DIVERSIONS

Paul Pfeiffer’s mask drawings will be on display at Sweet End-Ings Gallery Cafe, 2901 Elm Street from Oct. 31 Dec. 1. The 20-piece exhibit includes lavishly colored portraits and more simplistic sketches of solitary masks floating in space. Some of Pfeiffer’s present work is so realistic it can be startling-“A few of these, I feel they are looking at me,” he says mildly. For more information, call 747-8001.

ABOUT FACE

ART Halloween and the Day of the Dead mark a temporary breach in mortal reality…the barrier to the beyond grows thin, and, tradition has it, the living and the departed may meet and mingle. Were I to make such a chilling rendezvous, I know just the place: the October 31 opening of Austin artist Paul J. Pfeiffer’s show of mysterious drawings, MASKS, at Dallas’s Sweet Endings gallery cafe. My dear departed and would sample treats from Sweet Endings’s kitchen-and at the same time, feast our eyes. Pfeiffer’s pastels reflect 25 years of life-drawing and painting, including four years in which “the face behind the mask and the mask itself1 have been ongoing preoccupations. Of his haunting images, Pfeiffer, a Dallas native, says, “It’s certainly not the duty of art not to be disturbing.” We agree.

-Julie Ryan

Small Town Festivals Beckon as Fall Blows In



GETAWAY Life creeps along on such tiny cat’s feet in pastoral Washington County that, amid the stillness in Washington (pop. 596) and Chappell Hill (pop. 595), you can almost hear the grass grow. So when October weekends bring a pair of festivals, both villages seem like modern Brigadoons emerging overnight from the mists of fantasy. As small town celebrations go, though, these rank as not only real but refreshing in their unabashed corniness, freedom from commercialized pretense, and just plain old fun. Besides, both festivals have been holding forth since 1977, which means the organizers have learned from past mistakes. You won’t be disappointed.

Ordinarily you can drive through Washington on P.M. 1155 with hardly a second glance (despite its important place in Texas history), but all that changes when the area’s descendants of German immigrants celebrate Octoberfest (Oct. 5-6). A tent city springs up miraculously overnight to house singers and dancers, beer and German food, and games and contests for younger visitors. The festive atmosphere is contagious even if you’re not German.

When you tire of the hoopla, cross the road to Washington-on-the-Brazos State Park, site of the signing of the Texas Declaration of Independence in 1836. Once the capital of the Republic of Texas and a thriving city in its heyday, this hamlet now evokes its storied past with a pair of museums well worth visiting: the impressive Star of the Republic Museum, and Barrington, the restored 1844 home of Anson Jones, the last president of the republic.

The pace picks up the next weekend (Oct. 12-13) at the Scarecrow Festival in Chappell Hill, an annual tradition in which everyone in town decorates their homes and businesses with scarecrows. Last year 20,000 people descended on the picaresque burg to vole For the best scarecrows, bob for apples, munch country junk food, and ogle arts and crafts. The hayride tours during the festival are maybe the most fun of all and are actually the best way to get a grand tour of the town in all its scarecrow glory.

Other sightseeing opportunities include the way-above-average bed-and-breakfast inns, Stagecoach Inn and Mulberry House in Chappell Hill, and Browning Plantation down the road on F.M. 1155, across from U.S. 290. You’ll also want to check out the local museum and library, and the quaint church next door that has become a popular spot Tor romantic out-of-the-way weddings, particularly for Houstonians. Mainly, though, you’ll just spend your time marveling at the postcard-perfect facade of this delicious little village, which looks so much like a Hollywood set that six movie and TV-film producers have used it as a location in the last five years. Not surprisingly, Chappell Hill’s downtown-all of two blocks long on Main Street, which is blocked off for the festival-merits a listing in the National Register of Historic Places.

Washington County lies 215 miles to thesouth of Dallas in rich Central Texasfarmland. For more information onactivities or accommodations, call theConvention & Visitors Bureau, (409)836-3695. -Derro Evans

A Timeless Receptacle of Found Objects



ICONS A cigar box is never just a cigar box to Coppell artist Donna Finch Adams. In her hands, the boxes, once emptied of cigars, brim with artistic potential.

Adams recollects that, like almost everyone, she carried her school supplies in cigar boxes. She once decorated them with macaroni shells for gifts. Cigar boxes were the treasure chest depositories of her childhood’s most important objects.

Though Adams earned a doctorate in higher education and now teaches art at Brookhaven and at Collin County Community College’s Spring Creek campus, she never completely relinquished her childhood fascination with cigar boxes. She’s come to realize that the reliquaries of young imaginations also provide a fertile framework for a mature artistic vision.

With a foot-long list of exhibitions under her belt, Adams had built a solid reputation as a potter, then as a painter, when a friend challenged her to enter the Texas Sculpture Association membership show in 1988. Adams seized the opportunity to put her clutch of cardboard cigar boxes to good use producing her first cigar-box sculpture, a veritable tower of social messages. Several series of smaller, subtler, more personal works, crafted in wooden boxes, followed.

Sifting through the mass of carefully organized trinkets and gewgaws picked up at garage sales or brought to her by friends, Adams weaves a web of meaning with bits and pieces of people’s lives. Her audience’s first impression may be, “Look! It’s a cigar box!” but the viewer is pulled into the works by plain, childlike curiosity.

“The more literary you are, the more familiar you are with mythology and anthropology, the more you’ll see” says Adams. The boxes are stuffed with intellectual puzzles, graphic puns, and social commentary generated out of the months of research she puts into each piece’s theme.

“It’s surprising how much work goes into it,” she says gazing into the autobiographical “Memoirs of an Aging Barbie Doll.” The box’s inner walls are studded with hundreds of impaled, pearlescent beads. They form an intriguing marquee-like backdrop for a doll’s torso with a watch on its belly symbolizing a biological clock.

Adams selects an empty box from a stack under her worktable. Her eyes suddenly sparkle mischievously. The empty box is poised tike an apple in her hands, and it looks like an idea is about to ripen. -Phyllis Williams and John Trimble

GLAMOUR AFOOT

FASHION Shoe shopping can be painful.Too many shoes and so little time.Particularly this fall when the modern foothas so much to choose from. Fabuloussatins and suedes, artfully adorned withbuckles and bows and slinky straps forankle wrapping. Metallic mules with a flairfor the dramatic. Bold platforms that meanbusiness. In our Imelda-like zeal we chosethem all. Glamour’s a hard thing to ignore.Our model is wearing gold satin heelswith ankle wrap and heel bow from DiegoDelia Valle, Stanley Korsbak ($305).Her apricot lounging attire is from MarshallField’s. The chaise, by Ligne Roset, fromSmink, Inc. ($3,427), is covered by a fauxleopard bed throw by Adrienne Landaufrom Stanley Korshak ($700). The TamerlaneIndian rug, by Couristan, is from Rugs,Rugs, Martinek Designs ($795). Pillows arefrom The Market, Inwood Village.Shoes from left; Red suede ankle wrap,Barneys Private Label ($175); red suedeMartinez Valero sling-back, Joseph ($135);black Horizon suede heel with brasstrimmed tongue, Charles Jourdan ($295);Manolo Blahnik black and gold high-heeledmule, Barneys ($435); black suedeMargaret Jerrold oxford with metallictrim, Smyth Bros. ($184); RobertClergerie’s black leather ankle strapplatform, Stanley Korshak ($350); goldAllure mule from Joseph ($110); blacksuede double ankle strap heel by AndreaPfister, Joseph ($525); black Utility suedet-strap with platform heel, Rancho Loco($110). -Anne Warren

A Speak-easy with Style

URBAN DESING There are two ways toenter The Back Room at Lombardi’sWestEnd: discreetly, through a speak-easy-type back door or boldly, through theclutter of the dining room. Either way leadsto an intimate 1,000-square-footnightclub/restaurant designed and furnishedby architect Thomas Guerin and interiordesigner Clare Minella. The original 25-footceiling was “lowered” with an open blackgrid to leave a hint of warehouse and yet createthe proper scale. The concrete floor wasstained, scored, and left with characterimperfections. “Because it is just a squareroom with high ceilings we decided toplace a curved patina laminate bar and canopyas a sculptural element within a room,”said Guerin. The kidney-shaped bar/canopy iscovered by a sponge painted theatricalscrim that looks like a tapestry in earth tones.Guerin and Minella collaborated from thestart to integrate the colors with the interiorarchitecture. “It is a good example of anarchitect and interior designer truly teamingup from the onset to give a good responseto the clients’ needs and budget,” said Guerin.Although their styles differ, theycomplement one another. Guerin, 32, anarchitect for the last eight years, is alsoa designer and technician. His style is orderedand detail-oriented. Minella, 40, aninterior and decorative arts designer, is lessstructured in style, which is evidencedby her talent for combining textiles, color,and texture. -Layne Morgan