Luis Jimenez Sculpture at Brownsville-SPI Airport
Originally uploaded by artofbrownsville.
A while back I was waiting to catch a flight to Houston and my eye happened to catch the sight of this sculpture at the Brownsville-South Padre Island Airport. One name flashed through my mind, "Luis Jimenez". "NAAHHHHH..." Him, his work??... here? In Brownsville? In the airport? The Brownsville airport???
I was in disbelief. (I must admit, even though Brownsville has grown so much, the small town mentality still sticks). But it was no illusion...before me was his signature and unmistakable style as proof. The sculpture was protected only by three rope barracades. "Uff!"...If people didn't know what this was, they could pass it for Dean Porter Park's newest playground installation. "Wait.", I thought, "Do people know what this sculpture is? Do they know who made it? What it means to art? What it means to representation of our culture?" Then I saw a sign near by, "PLEASE DO NOT ALLOW CHILDREN TO CLIMB"....OK, so my guess most people don't know.
I left the airport thinking, I have to take a picture one day and put it on the blog! Well, like many good intentions...the thought stayed well intended and was not brought to fruitation. Then a week ago came the sad news that Luis Jimenez died from an accident involving one of his pieces. Read the story by clicking here.
I remember one time in art school, my sculpture professor mentioned that Luis Jimenez attended and taught at UT. I was like, "Wow! When? I want the chance to be his student!" The magnificent thing about visual art though is that even though the the artist may no longer be with us, the artist's work is nearly immortal! We can continue to learn from the artist!
In respect to Luis Jimenez, I encourage you to learn from Luis Jimenez's life and work. As a Mexican-American artist from El Paso, he worked to express and share our culture on La Frontera. Thank you Mr. Jimenez for all you have done for art and for our frontera culture!
PS: If anyone may know who owns the piece or how it arrived to be placed the airport please comment below. It would be most interesting to know the story.
2 comments:
It's still there. I took the pictures just last week.
BROWNSVILLE ART HOUSE
ARTWORK AVAILABLE ON INTERNATIONAL STREET ACROSS THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT BROWNSVILLE CAMPUS
DANIEL MALDONADO IS A BROWNSVILLE LOCAL ARTIST I WILL BE TEAMING UP WITH STARTING THIS SUMMER. DANIEL IS AN ENTRAPENUER USING HIS HOUSE AS AN ART STUDIO / STORE TO PROMOTE THE LOCAL ART SCENE. THE HOUSE CAN BE EASILY SEEN IF YOUR DRIVING ON INTERNATIONAL STREET ON THE WAY TO UTB, DOWNTOWN, OR THE INTERNATIONAL BRIDGE. YOU CAN VISIT ANY TIME TO TALK SHOP OR PURCHASE ORIGINAL ARTWORK AT VERY REASONABLE PRICES. PORTRAIT REQUEST ALSO AVAILABLE.
THE BROWNSVILLE ART HOUSE : ARTWORK FOR SALE
1548 MONROE ST. (CORNER HOUSE ON MONROE ACROSS UTB ON INTERNATIONAL)
CONTACT:956-561-5880
CURRENTLY AVAILABLE ARTWORK FROM THE FOLLOWING ARTIST: DANIEL MALDONADO
ROBERTO JUAREZ
GABRIEL TREVINO
ANYONE INTERESTED CAN CONTACT :DANIEL AT THE NUMBER ABOVE OR ME AT 956-639-1497 .
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