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Culture

Born in 1954, and raised on southern California ranches, John DeMott’s comfortable painting people of the West in magnificent Western settings. He’s experienced the demanding work required in ranching and has developed an enduring appreciation for Western heritage.

Kim Ragsdale focuses on faces – character faces with wrinkles, broken teeth, no teeth and older faces. Her first drawings were of dogs, horses and cows because they’re so important in western ranch life. They weren’t child-like drawings, but were so accurate anatomically as to be mistaken for photographs.

The cast and crew take their places on the set of the 2004 film The Alamo. In the upcoming scene, set in 1836 San Antonio, the Mexican army is about to storm the town, and panicked residents will flee across a bridge to the safety of a walled mission – the Alamo itself.

 

Phil Stadtler might be in his mid-80s, but at 6 feet, 2 inches, he still looks like he could buck a few bales of alfalfa with little trouble. Each of his hands is as broad as an iron skillet. One eye is sky-blue, the other blind, cloudy from a long-ago ranching accident.