Page 12 - Texas Arts Magazine

didn’t have any plans or blueprints,” he said. “Hell, I didn’t even have a level or a square, but my tolerances were within 100th of an inch.”
Working in his free me and alone, Farris completed construc on of a 2,000-square foot, free-form house – essen ally his rst sculpture -- in less than two years. “I’d been living in it for about four months when somebody knocked on the door and wanted to buy it.” Farris sold his hand-built home for cash and a 42- . sail boat. “This fellow knocked on my door on Monday, and I moved out Friday,” he said. “Having or not having possessions doesn’t bother me.”
“Turns out that wasn’t a good o -shore boat,’ Farris said, so he decided to explore art school and enrolled in a class with Don Shaw at the Glassell School of Art, Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. “I showed up for the rst class with a truck full of wood and metal,” he said, smiling at the memory. Some of those early pieces re- main part of the ins tu on’s permanent collec on.
A er focusing on sculpture for several years, Farris also studied ceramics with Bill Denard, and was in- spired to move on to canvas by well-known Houston watercolorist Arthur Turner’s guidance in color usage. “I’d spent almost 10 years exploring and studying dif- ferent mediums through my classes and travels, and I realized I had a talent for using color,” Farris said.
His “New World Series” in 1992, a series of large ab- stract cityscapes, earned him recogni on by the Texas Watercolor Society’s 43rd annual exhibi on and Texas museum tour, one of the rst in the long list of ac- colades accompanying his 40-plus year as a working ar st.
Works by Farris have been featured in galleries from Marfa to Galveston, from Santa Fe to Key West, and his crea ons are avidly sought by collectors.
Farris doesn’t give his pain ngs tles, preferring to number them instead. “I want the viewer to be able to appreciate and feel the emo ons of the work without any presump on or outside direc ons,” he said.
Since 2010, Farris has lived with his wife, Kate Sharp Farris, in Fredericksburg in a self-remodeled, art- lled Cra sman house. Kate, an archeologist by voca on and an art curator/gallery designer by avoca on, is currently hard at work cataloging Woody’s vast body of works while supervising his art sales, which in- clude not only sculptures, but also acrylic, watercolor and encaus c pain ngs, drawings, photographs, and ceramics.
Despite his ar s c acumen, Farris remains modest about his accomplishments o en serving as informal tutor to aspiring painters who come to him for advice. One edgling painter said, “He is always gracious, en- couraging and never preten ous. I once asked him to de ne art and he laughed, saying ‘What is art? I have no idea. Does it have an ‘e’?”
Woody Farris, DDS, works relieving pain and saving teeth as part- me sta den st at the Good Samaritan Center, a charitable clinic in Fredericksburg. Some of his pain ngs are on display – and available for pur- chase – at the Center. To arrange a private viewing of the rest of his available works, contact him by email: woodyfarrisart@aol.com.
12 Hill Country Arts MAgAzine - sept2017