Armando Hinojosa

Last updated

Armando Garcia Hinojosa
Born1944
Nationality Mexican American
Alma mater Texas A&M University - Kingsville
Occupation(s)Artist and sculptor
SpouseMarried
ChildrenDr. Armando R. Hinojosa

David Andrew Hinojosa

Melissa Joy Hinojosa
Website armandohinojosa.com

Armando Garcia Hinojosa (born 1944) is an artist and educator from Laredo, Texas, who is known for some half dozen major pieces of sculpture, including the massive Tejano Monument on the south lawn of the Texas State Capitol in Austin. The 12-piece monument was unveiled in the spring of 2012. [1]

Contents

Sculptor

Hinojosa's Tejano monument includes a Spanish explorer, a mustang-riding vaquero, a mother and father with their newborn infant, a boy with a strong-willed goat, a girl filling a water jug, and two longhorn cattle made of bronze. The statues are mounted on a granite base, which was quarried in Marble Falls in Burnet County, Texas. The significance of each character on the monument is described by a bronze plaque. [1] In 2001, Hinojosa was chosen from among several Texas artists to create the monument. [2]

The pieces were cast at the Larry Stevens foundry in Bulverde in Comal County, Texas. According to Stevens, ten steps are involved in the process: "The artist sculpts it in clay, then we make a mold and fill that with wax, then we cover it with slurry, then we burn out the wax and pour in the molten bronze. There are a lot more steps. It gets pretty complicated." [1] The largest on any state capitol grounds, the Tejano Monument honors native-born Texans of Hispanic descent since the year 1519, when Alonzo Alvarez de Pineda mapped the Texas Gulf Coast. Stevens estimates that the two longhorns weigh six to eight hundred pounds each: "You can't learn this in art school. I learned it from a friend at a foundry in Fort Worth. It's kind of an apprenticeship. There's lots of trial and error, lots of looking, measuring, looking some more, welding, pounding. I've had to remelt a lot of pieces over my career. We make the sculptor look good, He's the artist and we're the artisans." [1]

The Texas State Legislature approved the monument in 2009. The Texas State Preservation Board accepted the design without dissent in 2010. The state provided just over half of the $2 million cost of the monument. The remainder was raised privately, with major contributions from the International Bank of Commerce, American Electric Power, and American Telephone and Telegraph. [1]

Other Hinojosa works include the life-sized replica of Admiral Chester Nimitz at the entrance to SeaWorld in San Antonio and the Double Eagle, a 9-foot high, 14-foot windspan depiction of the national bird of the United States, placed at another San Antonio amusement park, Six Flags Fiesta Texas. [3] Other HInojosa sculptures are the Juan Seguin monument at Seguin Central Park in Seguin, Texas, the Knute Rockne and Ara Parseghian statues at Notre Dame University in South Bend, Indiana, and the life-size "Among Friends There Are No Borders" statue at Laredo International Airport, which depicts a South Texas vaquero and a Mexican charro sharing a campfire. [1] Hinojosa's works appear in the collections of former U.S. President Richard M. Nixon and the late Governors Allan Shivers, Dolph Briscoe, and Bill Clements. The legislature recognized Hinojosa in 1982–1983 as the "Official State Artist." [3]

Hinojosa also sculpted the bust of Charles Robert Borchers, the former district attorney of the 49th Judicial District Court, which is displayed on the main floor of the Webb County Justice Center in downtown Laredo. [4]

Educator

Hinojosa, who has worked with Stevens for several decades, [1] is a graduate of the institution now known as Texas A&M University - Kingsville. He was a faculty member and the dean of visual arts at the Vidal M. Trevino School of Communications and Fine Arts in downtown Laredo, an entity of the Laredo Independent School District. He is a direct descendant of Don Thomas Sanchez, who founded Laredo in 1755. His father, Geronimo Hinojosa, was also a painter and sculptor. Hinojosa said that he "always knew that my life would revolve around the creation and the appreciation of the arts." [5]

Hinojosa and his wife have three children, Dr. Armando Roberto Hinojosa (born 1969), an internist in Laredo; David Andrew Hinojosa, and Melissa Joy Hinojosa. [6]

Armando Hinojosa Drive in south Laredo is named in his honor.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tejanos</span> Texas descendants of Hispanic settlers

Tejanos are the residents of the state of Texas who are culturally descended from the population of Tejas and Coahuila that lived in the region before it became a U.S. state in 1845. Tejano ancestry includes extinct Native American tribes such as the Coahuiltecans, who were Hispanicized after the Spanish conquest. Most modern-day Tejanos are part of this mestizo population. The term is also sometimes mistakenly applied to all Texans of Mexican descent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Crawford (sculptor)</span> American sculptor (1814–1857)

Thomas Gibson Crawford was an American sculptor who is best known for his numerous artistic contributions to the United States Capitol, including the Statue of Freedom atop its dome.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jo Davidson</span> American sculptor

Jo Davidson was an American sculptor. Although he specialized in realistic, intense portrait busts, Davidson did not require his subjects to formally pose for him; rather, he observed and spoke with them. He worked primarily with clay, while the final products were typically cast in terra-cotta or bronze, or carved from marble.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Statue of Father Damien</span>

The Father Damien Statue, also called the Saint Damien of Molokaʻi Statue, is the centerpiece of the entrance to the Hawaiʻi State Capitol and the Hawaiʻi State Legislature in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. A second bronze cast is displayed in the National Statuary Hall Collection in the United States Capitol, along with the Kamehameha Statue. The landmark memorializes the famous Hawaiʻi Catholic Church priest from Belgium who sacrificed his life for the lepers of the island of Molokaʻi. Father Damien is considered one of the preeminent heroes of Hawaiʻi, and was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on October 11, 2009. Cast in bronze, the statue depicts Father Damien in his later years after being diagnosed with the disease of those he attended. Much attention was given to the recreation of the disfiguring scars on the priest's face and his arm hanging from a sling.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pompeo Coppini</span> American sculptor

Pompeo Luigi Coppini was an Italian born sculptor who emigrated to the United States. Although his works can be found in Italy, Mexico and a number of U.S. states, the majority of his work can be found in Texas. He is particularly famous for the Alamo Plaza work, Spirit of Sacrifice, a.k.a. The Alamo Cenotaph, as well as numerous statues honoring Texan figures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Summers (artist)</span> American painter (born 1940)

Robert Temple Summers II is an American artist in Cleburne, Texas. Summers, who works as a painter and sculptor, has created prominent bronze works displayed in places such as the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum, the Dallas Pioneer Park the Loews Anatole Hotel, Fair Park, Los Angeles International Airport, and Plano Texas' Baccus Plaza.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Russin</span> American artist

Robert Isaiah Russin was an American sculptor, artist and University of Wyoming professor. He was best known for a number of public sculptures throughout the United States, including the "Spirit of Life" fountain sculpture located at the City of Hope National Medical Center in California and a giant bust of Abraham Lincoln, the Abraham Lincoln Memorial Monument, located on I-80 in Wyoming.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raffaello Romanelli</span> Italian artist (1856–1928)

Raffaello Romanelli was an Italian sculptor, born in Florence, Italy.

Roman Bronze Works, now operated as Roman Bronze Studios, is a bronze foundry in New York City. Established in 1897 by Riccardo Bertelli, it was the first American foundry to specialize in the lost-wax casting method, and was the country's pre-eminent art foundry during the American Renaissance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steven Whyte</span> American sculptor

Steven Whyte is a sculptor classically trained in the traditional methodology of figurative bronze and portrait sculpture living in Carmel, California. He has produced many public memorials and installations in both England and throughout the United States with subjects ranging from miners, to soldiers and fire fighters. He is credited with over fifty life size and larger bronze public figures and major monuments including The Silverdale Mining Memorial, The Lance Sergeant Jack Baskeyfield VC Tribute, The Spirit of 1948, and The Dr. John Roberts Monument. Whyte's multimillion-dollar, sixteen-figure monument in San Diego, California entitled National Salute to Bob Hope and the Military is one of his most notable works.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Statue of George Washington (Indianapolis)</span>

George Washington is a public artwork by American sculptor Donald De Lue, located on the grounds of the Indiana Statehouse, in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. The bronze statue of George Washington that occupies the Indiana Statehouse south lawn is one of several copies of a 1959 original wax cast at the Modern Art Foundry in Long Island, New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Statue of George Washington (Houdon)</span> Statue of George Washington by Jean-Antoine Houdon

George Washington is a statue by the French sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon from the late 18th century. Based on a life mask and other measurements of George Washington taken by Houdon, it is considered one of the most accurate depictions of the subject. The original sculpture is located in the rotunda of the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond, Virginia, and it has been copied extensively, with one copy standing in the United States Capitol Rotunda.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">J. Otto Schweizer</span> American sculptor

Jakob Otto Schweizer was a Swiss-American sculptor noted for his work on war memorials.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karl Gerhardt</span> American sculptor

Karl Gerhardt was a United States sculptor, best known for his death mask of President Ulysses S. Grant and a portrait bust of Mark Twain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Jackson Ellicott</span> American sculptor

Henry Jackson Ellicott was an American sculptor and architectural sculptor, best known for his work on American Civil War monuments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carl Conrads</span> American sculptor (1839–1920)

Carl H. Conrads was an American sculptor best known for his work on Civil War monuments and his two works in the National Statuary Hall Collection at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. He was also known as Charles Conrads.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Texas Capitol Vietnam Veterans Monument</span> Monument in Austin, Texas, U.S.

The Texas Capitol Vietnam Veterans Monument, is a memorial designed by New Mexico artist Duke Sundt, installed on the grounds of the Texas State Capitol in Austin, Texas, United States. It serves as a tribute to all Texans who served in the Vietnam War and a memorial to the 3,417 who died. Ground was broken on March 25, 2013 on the northeast side of the Capitol. The monument was dedicated on March 29, 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tejano Monument</span> Monument in Austin, Texas, U.S.

The Tejano Monument is a memorial commemorating the impact of Tejanos on Texas culture and history, installed on the Texas State Capitol grounds in Austin, Texas, United States. The monument was sculpted by Armando Hinojosa and erected by Tejano Monument, Inc. in 2012. It features nine life-size bronze statues on a 275-ton Texas Sunset Red Granite base, and five plaques describing Tejano history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Statue of Sir Nigel Gresley</span> Statue in Kings Cross railway station, London

A statue of Sir Nigel Gresley made of bronze stands near the booking office of London King's Cross railway station. It was commissioned by the Gresley Society in memory of Sir Nigel Gresley, a locomotive designer who worked in offices at the station and whose designs included Mallard, which set the unbroken steam locomotive speed record in 1938. The statue was designed by Hazel Reeves and cast in bronze at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. A decision taken by the Society to omit from the final sculpture a mallard duck that had been shown on the initial design led to what was described as "possibly the most acrimonious argument in the long, pedantic history of the railway hobbyist".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Horatio Stone</span> 19th century American sculptor, physician, and writer

Horatio Stone, was an American sculptor, physician, and writer. He is best remembered for his three statues in the U.S. Capitol.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Randy Lankford, "Building bronze bulls"". mysanantonio.com, May 19, 2012. May 19, 2011. Retrieved July 27, 2013.
  2. "The Artist: Armando Hinojosa". tejanomonument.com. Archived from the original on June 29, 2012. Retrieved July 27, 2012.
  3. 1 2 "Armando Hinojosa". stevensartfoundry.com. Retrieved July 27, 2013.
  4. Robert Garcia. "Borchers bust unveiled, honored". Laredo Morning Times. Archived from the original on June 15, 2014. Retrieved June 13, 2014.
  5. "Armando Hinojosa: Painter and Sculptor". armandohinojosa.com. Retrieved July 27, 2012.
  6. ""Cynthia Porras Weds Armando R. Hinojosa"" (PDF). Laredo Morning Times, November 29, 1998. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 22, 2016. Retrieved August 1, 2012.