Features

The Waggin’ Tail Mercantile, long the thrift store that raised money for The Animal Support Center, or TASC, is no more.

Linzy Behrs, former acting chairwoman of CATS (which has now merged with animal support group ASAP), recently accepted the assignment of renovating the establishment, which now has new looks, new merchandise, and a new name - Abundancia.

A wood stove belches ash into a shotgun space that once housed the carriage belonging to Nuestra Senora de los Dolores’ Padre Tehane.

Artist Alex Ellis stokes the fire, a shelf of stacked paintings to his left, exposed layered stone behind him. The paintings almost whisper, almost shimmer, their layers of rich color deposited on old wood, on marcasite panel. The scent of melting beeswax mingles with the rising heat. Ellis stands. His close-cropped beard and simple knit cap echo his spartan surroundings — a man in holy communion with his art.

Last Jan. 1, several dozen Las Vegans braved the brisk morning air. Their cars ground frozen snow beneath unsure wheels, slid along Seventh Street, past Wal-Mart, past the after-holiday sales. Storrie Lake loomed before them. A yellow backhoe rested near the shore, it’s operator satisfied with the job he did hacking up ice three-inches thick. An ambulance driver stood ready, his hands warm inside heavy wool mittens. They both glanced at the crowd of Polar Bear Club members giddy for a chance to welcome the New Year with a burst of hypothermic pain.

“Half of One, Six Dozen of the Other,” a show of 13 paintings by Meredith Britt at Travelers Caf, will have an art reception with refreshments from 5 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 2. All are invited.

The exhibit comprises 11 oil paintings and 2 pastels. The show is a retrospective, Britt said, since one work, “The Lake Was Low,” dates to the early 80s and two others, “Overlook Caf” and “Las Tres Benditas,” date to the early 90s. The others were painted in this century — most of them this year. All are for sale.

Sixth grade student Mary Miller dipped brush into ink. Her short brown hair fell into her eyes but she didn’t move. She held her breath, attention on a small sheet of tin, on a moment in her life painfully opaque, mysterious. A moment so precious she would shroud her self-portrait in a soft halo.

“Art is supposed to tell a story,” Miller mused after class. “It’s one way we can share who we are with each other.”

Rio Gallinas School art instructor Maureen O’Brien would agree.

When I was younger, I was a big fan of winter. Like most children, I looked forward to the first snow of the year with great anticipation and could not wait until it was time to put up Christmas decorations. I’m still not exactly sure why, but some time between my sixth grade year and my junior year of high school, my opinions about winter changed.

Not all of us love celebrities, but many of us do. For reasons we can’t explain, it means a lot to us when we see one in person, whether on accident or not. A recent brush with fame has me thinking about this quite a bit. Here’s what happened:

What do you get when you have 20 fingers, two hands, 88 keys, and the brains and talent of two concert pianists? You get wonderful music and that’s what you’ll get on Saturday, Dec. 8, at 3 pm at First United Presbyterian Church, in “A Little Light Music.” “A Little Light Music” is presented by the Nat Gold Players and is a benefit for the NGP lighting system.

Snow swirled around around the darkened street lamps during last year’s electric light parade. Las Vegas families bundled in heavy coats and scarves waited along Carnegie Library park, faces red from the biting cold.

Floats made from ranch flatbeds, from carefully waxed pickup trucks loaded with twinkle light-encrusted twisted wire crawled the parade route, accompanied by holiday music. Sara Martinez, 9, grabbed the mittened hand of a friend and leaned into the street, as if her anticipation could pull Santa’s sleigh closer.