Annual Meeting 2007: Pam Nelson Art Gallery Tour

Tour of the gallery of Pam Nelson, Saturday, October 27, 2007

Pamela Nelson, local artist and teacher graciously allowed us to tour her downtown loft home and studio on Saturday morning. Pam (as the whole world calls her) is also a member of the U. S. Commission of Fine Arts, and began the very successful homeless art classes in a downtown church. Since many of us were late, she and member Beverly Mitchell, were standing outside to usher us into an old office building near the central Dallas Public Library that she has turned into three large condominiums. Two are for rent and she and her husband use the top floor for themselves.

Pam Nelson is first of all an artist and her loft is also her studio. She discussed her varied career and influences extending back to childhood. Raised in Midland, she spent summers in Bay City, Texas, where her grandmother ran a thrift shop and often made crafty items from materials that came through her shop. She often gave these items as gifts to the needy. Pam credits her grandmother for being the inspiration of her life and art. She has often incorporated her grandmother’s collections and handwork into her paintings and sculptures. Her artworks might make use of buttons from her grandmother’s collections, or hand-wrought tin roses made by her grandmother fifty years ago from can tops. Some of her designs are reminiscent of quilt patterns.

In a long career Pam Nelson has worked in many media. She designed three of the Dallas Area Rapid Transit stations. Recently she designed a new terminal at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport in colored terrazzo made to look like a large Parcheesi game. In 2004 she designed and worked new stained glass windows for a Dallas church. She has done murals for many walls including ones for the Dallas Humane Society and the Children’s Collection of the downtown Dallas Public Library. She has sculpted in wood. She has even designed an extra large crown with excessively big reflector lights as jewels and cotton boles decorating the crenulations to represent Mississippi County, home of the national cotton-picking contest, in the Arkansas sesquicentennial parade.

A lifelong collector of kitsch-type objects, Pam has incorporated them into her art and her home. She has had collections of everything from artificial food, old jewelry, marbles, trophies, and game pieces to Pope memorabilia. She once used a lot of these items to install her “La Pausita” in a Dallas gallery. Locals recognized it as a takeoff on the Dallas Museum of Art’s “La Casa Pausa” wing (Q.V.). La Casa Pausa was a villa in the south of France built for Coco Chanel and later owned by born-in-Texas, Wendy Reves (Q.V.), and her husband Emery (Q.V.). Wendy Reves gave the museum a large bequest of Impressionist paintings, rare artifacts and furniture to recreate six rooms exactly as they were at La Casa Pausa. Stipulations in the bequest say that nothing may be moved or changed, which could make for staleness. But Pam’s La Pausita could be sat upon and circled around.

Pam worked for a crayola company for several years and said she learned “so much” about color. She and Robert Wilson (husband of photographer, Laura, and father of actors, Owen and Luke) wrote a small and easily understandable book on color. Pam was giving away free copies the day we visited. I could just imagine anyone from child to unsophisticated adult learning a lot from this simple book.

As a church member Pam visited Honduras and helped in setting up a woman’s co-op for local embroiderers. She designed, very loosely, decorative pillow covers that local Honduran women embroider and are free to redesign with needle and thread as they work. On the day of our visit the pillow covers had not yet been offered for sale and were all at her home. Several in the group bought them. Though each cover was different, the designs were unmistakably influenced by Pamela Nelson. The circles and wide paths full of linear embroidery are very reminiscent of her paintings. She said the pillowcases were how the Honduran rivers looked from above in the airplane.

Of course, it is as an artist that Pam is most known. Her work is represented by Gerald Peters Gallery of Dallas and New York. She has had exhibited in all large Texas cities and at several museums. Her paintings are often acrylics with appliqués and may contain buttons, tiny mirrors, metal eye hooks, or sewing thread done to decorate and hold pieces of canvas together. The designs seem feminine with flowers, running lines and patterns sometimes like quilts. And she is a master of color.

Pamela Nelson began art classes for the homeless of downtown Dallas when she moved into her loft fifteen years ago. She had formerly taught at the Dallas Museum of Art. She said that she didn’t want to live in a neighborhood and not know the neighbors. So the First Presbyterian Church across the street which provides many services to the homeless furnished the room and the materials to begin an art class. The Wednesday, and now added Friday classes, are one of the most innovative and successful programs in the city for the homeless population. Anyone may attend as long as conduct standards are maintained. As well as the healing power of creating art, the class participants receive a much-needed shot of self-esteem. At least two of its students have begun to support themselves with art. Dallas Public Library has given the class exhibit every December for twelve years. Called “Food for the Soul” this eagerly awaited show is visited by collectors, church members, and most particularly the proud students. Though Pam still teaches when in Dallas, the program has become self-sustaining enough to be handed off to others.

Pam Nelson also serves as one of seven members on the United States Commission of Fine Arts. Until recently, she was its only member west of the Mississippi, and is still the only practicing artist, and the only one with any experience such as teaching art to a homeless population. Most members are heads of major museums, architects, etc. Appointed by the President, this commission advises on art matters of the government and the District of Columbia. She spoke briefly about her service and what problems the Commission might encounter. The commission has recently considered such matters as the redesign of a United States coin and the advisability of adding an underground museum to the Vietnam Memorial.

The loft itself was an interesting dwelling containing an artist’s studio and all its projects. It was a pleasure to see Pam’s works as well as pieces by artist friends. The home had interesting but well used furnishings and collections, and an outstanding view of the large white Corinthian columns of the First Presbyterian Church across the street. Pam Nelson is a first rate artist, but also a citizen of the world. Her down-to-earth personality put all at ease and ARLIS members were grateful for her graciousness in opening her home and studio for this tour.

Gwen Dixie
Dallas Public Library