From the Archives: Mary Apple

Visit the physical exhibit at:
Bernice Coulter Templeton Art Studio & Gallery
1415 E. Vaughn Street, Fort Worth, Texas, across the street from the Canafax Clock Tower on E. Rosedale

From the Archives: Mary Apple

Title	Blue Green Mood
Date	1989
Medium	Color Etching Print
Artist	Mary Apple

Title	Denise & Plants
Date	1989
Medium	Color Etching Print
Artist	Mary Apple

Title	Denise II
Date	1989
Medium	Color Etching Print
Artist	Mary Apple

Title	Yellow Nude
Date	1989
Medium	Color Etching Print
Artist	Mary Apple

Title	Denise with Corn Plants
Date	1989
Medium	Color Etching Print
Artist	Mary Apple

Title	Rebecca
Date	1989
Medium	Color Etching Print
Artist	Mary Apple

Title	Karen as the Apparition of a Cow Person Diva
Date	1976
Medium	Etching Print
Artist	Mary Apple

Title	Leaping Cow Ladies
Date	n.d.
Medium	Etching Print
Artist	Mary Apple

Title	Abstract
Date	n.d.
Medium	Color Etching Print
Artist	Mary Apple

Title	The Good Pasture Fairy as the Landscape Dawn
Date	n.d.
Medium	Etching Print
Artist	Mary Apple

Title	Backyard Bone Dream of Butter Dragon Flies
Date	1976-1977
Medium	Etching Print
Artist	Mary Apple

Title	Untitled
Date	n.d.
Medium	Color Etching Print
Artist	Mary Apple

Title	Untitled
Date	n.d.
Medium	Color Etching Print
Artist	Mary Apple

Title	Untitled
Date	n.d.
Medium	Color Etching Print
Artist	Mary Apple

MEMORIES OF MARY…

Words that describe Mary Apple: creative, sensitive, loving of all creatures great and small: both man and animal, a “Bohemihippie” meaning too late to be a Bohemian and too early to be a Hippie! Mary did not have a judgmental bone in her artistic body; she was a true perceiver, finding joy in all people and things and having many friends and students from all walks of life. I met Mary apple on my first day of teaching at Texas Wesleyan in the fall of 1978. We became fast friends because I loved her perceptions of life, her free spirit and the absolute uniqueness of her personality.

I would help her with art projects, or canvas frame construction, or remodeling needs around the Art House. The first time I was a Mary’s home on Panola Street, I opened the freezer and was greeted by a frozen lizard looking straight at me. I asked Mary why she had the lizard in her freezer and she calmly said, “Well the live ones move so quickly I can never draw them, but this one died in my yard and not I use him for a model for my sketches and prints!” Mary worked in many various art forms: watercolor, oil and acrylics, printmaking and ceramics. She was also an avid gardener.

What some people may not know or remember is that she was the commissioned court artist for the infamous Cullen Davis murder trial in Fort Worth. She was also commissioned one summer to be a sketch artist for a geological dig that was occurring in the Middle East, traveling and drawing pottery and other materials that were found during excavations.

Mary loved to travel the art cities of Europe especially in France and Italy. Often in the summers, she would be in Florence and work in local studios in the city.

While Mary was not what I would call religious, she was very spiritual. Mary’s daughter Susan tells of the story that after Mary lost her courageous fight with aggressive bone cancer, Susan took her mother’s cremains on Mary’s birthday to her favorite spot in Florence on the Ponte Veccio over the Arno River. It was sunrise and Susan released the ashes into the river. At that very moment, a beautiful white dove came and landed on the railing of the bridge, as if to tell Susan that Mary was finally at peace.

This exhibit honors a very special and wonderful person in the history of Texas Wesleyan and its fine arts programs.

Joe Brown

Professor of Theatre Arts & Communication

Dean of Freshman Success

Spring, 2016

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