TEXARKANA — Every year the Women for the Arts organization in Texarkana hosts a fundraiser called Party with Picassos. Talented Texarkanians are invited to submit an original work of art to be offered in an auction. Proceeds always go to a worthy cause. This year, among the paintings, mosaics and other handcrafted offerings was a striking, 10-foot cross made of steel and copper. It sold for $2,600 and was the handiwork of Father Vincent Flusche, pastor of St. Edward Church in Texarkana and its missions in Ashdown and Foreman.
Father Flusche had already earned a reputation around town for his ability to craft all sorts of things, and that is why he was invited to submit a piece for the auction. Although he had never before worked with steel, he said he wasn’t daunted; he enjoyed a new challenge. He is quick to say that he sought an expert to help him with the project — Jerome LeGrand, whose family operates a decorative metal work business in Texarkana.
The cross now stands in St. Edward Church; one of the church’s members outbid all others to take away the prize and give it to the church. And Father Flusche can now talk knowledgeably about heating steel, beating it with a hammer, putting it in a special jig to form curves — and more.
In his dining room hang examples of another craft he mastered: cross stitching.
He said, “In my 20s I saw people doing cross stitch and I decided to try it. I kind of got hooked on that, and did it for a long time — until I got a sore shoulder from so much repetitive motion and had to give it up.”
At the Texarkana area’s Four States Fair, Father Flusche won a blue ribbon for a cross stitch piece of a guardian angel.
Most of the items Father Flusche creates are for charities or for special gifts. Friends, relatives and others value his cross stitch pieces as well as other handcrafted gifts.
“I have done a lot of fabric crafts all my life,” he noted. “For instance, I have a bunch of nieces and nephews, and I like to give them a different kind of homemade Christmas ornament every year. One year I gave them carousel horses, made out of fabric and stuff. And one year I made them teddy bears. Another year I made all my nieces old-fashioned dolls out of fabric. Like Amish dolls, they had a skirt and a pinafore and a cap. I hand-sewed all the hair on them with yarn, and braided the hair. I also gave several of these away for people to use in silent auctions for charities.
“About that same time, my friend’s sister had a teddy bear collection, so I found a pattern that had a teddy bear. I made the bear sports clothing — a basketball gym suit and so forth. Then I figured out a way to make a little duffel bag to go along with it. I made several more of these to use in silent auctions.”
Father Flusche said that in grade school at St. Benedict School in Subiaco, he had a teacher who recognized that he had some artistic talent.
“Sister Simon Edelhuber was an artist and she encouraged me,” he said. “That’s really what got me interested in art.”
And in graduate school, Father Flusche took a course in pen-and-ink drawing. But his most inspiring example of creativity was his own father.
He said, “My father, interestingly enough, could sew, upholster — could do anything he set his mind to, really. I remember when I was a child, maybe 9 or 10, he got these scraps of Christmas-colored fabrics and he sewed a stocking for me and my sister. Then he gave us felt to decorate our own stockings with. I wish I still had that stocking, but I don’t.
“I taught myself to sew. I watched my father. One time my sister was supposed to be in a wedding. The bridesmaids were responsible for making their own dresses. My sister’s was too small for her, which she discovered the day before the wedding. So she and my dad went to the store and bought more fabric and stayed up all night long, sewing her bridesmaid’s dress so she would have something to wear to the wedding. He kind of inspired me! He sewed everything and my mother did the handwork such as embroidery.
“My father was also a carpenter. He remodeled our house and upholstered the furniture.”
Father Flusche has also unholstered furniture, and recently he planned and directed the remodeling of St. Edward’s rectory.
“It is much more user-friendly now, more updated and more homey,” he said of the refurbished rectory. “I get a lot of my ideas from the Home and Garden channel.”
Father Flusche’s interests also include photography. He won a blue ribbon at the Polk County Fair for a picture he took of the church he served before coming to St. Edward. He recalled, “I had a new digital camera. Two days before Christmas it was snowing a little bit. I stepped out of my house and took a picture of the back side of my church, the parking lot next to it and the trees.”
The result was a peaceful and snowy mood picture of the church.
Those lucky enough to have tasted a meal Father Flusche has cooked can attest to another one of his creative skills — planning and cooking a meal for a large group of people.
“When I was in Jonesboro we had a yearly festival, and part of that included a live auction,” he said. “One of the things they auctioned off was dinners. I did a dinner at the rectory for eight people.”
Another of Father Flusche’s talents lies in horticulture. In fact, he holds a bachelor’s degree in agriculture from the University of Arkansas and a master’s degree from North Carolina State University in horticulture. He worked from October 1981 to April 1983 as a county extension agent in Garland County before entering St. Meinrad Seminary.
He once heard an expert tell a group of priests and sisters that people need to keep goals before them throughout their life; the one goal of becoming a priest or sister is not enough. He took the advice to heart.
Of course his many little goals are the creative pieces he handcrafts.
But he has big goals, too. “One of my goals,” he said, “is to build up this parish.”
An earlier goal, now accomplished, was to earn a bachelor’s degree in Spanish before he turned 50. He completed this goal in 2005, when he graduated summa cum laude from Arkansas Tech University in Russellville. He celebrates the Mass in Spanish every Sunday afternoon, and said, “I like everything I do, and one of the high points of my ministry is the ministry to the Hispanic community.”
“Another goal,” he said, “is to bring to Arkansas a long-term, Catholic treatment facility for alcoholics and drug addicts. The only one in the United States is in St. Augustine, Fla.”
Then there’s always the goal of what to create for next year’s Party with Picassos. No telling what he’ll submit, but chances are good that he has already got something in mind.
