[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 34 (Thursday, March 4, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E335-E336]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   RECOGNITION OF ARTIST JOHN HOUSER INDUCTED INTO THE INTERNATIONAL 
     ASSOCIATION FOR THE VISUAL ARTS, EL PASO ARTISTS' HALL OF FAME

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. SILVESTRE REYES

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 4, 1999

  Mr. REYES. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to recognize Mr. John Houser as 
a recent inductee to the El Paso Artists' Hall of Fame. Mr. Houser was 
honored this past November in El Paso, Texas. John is an extremely 
talented artist and has many notable credits.

[[Page E336]]

  He is truly outstanding among contemporary artists. His versatility, 
the thoroughness of his training, and the depth of his artistic 
sensibility are all part of his amazing talent. Born in Rapid City, 
South Dakota, to sculptor Ivan Houser, who was First Assistant to 
Gutzon Borglum in carving Mount Rushmore, we know that part of his 
talents were inherited. However, John has continually developed his 
God-given talents to become an accomplished painter and sculptor.
  After moving to Oregon, John began sculpting and painting at the age 
of twelve. John Houser's entire life has been associated with art and 
sculpture. At age fifteen, he became the youngest active member in the 
history of the Oregon Society of Artists. He graduated from Lewis and 
Clark College in Portland, Oregon, with a double major in natural 
science and art. He continued his formal art education with a graduate 
Alumni Fellowship to UCLA, where he received the Elizabeth T. 
Greenshields Award for independent European studies. He studied in 
Spain and Italy where he learned from the Florentine painter Pietro 
Annigoni and American sculptor Avard Fairbanks. Upon his return to the 
U.S., John studied with Classicist painter, R.H. Ives Gammel in Boston 
and at Harvard University in anatomy.
  His career has taken him across Europe and the United States from the 
eastern seaboard to the west coast. In order to realistically portray 
the human condition through his subjects, he has lived and worked 
alongside diverse groups such as Gullah Blacks of South Carolina, 
Italian street fakirs, hippies, migrant workers, Gypsies, and Native 
Americans. John has also traveled extensively in Mexico and the 
Southwestern U.S., sculpting the Pueblo, Seri, Lacandon, Tarahumara, 
and Huichol Indians. He has been the subject of several television 
documentaries and his work has been featured in Southwest Art, American 
Artist, Texas Monthly, ABC (Spain), Art Talk, Connoisseur, Palette 
Talk, The Artists' Magazine, Blanco y Negro (Spain), Texas Highways, 
Siempre!, Presencia de Mexico, and Analysis (Mexico), and any more. His 
work is in private and public collections all around the world 
including The U.S. Library of Congress and The University of Texas at 
El Paso.
  John's work has been featured in several national and international 
exhibitions. These include the National Academy of Western Art 
Exhibition and Sale in Oklahoma City, the National Sculpture Society, 
the Royal Danish Havescelscab in Copenhagen, Denmark, the Kermezaar 
Exhibition in El Paso, and the Western Heritage Show and Sale in 
Houston, Texas. He has also been featured in an exhibit by the Brand 
Library and Art Galleries of Glendale, California.
  Throughout his career, John has received numerous awards and honors 
for his artistic endeavors. He is the honorary artist-in-residence for 
the Radford School in El Paso. In 1984 John won the Martin Luman winter 
Award from the Salmagundi Club in New York City for the bronze Barranca 
Overlook. Also in 1984, this bronze also garnered him the Council of 
American Artist Societies Award from the Grand National Exhibition of 
the American Artist Professional League in New York City. During 1986 
at their 5th Annual Sculpture & Open Photography Exhibition in New York 
City, the Salmagundi Club further honored John with the Elliot Liskin 
Award for the sculpture Desert Encounter. In 1987 at their 10th Annual 
Art Exhibition ion New York City, the Salmagundi Club honored John with 
the Oil Pastel Association Award for Soft Pastel. In 1988, he received 
the Outstanding Alumni Award from Lewis and Clark College. In 1992, He 
won Grand National Prize in a photo essay contest with ``The Sandimune 
Years.'' John won the Purchase Award for ``Realism Up Close'' in Santa 
Teresa, New Mexico in 1993.
  John Houser is Sculptor and Director for the XII Travelers Memorial 
of the Southwest, a revitalization project for El Paso, Texas. His 
ideas for this project will not only enhance the revitalization of 
downtown El Paso but will give our city a unique identity. The 
Travelers Memorial of the Southwest celebrates the history and 
diversity of the region with a series of twelve twice-life-sized 
bronzes.
  I admire John Houser for his talent, dedication, and achievements in 
the art world. I also am proud to recognize him here today for his 
remarkable talent and his continued contributions to El Paso.

                          ____________________