84R23637 RMA-D
By: Guillen H.R. No. 2457
R E S O L U T I O N
WHEREAS, The Texas Commission on the Arts has announced
the 2016 appointments for the positions of State Poet Laureate,
State Musician, State Two-Dimensional Artist, and State
Three-Dimensional Artist; and
WHEREAS, The state's highest accolade for excellence in the
arts, designation as a Texas State Artist is conferred on those
individuals who represent the best of our rich and diverse artistic
community and who inspire others through their unique creative
expression; and
WHEREAS, San Antonio native Laurie Ann Guerrero has been
named the 2016 State Poet Laureate; while an undergraduate at Smith
College, she received the prestigious Academy of American Poets
Prize, and her first full-length collection of poems, A Tongue in
the Mouth of the Dying, was selected for the 2012 Andrés Montoya
Poetry Prize and an International Latino Book Award and was chosen
as one of 14 must-read works of Chicano literature by Rigoberto
González; she has also been recognized with the Panhandler Chapbook
Award and with grants from the Artist Foundation of San Antonio and
the Alfredo Cisneros del Moral Foundation, and she was appointed
poet laureate of San Antonio by Mayor Julian Castro in 2014; her
latest book, A Crown for Gumecindo, was released by Aztlan Libre
Press in April 2015; and
WHEREAS, The 2016 State Musician is Joe Ely, an Americana
music pioneer whose songs are infused with a mixture of rock,
country, blues, and folk influences; over the course of his
four-decade career, he has performed thousands of shows worldwide
and has been honored with a Grammy Award, a Country Music
Association Award, and the Americana Music Association's Lifetime
Achievement Award for Performance; he has further distinguished
himself through his collaboration in the country supergroup The
Flatlanders, which includes fellow songwriters Jimmie Dale Gilmore
and Butch Hancock; and
WHEREAS, Dornith Doherty has been selected as the 2016 State
Two-Dimensional Artist; born in Houston, she has produced an
impressive body of work that has been exhibited and collected
across the globe, and she is widely known for her examinations of
the relationship between the natural environment and human agency;
moreover, she was named a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
Fellow in 2012 and has received grants from the Fulbright Program,
the Japan Foundation, the Society for Contemporary Photography, the
Indiana Arts Commission, and the U.S. Department of the Interior;
today, she serves as the Distinguished Research Professor of Art at
the University of North Texas; and
WHEREAS, Named the 2016 State Three-Dimensional Artist,
Dario Robleto is an Artist Research Fellow at Rice University; he
uses esoteric materials and processes to create sculptures, prints,
and installations that investigate unexplored corners of history,
art, and science; since 1997, his work has been featured in more
than 30 solo exhibitions, the most recent of which were held at the
Menil Collection and Inman Gallery in Houston and at the Baltimore
Museum of Art, and he was awarded the 2011 Smithsonian Artist
Research Fellowship, the 2009 USA Rasmuson Fellowship, and the 2007
Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant; and
WHEREAS, The artists who have been selected to hold these
prestigious posts 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 individuals; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 84th Texas
Legislature hereby congratulate the 2016 Texas Commission on the
Arts honorees and extend to them sincere best wishes for continued
fulfillment in their creative endeavors.