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AUGUST | PAGE 34 | 2015 Above, far left: From the couple's bedroom, bulldozers work on preparing ground for the Menil's new Drawing Center, which opens 2017. Eagle showed at the Menil bookstore in 2012. Having pride of place is her painting Our Lady of Towers, 2010, a backdrop to the extraordinary futuristic sculpture Lady of True Crown, 2009. The bedpost testifies to the beauty of her husband's metalwork and is reminiscent of a processional standard. Above, middle: In a bedroom nook, a vintage chair dialogues with the artist's tile-and-metal dressing table — another example of husband Memo's talent. Memo's ornate mirror was specially designed for the room. On the right, Eagle's spacesuit and (below on antique table) helmet, worn while riding in her latest art car, Rosebud, 2014, which nods to ancient aliens as well as "the stranger in all of us" and the ongoing, hotly contested issue of illegal aliens. ancient aliens, from which Eagle steers as astronaut/driver. For this artist, living amidst the Menil bungalows provides community and a perfect micro space to touch down in the city after sojourns to Mexico. Her interiors display the diverse multiculturalism of her mindset, which has earned her patrons from art collector Marilyn Oshman to architect Karen Lantz. (The later commissioned her for a portrait of her late father, whom Eagle rendered in a poignant sugar sculpture.) Not only is the space just right, but so are the environs. "Having the Menil programs a five-minute walk away is terrific," Eagle says. "I don't give a second thought to going to lectures, concerts, films on the lawn or to the Rothko for medication or t'ai chi by the reflecting pond." Then there is The Menil Collection as muse: "When I'm having a challenging time for my artwork, I walk to the museum for a new perspective — it's a great resource," she says. "Every neighborhood should have its museum!" Serving up vegan mac and cheese and margaritas (concocted from tequila aged in a barrel, cucumber and cilantro), all set to the beat of De La Soul's "3 Feet High and Rising," this is a place you want to be when the couple entertains. For the party pros, they defer to the Russells though, as Eagle fondly recalls her favorite bash as "the one Bob and Judy Russell and [now retired Menil registrar] Anne Adams threw in honor of Memo's green card arriving. It flowed between two porches on the park. I designed green cards and a seal, so you had to have a green card signed and with Memo's official stamp to get in. We all wore mustaches like him." For the future, Eagle, like Bob Russell, plots and plans more shows and fresh ideas — her next inspirations are gold, plants and animals, and she's just installed a brass tree ring at the art space/salon Cherryhurst House — while home base will always be in plain sight of the world's most spiritually aware museum. We're sure benefactors/founders Dominique and John de Menil, if they still walked the earth today, would gather around the porch, clink glasses and collect both creatives. "EVERY NEIGHBORHOOD SHOULD HAVE ITS MUSEUM!" — AMBER EAGLE Of the diminutive living room, Eagle says, "I fall in love with a new color every now and then, and one of our living-room walls gets repainted when that happens. Seen in the context of a new color, our collections and furniture take on a new life." Her current obsession is a Sherwin Williams mix she created, which she calls Pepto-Lilac. A Christmas-cactus folk sculpture blooms on the Design Within Reach dining table, surrounded by chairs from IKEA. Husband Memo made the exuberant metal chandelier. The life-sized head is a traveling salesman's sample that perfectly pairs with a jumbo manicure sign; both grace a table covered by a Mexican prayer shawl. Also in evidence, ceramics and other craft creations from Eagle's adopted country. Amber Eagle in her living room with Lula. She wears a huipil garment — sewn by women from the Tehuantepec region — indicative of her passion for Mexican artisanship and cultural traditions. On the wall, the gouache Art Car Superscope, 2014, hints at another fascination: the art car movement. To the right, the artist's folk-inspired sculpture of a transmission tower.