FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 10, 2007
CONTACT: Geoff Embler or Matt Mackowiak
Senate Passes Hutchison Resolution Honoring El Paso Artist Tom Lea
WASHINGTON -- Today the Senate unanimously passed a resolution offered by U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison honoring El Paso artist and author Tom Lea for his lifetime of achievement.
"Tom Lea is a legendary Texas artist and I cannot think of a better way to recognize his talent and achievements in his long career than to have the Senate honor him in this way," said Sen. Hutchison.
Tom Lea was born in El Paso on July 11, 1907. His father, Tom Lea, Sr. was Mayor of El Paso from 1915-1917 during the stormy years of the Mexican Revolution. From 1926-1933 he worked as a mural painter, commercial artist and art teacher in Chicago.
After working in Santa Fe, Lea returned to El Paso in 1936 and competed for murals under the Treasury Department, Section of Fine Arts. He won competitions for murals in the Benjamin Franklin Post Office in Washington, D.C.; Hall of State, Texas State Fairgrounds, Dallas, Texas; Federal Building, El Paso, Texas; Burlington Railroad Station, Lacrosse, Wisconsin; Post Office, Pleasant Hill, Missouri; Post Office, Odessa, Texas; and, Post Office Seymour, Texas.
From 1941-1946, Tom Lea served as a World War II correspondent for Life Magazine, traveling over 100,000 miles on assignments. He landed with the first assault wave of the First Marines on Peleliu on September 15,1944. He documented the experience in a book which he wrote and illustrated entitled Peleliu Landing (1945).
Following the war, Lea turned to writing, completing two best-selling novels, The Brave Bulls (1949) and The Wonderful Country (1952). He illustrated each book and both were turned into motion pictures. In addition to other works of fiction, Lea wrote and illustrated the two-volume history of The King Ranch in 1957. In 1968 he wrote his autobiography called A Picture Gallery and in 1974 he wrote and illustrated In the Crucible of the Sun on the King Ranch properties in Australia. From that time, Tom Lea worked as a studio painter until he lost his eyesight in 1998.
His words and paintings were reintroduced to the public through the 43rd President of the United States, George W. Bush who frequently quoted Lea in his run for the Presidency.
One of Tom Lea’s quotes from his book A Picture Gallery expressed the President’s sense of optimism and hope for the future: “Sarah and I live on the east side of the mountain. It is the sunrise side, not the sunset side. It is the side to see the day that is coming, not the side to see the day that is gone. The best day is the day coming...”
Tom Lea died of complications from a fall at his home on January 29, 2001. His painting “Rio Grande” currently hangs in the Oval Office.
Large bodies of his work can be viewed at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin; the U.S. Center for Military History at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.; and in the Tom Lea Gallery at the El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, Texas.
--END--
|
