If you know Jane Portis here in Texarkana, you know her big heart shines with lots of love, whether it's for cats, her many friends or folks less fortunate than her in this world.
And when you talk with Jane about her famous uncle, the Arkansas-based novelist and writer Charles Portis, that big heart seems to balloon bigger still.
For her, this love has less to do with his considerable talents flashed when writing novels like the classic western "True Grit," made famous in film versions: one starring John Wayne, for which he won an Oscar, and another starring Jeff Bridges as the gruff and crusty U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of the novel that inspired the movies, both of which were critically acclaimed. "True Grit" has sold millions and became a modern classic in the western genre. In April, the Oxford American literary magazine will celebrate its publication with several events in Little Rock.
But to Jane, Charles has always been her beloved Uncle Buddy, forever fun and supportive in her life. Truth be told, he's not in the best of health now living in Little Rock, and she's turning a Party with Picassos art project into a way to honor him and "True Grit."
Working with local artist and Texas High School art teacher Shea Phillips, she's creating a mixed media piece that uses pages of the novel, treasured photos of Charles and a book character silhouette to celebrate his work.
Literature is art, Jane knows, and she appreciates what Charles gave there. He also helped her grow up and figure out the world. While her father finished medical school and his residency and took care of the family, her Uncle Buddy was there to ensure little things got done as he helped raise her and got his daily dose of young Jane, as she puts it.
Jane recalls with clarity the details about her time with Uncle Buddy and other fond childhood memories. Just the smell of a paper grocery sack brings them all back.
"He was just there because he had the luxury to be at that point in his life, and he would come get me and he would take me to the ice cream store. We'd go down to the river and skip rocks. He taught me how to skip rocks," Jane recalls of Charles Portis.
She also recalls belting out a beloved song while standing on the big green artificial leather bench seat in her uncle's truck as they coasted down Reservoir Road in Little Rock. She was just a kiddo.
"I would stand up, hold on to his shoulder on the little Member's Only jacket and I would sing 'Delta Dawn' as long and as loud as I could," she recalled, singing, "What's that flower you have on? Could it be a faded rose from days gone by?"
She remembers visiting him when she herself could drive, and he'd give her a can of cashews, a six-pack of Diet Coke and a fuel additive for the drive home. He taught her how to change her car's spark plugs.
"He always had stuff in his vehicles," Jane remembers. This included a glove box stuffed to the max with tickets, which the tomboy Jane discovered because of her love for taking things apart. Opening that compartment once caused a riot of paper as it blew open with unpaid tickets.
"He said, 'You can just put those back in there,'" Jane recalled.
Other memories: sitting at the bar with him and other men, eating peanuts, or visiting him at his apartment, which had the coldest swimming pool in Little Rock. His love for animals. Or that he drove Dee Brown, fellow Little Rock resident and author of "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee," to the doctor and the grocery store.
Their closeness continued into her adulthood. She wrote him letters at least once a week her whole life until Charles' health started failing.
"I have every letter he's ever written me," Jane said, her voice cracking with the emotion. "He's probably my favorite person in the whole world," she said. "The art is for Buddy."
She said he was never important to her because of what he wrote. "I didn't read anything he had written until I was grown up because I just wanted him to be my Uncle Buddy," she said. "I didn't want that to interfere."
This special connection to Charles Portis is commemorated in her artwork.
"I thought it would be a good thing to tie that in with Women for the Arts," Jane said. Her piece will be auctioned at the Party with Picassos party this Saturday night.
"True Grit," which takes place in Yell County, has made quite the impact. It's a book taught all over the country. When she took her daughter to the University of Oklahoma to register for classes, they saw "True Grit" everywhere with a summer celebration of the book. Indian territory, which features largely in the book, was in Oklahoma.
Charles was born in Union County east of Texarkana. "My dad and his brothers grew up in Hamburg. My grandfather was the superintendent of schools there. There's Portis Elementary School in Hamburg, Ark.," Jane said. "Buddy worked for the New York Herald Tribune. He lived in New York for a while, dated Nora Ephron. They moved him to the London bureau."
(Ephron was an American writer and filmmaker nominated for three Academy Awards.)
One of her prized possessions signifies Charles' experience in journalism: a business card. It's something she treasures, along with photos of the man who now is likely in the twilight of his life. He's not reclusive, she lovingly says, just an "old guy from Arkansas who doesn't have any idea why you'd want to talk to him."
Jane thought of a possible painting to honor him, but she knows there are already many wonderful painters here in Texarkana. A sculpture was another possibility, but she chose to go with a mixed-media piece.
A photo the family possesses depicts Charles Portis with John Wayne on the original "True Grit" movie set. She points out two peculiarities: Wayne isn't holding a gun although he's in a gunfight stance and, in the background, one can see the aspen trees of Colorado, where the first film was shot.
The photo will be reproduced and somehow assimilated into the art, as will a professional photo of Charles from his journalism days. She says his casual Uncle Buddy uniform consisted of khaki slacks and that aforementioned Members Only jacket.
"I wanted to do something where I take a book and take the pages out, which is really hard for me to do," said Jane, a true book lover. But these pages have special meaning, each one with quotes that somehow resonate. Tough as it was to do, she cracked that spine and ripped the pages from its clutches. She brushed the pages with paint to make them appear old.
"We had two different editions and we ended going with this edition because it had the logo and his name on there. Each page was hand-selected by Jane and they're very significant pages," said Phillips. If you've seen the movies, chances are you'll recognize the novel's dialogue on them.
"Everything that you read on here, even if you're remotely familiar with the story, you'll recognize it and it's funny. She was just 14 and mean or full of moxie," Jane said about Mattie Ross, the strong-willed young woman who serves as a central protagonist in the novel. She hires Rooster Cogburn to exact vengeance on Tom Chaney, who killed Mattie's father.
"The piece is going to read kind of like a book jacket or like a movie poster, but we're also going to include these really rare artifacts in there, as well," Phillips said.
They'll use a photo transfer process to place the images onto wood, she said. "It's going to look distressed, it's going to look a little weathered," Phillips said. At the center will be a silhouette of Ross.
Perhaps it's fitting that this tough young woman of "True Grit" fame is part of an art project for a Women for the Arts fundraiser. Phillips sees several ways in which this art should draw interest.
"I think it will appeal to people who like westerns. I think it will appeal to movie buffs, people that are interested in regional history. I think that there's going to be a lot of people just interested in this piece for its historical significance," Phillips said.
Jane says she hopes the artwork will rekindle an interest in her uncle, her Charles, her Buddy, when it's auctioned at Party with Picassos this week.
"The art is a way for me to express my love and appreciation for my lifelong hero in a way that may draw other people's attention for their very own reasons," she said. "That is my hope."
The big Oxford American two-day throwdown in April, as Jane described it, will feature writers like Roy Blount Jr. and Calvin Trillin participating in one of several "True Grit" panels, screenings of both films, plus live music by singer Iris DeMent and others.