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Surls + Locke Museum of Texas Art Rises from a Storied Splendora Studio By Catherine D. Anspon the new museum — where its founders, artists James Surls and Charmaine L o c k e , h a v e p l a y e d outsized roles in the culture — but to the rural hamlet of Splendora. A stop so small it lacks a post office and has its mail addressed to the nearby metropolis of Cleveland, TX, Splendora lies an hour northeast of From top: Charmaine Locke and James Surls in Splendora, Texas, 1978. The Barn Studio, a temporary location of the Surls + Locke Museum of Texas Art, Splendora, Texas. (Art) Garden Back to the OBSESSIONS. DECORATION. SALIENT FACTS. W ith deep roots going back to the 19th century, the saga of Texas art has never found a permanent, dedicated museum home, especially its rich often raucous recent chapter that began in the 1970s. Until now — with the announcement and first activation of the Surls + Locke Museum of Texas Art (S+L MoTA). Don't expect to head to Houston or Dallas for Houston in an ecosystem known as the Big Thicket or Pineywoods. If the town with the mythic name sounds like an unlikely destination for an arts Mecca, think about Marfa back in the day. Surls arrived in Houston in 1976 after a stint at SMU, tapped as an art professor by the University of Houston. He and Locke — his former student, now Mrs. — turned a scene with a handful of gifted painters (Dorothy Hood, Dick Wray, Richard Stout, Jack Boynton) into the frenetic, high-voltage art-making capital that would soon explode, thanks to a flock of talent nurtured at UH by Surls and Locke. For decades, an invitation to rustic Splendora — where the couple lived, raised their seven daughters and built a cavernous studio — promised a good time. The complex served as an unofficial northern annex to the original Lawndale Art and Performance Center in Houston's historic East End, and was an escape valve to recharge, make art, host shindigs, and bask in the sylvan nature of East Texas. When Surls and Locke decamped to Colorado in 1997, relocating to Carbondale, 30 miles from Aspen, their Splendora home and studio remained dormant. Two decades later, they gradually revived it in an organic manner. First there was Splendora Gardens, a center to showcase their individual practices, as well as the culinary acumen of daughter Ruby Surls and the artwork of her husband, Carlos Canul. Its next iteration was the Locke Surls Center for Art and Nature (LSCAN), whose grandest accomplishment was a 2023-2025 collaboration with DiverseWorks, "A Gift from HICKEY-ROBERTSON PHOTOGRAPHY TYLER JONES (Continued on page 32) 12