Puppets And Spaceships Invade Waxahachie

Dallas Fort Worth area native and artist Esther Pearl Watson has pinned her career on two influential humans: her spaceship-building father and a 15-year-old girl with a lackadaisical diary obsession. In the gallery world, like at Sunday’s opening at Webb Gallery in Waxahachie (209 W. Franklin St.), we’re given a...

By Jamie Laughlin

November 15, 2012

[
        {
          "name": "Air - MediumRectangle - Inline Content - Mobile Display Size",
          "component": "18855504",
          "insertPoint": "2",
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "2",
          
          "watchElement": ".fdn-content-body",
          "astAdList": [
            {
              "adType": "rectangle",
              "displayTargets": "mobile"
            }
          ]
        },{
          "name": "Editor Picks",
          "component": "17105533",
          "insertPoint": "4",
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "1",
          
          "watchElement": ".fdn-content-body",
          "astAdList": [
            {
              "adType": "rectangle",
              "displayTargets": "desktop|tablet"
            },{
              "adType": "rectangle",
              "displayTargets": "desktop|tablet|mobile"
            }
          ]
        },{
          "name": "Inline Links",
          "component": "18349797",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 8,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "7",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        },{
          "name": "Air - MediumRectangle - Combo - Inline Content",
          "component": "17105532",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 8,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "7",
          "maxInsertions": 25,
          
          "watchElement": ".fdn-content-body",
          "astAdList": [
            {
              "adType": "rectangle",
              "displayTargets": "desktop|tablet"
            },{
              "adType": "rectangle",
              "displayTargets": "desktop|tablet|mobile"
            }
          ]
        },{
          "name": "Inline Links",
          "component": "18349797",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 12,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "11",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        },{
          "name": "Air - Leaderboard Tower - Combo - Inline Content",
          "component": "17105535",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 12,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "11",
          "maxInsertions": 25,
          
          "watchElement": ".fdn-content-body",
          "astAdList": [
            {
              "adType": "leaderboardInlineContent",
              "displayTargets": "desktop|tablet"
            },{
              "adType": "tower",
              "displayTargets": "mobile"
            }
          ]
        }
      ]

Dallas Fort Worth area native and artist Esther Pearl Watson has pinned her career on two influential humans: her spaceship-building father and a 15-year-old girl with a lackadaisical diary obsession. In the gallery world, like at Sunday’s opening at Webb Gallery in Waxahachie (209 W. Franklin St.), we’re given a glittery eyeful of Esther’s upbringing through her strangely beautiful paintings of family homes, accented oddly by flying saucers. Her father was an inventor and eccentric, who sometimes took gigs delivering pizzas at night to conserve daylight hours for his true passion: hover-vehicle transport. They’re touchingly peculiar and done with childlike accents, drawing you back to her Texas roots. In her published work, the Unlovable comic series, Watson relives tales from high school sophomore Tammy Pierce’s 1980s diary. (The journal is real; Watson found it in a roadside Vegas bathroom. The girl’s name is manufactured.) Tammy Pierce is such a wonderful character — loaded with excessive make-up and leg warmers, she pines for God to bring her teenager-specific divinations, like a cute senior boyfriend. She constantly makes the worst possible decisions, and for that reason, we love her. (Unlovable was also released as a book series.) See paintings by Esther Pearl Watson in the Webb Gallery’s downstairs space on Sunday, then venture upstairs to check out photography and a puppet show by New Orleans favorite Ms. Pussycat. She and her music-making cohort Quintron will crank out the squishy garage swap jams and also present their newest puppet-based short film from the Trixie and the Treetrunks series, The Secret of Bath Bath. It stars a nutria girl group, an art museum for people who can’t read and fever dreams. Perfect. It runs from 3 to 7 p.m. Visit webbartgallery.com.
Sun., Nov. 18, 2012

Become A Member

BEFORE YOU GO...
Can you help us continue to share our stories? Since the beginning, Dallas Observer has been defined as the free, independent voice of Dallas — and we'd like to keep it that way. Our members allow us to continue offering readers access to our incisive coverage of local news, food, and culture with no paywalls.