![\"Kermit](\"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/scarves-may14.jpg\")
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Only one American has ever been tapped to design scarves<\/a> for\u00a0Hermes<\/a>, the legendary (and luxurious) Paris apparel and accessory company — and he’s probably not what you would expect.<\/p>\n Kermit Oliver is his name; a retired Waco postal worker, he lives in East Waco, just a short drive from the Baylor campus. While well-known in some circles for\u00a0his collection of Hermes scarves<\/a> and his world-renowned paintings<\/a>, he’s also notorious\u00a0for his reluctance\u00a0to speak publicly<\/a> or self-promote. (See\u00a0this\u00a0fascinating 2012 Texas Monthly article<\/a>\u00a0for more of his life story.)<\/p>\n Yet, there was the famously reclusive artist (he estimates he\u2019s given fewer than 10 speeches in his life), speaking at Baylor University\u2019s Martin Museum of Art<\/a>\u00a0earlier this week, addressing a rapt audience in advance of an exhibition of his paintings and scarves at the museum<\/a>. (That’s Oliver pictured with First Lady Alice Starr above, displaying one of his scarves.)<\/p>\n Following the conclusion of his speech, Oliver surprised the audience by unveiling his latest painting, a work commissioned exclusively for Baylor by generous philanthropists Ted (BBA \u201949, JD\u2019 51) and Sue (BA \u201950) Getterman. The painting, titled \u201cArmillary,\u201d features symbolism of the new beginnings represented by each Baylor student, the quest for knowledge, our ability to illuminate darkness through our time on earth, and much more. \u201cArmillary\u201d will remain a part of the Martin Museum\u2019s permanent collection, a gift Museum Director Karin Gilliam called \u201cextraordinary\u201d due to the rarity of Oliver painting commissioned works.<\/p>\n The exhibit of Oliver’s work (including his new painting for Baylor) is on display at the Martin Museum through July 13. Check it out; not only will you get\u00a0a rich cultural experience, but it\u2019s also more affordable than the hundreds (or thousands) of dollars<\/a>\u00a0it could cost you to purchase one of his rare and luxurious scarves.<\/p>\n Sic \u2019em, Kermit Oliver and Martin Museum of Art!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Only one American has ever been tapped to design scarves for\u00a0Hermes, the legendary (and luxurious) Paris apparel and accessory company — and he’s probably not what you would expect. Kermit Oliver is his name; a retired Waco postal worker, he lives in East Waco, just a short drive from the Baylor campus. While well-known in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14568\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}