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Reba McEntire
Reba McEntire
Mixed Media; watercolour, prismacolors, collage
1984

I can only take partial credit for this beauty.
My (ex) wife and I met Reba McEntire briefly after a performance she gave in Knoxville with the Statler Bros.. Reba was a rising star, soon the Statler Bros. would be somewhere distant in her rear view mirrors as she rocketed up in the country music world. She was very kind, friendly and we chatted for awhile in her touring bus. She was looking to find something she could use for a 'Fan Fair' event in Nashville.

In the following weeks, I went off to do sets/backdrops for a Miss Universe pageant somewhere in Florida. Claudia (Denton) stayed home and came up with this marvelous quilt backdrop idea. When I came home I added the Cowboy hat, mountain range, rose and calligraphy.
Later, tragically, one of Reba's planes went down while on tour, people perished, and our brush with the big time went bust and the idea was never used. Well, that's show business.
Sadly, our marriage drifted apart, and we officially parted ways in 1987.

Claudia was an exceptional artist. She wore many hats, we worked together painting/designing set pieces, backdrops, illustrations, etc.
She excelled as a local Courtroom artist created for the local ABC TV affliate, and was also a gifted muralist. She painted sets and made wonderful 'hero' illustrations for a NBC television movie, "Johnny Bull" filmed in and around Knoxville. She designed and painted sets for 'The Sound of Music' and 'La Calisto' presented in Knoxville. She was chosen by Robert Cothran to assist in the scenic painting of 'She Stoops to Conquer' at the Clarence Brown Theatre, 1985. Our first job together, was to 'airbrush' colorful silk costumes designed by Marianne Custer for the production of 'The Mikado', presented in the summer of 1982 also at the Clarence Brown Theatre, at the University of Tennessee.

So, I dedicate this to a tremendous artist and person, Claudia J. Denton, RIP 1957-2015.