Katherine Strause of Little Rock grew up in Conway and had graduated from St. Joseph High School before she ever knew that art might lead her to a lifelong career. She is now chairwoman of the art department at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, where she teaches painting.
Strause, 55, also makes art in the attic studio of the Little Rock home she shares with her husband of three years, David Jukes, a Little Rock musician who works for the Central Arkansas Library System. She has one stepdaughter, Digby Jukes of Fayetteville.
Twenty of Strause’s latest paintings are on display in a solo exhibit, Home Demonstration Clubs or How Women Saved the South, at the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies Underground Gallery, 401 President Clinton Ave. in Little Rock. The exhibition, which is supported in part by the Arkansas Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, focuses on the women in these home demonstration clubs, now known as extension homemakers clubs, and the work they have done for more than 100 years to better themselves and their neighbors. The extension homemakers clubs are part of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture’s Cooperative Extension Service.
There is no admission charge for the exhibit, which continues through Sept. 27. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
“I wasn’t academically accelerated in school and certainly worked ‘right brain,’ so art was a natural,” said Strause, who is the daughter of Julia E. Strause of Conway and the late Robert Strause. Katherine Strause’s brother, Craig Strause, lives in Conway and works at Acxiom Corp.; he and his wife, Rita, have two children, Jessica Miller and Joshua Strause. Katherine’s sister, Michelle Strause, lives in Hot Springs and is a family law attorney; she and her husband, Anthony Taylor, have one son, Robert Taylor, who is a junior at Hendrix College.
“Everyone makes art as children, and I did that as well, copying comics and trying to learn to draw,” Katherine Strause said. “I also remember making a studio in the attic of my family’s ranch-style house, where I painted in oils.
“The smells of those painting sets with linseed oil are still what I think of when I paint today. I also really remember having to be super careful not to stab myself in the head with the roofing nails that were sticking through the decking. It wasn’t a big attic at all, but I had the natural tendency to try to find a space that was isolated to make things.
“I also have early memories of riding a school bus to the Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock to take summer classes as well. We may have had two or three art classes in the entire high school curriculum, but there wasn’t much training, and I did not think that art was an option until I had been out of high school for several years.”
Strause graduated from St. Joseph School in 1977. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in visual art from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and a Master of Fine Arts degree in painting from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville.
She recalls her first art teacher at St. Joseph School, Pam Thomas.
“I’m sure Pam was right out of college, and we thought she was wonderful and very cool,” Strause said. “She wore large loop earrings and totally impressed us with her swinging style, ideas and projects. What’s more fun is, Pam works with me at Henderson State University in the Huie Library right now.”
Strause also recalled Joyce Meyers, who was the mother of Strause’s schoolmates, and Gene Hatfield, who taught art for many years at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway.
“Joyce was always super artistic and had a great flair with crafts,” Strause said. “She would substitute when our teacher was out. Her family was a big presence in our school and parish, and she was full of energy. I remember her so fondly and loved her for her encouragement.
“If you grew up in Conway and you were the least bit interested in art, then you knew who Gene Hatfield was and his amazing magical yard. At the time, Gene was teaching painting at what is now UCA. We knew the Hatfield kids and attended grade school, junior high and high school with them.
“Gene was an inspiration in how he lived and breathed art. He has also been a rock for me in my career as an artist educator. I’m just sorry I don’t get to see him as often as I would like. He is truly an artistic genius, and Conway has benefited from his presence.”
Strause said she became aware of the home demonstration clubs when she met Jane Thompson, an archivist at the Arkansas History Commission in Little Rock.
“She showed me some of the scrapbooks from the home demonstration clubs,” Strause said.
“I was immediately hooked by the imagery and the work this group had performed throughout the decades in Arkansas and the South,” she said. “These women elevated the health and standard of living for the poorest among us through thrift, economy and education. Using government aid and fueled by a feeling of personal responsibility, these women made theirs and others’ lives better, happier and helped bring this rural state into the 20th century.”
Another source of information for Strause as she researched the home demonstration clubs was the book A Splendid Piece of Work: 1912-2012: One Hundred Years of Arkansas’s Home Demonstration and Extension Homemakers Clubs, by Elizabeth Griffin Hill of North Little Rock. Strause uses text from Hill’s book alongside her paintings. Much of Hill’s research was done at the National Archives in Fort Worth, Texas.
“At this time in our history, hunger and poverty are still serious threats facing Arkansas,” Strause said. “Currently, our state is riddled with food deserts, areas where affordable healthy food is difficult to obtain. In 2013, Arkansas ranked No. 1 in the nation having households that are considered low food security or families who cut back and skip meals because of poverty. Arkansas ranked No. 2 in people who don’t know where their next meal is coming from, and 25 percent of our state’s seniors, age 60 and older, face the threat of real hunger.
“It is time again for programs like home demonstration clubs to guide and educate the less fortunate and give us all instruction on how to lead healthier, happier lives.”
For more information on Strause and her work, visit her website, www.katherinestrause.com.