William Steen, artist, collector, curator, and mystic, died of pancreatic cancer on December 20 in New York, where he has lived since 2001. Long time framer at the Menil Collection, the soft-spoken Steen is remembered in Houston where he had his first exhibition of paintings in 1978 at the Roberto Molina Gallery. In 1984 Steen made his first of several trips to India, photographing thousands of Tibetan Buddhist ritual paintings. A champion of outsider art, in 2000 he tangled with the Houston Police over the grafitti mural he comissioned for the walls of  the reclaimed Sterling Cleaners building, his home/studio in Houston's East End. A memorial service will be held at the Rothko chapel at 5 p.m. on Sunday, January 25.