His retrospective show, “8,000 pencils, 45 years, 6 careers” is now on view through April 27, at Vashon Center for the Arts.

Based in Houston’s Third Ward neighborhood, the organization makes art that can seem luxurious meet real, lived necessities.

A woman saved a decrepit building in the ’70s and turned it into, among other things, an art museum, an opera house and a ...