People want to know how Earl Rutherford gets his wood work so shiny and smooth. Then they want to touch it. The wood turner exhibiting at Texas Artists Museum said he doesn’t know what the grain will look like until the bark comes off, then the wood will reveal its character. Admire, handle and even purchase his impossibly thin-walled goblets and wine glasses, boxes, eggs and interlocking pattern pieces. Don’t ask to go home with the ice cream scoop. It’s for his wife. The Groves native now lives in Beaumont, where the Woodworkers of Southeast Texas meet each fourth Monday at his workshop.

In January, Texas Artists Museum is also hosting Lamar University Students and work of  Slava Protopopov. For more art in Port Arthur, visit Museum of the Gulf Coast, and remember Mardi Gras of Southeast Texas is set for Feb. 16-19 in downtown Port Arthur.