SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 680

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 United States 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 Senate of the State of Texas, 84th 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.

Menéndez

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President of the Senate

I hereby certify that the above Resolution was adopted by the Senate on May 4, 2015.

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Secretary of the Senate

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Member, Texas Senate