2009.10.28: Obituary for Colombia RPCV Henry Rayburn

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By Admin1 (admin) (151.196.38.70) on Saturday, November 28, 2009 - 3:27 pm: Edit Post

Obituary for Colombia RPCV Henry Rayburn

Obituary for Colombia RPCV Henry Rayburn

"He was a wonderful friend," says John Casey, with whom Rayburn shared "the love of metaphysics," and whom he met at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting more than 30 years ago. An Alcoholics Anonymous meeting? Yep, Henry's life was a complex one, full of surprises and turns: After the Alvarado, Texas, native graduated UT Austin with an architecture degree, he spent 1970-'72 in Colombia as a Peace Corps volunteer. He spent a (riotous, we hope) time in San Francisco as an out and proud gay man during the storied Milk era, then came to San Antonio for a job, put down roots, and gave up his architecture practice for full-time fine art.

Obituary for Colombia RPCV Henry Rayburn

Calling All Souls

In keeping with Mexican and Catholic traditions of remembering and honoring the departed, the Current presents our First Annual Día de los Muertos issue, in which we pay tribute to a handful of the individuals who rocked our worlds, changed how we live, made San Antonio a better place to work, play, and raise our kids, and sometime in the past 12 months, left us. The young, the old, the lions and lambs, the patrons, artists, and muses.

[Excerpt]

The news that Henry Rayburn died on January 27 hit the Current's online social network like a lead balloon: "Our heart is in our shoes," we Tweeted, while on Facebook, Rayburn admirers from Del Rio to New York registered profound shock and sadness.

Artist, architect, activist, volunteer, world traveller, and world-class charmer, Henry was a Renaissance Man. His memorial service at Say Sí brought together hundreds of friends, relatives, and admirers, including his next-door neighbor on Cedar Street, who described Henry's crucial and unbounded kindness to her after she lost her house in a fire. A lovely ofrenda contained photos, mementos, and a Scrabble board upon which people had spelled out the words CALM, HEART, LOVE, and GENTLE SPIRIT.

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"He was a wonderful friend," says John Casey, with whom Rayburn shared "the love of metaphysics," and whom he met at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting more than 30 years ago. An Alcoholics Anonymous meeting? Yep, Henry's life was a complex one, full of surprises and turns: After the Alvarado, Texas, native graduated UT Austin with an architecture degree, he spent 1970-'72 in Colombia as a Peace Corps volunteer. He spent a (riotous, we hope) time in San Francisco as an out and proud gay man during the storied Milk era, then came to San Antonio for a job, put down roots, and gave up his architecture practice for full-time fine art.

"He loved San Antonio so much. Sometimes when you visit [San Antonians] they're a little bit apologetic, like, ‘We know this isn't New York or Houston,' but Henry was never that way. His attitude was, ‘Isn't this wonderful?'" says Franny Koelsch of Houston, whose gallery represented Rayburn for 14-and-a-half years

"He was of the caliber to be an internationally recognized artist," his friend Bettie Ward says. "I saw him go from those early watercolor works to collage to complete abstraction … I mean, when he went to abstraction, it was like he'd broken out of a brick building!"

Rayburn's art lives on: A sale of his works this past weekend raised funds for estate expenses and medical debts. And this past spring, the Linda Pace Foundation mounted a memorial exhibition of "Threads," an awe-inspring yet human-scale assemblage much beloved by the late Pace herself, a champion of Rayburn's work. - Sarah Fisch



Links to Related Topics (Tags):

Headlines: October, 2009; Peace Corps Colombia; Directory of Colombia RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Colombia RPCVs; Obituaries; Art; Painting; Gay Issues; Architecture





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Story Source: Sacurrent

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Colombia; Obituaries; Art; Painting; Gay Issues; Architecture

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