This week Kerry will talk to Larry Graham and Ann Ballard Bryan about the upcoming Edwin Brewer art exhibit.
Larry Graham is President at Graham & Associates LLC and a former Friends of Dreamland board member. Graham is the nephew of Arkansas artist Edwin Brewer and helped arrange the donation of Brewer's art to the Dreamland Ballroom which will be on public display May 4, 2017.
The paintings, by Arkansas artist Edwin Cook Brewer, were donated to the Dreamland Ballroom by his daughter Audrey Brewer Wood and her husband Don Wood through their family connection with Graham.
The art series was inspired by a Santa Barbara, California jazz club and had been on display there. After its closure, Brewer's relatives, daughter Audrey and son-in-law Don Wood, sought a new place for the series of jazz paintings. Since the Dreamland Ballroom was a favored venue on the Chitlin’ Circuit where jazz musicians such as Duke Ellington, BB King, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Ray Charles and many others performed made the eight paintings depicting jazz performers a good fit for the historic site.
Graham was integral in helping this display come back home to Brewer’s home state of Arkansas.
Kerry will also interview, Ann Ballard Bryan a current member of the Friends of Dreamland board, and a historic preservationist since 1994, and who has worked on the restoration of other private collections of Edwin Brewer Art. Bryan is co-owner and a conservator of Bryan & Devan Conservation and a member of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works.
As a Clinical Instructor at UCA, Bryan’s courses include History of Architecture, Interiors and Furnishings and Historic Preservation. She holds a Master of Science with an emphasis in curriculum development in Historic Preservation and Restoration.
Bryan is also on the Board of Directors for the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Arkansas Chapter where she is Chair of the Polly Woods Scholarship subcommittee.
Behind The Scenes
TRANSCRIPT
EPISODE 33
[INTRODUCTION]
[0:00:03.2] TB: Welcome to Up in Your Business with Kerry McCoy. Be sure to stay tuned till the end of the show to hear how you can get a copy of this program and other helpful documents.
Now, it's time for Kerry McCoy to get all up in your business.
[INTERVIEW]
[0:00:17.6] KM: I’m Kerry McCoy, and like Tim said, it’s time for me to get up in your business. By that I mean to say share business knowledge and wisdom with you, our listeners.
For the next hour my guest, fellow entrepreneurs, with an unusual twist and connection to my nonprofit Dreamland Ballroom, we’re going to share our knowledge with you today on philanthropy, preserving art and the Brewer art family, which has three generations in Arkansas.
Today we’d be discussing how we maneuvered the path of philanthropy, leadership and entrepreneurship in pursuit of our dreams. Now, you may be asking yourself, “What qualifies this lady to do this?” and I’ll answer. It’s easy, it’s experience. I started my company, Arkansas Flag & Banner, over 40 years ago. During the last four decades Arkansas Flag & Banner has grown and morphed from door-to-door sales, to telemarketing, to mail order and catalog sales and now relies heavily on the internet. Each change in sales strategy required a change in the company thinking and procedures. My wisdom, confidence and my company grew. My initial $400 investment now produces nearly four million in annual sales.
In this next hour you will hear a candid conversation between me and my guest about real world experiences of service, determination and luck. Today’s topics will be about the family legacy of artist Nicholas Brewer and their contribution to Arkansas and our country about how to preserve your private art or other precious property and last about an upcoming free event at Dreamland Ballroom next Thursday.
Becoming an artist or starting and owning a business is like so many things, it takes persistence, perseverance and patience. I worked part-time jobs for nine years before Arkansas Flag & Banner grew enough to support just me. It’s now grown and expanded so much that to operate efficiently we require — Are you ready for this? A purchasing, manufacturing, graphic, shipping, technology, accounting, marketing sales and customer service department, plus a retail store, 25 people make their living from working at Arkansas Flag & Banner.
My guests today are Larry Graham and Ann Bryan, two entrepreneurs who are here to talk in part about their business and how it relates to the famous Arkansas artist, Nicholas Brewer, Adrian Brewer and Edwin Brewer and about the upcoming art show featuring Edwin Brewer’s eight oil on canvas paintings called the Sta. Barbara Jazz Exhibit. The art show is next week in the Dreamland Ballroom and open to the public.
Larry Graham is many things. He’s founder and president of Graham & Associates, a financial planning and investment company where over the years he has received many awards from his industry and pears. Recently, Soirée Magazine named him one of the best insurance agents in Central Arkansas. He’s a former secretary and treasurer of friends of Dreamland Ballroom. The nephew of artist Edwin Brewer, the grandson of artist Adrian Brewer, and the great grandson of artist Nicholas Brewer. My personal favorite, 20 years ago, Larry ran and completed the Boston Marathon.
With Larry today is Ann Brian, co-owner and conservator of Brian & Devan Conversation, which specializes in cleaning and preserving art and other historical items. They are members of the American Institute of Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works.
Like Larry, she too is many too things, a clinical instructor at UCA, teaching courses such as history of architecture, interiors and furnishings, and historic preservation. She holds a master of science with an emphasis in curriculum development in historic preservation and restoration. She is on the board of directors for the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Arkansas Chapter. She is chair of the Polly Woods Scholarship subcommittee and she is a retired pharmacist. That’s got to be a good story. I am happy to announce that she and her husband, Jim, just recently joined the friends of Dreamland board.
Welcome to the table Larry and Ann. I’m out of breath on those.
[0:04:31.0] LG: Good afternoon, Kerry.
[0:04:31.6] AB: Hi, Kerry.
[0:04:32.7] KM: Larry, you have in your personal and private collection many of your ancestor’s paintings, and Ann, you have helped Larry clean and restore some of his collections. Can you tell me how you two came to meet each other?
[0:04:48.0] AB: I got a call from Colin Thompson at the Cox Center and he had a piece that needed some restoration, and I went over to pick it up and Larry was there with him and that’s how we met.
[0:05:04.2] KM: You got a call from who?
[0:05:05.1] AB: Colin Thompson at the Cox Center, Cox Creative Center.
[0:05:07.9] LG: The Butler Center, and they’re a part of CALS, the Central Arkansas Library System.
[0:05:12.0] KM: I got you. They have a bunch of the Brewer family paintings.
[0:05:15.9] LG: They have quite a number of Brewers. The last time that I saw a list that Colin had prepared for me several years ago, there were in excess of I think about 60. Were paintings that have been donated by families from all across Arkansas, so it’s quite a collection.
[0:05:33.3] KM: So people are donating their paintings?
[0:05:35.2] LG: Yes. People are donating, also gifting. Myself along with my two brothers, we just recently gifted a very large landscape that my grandfather had completed. The landscape was actually painted down at the Arkansas River by the Big Bluff. I think it was completed back in the 1930s and my mother and her husband, Payton Rice, had acquired this painting some time ago and then after my mother passed away several years ago, it was our decision to gift the painting to Colin and to the Butler Center.
[0:06:03.8] KM: Can anybody go down to the Butler Center and see any —
[0:06:06.3] LG: Yes, they can. It just recently was restored. I cannot thing of the people that restored it, but it’s a beautiful canvas with brilliant colors, a lot of reds, blues, the cottonwoods that are still down there on the Arkansas River are part of the landscape of the painting. We were just very, very happy and pleased that we gave this to the Butler Center and they in turn were very delighted to have it.
[0:06:28.7] KM: Larry, do you paint?
[0:06:29.7] LG: Stick figures.
[0:06:31.0] KM: Stick figures.
[0:06:31.5] LG: I did attend — My uncle had a studio down in the Old Boys Club years ago. Back years ago, I was probably 9 or 10 years old and I did attempt to learn how to paint, but I just didn’t have that talent.
[0:06:43.8] KM: You’re a much more cerebral buy. You’re a financial planner and an investor and an insurance agent, so you took that path.
[0:06:50.2] LG: Yes, by mistake, but I’ve been doing this for 44 years and I’ve had a lot of successes and fun. It’s always challenging, but I enjoy meeting with other people and helping them plan their future.
[0:07:01.5] KM: I didn’t really put in the list today to talk about in my preparation to really talk about your company, but if you’ve got something you want to say about it before we delve into the Brewer family history.
[0:07:11.4] LG: Basically, I’m a very small company. I work with other advisors, but basically it’s our intent and our mission to help others plan for their future or regard to certain strategies whether it’s in their business or it’s personally. We like to really kind of take a snapshot of where the current plan is and then make recommendations based upon what their goals are. I really enjoy the entrepreneurship in my industry in working with all different folks from different walks of life, business owners, contractors, real estate agents. It’s been a good journey.
[0:07:46.3] KM: Where did you go to school?
[0:07:48.1] LG: I went to Hall High. I graduated there in 1970 and I went on to Fayetteville, Arkansas and graduated in 1974.
[0:07:53.3] KM: With a degree in?
[0:07:54.6] LG: Bachelor of science.
[0:07:56.3] KM: Oh! You both have a bachelor’s of science. All right. I think this is a good time to take a break, but when we come back we’re going to learn more about the artistic Brewer family’s legacy not just in Arkansas but nationally. Great grandfather Nicholas and your grandfather Adrian both have paintings that were commissioned about the Whitehouse.
[0:08:14.7] LG: They were commissioned. My great grandfather Nicholas was commissioned to paint Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Of course, there were other artists during his four terms as president that Roosevelt commissioned, but the portrait of my grandfather painted was actually in the Whitehouse for a few years and then it also is located in, I think, one of the senate chambers or senate conference rooms.
[0:08:36.7] KM: We’re going to talk to Ann about the dos and the don’ts of preserving your art and your other precious items.
You’re listening to Up in Your Business with Kerry McCoy, I’m speaking today with Larry Graham, president of Graham & Associates and the ancestor of the famous Nicholas Brewer family of artists, and Ann Brian, co-owner of Brian & Devan Conservation.
Larry, it’s time to talk about your family in depth. Let’s start with Nicholas Brewer. When did he live?
[0:09:17.2] LG: Nicholas —
[0:09:18.9] KM: Late 1800s? Right?
[0:09:20.0] LG: Well, it’s late 1800s and I believe he died in 1947. He had a good life. He and his wife, it was Ruth, and they had five sons, and I can’t think of all the sons other than, of course, my grandfather Adrian. Ruben was another brother. Edwin, who my uncle was named after Edward Brewer, was the illustrator of all the Cream of Wheats.
[0:09:43.6] KM: No!
[0:09:44.4] LG: Yes.
[0:09:46.0] KM: You’re going to confuse our listeners. You jumped all the way from Nicholas to Edwin. Let’s do it in order. Let’s do Nicholas first.
[0:09:51.9] LG: Okay. We’ll go Nicholas then we’ll go Adrian.
[0:09:53.7] KM: Then we’ll go Adrian and then we’ll go Edwin.
[0:09:55.5] LG: Nicholas was born in Minnesota, outside of the Twin Cities. He traveled to New York City, had quite a few trips over there. Actually had a studio located in New York. During his travels he was commissioned by quite a few of the residents in the upper-echelon, for lack of better terms, and lived in the Twin City areas. He painted many, many portraits that are now — And most of them are private collections and several of them are located there in the Twin City areas as well as throughout the northeast.
[0:10:32.4] KM: Are any of them in any big museums in New York?
[0:10:36.9] LG: There are some, of course, the museum up there in St. Paul, Minnesota, the large museum, and I cannot think of the name of it and I apologize.
[0:10:44.3] KM: No. That’s fine.
[0:10:45.4] LG: He also some exhibits in the City of New York. I’m not sure of the galleries that they’re located, but it’s difficult to find many of these like it is for my grandfather and my uncle because they’re all in private collections. The only times he really appear is when somebody should die, we have an estate sale and all of a sudden you come across a valuable classic Brewer that was nicely commissioned by that family to have my grandfather paint, say, an uncle, or a father, or a grandfather or whatever.
[0:11:16.6] KM: He was a portrait painter. That’s why they stayed in families, because it was a family member he painted.
[0:11:21.8] LG: It wasn’t so much a family member. It was members of some of the — The higher status folks that lived in those areas; governors, lieutenant governors, chief justices, like I said, FDR. Also painted Joe T Robinson, which —
[0:11:36.4] KM: Did he actually paint FDR?
[0:11:38.2] LG: Yes. My great grandfather painted FRD.
[0:11:40.9] KM: Is it the one that’s in the Whitehouse?
[0:11:42.6] LG: It was one that was in the Whitehouse, and that one, again, I think, is one in the senate conference rooms in the national capital.
[0:11:50.2] KM: Then he painted Joe T. Robinson.
[0:11:51.6] LG: He painted Joe. T Robinson and Mrs. Robinson and those two paintings were outside, one of the entrances into the Robinson auditorium and then I do not know where they’re located now. I’ve been to the Robinson Center now, the one that’s been renovated, but I don’t know where those paintings are located.
[0:12:06.8] KM: How did he end up in Arkansas, or did he end up in Arkansas?
[0:12:09.8] LG: My grandfather, Adrian, traveled with his father Nicholas and they traveled down to Arkansas, painting basically landscapes.
[0:12:19.6] KM: In a boat?
[0:12:19.8] LG: They may have traveled in a boat. I don’t know. It may have been — Back then it may have been a covered wagon or probably a car. When they came through Arkansas, they stopped and had an opportunity to meet some of the people here, the some of the wealthier established folks here in Little Rock and painted quite a few portraits or commissioned to paint portraits.
Then from here they traveled throughout Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and painted a lot of landscapes there. They were really a father-son team. They spent a lot of time in Texas. In fact my grandfather, Adrian, painted the Bluebonnets of Texas which where is actually one of the Bluebonnets that he did point is located in the Butler Center.
My grandfather, he won an award for this particular painting that he did, landscape. In fact at that time it was like the most prestigious award that you could get in the art community.
[0:13:14.4] KM: When was Adrian born?
[0:13:15.7] LG: Adrian was born in the 1920s.
[0:13:18.9] KM: This was probably in the 40s or 30s? No.
[0:13:21.5] LG: Yeah, they traveled. They traveled in the 30s and 40s together. Upon one of their trips to Arkansas, they were in Hot Springs and that’s where he met my grandmother. They started courting and they —
[0:13:35.7] KM: Not Nicholas, but Adrian.
[0:13:36.9] LG: Adrian, my grandfather. Thank you, Kerry. Anyway, they got married and then they had three children; Edwin, and there was Adrian, his twin brother, and then my mother Betty Rice, but a Brewer-Rice.
They did so much traveling, but then they got tired of doing all the Bluebonnets and landscape in Texas, and so they moved on to New Mexico and in Arizona and they’ve completed some beautiful works out there, basically landscape works.
[0:14:04.0] KM: Nicholas never really lived in Little Rock, or in Arkansas.
[0:14:06.1] LG: No. Nicholas really didn’t. He stayed in Minnesota.
[0:14:09.4] KM: But because Adrian met your grandmother.
[0:14:10.9] LG: Met my grandmother then he decided to make Arkansas his home.
[0:14:15.6] KM: Did they live in Hot Spring or Little Rock?
[0:14:16.8] LG: No. They lived here in Little Rock. They lived, really, in the Hill Crest area. Lived there for quite a few years, and then he died in 1956 and my grandmother never did remarry. The passion that my grandfather had for painting and the landscapings and the colors and the richness of so many of his portraits.
Sharon Franky is a friend of my, the Franky family, and she has a beautiful portrait of her grandfather that my grandfather had painted that was quite hell of a —
[0:14:50.8] KM: Your great grandfather was Nicholas who painted Roosevelt and a portrait painter. Then his son was Adrian who also was a portrait painter.
[0:14:56.4] LG: Right. Adrian was commissioned, and I cannot think of the congressman, but was commissioned to paint the American Flag prior to the start of World War II. Anyway, this painting is called the Sentinel of Freedom, which Kerry, you know what that looks like.
[0:15:13.7] KM: It’s the faded looking —
[0:15:16.3] LG: Yes, the flag.
[0:15:18.1] KM: Vertical painting.
[0:15:18.6] LG: In the background it kind of looks like Petty G.
[0:15:21.9] KM: That every single solitary classroom when I was growing up had this picture in it, and I have three at Arkansas Flag & Banner. When Larry came in years ago and said, “My grandfather painted that.” I was like, “No, he did not. Everybody has this painting.”
[0:15:35.5] LG: It’s an interesting story simply because he was commissioned to paint this and not knowing that, of course, United States was going to be in a war in December ’41. It also, along with the schools, it was in all the ships during the war. It’s a beautiful canvas. It is now located at the Naval Academy in Indianapolis. It’s also a part of a traveling show throughout the United States.
[0:16:00.2] KM: It’s probably the most famous painting of the American flag every made.
[0:16:04.3] LG: I would say so. To kind of carry that forward, John F. Kennedy liked it so much, being a Naval Academy graduate. He had it hanging in the Whitehouse for a short period of time and then he was going to dedicate that to the library in Indianapolis. In fact my mother and Adrian’s widow and my younger brother, Louie and I were heading up to — Over to head up to Washington in December of 1963. Or course, we know what happened in November of ’63.
That trip was postponed until like February of 1964 and we did attend the dedication at that time and all the big brass and a lot of the politicians were there for the presentation of the flag to the Naval Academy.
[0:16:45.8] KM: Adrian Brewer who passed away in 1956 and his widow, but before he died his wife and him started the Arkansas Art Center? Is that right?
[0:16:54.3] LG: That’s kind of fuzzy. It’s called the Arkansas Arts League, I believe. That was really the predecessor to the Arkansas Art Center. Also, my grandfather, Adrian and my uncle, Edwin, started the Mid-Sothern Watercolors Association, and that was back in, I think, the late 19 — Mid 50s, late 50s. They were one of the founders of the Mid-Southern Watercolors Association.
[0:17:21.2] KM: Did his wife continue it?
[0:17:23.2] LG: No, not really. I think several years after that, with Rockefeller’s help, Governor Rockefeller, turned into the — Converted over to the Arkansas Art Center we know today.
[0:17:35.2] KM: I heard that Adrian was responsible for starting the Art Mobile.
[0:17:38.8] LG: That was one of Rockefeller’s projects. I remember very fairly, my uncle Ed driving this 18-wheeler all around the state to all the various schools and putting on these art shops and workshops.
[0:17:53.1] KM: It was Adrian that started the art mobile. It was Adrian’s son, Edwin. Now, we’re getting closer to the current days. Edwin was the son and a twin of Adrian. We’ve got Nicholas, Adrian and, now, Edwin, and Edwin is the person that you’re close to. If we start talking about it too much, Larry will start crying, because he was like a father to Larry.
[0:18:13.6] LG: He was. We had a very special relationship. I’ve been fortunate enough to go to out to Sta. Barbara after he moved out there in 1979 and I’ve been going out there every year since. It’s got a really, really deep place in my heart.
[0:18:28.1] KM: It was Edwin, your uncle, that started the art mobile, not Adrian.
[0:18:32.5] LG: Not Adrian. I’m sorry. I misspoke there. Yeah, Edwin. Edwin was asked by Rockefeller to be in charge of the art mobile.
[0:18:40.5] KM: Edwin, did he do portraits?
[0:18:42.2] LG: If he did, I’m not aware of those. It was basically landscapes, still life, watercolor as well as oil mediums. Basically, a land of landscapes. He used to restore paintings a long time ago and travel throughout the state, working with a various private collectors.
[0:19:01.4] KM: That’s a legacy of artist, isn’t it? Is anybody in your generation an artist?
[0:19:07.6] LG: Well, in my generation we do have a few. My cousin, Audrey Wood is illustrator of children’s books along with her husband, Don. They have been nationally recognized throughout the country as one of the top writers of children’s books.
[0:19:24.8] KM: She is the daughter of Edwin.
[0:19:25.9] LG: She is the daughter of Edwin, yes.
[0:19:27.3] KM: Edwin, didn’t he write an elementary book for school about how to —
[0:19:32.6] LG: I don’t know if it’s an elementary book or not, and I’m not real clear on that. It’s a good question, Kerry, but he did write, I think like the pamphlet or something like a yardstick that go by for public schools to use and it’s still being used to this day.
[0:19:47.2] KM: Ain’t that amazing? His daughter is kind of following in the illustration of books.
[0:19:50.8] LG: Yes, she is. She illustrates and writes children’s books. In fact their books have been translated in more 20 different languages around the world. My travels to Austria, to New Zealand, to Australia, to Europe, it’s been one of my passions to go and look, seek out a bookstore and see if I can find some of the Brewer, the children’s book and I’ve been very fortunate to find those.
[0:20:14.1] KM: Oh, you’re collecting them.
[0:20:15.1] LG: I’m collecting them, and then just search them out.
[0:20:18.6] KM: Before we went to a break the last time, you told me that somebody in your family did a book and I said save that till we come back. What was that?
[0:20:26.1] LG: Okay. Trails of a Paintbrush. That was written by my grandfather, Nicholas Brewer.
[0:20:31.9] KM: What was Trails of a Paintbrush?
[0:20:33.8] LG: Basically, it’s a storyline of their travels, of my grandfather and my great grandfather. It’s no longer in publication. However, I was contacted by an artist, friend of mine, up in the Twin City area that is now writing a new book on the Brewer generation.
[0:20:51.4] KM: Wow! You got a lot going on in your family. You’ve got to be extremely proud. They’re like the Lewis and Clark of America painting.
[0:20:58.7] LG: I don’t know about that. I do know one thing, that in the obituary, when my grandfather died, he was recognized or really mentioned in this obituary that he was the father of Arkansas artist. That was a nice tribute to him.
[0:21:11.8] KM: Your grandfather, Adrian, stayed here. Lived in Hill Crest with his wife till he died in 1956, and his son, Edwin, you was your uncle who you were very close to, stayed in Arkansas while you were young. Then when did he leave Arkansas?
[0:21:27.3] LG: He left in the mid-1970s to join his family, Audrey and Don, and Edwin had two other daughters.
[0:21:35.6] KM: They had moved out there, gone to school or something [inaudible 0:21:37.1].
[0:21:37.5] LG: They just moved out there and made California their home. They wanted to be closer to them.
[0:21:42.7] KM: When he was out there is when he began to paint some portraits of this jazz series that’s going to be showed in Dreamland.
[0:21:51.7] LG: Yes.
[0:21:53.2] KM: It’s probably a good time to take a break, and when we come back I want to talk with Ann about the dos and don’ts of preserving your art, and we want to come back and talk about Edwin Brewer’s art, the Sta. Barbara Jazz Series that he did, but we’re going to save that to last.
You’re listening to Up In Your Business with Kerry McCoy. I’m speaking today with Larry Graham, president of Graham & Associates and the ancestor of the famous Nicholas Brewer family of artists, and with Ann Bryan, co-owner of Bryan & Devan Conservation. It’s your turn.
[0:22:39.7] AB: Okay.
[0:22:40.2] KM: How did you go from a pharmacist to a teacher to owning your own restoration company?
[0:22:47.1] AB: I usually tell people that I fell down and hit my head and when I woke up I was something different. My first degree was in pharmacy. I went to UAMS and practiced for 12 years. Our healthcare model here in America is quite broken and I didn’t really enjoy it like I thought I would. I decided to change careers, so I went to UCA and got another bachelor’s and a master’s.
Mostly due to historic items, I’m a historic preservationist. I live in an historic home and a historic neighborhood and I just enjoy all things that are old and tell some sort of historic story, because I believe that’s where our real history in America lies is not in really memorizing the dates in the textbook, but knowing who were the people were that made the history.
[0:23:42.9] KM: Oh, that’s nice, old men, old money, old liquor, old whiskey. What did you not like about pharmacy, and how long did you do it?
[0:23:55.0] AB: I practiced for 12 years, and I like I said our —
[0:23:57.6] KM: That’s a long time.
[0:23:58.8] AB: Hmm-hmm. Our healthcare model here is broken, and so I spent a lot of time on the phone arguing with health insurance companies.
[0:24:06.2] KM: Because they didn’t want to pay for the medicine program?
[0:24:09.3] AB: That’s correct. I just felt like patient care suffered due to how our system is set up. I’ve always kind of an armchair historian. My family always talked about our family history and read lots of books and it’s just kind of always been a part of my life. I guess I just didn’t really know when I graduated from high school that I should have taken another path.
[0:24:38.1] KM: I think that’s true of everybody or a lot of people. There are very few people that know right off the bat what they’re going to be when they grow up. We often talk about how you should probably take a gap year or two in there so that you can kind of work around and see what you like and then go back to school.
[0:24:52.7] AB: Right.
[0:24:53.2] KM: Now that you’re a preservationist, what do you preserve? I know you preserve art because you’ve cleaned up and preserved Larry’s family’s art.
[0:25:00.2] AB: Right. Buildings.
[0:25:02.6] KM: Buildings?
[0:25:03.1] AB: Yes. Houses. I’ve done two houses of our own.
[0:25:09.3] KM: What does that mean?
[0:25:10.6] AB: Our farmhouse in Clark County was built around 1855 and was condemned, and so you bring it back so you can live in it.
[0:25:22.8] KM: You researched the restoration designs of that time?
[0:25:25.8] AB: Right.
[0:25:26.4] KM: The period look, and then you try to seek out products that would work in today’s world and create that same book, I guess is what —
[0:25:34.8] AB: Right. A lot of the buildings, we call it reading the architecture. You can go in and even if it’s been manipulated through the years and turned into something different, there’s still enough generally fabric in the building that you can read it and see where the staircase really was or where they took a wall out or added a wall or added a door or something like that. You can kind of walk around and just say, “I know that wasn’t there,” because you learned how to read the architecture of the house.
I’ve always enjoyed the popup quarter area, and we moved down there 21 years ago. Then found this 1855 farmhouse outside of Arkadelphia and purchased it for a dollar.
[0:26:23.2] KM: Wow! That’s like the Taborian Hall. Alright. It must have been a really bad disrepair.
[0:26:28.7] AB: It was terrible. You could stand in the front yard and look completely through the house and see the backyard.
[0:26:34.7] KM: That’s a real shotgun house.
[0:26:36.1] AB: Yes. I do a lot of historic preservation in that area, research on buildings and things like that. Also, mostly paper-based objects, like art, maps, old documents, old diplomas, that kind of thing.
[0:26:54.5] KM: Paper is very fragile.
[0:26:55.7] AB: It is.
[0:26:56.7] KM: How do you preserve paper?
[0:26:57.4] AB: A lot of it is full of acid, so you have to de-acidify a lot of it so it won’t crumble and fall apart with age.
[0:27:04.6] KM: We’ve talked about how to restore a house. How do you restore a paper that’s falling apart, because I just gave you some?
[0:27:10.4] AB: Yes. What we’re going to do to yours —
[0:27:13.4] KM: Tell me what you’re going to do to it.
[0:27:16.2] AB: Which is to tell the audience a blueprint of when it was the USO, your building.
[0:27:21.7] KM: When the Dreamland Ballroom was at USO club.
[0:27:25.2] AB: It had been rolled up and all the edges are really damaged. What we have to do is put it in a humidity chamber and very, very slowly unroll it so we don’t break any of the paper fibers. There was one project I worked on that it took three months to stretch out a wadded up piece of paper. You do that, get it flattened, clean it, get the acid out of the paper and then you can do the repairs on it.
[0:27:56.3] KM: You have a big humidified room that you put things in?
[0:27:58.1] AB: Yes. We have a great H-fax system in the studio.
[0:28:04.4] KM: Then what do you do to preserve it? Put it behind glass?
[0:28:07.2] AB: Generally, or we can encapsulate it in an archival material that’s, for lack of better explanation, a thick piece of plastic, but it’s archival, and so you can encapsulate the piece. It’s not exposed to the environment or humidity.
[0:28:26.9] KM: Do you want it not to be exposed to air, or do you want to be able to breathe once you put it in?
[0:28:31.5] AB: We put a little breathing hole every time we encapsulate something so a little air has to get in.
[0:28:35.4] KM: You just want a little bit of air. I got you.
[0:28:37.5] AB: Yes.
[0:28:38.4] KM: When you restored oil paintings for Larry, how do you do that one? Little tiny brushes?
[0:28:44.4] AB: Yes. Lots of little things, a bit of kind of a wool pompom, and we probably went through hundreds of those cleaning those.
[0:28:56.3] KM: That seems counterintuitive, wool pompoms. I guess wool is not very — No. I’m thinking steel wool, but you’re talking about cloth wool.
[0:29:02.6] AB: Yes, like lamb’s wool.
[0:29:05.0] KM: I got you. It’s like a cotton ball of wool almost.
[0:29:07.9] AB: Yeah, kind of like that.
[0:29:09.0] KM: Okay.
[0:29:10.6] AB: You start out with the least abrasive thing, which is usually a distilled water and you do a tiny test on it somewhere where you make sure that the paint is not going to come off or do any further damage. Then if it doesn’t come off that way then you slowly increase your —
[0:29:31.0] KM: What are you trying to get off? Dirt and grime and grease.
[0:29:33.5] AB: Yes. Tobacco smoke and smoke from a fireplace. Those are really very attracted to canvas for some reason, and we’ve had paintings brought in that we thought were sepia paintings, and then once we got the tobacco off, they were very brightly colored underneath and could hardly recognize it. Shield them from all kinds of smoke and chemicals, direct sunlight, that kind of thing.
[0:30:03.8] KM: Direct sunlight I knew would fade anything pretty quick.
[0:30:07.5] AB: Mm-hmm. Well, watercolor especially, some pen and ink. Usually, a room that you don’t have a lot of bright light or direct sunlight, not close to a fireplace or smokers.
[0:30:22.9] KM: Yeah. I have a lovely handwritten note from Dale Bumpers, one of my heroes. He’s just a great guy. I want to display it, but I’m afraid it’s going to fade away.
[0:30:36.1] AB: You’d use conservation glass.
[0:30:37.6] KM: I’d give it to you?
[0:30:38.8] AB: Sure. We’ll do it.
[0:30:41.3] KM: I just have in a drawer and I have another one from Hillary Clinton and I’m afraid to put any of it up for anybody to see.
[0:30:48.4] AB: Yeah. A conservation glass helps the UV rays not come through the glass as much, then you would need to hang it in a place where it wouldn’t get a lot of direct light.
[0:31:00.7] KM: Being a preservationist, you must have some pet-peeves. I know that it drives me crazy when I see people turndown old buildings or see people going in and modernizing an old, really wonderful old structure with architectural wood that you just can’t get any more and they’re just going to tear it out and put in something modern and new and that really eats my soul up. I dream about it and fret over it.
[0:31:25.4] AB: Yeah. I’ve even cried over buildings that got torn down.
[0:31:28.1] KM: I’m with you, sister. What mistakes do you see most people making? We just talked about buildings.
[0:31:33.3] AB: Putting tape on anything.
[0:31:36.7] KM: Uh-oh!
[0:31:37.3] AB: Don’t tape anything together. Put it in a plastic bag. Don’t put it in a cardboard box or a folder.
[0:31:44.2] KM: Really?
[0:31:44.9] AB: No, because cardboard has acid in it.
[0:31:47.3] KM: It’s okay to put it in a plastic baggy?
[0:31:49.7] AB: Temporarily until you can get it conserved.
[0:31:53.5] KM: What I have is just stuck in a drawer.
[0:31:56.3] AB: Right.
[0:31:56.2] KM: Is that okay?
[0:31:58.1] AB: Probably not, because if it’s contact with other paper, the other paper has acid and it will sip on over.
[0:32:03.7] KM: What about if it’s contact with photographs? Because your memorabilia drawers are full of photographers and papers and all that stuff that your kids are going to have to throw away when you’re dead and they’re going to hate you for it, but you think somebody is going to want it, so you’re saving it.
[0:32:20.0] AB: Yeah. You should separate them.
[0:32:22.8] KM: Okay. I always learn so much on my shows. Is there any other business like yours around?
[0:32:29.7] AB: I don’t think so. On the AIC website, we’re the only ones listed in Arkansas.
[0:32:34.0] KM: What’s AIC mean?
[0:32:35.6] AB: It’s the conservation —
[0:32:38.5] KM: Oh, you’re a member of it.
[0:32:39.4] AB: Yes.
[0:32:40.9] KM: You just always loved being preservationist. You’ve bought a house in Arkadelphia, that’s an hour away.
[0:32:51.0] AB: Yes.
[0:32:51.8] KM: How do you manage buying a farmhouse that far away, doing your job up here and getting contractors down there that aren’t going to spray paint something that you’re trying to preserve or being unsupervised where they’re doing construction. How do you manage all of that?
[0:33:07.5] AB: I had a fabulous architect, Tommy Jamison, and a fabulous contractor, Dave [inaudible 0:33:12.2]. It was easy to do that when they moved the house. Actually the architect went down and wouldn’t allow me to go down there, because he knew it would make me really nervous. He knew you’d cry. It did get kind of stuck in a ditch for a little while when they were moving it.
[0:33:30.6] KM: What do you mean they moved it? It’s not in Arkadelphia anymore?
[0:33:32.0] AB: It is, we just had to move it away from — It was right on Highway 26 where a truck could just barely miss the curve and take it down. We moved it to R23 Acres, which is just right across and kind of up the hill. We didn’t move it very far, but we did have to move it.
[0:33:50.8] KM: Do you go down there and spend time in your house?
[0:33:53.0] AB: Just was down there last weekend.
[0:33:54.1] KM: It’s a vacation home kind of now just out in the middle of the woods, hunting.
[0:33:57.2] AB: Husband likes it for hunting.
[0:33:58.6] KM: I’m with you. Now, I would redo a farmhouse for a hunting home. That’s for sure. Talk to us about teaching. You’ve become a teacher at UCA and talk to us about how that came about, because you now got your business.
[0:34:11.4] AB: Right.
[0:34:13.7] KM: You’re teaching and you’ve restored a farmhouse, which makes me look like I’m a kindergartner. Alright.
[0:34:19.7] AB: At the time that I started teaching at UCA part-time, I was at Hawker Beechcraft Aircraft designing the interiors of small jet aircraft, and I was there for about 10 years. It needed somebody that they knew something about history of architecture and that kind of thing, so they called and asked if I would teach a night class. I did that every semester for six or seven years, something like that. Then a full-time position came open and I applied for it.
[0:34:56.6] KM: Did you know you like to teach?
[0:34:58.3] AB: No. Actually, both of my parents were teachers. My mother was an elementary school teacher and my dad was a college professor. After hearing their horror stories, I thought, “I’m not going to do that.” Here I am.
[0:35:13.2] KM: But it’s college.
[0:35:14.0] AB: Yes.
[0:35:15.4] KM: And you’re a professor, you said.
[0:35:17.5] AB: I’m a clinical instructor. It’s my title.
[0:35:20.6] KM: Of all the things you do, which one do you think is the most rewarding?
[0:35:24.5] AB: I don’t think I can answer that.
[0:35:27.7] KM: Oh! Alright. Don’t answer it. Yeah, you might have somebody listening. Your students would be like, “She didn’t say teaching.”
[0:35:34.7] AB: They all have their own joys and they all have their own frustrations and they’re just different.
[0:35:42.5] KM: You are a multifaceted and it probably takes a lot of different things to fulfill your needs to do stuff. I am kind of like that. You want to do a lot of different things and so you probably would not be satisfied doing one thing all day.
Do your eyes hurt after you work in your restoration business for very long? Do you wear special glasses?
[0:35:59.6] AB: Sometimes. I have a big magnifier.
[0:36:03.2] KM: Very tedious.
[0:36:03.8] AB: Yes. You can work on an inch of a painting for two hours easily if it needs a lot of work.
[0:36:12.7] KM: Oh, that’s right up your alley, Larry. Wouldn’t that make you go crazy?
[0:36:16.6] LG: Yes.
[0:36:17.1] KM: Let’s take a break. When we come back we’re going to talk about next week’s art show in the Dreamland Ballroom. It will be the first time these eight oil canvas paintings of Edwin Brewer’s Sta. Barbara Jazz Series will be exhibited along with some paintings from Larry Graham’s private collection. Both Ann and Larry will be there to give any tips to anybody about how to preserve things.
You’re listening to Up In Your Business with Kerry McCoy. I’m speaking today with Larry Graham, president of graham & Associates and an ancestor of the famous Nicholas Brewer family of artists, and Ann Brian, co-owner of Brian & Devan Conservation.
Alright, let’s tell everybody the story, Larry, of how the Edwin Brewer’s art came to Dreamland Ballroom. You’ve got the whole story for everybody to know. These are the paintings that are going to be shown this Thursday after work from 5:30 to 7:30 in the Dreamland Ballroom. Larry was the facilitator that got them to the Dreamland Ballroom. I bet the Butler Center is a lot [inaudible 0:37:30.2] right now.
[0:37:31.7] LG: Well, David Strickland and Colin Thompson.
[0:37:34.3] KM: Oh! From the Butler Center.
[0:37:34.6] LG: From the Butler Center will be there.
[0:37:35.9] KM: I love it.
[0:37:37.3] LG: The good news is, is that two of Edwin’s daughters who live in [inaudible 0:37:40.9] Springs, Edwina and Jennifer will be coming down next Thursday for the —
[0:37:46.7] KM: Edwin named his daughter Edwina.
[0:37:49.3] LG: Yes, Edwina.
[0:37:49.7] KM: That is so cute.
[0:37:50.8] LG: That’s kind of cool.
[0:37:51.9] KM: That is cute.
[0:37:53.2] LG: That is a jazz bar located in Lower State Street in Sta. Barbara. That’s kind of the main thoroughfare that connects with [inaudible 0:37:58.9] Boulevard. Full of shops, bars, places that you can go. A lot of eateries and restaurants, but this jazz bar was quite unique. It was at the lower end of State Street and it had a platform there were the jazz musicians or musicians would come in and have a jamming session or they would have some formal musicians in there for weddings and what have you.
The problem with the bar was that it had these huge walls and there was nothing at the walls at all and my uncle Ed were frequent to this place quite often. In fact I would go and have coffee with him as well on numerous trips I made out there. Anyway, he approached the owners of the bar and asked them if he could put together a jazz portrait if you will and wanted to decorate these walls. They were all bare. He wanted to paint these jazz performers in a way that would really brighten the jazz and be conversation pieces and those sort of things.
This part of my uncle’s life, really, he pushed out of what his comfort zone was, because he was basically painting with pallets and knives and straight line things and did a lot of landscapes and still life and people of all walks of life. There was this lady that he met that taught up at University of California at Sta. Barbara and her name was Irma Cavat, and she was a real strong individual and, really, she bucked Edwin at the university and the university really thought that conceptual art was the way that all painters should paint.
With that said, she asked Ed to bring brushes, bug huge brushes to her classroom and push himself and express himself with all different colors of the two paintings. My uncle in his own way, he’d started painting these huge canvases of these jazz musicians. The first one that I recognized when I first went out there to the jazz bar was the St. of New Orleans of the funeral procession, which was the large canvas that we just recently got and that is quite unique.
It really was so enthusiastic that this was a new medium for him. It got away and it got out of the shell that allowed him to demonstrate his new artistic found passion to really put these jazz paintings on canvas.
Anyway, we talked about State Street, and State Street again is one of the — It’s the hangout of Sta. Barbara, but State Street of Little Rock. When my wife, Cindy, and I were in Sta. Barbara last year and we were sitting and we were visiting and they were telling us about the jazz art and how Ed, right after he died, the jazz bar finally closed and then he gave the jazz art back to Don and Audrey. Visiting with them on our trip last year, they decided, “Hey, this would be a great gift to the Dreamland Ballroom because jazz — Dreamland jazz.
[0:41:17.8] KM: Goes together.
[0:41:17.9] LG: Here’s Edwin jazz, and so my cousins, Don and Audrey, decided to gift these paintings and give them to the Dreamland Ballroom, and it’s the first time that they have ever been shown here in Arkansas. We’re certainly excited with that and excited that the Dreamland board decided to move forward and take these paintings under their wings and have them exhibit it in such a wonder historic building.
I would like to say one thing here just to plug for Ann. She and her staff and Laura cleaned about a dozen of my Brewer paintings. For those of you out there, the listening audience, I would recently recommend her company, because they do magnificent work. They’re very tedious. You have to be very patient, because it’s not done overnight, but I’m just plugging Ann in there.
[0:42:08.0] KM: Larry, Dreamland cannot thank you enough. What’s really interesting about it is State Street is in Sta. Barbara on State Street where they were painted and they’re coming back to Dreamland Ballroom on State Street in Little Rock, Arkansas.
[0:42:20.7] LG: How ironic is that?
[0:42:22.2] KM: I know. Another interesting thing is my father’s name is Edwin, the painter is named Edwin, and my son’s name is Edwin. I just feel like there’s a lot of synchronicity in this whole gift and it’s just lovely. Thank you, Larry.
I want to be sure to give a shout out to your wife, Cindy. Today is your one year anniversary.
[0:42:41.5] LG: Yes, it is. She’s flying back from San Diego to celebrate our anniversary.
[0:42:45.8] KM: That’s very nice. One year ago they were getting married in Sta. Barbara, and was that when you texted me about the paintings?
[0:42:52.3] LG: Yeah, they’re about.
[0:42:54.1] KM: Okay. This Thursday night, if anybody wants to see this really special event, it’s May the 4th. Come after work from 5:30 to 7:30. It’s a free art exhibit and a lot of people are dying to see the Dreamland Ballroom after the documentary, and it’s not open to the public all the time. This is a great opportunity for everybody to come down. The Brewer art is not open to the public all the time either, because we’re working on where to place it and how to keep it temperature controlled. This is going to be one of the few times you’re going to see this Brewer art and see the Dreamland Ballroom. It’s free, Thursday night, May the 4th from 5:30 to 7:30.
Tabriz also is having their big hot dog night, so you can kind of make it an art walk night. You can come by the Dreamland at 5:30, get a glass of wine, look at the Brewer art and go on down to the Tabriz and make another night down there.
This is for you guys for y’all do and for birthing your business. It’s a cigar from the Humidor Room at Colonial Wine and Spirits on Markham.
[0:43:53.0] LG: Thank you, Kerry.
[0:43:53.6] KM: Yes, for birthing your business. I don’t know if you are going to smoke them together or what. Hey! Bring them Thursday night. I’ll get one, we’ll smoke it together.
[0:44:01.9] AB: We can’t smoke close to a painting.
[0:44:04.1] KM: And we can’t smoke in the Dreamland Ballroom. We’ll stand out on the sidewalk. That’s right. That was one of her big rules, wouldn’t it?
Who’s my guest next week, Tim?
[0:44:13.2] TB: Next week is going to be Alan Leveritt of the Arkansas Times.
[0:44:16.6] KM: Oh, he’s one of my all-time favorites. He’s a farmer too. He’s a second generation farmer. He lives on a farm. He’s got a lot to say. He’s always got a lot to say, and he used to own a bar when he was young in North Little Rock. He’s an entrepreneur all the way also.
If you have a great entrepreneurial story that you would like to share, I’d love to hear from you. Send a brief bio and your contact info to questions@upyourbusiness.org and someone will be in touch.
Finally, to our listeners, thank you for spending time with me. If you think this program has been about you, you’re right, but it’s also been about me and the dream I have. Thank you for letting me fulfill my destiny. My hope today is that you’ve heard or learned something that’s been inspiring or enlightening and that it, whatever it is, will help you up your business, your independence or your life.
I’m Kerry McCoy, and I’ll see you next Friday. Until then, be brave and keep it up.
[END OF INTERVIEW]
[0:45:09.1] TB: You’ve been listening to Up in Your Business with Kerry McCoy. Want to hear today’s program again or want someone else to benefit from it? Jot this down. Next week a podcast will be available flagandbanner.com. Click the tab labeled “Radio Show”, there you’ll find today’s segments with links to resources you heard discussed on this program. Kerry’s goal: to help you live the American Dream.
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