The Value of Place

Polly Cox, M Priddy Home, 1976, Watercolor; Gift of North Texas Federal Savings and Loan, 1987.

We can discover the value of our place through art!

Award winning watercolor artist from Wichita Falls, Polly Hoffman Cox (1921-2005), did just that, to identify and understand the culture of our area. Through her careful observations, she recorded land, historical places, and moments in time. As an active member of the Wichita Falls art community, she served numerous terms as president of the Wichita Falls Art Association, which named her Outstanding Woman in the Arts and an honorary lifetime member. Her work is included in the Let Me Show You This exhibition at WFMA.

Polly Cox's watercolor paintings of historic homes and buildings are captured in a book titled Wichita Falls in Watercolor 1880-1922, published in 1982. Of these paintings she says: "The illustrations are of the earliest versions I could find, and the colors are either those actually used, or the most probable... These are only a few of many fine old buildings in Wichita Falls. Their preservation would enrich our future. Like antiques they can only grow rarer with the passage of time." (Cox, p. 36)


At Home Activity

How would you respond to life in the Wichita Falls area through art? By observing your surroundings (house, yard, or favorite place), draw, paint, or build a creative piece to preserve your personal experience in this place and time. Post to our Facebook page or, better yet, to your teacher!

Drawing by Polly Cox.

See the full activity “Documenting Life, Land and Culture,” [TEKS: Art 7.2 (A) (C)] designed by the UNT Institute for Educators on the Visual Arts (now Onstead Institute) with support from the Priddy Foundation in 2011.

View other Sense of Place Activities

 

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