Coleman Lion Drawing Returns to La Feria

by Gloria Casas

On a lazy Saturday, a couple weeks ago, I decide to spend some time just looking around the shops on Jackson Street in Harlingen. I went in and out of the different shops enjoying myself. I found a place that had homemade dessert, blueberry cobbler with ice cream and a tall glass of homemade lemonade.

In one of the shop I walked in, I saw several pieces of art. One in particular caught my attention. It was a beautiful drawing of a lion. Being a La Feria Lion fan, I often get drawn to lion pictures. I picked it up and looked it over and put it back, I already have a whole bunch of pictures of lions. I continued looking around, but for some reason this piece of art kept “calling me back”. It kind of said “come look at me one more time”. As I was leaving the store, I decided to take another look at the painting that kept calling me back. I picked it up and turned it around to look at the back and to my surprise the artist was from La Feria. It even had the artist’s business card. The card had a La Feria phone number and the name Bernice Coleman. Once I read that the artist was from La Feria, I was intrigued and there was no question that I was going to buy it and bring back to its home. I bought it right away, and it became my treasure and the mission was on. I wanted to find the artist, so I could personally thank her for this beautiful work. Once I put it in my FaceBook, many of my Facebook friends “liked it” and commented they thought it was a beauty and commented they knew the artist. “She is a very nice art teacher” was the common comment.

I wrote on my Facebook that I was going to hang it up in my son’s business, JC Wing Co. People started coming to JC Wing Co. to see the art. I thought that was nice, but I thought it would be nicer if we could have the artist present when we hung it up. But first I had to find Ms. Bernice Coleman. All my friends directed me to Mary Beth, La Feria News Editor; I was advised that she would know where to find Bernice Coleman. They were correct, Mary Beth connected me immediately and the rest is history.

I called the number Mary Beth gave me and Ms. Coleman answered the phone and sure enough she was a very nice lady. We talked and she agreed to come the following Saturday to witness my son hang up the picture at its new home. She stated she was very touched that we wanted her to be present.

She came and we hung up her art, and l felt the start of a long friendship. I feel so honored to have met this wonderful and talented lady. I could talk to her forever, she is so interesting.