Trinity Trees: What You Can Do

Dear Fort Worth:

You're on your own. That's what the Startlegram told us over the past week. The billboard may say it's all about "U", but really it's all about "$".

Chesapeake has done a masterful job of spinning a story about big corporations and big money razing an urban forest into a tale of private property rights violated.

This is a straw man. If you want to see how gas drilling companies really feel about private property rights, allow me to point you to Jeff Prince's article in the FWWeekly about Billy Mitchell. That's the truth.

Simply put, if you owned the Trinity Trees property, you'd first get the carrot -- a big fat check waved in your face. Maybe you take that check. But if not, you get the stick. The City and the gas driller would force their way onto your property. If you try to claim private property rights, how far do you think you would get? Ask Billy Mitchell.

Don't fall for Chesapeake's marketing spin. If you care about green space in our city, show up at 7 Tuesday night at the City Council Meeting. Councilwoman Wendy Davis has invited Trinity Trees to present an alternative proposal to save the entire eight-acre grove and still allow for drilling.

Also, write the Startlegram and the Mayor and City Council to let them know how you feel.

Fort Worth, you are on your own. If you want to save these trees, show up and speak out NOW. It's critical that the Mayor, City Council and entire city know there is widespread, enthusiastic support for this cause.

Drawing Attention to the Fort Worth Circle

Jeff Prince at the FWWeekly highlighted the print work of Fort Worth Circle artists and how it is getting attention from major print collectors on the East Coast.

In the mid-1940s, a small group of Fort Worth artists who liked to drink wine, smoke cigarettes, and discuss techniques and theories began gravitating toward an abstract style that was rare among Texas printmakers. Veronica Helfensteller, Kelly Fearing, Dickson Reeder, Flora Blanc, Bill Bomar, Cynthia Brants, and Bror Utter were among the most daring. All were painters of talent but became collectively enthralled with printmaking and challenged one another to see how imaginative and vivid they could get in their work. They trained at some of the world’s best art schools — in New York, Chicago, and abroad — but settled in Fort Worth and stretched the traditional regionalist style to new dimensions.

Eventually, they would come to be known as the Fort Worth Circle, and their original etchings are considered by many to be the apex of Fort Worth’s glory days of printmaking. “It takes the right person to appreciate them because they’re not big and colorful,” said local antiques dealer Carter Bowden. “But people who know Fort Worth art like the prints as well as the paintings.”

Some of the prints show interesting views of old Fort Worth buildings like the Sinclair Building and the T&P Terminal, but there are also some really fantastic images of animals and dream sequences, like the print above from Kelly Fearing. What the hell is that? I don't know but I love it! I guess I now have something else to hunt for at estate sales.