Page 24 - Amarillo Senior Link Magazine Summer 2020- Online Magazine

Painting Her World:

Bettie Haller

As told to Senior Link staff

University. There she translated rodeo activities – all fascinated her.
many technical concepts into In her words, “It was truly Texas.”
simple cartoons so that they were
understandable to the public. Cowboys and their everyday
activities have provided a wide
She met Fred Haller in January variety of subjects for her to portray.
of 1972; they married that May “I’m not a cowboy, of course, but
and moved to Houston. There I have a lot of emotion, sensitivity,
she established her own freelance and sentimentality, and I enjoy
commercial art business. But all expressing these emotions via
along, Bettie had a strong desire cowboys and their experiences.”
aving been raised in an to pursue fine art as a full-time
atmosphere of art, it is vocation. She wanted to create work Since dedicating herself to
Hdifficult for Bettie Haller that reflected her own interests portraying the cowboy and his
to say exactly when her fascination rather than the interests of her world, Bettie developed friendships
for art became a drive to produce clients. with many cowboys who worked
it. “As far back as I can remember, I on large ranches, watching them
watched my father, Texas landscape Bettie felt that the really true branding and herding cattle,
artist Palmer Chrisman, paint, hour fulfillment of art was to create a watering and saddling horses,
after hour, every evening in his setting that other people could feel building fences and working at
studio. I never knew I had talent and even want to enter, or be so other daily chores. Often, people say
until I was in the seventh grade. One miserable they were happy not to be of her work, “I’ve seen that old barn
day in art class, while waiting for the there – the main goal was to produce before,” or “I’ve crossed that creek,”
bell to ring, a friend of mine tossed emotion in the viewer. “It’s exciting and the viewers are transported, as
me a photograph of her boyfriend to paint something that people can if by a magic time machine, back to
and asked me to sketch it. I did, and enjoy for years to come, something another day and place in their lives.
much to my amazement, she and all they like enough to make it a
our friends raved about the likeness. permanent part of their
Pretty soon, I had sketched the home or office.”
boyfriends of every girl I knew.”
Her decision to depict
Bettie’s interest in art continued western subjects was
to develop and, in 1969, led to a greatly influenced
degree in advertising art from Texas by her college years
Tech University. Her commercial at Texas Tech. The
art career began with a job at the western environment
Dallas Morning News, developing and atmosphere of
art for a shopping column. After the university and
that, she worked as an illustrator surrounding area – the
for the Texas Transportation country and western
Institute, a highway safety research music, the cowboys on
organization of Texas A&M campus, the west Texas

24 Amarillo Senior Link