82R28997 BPG-D
By: Guillen H.C.R. No. 165
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, The Texas Commission on the Arts has announced the
2011 and 2012 appointments for the positions of State Poet
Laureate, State Musician, State Two-Dimensional Artist, and State
Three-Dimensional Artist; and
WHEREAS, Honorees are chosen for the exceptional quality of
their work and for their outstanding commitment to the arts in
Texas; nominees must either be native Texans or have resided in the
state for at least five years; in addition, they must have received
critical recognition from state, regional, and national
publications, and they must have attained the highest levels of
excellence in their respective disciplines; and
WHEREAS, David M. Parsons is the 2011 Texas State Poet
Laureate; inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters in 2009, Mr.
Parsons is the recipient of numerous awards, among them a National
Endowment for the Humanities Dante Fellowship to the State
University of New York and the French/American Legation Poetry
Prize; he has published two collections of poems, and his work has
appeared in numerous journals and magazines, including Gulf Coast,
The Texas Review, and Louisiana Literature; and
WHEREAS, The 2011 Texas State Musician is singer-songwriter
Lyle Lovett, who has blurred genre boundaries over the course of 14
albums that deftly combine elements of country, swing, jazz, folk,
gospel, and blues; a four-time Grammy Award winner, Mr. Lovett has
logged significant time at the top of the Billboard charts; he has
branched successfully into acting as well, appearing in 13 feature
films, including several noteworthy Robert Altman pictures, and he
is active in many philanthropic causes; and
WHEREAS, Melissa W. Miller has been selected as the 2011
Texas State Two-Dimensional Artist; acclaimed for her bold,
imaginative, allegorical paintings of animals, she has pursued an
iconoclastic path since the mid-1970s; her works have been
exhibited at many major museums across the nation, including the
Corcoran Museum in Washington, D.C., and the Brooklyn Museum of
Fine Arts, and they have been featured in the Whitney and Venice
Biennials; an associate professor of art at The University of Texas
at Austin, Ms. Miller has also been a visiting lecturer and guest
artist at more than 40 universities, colleges, and art institutes;
and
WHEREAS, Corpus Christi native and Rockport resident Jesus
Moroles is the 2011 Texas State Three-Dimensional Artist; more than
2,000 of his works have found a place in museums and corporate,
public, and private collections; his "Lapstrake," a massive
22-foot, 64-ton abstract sculpture, is located across from the
Museum of Modern Art in New York, and his work was featured in the
landmark traveling exhibition Contemporary Hispanic Art in the
United States; Mr. Moroles has also served on the board of the
Smithsonian American Art Museum and received the 2008 National
Medal of Arts; and
WHEREAS, The 2012 Texas Poet Laureate is Jan Seale, the
author of six poetry volumes and several books of short fiction and
essays; her writing has appeared in Texas Monthly, The Yale Review,
and other periodicals, as well as numerous anthologies, and her
work has been featured on National Public Radio; a popular
presenter, she has given readings and workshops around the country,
and she is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts
fellowship; and
WHEREAS, Billy F Gibbons of ZZ Top fame has been selected as
the 2012 Texas State Musician; a much-imitated guitarist, he is
also the lead singer of the iconic band, which was inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004, and he wrote many of its
blockbuster hits; he has collaborated with a wide range of artists,
among them B. B. King, Queens of the Stone Age, Roky Erickson, and
Les Paul; in addition, he is a car customizer and actor and plays a
recurring role on the television series Bones as a fictionalized
version of himself; and
WHEREAS, The 2012 Texas State Two-Dimensional Artist is Karl
Umlauf, who grew up in Austin; after completing his master of fine
arts degree at Cornell University in 1963, he began teaching at the
University of Pennsylvania, and his paintings were exhibited in a
number of prominent East Coast galleries and museums; his long
career in higher education eventually brought him to East Texas
State University and then Baylor University; he has won many prizes
and purchase awards for reliefs in a variety of materials,
including fiberglass and cast paper; fascinated with geological
substrata and archeological burial sites as well as salvage yards
and abandoned industrial sites, he has concentrated on imaginative
facades since 2000; and
WHEREAS, Bill FitzGibbons has been selected as the 2012 Texas
State Three-Dimensional Artist; a former Fulbright Scholar, he is
known for large-scale light sculptures that transform building
walls into elaborately programmed spectrums of constantly moving
light; he has received more than 30 public art commissions in five
countries; since 2002, he has served as the executive director of
the Blue Star Contemporary Art Center in San Antonio, and he is a
member of the board of the International Sculpture Center; and
WHEREAS, The men and women who have been selected to hold
these prestigious posts for the next two years have all greatly
contributed to the vibrant cultural life of the Lone Star State, and
Texas is indeed fortunate to be home to these talented artists; now,
therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the 82nd Legislature of the State of Texas
hereby honor the 2011 and 2012 appointees to the positions of State
Poet Laureate, State Musician, State Two-Dimensional Artist, and
State Three-Dimensional Artist and extend to each of them sincere
best wishes for continued creativity and achievement.