put myself on schedule, otherwise I read and goof off. I have learned from experience to pace myself, the demands of the shows make this necessary," she said.

This is one of the problems now confronting her in the Jan Herring Design Center but so far, because a show Is coming up, she is painting In the mornings and handcrafting in the afternoons. Mrs. Herring doesn't want to become so involved In the center that her own painting suffers and she believes that while she has always wanted to do the (Continued on Following Page) 1 I 4 1 1 If 3 fee -a -J. I 3 WORKING ARTIST Mrs. Jan Herring schedules her day so that almost every morning can be spent in the studio in her home where she pursues her major interest, oil painting, while afternoons are devoted to the Jan Herring Design Center, a new industry in the Lower Valley.

Other responsibilities in this cooperative venture are more or less understood along some rather general lines with Mrs. Buckland serving as business manager, overseeing supplies and helpers and working wherever and whenever needed. Wherever has become everywhere and whenever is day and night. "It is growing so fast that some people might think we are not very well prepared, I guess. We have more than we can possibly do under the present circumstances.

At this moment, my little hobby could easily become a monster," Mrs. Herring said. It would be a disservice to continue quoting Mrs. Herring without some attempt at an insight into this person who does not fit the popularly accepted characterization of "an artist." Mrs. Herring is easy to know.

She talks in simple terms from a great knowledge and talent in her professional field. She can talk of many fields but she Is a gentle person, as gentle with the stupid question as she is with the intelligent, yet there is fire because her beliefs are strong, long-studied and well-founded. She is wife, mother and artist from Clint, whether she is at the center, in her kitchen or in the noted Petite Gallerie in New York when in 1957, she received the House of Heydenryk Award at the 44th annual show of the Allied Artists of America held in the National Academy for a painting which she completed in Ruidoso, N.M., by flashlight after a storm knocked out the electricity. Mrs. Herring was born on a sheep ranch in Montana, grew up on the edge of a town in South Dakota, went into nursing and was graduated from Grant Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.

During these years, she met Henry Herring of Clint. He was in flying school, she was in nursing school and ultimately they came to Clint 18 years ago on their honeymoon and to start a dairy which is today a very successful operation. HOOKED RUG GAVE START While her family has had many musicians, she is the only painter and she began at the early age of six, too long ago to remember why other than to suppose a natural talent which demanded expression. Actually, it was a hooked rug which started her on the "professional" route. In 1950, Mrs.

Herring it 'I DESIGN CENTER MANAGER rs. Kathryn Buck-land, longtime jriend of Mrs. Jan Herring, is assisting in every phase including the business of a new center in Clint, featuring handcrafted rugs, wall hangings, candle holders and table boxes. Owner and operator of a cotton farm, Mrs. Buck-land has a Bachelor's Degree in speech and drama from Baylor University and a Master's Degree in education from Texas Western College.

UNIQUE WALL HANGINGS One of the "products" of the design center are wall hangings featuring a combination of applique, crewel embroidery and other ornamentation completed by workers directed by Mrs. Charles Smith in accordance with designs developed by Mrs. Jan Herring. 2 The Times Sunday Magazine.