STEPHENS

Ed Stephens is perhaps the most underrated artist ever from Lubbock, Texas. He did presentation renderings for the architectural practice of Maeker and Stephens. He also had a few of his watercolors hanging in their office. I always liked the understated West Texas fence subject that hung in the short hallway. I offered to buy it but he would not part with it.

Ed was lamenting one day that there was no money to be made in art. I said "Not the way you do it, Ed. You have to sell it, you can't keep it all yourself." He agreed to my being his first patron, no strings attached. He would paint a subject of his choice and I would give him the money and he would give me the picture. That is what happened. When it suited him, he delivered the watercolor to the office. He had several proofs that he had culled with him and other fellows from the office wanted them.

The next day Ed came by the office and asked if I had decided how I was going to frame it. I had not. The next day he came by again and asked the same question. I still had not. I quipped something like, "I'll go down to Wallmart and get a frame next week." Dead serious, Ed retorted "Not for my picture!" He returned it about a week later in a very nice gold frame. I hung it on the wall over my drafting board.