By Christine Riccelli 

Last Friday night, Walnut Street downtown offered plenty of evidence of Des Moines' robust gallery scene:

Studio Gallery in the East Village (323 E. Walnut St.) opened "Flora Project," a new exhibit of works by artist and gallery owner Jay Vigon. We're wild about the floral digital prints Vigon creates--so wild, in fact, that we feature one on the current cover of dsm. This exhibit is your chance to check out the others in the series. The prints are available in different sizes and at various price points; we especially loved the ones mounted on Plexiglas. Vigon, who opened Studio Gallery last fall with his artist wife, Margo Nahas, is a nationally known designer whose impressive client list includes Warner Bros. and George Lucas. In addition to illustrations and digital art, he's created graphic designs for album covers, logos and advertising campaigns.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the river at 520 Walnut St., Des Moines artist and sculptor James Ellwanger and his wife, Melinda, hosted an opening reception for Nest Gallery. The space, on the first floor of the U.S. Bank Building, showcases Ellwanger's new geometric digital prints. It also will serve as the hub for Ellwanger's "Spectrum on Walnut," a proposed lighting display for Walnut Street; you can get a glimpse of the project at Nest, where some of the lighting already is installed. Ellwanger's sculptures around town include "Shattering Silence" (our favorite) at the Iowa Judicial Branch Building on the Capitol grounds and "Liberty Crown" atop Exile Brewing Co. 

During a series of Confederate Civil War successes, Southerners greeted news of Winnie Davis' birth as a sign of impending victory. Des Moines author and historian Heath Hardage Lee profiles Confederate President Jefferson Davis' controversial youngest daughter in a new biography, "Winnie Davis: Daughter of the Lost Cause."

Relying on 20 years of research from letters, diaries, newspapers and interviews with relatives, Lee portrays an unwitting icon, idolized as the "Daughter of the Confederacy" but struggling with conflicting personal views. Davis' 1890 engagement to a Northerner--the grandson of a famous abolitionist--enraged her community, and she never married. But as an author and newspaper reporter in New York City, Davis eventually found the personal and artistic freedom she craved.

The Younkers building fire has caused an outpouring of memories of the grand old department store. Allow me to add one myself.

In the late '70s and early '80s, I was lucky enough to work in the Younkers restaurants--specifically, the Tea Room and Parkade Pantry (both downtown) and the Meadowlark (at Merle Hay Mall). Back then, the Younkers restaurant had--in addition to affordable food made from scratch--a commitment to customer service and teamwork that has served me well my entire working life.

I can remember our manager, Pat Bock, telling us that there were many things she would forgive; she understood that orders got mixed up, glasses got shattered, coffee got spilled. But she would never, ever forgive us for being rude to anyone who sat at our tables.

Pat taught graciousness through acts of graciousness herself. One day, in the middle of a lunch shift, she caught me standing in the back of the kitchen shoveling one of those famous rarebit burgers into my mouth. She said, "For heaven's sake, sit down and eat that thing, or you'll get sick. I'll cover your tables for a while." When I got back on the floor and thanked her, she said to me, "Well, I know what it's like to try to serve food when you're hungry."

One holiday season, an old cook mentioned that we should all sing Christmas carols together. Some of us younger staff may have rolled our eyes at the idea, but Pat told us, "It's the least you can do for a cook you work with all year." So, at the end of our shift that day, we all sat in the dining room and sang together.

In these and so many other ways, Pat motivated us to be nice to the customers, not because it was our job, but because she showed us how nice it felt when someone was nice to us.