Henry Rayburn

Henry Rayburn could make art out of almost anything — spools of thread, a Fiesta gown, tarnished silverware, sofa pillows, mirrors, teddy bears and puzzle pieces. His mixtures of glitz and nostalgia were sweet and playful, referring to the city's history and old family stories.

He designed the "Dancing Letters" that seem to twist and shout across the fanciful façade of the Maury Maverick Jr. Library, which also features giant, playful abstract paintings on metal that suggest a child's view of flowers and foliage.

Collage artist, preservationist and community activist, Rayburn died Tuesday. He was 64.

"His passion was for his art and his friends," said Jim Nelson, a friend who teaches at the UT Health Science Center. "From my perspective, I thought he could turn anything in the world into a beautiful object. He collected all kinds of unusual objects. His home in King William looks like one of the old museums, the cabinet of curiosities — it's just filled with incredible things."

In 2006, Rayburn rounded up nine other San Antonio artist collectors for "Juxtapositions," which ranged from antique measuring devices to Barbie dolls, at the Alameda National Center for Latino Arts and Culture.

"I definitely think using found objects in a collage is a San Antonio thing," Rayburn said about the work he showed in the 2006 exhibit. "I take objects and alter them slightly, such as this 1972 Fiesta gown that I dropped on a mirror. This collection of colored light bulbs came from the O'Neil Ford estate sale. The spools of thread in a bon-bon jar are candy for the eyes."

He graduated from Alvarado High School in 1963 and then studied architecture at the University of Texas at Austin. After spending two years in Colombia with the Peace Corps, he worked in San Francisco and San Antonio as an architect. But he left architecture in 1985 to pursue his art full time.

He studied art at the Art Institute of San Antonio. With rendering, watercolor and drawing skills from his architectural training, he began to work in collage and then moved into three-dimensional assemblages made from found objects.

"Henry was a simple, gentle fellow with a good, adventurous eye for design," said Richard Conn, owner of the Nueva Street Gallery where Rayburn worked for 15 years. "Coming out of nowhere in 1985, he showed tremendous growth as an artist. He had a real impact on people locally, and probably would have become a much better-known artist nationally if he had had a few more years."

Rayburn showed in galleries in Texas and Colorado. He was included in several of the annual "Blue Star" surveys of local artists during Contemporary Art Month. For a special outdoor exhibit during "Blue Star 17," he placed stuffed animals in the windows of the old Frederick Building. Curator Terri Sultan of Houston's Blaffer Gallery selected Rayburn as the only sculptor included in "Blue Star 18."

His five large-scale assemblages in "Blue Star 19," curated by Lynn Herbert of Houston's Contemporary Art Museum, included "Quito," which paid tribute to a long-departed pet parrot. Rayburn chronicled his travels in a series of three "journals" protected by antique-looking Japanese paper umbrellas in "Blue Star 20" curated by George Neubert, former head of the San Antonio Museum of Art.

His last exhibit, featuring new work with puzzle pieces, was last November at the Koelsch Gallery in Houston.

Services: Funeral services will take place at 2 p.m. Saturday (Jan. 31) at the First Baptist Church in Alvarado, Texas. A memorial service in San Antonio is set for 6 p.m. Feb. 7 at SAY Si, 1518 S. Alamo St. Friends are invited to bring objects to add to an "offrenda"