__________________  The San Angelo Standard-Times  _______________

Friday, November 8, 2002

Paying attention to detail

by JARED SCHROEDER
Staff Writer

Freedom, liberty and an old friend.

Those were the thoughts that came to Vietnam veteran Louis Balas’ mind when he saw the reflection of an American flag in the eye of an eagle in San Angelo artist Rebel Dowdle’s painting.

“It just caught my eye because Rebel put that American flag in the eagle’s eye,” Balas said. “I can’t think of anything that represents (freedom and liberty) better than the eagle.”

Balas purchased the painting and sent it to an old friend — retired Gen. Rudy Rudisill, who was Balas’ lieutenant while in Vietnam.

Rudisill works in the Pentagon and is the assistant to Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

“Rudy and I’ve maintained a friendship for 34 years,” Balas said. “He and I are real good friends.”

Rudisill has called to thank his friend, who fought in the 11th Armored Cavalry with him, and plans to have the painting hung somewhere in the Pentagon, possibly in the meeting room for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Balas, now a manager for a ranch located about 15 miles northeast of Sonora, also has been a subject of one of Dowdle’s paintings.

A painting of Balas with worn jeans tucked into tall black cowboy boots and a worn cowboy hat on his head hangs among other extremely detailed airbrush paintings in the sitting room in Dowdle’s business, Rebel Signs.

A retired firefighter and veteran sign maker, Dowdle said his passion now is to become a professional artist.

“This is what I want to do,” Dowdle said about his painting. “I want to give my daughter the sign business.”

Dowdle got back into painting about two years ago and works on his art after closing time almost every day.

“I lock the door at 5:30 and get back there and do my thing,” he said.

Dowdle said he created the image of the eagle, then realized it needed something more when he stepped back to look at the painting.

“I just painted the eagle, and the flag was just an afterthought,” he said. “I’ve had a lot of comments on it; a lot of people liked it.”

Dowdle said the next step for him is getting prints of his paintings made. The shop area of his sign company is littered with detailed paintings of wolves, a cowboy, a chicken and other subjects. In the sitting room area, a few gray and red strands of beard can be seen in the portrait of a re-enactment soldier.

“I’m trying to get a supply built,” he said. “I’d like to do prints.”

Dowdle said it takes him about a month to do each painting and that he can paint things as fine as a single hair with his airbrushes. The work would go more quickly if he were able to spend more than a few hours a day on the paintings.

Along with the prints, Dowdle plans to take his work to shows and to get a Web site started.

“This is something I’ve dreamed of doing,” he said. “That’s my goal in life, to be a professional artist.”