Beatles tribute band The Eggmen, from left, Nigel, John, Davy, Basil and Tommo will play at 7 p.m. Feb. 11, for the Spicewood Arts Society’s second annual event to help fund fine arts scholarships for area high school students.

The Eggmen, an Austin Beatles’ tribute band, will be in concert at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Spicewood Arts Society’s second annual event to fund scholarships for area high school students.

The concert will be at the Spicewood Vineyards Events Center, 1419 Burnet County Road 409, three miles off Texas Highway 71.

Tickets for the performance and hors d’oeuvres may be purchased for $75 each online at spicewoodarts.org or by calling 264-2820.

“Seating is limited this time, so that we can accommodate more dancing,” said Janey Richardson, president of the 12-year-old arts organization. “After all, it is close to Valentine’s Day.”

This May, the society funded $3,000 in fine arts scholarships to qualified Lake Travis and Marble Falls seniors pursuing higher education in the performing, visual or literary arts.

“We anticipate expanding the value of scholarships to $1,000 each this year,” Richardson said.

Chef Taylor Hall, will host the “Meet the Artists” reception.

John Burgess on acoustics and harmonica, “Tommo” Burgess on keyboards, Ron “Nigel” Roberts on bass guitar, John “Basil” Kovacs on guitar and Davy Fore on drums, collectively known as The Eggmen, originally formed in1992.

Their first set, the “Suit Set,” will be early Beatles, consisting of songs like “A Hard Day’s Night” and “She Loves You.” The second, or “Psychedelic Set,” tackles the hard stuff like “Day in the Life” and “I Am the Walrus.” The final set features songs of the “British Invasion,” such as The Rolling Stones’ “19th Nervous Breakdown” and The Who’s “My Generation.”

The season’s remaining SAS concerts are sold out. However, a waiting list is available at the SAS website or by calling 264-2820.

Should tickets become available, a two-week notice will be given.

The schedule is:

*Wheatfield, March 23 Four talented, clever, funny musicians from the Hotcakes and Trout Fishing in America bands reunite; and,

*The Motheral Family 2nd Annual Tony Campise Jazz Concert, May 4 – This show will feature Campise protégé Kris Kumara and The Kris Kimura Quartet, a highly respected, unique, in demand jazz foursome.
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The Lakeway Associates of Seton recently hosted its annual Seton Tea with local organizations and individuals designing and decorating tables.
The tables showcased the most exquisite table-settings designed around a theme.
The first-place award went to The Lakeway Garden Club, which honored “The Year of the Water Dragon.”
Second place went to “Books Unlock the World” by the Lake Travis Community Library.
The third-place award went to “Sippin’ Tea ’til the Cows Come Home” featuring Carol Mitchum’s collection of cow figures.
Best of Show was presented to “If You Take a Pig to Tea” by Lakeway Friends, who based their theme on a series of children books by Laura Joffe.
All proceeds from this event benefit Seton Shoal Creek Psychiatric Hospital in Austin.
For membership information about Lakeway Associates of Seton, call Beth Maher at 261-8059.

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Lakeway Friends of the Parks invites anyone interested in learning about and preserving nature to atend. Registration begins at 6:15 p.m., and a barbecue dinner will start at 6:30 p.m., followed by a business meeting and speaker at 7 p.m.

Reiner is a graduate of Ohio State University with a bachelor’s degree in environmental monitoring assessment. He served on the staff as a biological technician at Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge from 1999 to 2005. In addition, he writes for Travis Audubon Society’s newsletter and leads tours and workshops at the refuge.

His presentation will include information on the natural animal and plant history unique to this area and the historical Reicher Ranch.

The meeting is open to the public, and the barbecue dinner will be free for all paid members.

Nonmembers and guests fees are $10 per person. Family membership dues are $15 per year and may be paid at the door.

Membership is open to anyone interested in maintaining Lakeway’s parks and greenbelts. The group builds and maintains natural hike and bike trails, bridges and overlooks throughout the park system.

For membership information, contact Bernie Reding at 261-5633.

Transfixed cats that stare and paw at the felines on her canvases are a testament to the realism of Lakeway artist Linda Wells’ paintings.

From a child in Victoria, Texas, who admired the silly lambs bounding about on springs of youth to a commercial artist for Texas Parks & Wildlife to a member of the Bunkhouse Gallery in Cypress Mill and private teacher, Wells has always maintained a close connection to her environment.
“Somehow I can connect with the personality of the animals almost better than with the people,” said Wells who would get lost in coloring books as a child rather than playing with others.
The introvert has come out of her shell to teach others, but the determination to go her own way has been a lifelong theme.
When Wells graduated from high school in 1967, she entered the Marine Corps and was a weather observer for two and a half years as she plotted maps and relayed weather patterns to pilots.
“Back then, women didn’t do all this running and stuff that they do now. We never touched a gun. They taught us how to put on makeup. They taught us the history of the Marine Corps,” she said. “The most strenuous thing we did was track.”
She took art classes at a junior college in Victoria and attended Texas Academy of Art in Houston.
She quickly rose to become art director for two printing companies in Austin before getting her big break in 1987 at Texas Parks & Wildlife where her work was featured in newsletters and on stamps.
Her nine years as an artist there trained her to be flexible in pastels, acrylics, oils, watercolors, charcoal and pencils.
“That’s the first place I touched a computer,” she said. “That was kind of fun.”
She also created the first Texas Parks & Wildlife stamp to feature a woman. Wells’ first stamp captured a female archer to break down some of the barriers in outdoor sports. One supervisor didn’t approve.
“One of the guys wouldn’t sign off on it. He just said, ‘Noted,’” Wells recalled.
Her independent streak has carried her through life.
“I’ve always gone my own way from the time I joined the Marines that I don’t even think that I’m any different than any other woman. It just comes natural to me,” Wells said. “I don’t try to force my way or my opinion on anyone else.”
Wells continues to improve her techniques by painting with the Bunkhouse Gallery that started with five to six artists but averages 15-20 participants each week.
“It’s all different styles – acrylics, watercolors, abstract, realistic. We all keep each other going and motivated,” she said.”
She also relishes the chance to share her knowledge with others.
“I enjoy seeing them improve and getting them to try new things with their medium,” Wells said. “I try to get them to loosen up and put some life into things. Once you overwork something, it’s impossible almost to get it unworked.”
Despite her success, Wells is modest about her works that she rarely feels satisfied are complete.
“There’s a few paintings – two or three a year maybe – that you say, ‘Yes, I got it,’ and you’re happy with it and you don’t want to put another stroke on it,” she explained. “Most of them, you want to put four or five more strokes on them.”
She is often surprised by the response to her works.
“What is so satisfying, or more accurately, what I find so amazing, is that someone connects and likes one of my pieces enough to pay hard-earned money for it, whether it be $90 or $900 or $4,000. Just the fact that someone else is on the same page as me is awesome,” she said.

Lee Dilday, David Cummings and Theresa Lingren star in the Lakeway Players’ production of ‘Sylvia.’

A reviewer from The New York Daily News called it “one of the most involving, beautiful, funny, touching and profound plays I have ever seen”…while The New York Times said that “dramatic literature is stuffed with memorable love scenes, but none is as immediately delicious and dizzy as the one that begins the redeeming affair in A. R. Gurney’s new comedy, “Sylvia.” Backstage dubbed it “Howlingly funny.”

Now local theatergoers have a chance to fall in love with the most endearing “dog” one could imagine — Sylvia. Sylvia is brought to (dog) life by talented and versatile Theresa Lingren, who makes a talking dog a commonplace event.

Lingren is ably abetted by her new owner, Greg, played by local celebrity David Cummings, who has only recently discovered that a pet can fill many gaps in one’s life. But he remains clueless about why his wife should be jealous of his newfound relationship. Lee Dilday, known for her vocal prowess, appears as the long-suffering wife who wants to live in the city, pursue her career, and have her husband’s full attention.

Seems like everybody wants to give Greg advice, from the guy he meets in the dog park, Tom, played by Bill Walker, veteran of many Lakeway Players shows, to the marriage counselor Greg’s wife has employed to sort out their differences. Terry Jones plays the pontificating psychologist who dispenses rather drastic solutions for their problems.

It is a charming, funny show for which the viewer will be happy to willingly give up his suspension of disbelief.

Shows are March 24-26 at the Lakeway Activity Center. Reserved seat tickets are $15, and are available at the Activity Center (261-1010). Doors open at 7 p.m. with curtain at 7:30 p.m.

With only 37 dancers, under Artistic Direction of Mrs. Linda Holland, DIPA produced an amazing 51 dances including solos, duets, ensembles, and team dances. Dancing with Passion, DIPA dancers big and little left everything they had on the floor. They left the competition with over 40 trophies, well-earned pride, confidence and a re-energized love for dance.

Special Judges Awards included a Best Technique for “Oh Yeah,” and a Best Showmanship for “Chains.” The Grand Championship in Team was earned by the highest 3-dance total within a given grade grouping. The highest 3-dance total and winning the Grand Championship for DI was the total scores of “Ladies Choice,” “Oh Yeah” and “Everywhere I Go.” The Grand Championship for Officers (MS) was earned for DI with the 3 dance total scores of “Mercy,” “Innocence” and “Girls Revenge.”

In the very large and tough Solo competition, Austin Meiteen won first place with “McCavity” and Ashley Norwood won second place with “Almost Lover” in the grade 4-6 category. In the grade 9-10 category, Winsley Guthrie placed third with “Lift Me Up.”

In the Duet category, Rylie Brown and Elyssa Meiteen won first with “Couples Counseling” in the High School grade grouping. In the 4-6 grade grouping, Reagan Kowert and Austin Meiteen won first with “Hey Creepo,” and Kennedy DeCoux and Rylan Smith won second with “My Hair is Fierce.”

The team is directed by Beth Ann Hawley and Will Walker and managed by Manager Lindsay LeBlanc.

Each hour and a half, performance-oriented class will focus on a different discipline, including dance, acting, singing and the art of the musical theatre audition. Each class begins at 10:30 a.m. and runs until 12 p.m.

Week 1, March 26: Audition Workshop with Bernard Dotson. Dotson has been seen on Broadway in Finian’s Rainbow, Chicago, Imaginary Friends, Sweet Smell of Success, Jesus Christ Superstar and Ragtime. He has extensive experience as a Dance Captain and as the person responsible for auditioning, casting and teaching all replacements for in-progress productions. The workshop will deal with all aspects of a musical theatre audition, singing, acting and dancing.

Week 2, April 2: West Side Story Workshop with Lori Ann Ferreri. Ferreri has been seen on Broadway in Wicked, AIDA and Footloose. This workshop coincides with Lori’s stint in town with the National Tour of West Side Story in which she plays the role of Consuela and is the understudy for Anita. The workshop will include the original Jerome Robbins choreography, and is a can’t-miss for any aspiring musical theatre performer.

Week 3, April 9: Musical Theatre Workshop with JP Christensen and David Rosales. Christensen’s Broadway credits include Thoroughly Modern Millie, Fosse and CATS. Rosales’ Broadway credits include A Christmas Carol, CATS and Victor/Victoria. They will teach a CATS-inspired workshop, teaching original choreography from the Tony Award-winning musical.

Week 4, April 16: Acting Workshop with Robert Gomes. Gomes’ Broadway credits include Last Night of Ballyhoo and Racing Demon. This workshop will focus on preparing monologues and sides for auditions. He is an Austinite and is currently performing with ZACH in their production of Fiction.

Please visit www.tex-arts.org for more information on the series and for registration.

Sx620, a synergy of sight and sound, will splash audiences at a free three-day artist showcase from noon-10 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday at Iguana Grill, 2900 Ranch Road 620.

The festival, co-sponsored by Austin Media Co-op, will fuse rock, folk and country performers from around the world with poets, painters and other visual artists in support of Music in Our Schools Month.

Austin’s King Corduroy, featuring Kurt McMahan of Ouachita and Miranda Dawn of Miranda Dawn and the Lucky Break Horns, will kick off the festival at noon Friday with soulful southern blues.

Although the showcase will draw artists from Austin and beyond, it also will highlight local talents.

Luke Axtell, former Texas Longhorns basketball player, will play a guest country music set, and former Lake Travis ISD student Meggan Carney will return to her old stomping grounds.

The works of sculptor Christopher Rains, whose 7-foot angel brightens The Lakeway Church, will be on display.

Carney, a 23-year-old singer-songwriter whose voice has had audiences comparing her to Fiona Apple, will return home to Lake Travis at the Sx620 festival with a Sunday set at noon.

She attended Lake Travis ISD schools from seventh through 10th grade and finished high school in Florida before returning home to the Austin area to hone her craft.

Early on, she played at Aunt Tilly’s Island Cafe & Bistro on Lake Travis and learned at the wing of the late Rusty Wier.

“That’s where I was broken in. I learned that people come listen to good music but also to be entertained,” she recalled.

The lakeside cities of Spicewood, Briarcliff and Lakeway shaped her as a person.

Meggan Carney

“All of my defining moments took place out there. I definitely got my foundation out there,” said Carney, who is working on an EP with Habbilis Records in Austin.

Her lilting “Ancient Light” has been compared with John Lennon’s acoustics.

Now, the Austin muse enchants audiences with her blend of alternative folk with rock influences that surprise with their familiar sound.

“Just about anyone can feel comfortable listening to my music,” she said.

This time around, she’s looking forward to the perfect blend of soothing sounds and a picturesque lake backdrop at Iguana Grill.

“It just seems like a really tranquil environment that brings beautiful things together — the lake and music,” Carney said.

Rains, whose father is music minister at The Lakeway Church, is both a sculptor and musician.

He is an accomplished, classically trained cellist with an ear for improvisation that has played and recorded with orchestral ensembles as well as rock groups. He sings and plays guitar and can often be found playing various other instruments in his growing collection including a bass, mandolin and electric cello.

His first love has always been in visual art.

“As a child, my parents gave me the chore of taking out the trash, until one day they discovered that I had taken all of the clothes out of my drawers, thrown them into my closet, and had filled my drawers with ‘art supplies’ a.k.a. ‘trash.’ I was not allowed to take out the trash anymore,” he described on his website.

Rains has spent his life honing these artistic and creative skills in any way that he could find. He worked for a glass blower through high school while actively participating in art, orchestra, choir, and even was captain of the robotics team.

He then went on to obtain his bachelor of fine arts in sculpture from the University of North Texas.

During his college career he apprenticed with Patrick Thaden and learned the arts of blacksmithing and metalworking while assisting in the construction of full suits of medieval armor. He learned to weld while working on building oil rigs in Houston.

Rains apprenticed with the late world-renowned artist Luis Jimenez working on a giant Fiberglass sculpture commissioned for the Denver International Airport. Among all of this he has also taken classes in ceramics, stained glass, watercolors acrylics and oils and other artistic disciplines.

He has won numerous awards and is always looking to the next piece.

“But first and foremost I am and always will be a student. I have been so blessed to learn and work under so many talented individuals, but there is just so much out there. I don’t believe anything can ever be fully mastered,” Rains said.

Sx620 also will feature Valerie Fremin, who has photographed Alejandro Escovedo, Jon Dee Graham, Iggy Pop, Jack White and other celebrities.

For information about Sx620, visit its Facebook page.

Jorgenson will discuss his writing process, where his characters come from, overcoming literary problems along the way, and self publishing during his presentation.

“I became a writer when my father was failing,” Jorgenson said. “I never had much interest in writing before that, but I started a story to read for him on those long bedside vigils, and he passed away when I was on about page 50. Over the next two years, I used the story to get closure with my Dad, and the story grew to 500 pages. Waiting for White Horses was the result.”

Jorgenson was born on a small farm in rural Minnesota and attended the University of Minnesota School of Dentistry. He is now a practicing dentist and published author. He penned Waiting for White Horses (2004), The Mulligan (2007), and the forthcoming A Crooked Number.

“I read once that in order to be a good writer you need two things; a good memory (I have that), and . . . I forgot the other thing,” said Jorgenson. “The other thing is that you have to be a storyteller.”

Jorgenson won the 2004 Benjamin Franklin Award for Best New Voice Fiction, the 2005 National Writers Association David Raffelock Award, and the 2005 Independent Publishers Book Award Finalist. His first novel sold tens of thousands of copies, almost unheard of for a first self-published novel.

“We have had great success with our speaker series and I am thrilled that we are able to bring in a novelist to speak about his writing process,” said Lake Travis Community Library Director Morgan McMillian. “Nathan Jorgenson is warm hearted, funny, and talented, so I hope many people will join us on Thursday, March 10.”

Lake Travis Community Library also offers book clubs, a memoir writing group, a craft club, a knitting club, computer help sessions, and a weekly genealogy group. Children can attend story times, cooking class, Bow Wow Reading with therapy dogs, Little Yoga, a Mother/Daughter Book Club, and more.

Please contact the library at www.laketravislibrary.org and (512) 263-2885 for more information. All library events are free and open to the public.

Ceramic artist Richard Hess has journeyed far without leaving his Hudson Bend home.

Harnessing clay into majestic horses, lanterns and other works of art of has taught Hess more about his inner spirit as he continues to reinvent himself.
“I think everyone has their own journey as to where they arrive. I have reached many stages where I have said I can’t get any better than that. This is really the pinnacle,” he said. “It never stays there, which is wonderful. You always go on, because it leads you on to some other area and then you say that’s the best I can be, I can’t be any better, and then you keep going. You think you get good until you get better. “
He’ll admit he has come a long way from his days as a youth in New Jersey where he had little exposure to the arts.
“Everybody worked in a factory. The idea of doing anything artistic was pretty far fetched. It was very working class,” he recalled. “My family certainly didn’t know about [the arts]. They were too busy working to make a buck and keep the house going.”
Living 12 miles from New York City, he wasn’t lost in an artistic wilderness.
He was blown away by ballet and a Broadway production of “Oklahoma.”
After graduating from high school, Hess attended Alfred University, home of The New York State College of Ceramics.
However, Hess was oblivious at the time to the prestigious institution that was at the fore of ceramics other than spotting some unusual-looking students on campus.
“There were these guys with mud on their pants, and I just never went [over] there. I went to Alfred at a time when some of the most famous ceramic artists were there, either studying or teaching, and I didn’t have a clue,” he joked.
The culture of sculpting clay may have rubbed off on him to leave him with an inkling of an inspiration that laid dormant as he pursued a career in education.
“I’m not sure that my being there didn’t have some effect,” he mused.
He ran out of money, so he left Alfred after a year for Rutgers University, which was closer to home.
He majored in history but spent most of his time in the theater department.
“It was friendly and artsy and the girls were there,” he said.
He worked on sets and had thoughts of being an actor. He participated in summer stock productions, but the budding artist inside him struggled to come out.
“I never quite could fit. I never quite worked it out. It was an erroneous road, but it allowed me to express myself. I needed to be something different, but that wasn’t who I was,” he said.
He graduated from Rutgers with a history degree, worked in several social service jobs, served two years in the U.S. Army and returned to his roots in New York City.
There, he took a $2 a week pottery class from a professional potter in Greenwich Village for individual lessons and fell in love with working with his hands and clay even though the work environment was less than ideal.
“This lady was a mess. There was 19 cats and stuff all over the place. It was like a minefield, but I said I want to do that [throw clay on a kickwheel],” he said.
Hess took more lessons in Manhattan, but he never dreamed that he could make a living from clay.
He pursued a career in education that started with a teaching job at Little Red School House in New York City, time as a graduate student and then culminated with a stint as a director of an alternative elementary school in Newark, N.J.
Something was still missing. Hess felt unfulfilled.
“There was a pottery studio at Teacher’s College Columbia that I used to pass every day thinking, ‘Why aren’t I there?’” he said.
Wanting to work with his hands, he built on his theater experience to become a carpenter in the Hamptons on the east end of Long Island where he did brisk business as a wood shingler for 10 years.
“It was not necessarily an art, but it was certainly a skilled craft. We did wood-shingled roofs and big Victorian houses. That felt good,” he said.
When he was 50, Hess decided to put all his energy into working with clay and moved to Ithaca, N.Y.
“I needed to do what I really wanted to do,” he said.
The outset was rough on him as he worked a night job as a janitor at Cornell University from 11 p.m.-7 a.m. that afforded him access to the school’s kiln for a few hours after he finished work.
“When I first started I was throwing on the wheel, I was making handmade stuff and I was going to shows and [my works] looked like hodgepodge lodge,” he said of his weekend forays into the craft show world in the Northeast. “Nothing made any sense because I didn’t have the direction. I had a perpetual headache for three years.”
He didn’t give up and enjoyed the ability to start from scratch repeatedly as he went through the trial and error process.
“I think one of the draws with clay is that clay is forgiving,” he said. “With stone or wood, if you cut it once, and if you cut it wrong, it doesn’t work. But with clay you just ball it up and go again. That’s an incredibly appealing quality.”
He seized upon a leftover kiln that Cornell was going to throw away and lucked out when a basement space came available.
“At that point I was able to eek out a living,” he said. “That was a big deal. I was able to do it. I was able to survive. I was able to do what I wanted to do.”
His early attempts at hand-building ceramic houses and trompe l’oeil paintbrushes, bathing suits, shoes and vests gave him a stroke of success and afforded him a modest living. Trompe l’oeil attempts to persuade the viewer that the representation is reality, rather than a representation of reality.
“That was a big influence for awhile, but it still wasn’t where I wanted to be,” he said.
Hess and his wife, Elizabeth, moved to Hudson Bend, and he opened a pottery studio on Ranch Road 620 where he taught classes for nine years.
He appreciated the income and opportunity to teach again, but he put his sculpture ideas on the back burner during that time.
“The stuff that I was making, Texas didn’t quite get,” he said.
On his Elizabeth’s advice, he closed the RR 620 studio and built one next to their house in Hudson Bend where he added lanterns and funerary urns to his stable of works.
At his home studio, Hess first heats clay using a bisque firing process to 1,800 degrees F in a kiln.
After the clay cools and hardens, he applies glazes and horsehair to some works.
Then, he fires the works a second time using the centuries-old raku technique that originated in Japan.
When raku firing, Hess applies a glaze to the piece. During the second firing, he removes it from the kiln with tongs when the glaze has melted and the clay is red hot.
He then places the piece in a trashcan filled with newspaper or straw, but he’s not throwing it away.
When the material ignites, he places a lid on the trashcan to shut off the oxygen using reduction to create a crackle effect or an iridescent finish.
“It’s always like Christmas because you never know what you are going to get,” he said.
Working with ceramics has given Hess a rare gift – bliss.
“There’s something solitary about yourself that’s really very special. It’s you and clay. It’s not like arguing with somebody, or opinions, or all the difficult things we face in the world. It’s about clay and making it and hopefully selling it,” he said.
Sales started to pick up when a horse came into Hess’ life. It wasn’t a live horse, but a small horse sculpture with no legs. He challenged himself to capture the majesty and elegance of horses in clay.
“I thought, ‘I can do that!” Hess said with a clap of his hands. “It was kind of the driving force to somehow making the horse.”
Hess has never owned a horse but has always felt a connection to their physical form and role in history from ancient China to the settling of the U.S. West.
“I’m from New Jersey; what the hell do I know about horses,” he said. “Even if you don’t ride or feel comfortable around such large animals, there is a power and beauty that can’t be denied.”
Tinkering with several ideas, he chose an arch base design to depict a stylized sculpture of a horse in motion and switched from carpet tacks to horseshoe nails.
Galleries around Texas, including Dripping Springs, Fredericksburg and Bellville began a small stampede for his new designs. His works have been featured in AmericanStyle and Niche magazines, the Artist’s Spotlight blog and the forthcoming book “500 Raku.”
He attributes his success to persistence rather than natural talent.
“Everybody is an artist on some level,” he said. “I’m not Picasso. I didn’t come to this Earth with that kind of good luggage, but it’s really just hammering at it. It’s really just hard work. It took me 20 years or longer to reach this stage where I do that which is now being recognized as really good stuff.”