In 1994 the International Association for the Visual Arts established the El Paso Artists’ Hall of Fame to honor artists for their accomplishments and contributions to the visual arts scene in the El Paso region. Artwork of the honorees resides in the museum collection. There is also a bronze plaque listing each member of the Hall of Fame in the Museum’s Foyer.
Jose Cisneros- 1998
Cisneros is the undisputed historical illustrator of the Southwest. Born in Villa Ocampo, Mexico in 1910, Cisneros moved to Ciudad Juarez in 1925 and El Paso shortly thereafter. His only art education was from a Mexican street artist who taught him how to mix colors. The lesson taught Cisneros only that he was colorblind. Still, Cisneros did countless illustrations in color in his famous cross hatched pen and ink style. When macular degeneration rendered Cisneros virtually incapable of continuing his finite work, friends such as First Lady Laura Bush acquired for him an enlarging apparatus to allow him to add detail to rough sketches previously completed.
Mr. Cisneros has written and illustrated countless books on the history of the Southwest border region. He has exhibited throughout the region, including the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, and the U.S. State Department in Mexico City. He has received many honors and awards including the Americanism Award given by the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Order of Civil Merit given by King Juan Carlos I of Spain. He has also received the Military Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem by the Vatican and the National Medal of Arts and Humanities. With nearly seventy different awards and honor won throughout his lifetime, it is impossible to list them all. He is truly an El Paso legend.
Russell Waterhouse- 1999
Russell Waterhouse was born August 11, 1928 in El Paso. After graduating from El Paso High School, Mr. Waterhouse attended Texas A&M University where he received a B.S. in economics. He also studied at the Art Center College of Design in California. Mr. Waterhouse worked for the Tony Lama Company as an artist and for the El Paso Natural Gas Company as an advertising director before becoming a full-time artist.
Mr. Waterhouse’s work has been displayed at the Wichita Falls Art Museum, Texas A&M University, The El Paso Museum of Art, and the Game Conservation International in San Antonio among many other prestigious locales. Mr. Waterhouse also served as a member of the Texas Commission on the Arts and Humanities from 1970-1975. His work is owned by many corporate collectors such as the El Paso Natural Gas Company and Providence Memorial Hospital, and many individual collectors.
George Robert Snead- 1999
George Robert Snead was born in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1936. His love of the visual and performing arts began as a young man, and his talents only grew as he studied throughout the world. His list of credentials includes the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles, and the University of Mainz in Germany. He has also studied under O.A. Williams of Charlotte, North Carolina, Dr. Wolfgang Braun of Germany, and famed Italian impressionist Salviano Constantini. Although gaining success as a political cartoonist, his favorite subjects are the Buffalo Soldiers. In addition to paintings of these military pioneers, Mr. Snead also plays LT Henry Ossian Flipper, the first African-American West Point graduate, in an on-stage production. A resident of El Paso since 1977, Mr. Snead owns the Frame Workshop on the east side of El Paso.
In addition to accomplishments pertaining to military service (three Purple Hearts, and three Vietnam Crosses of Gallantry to name only a few), Mr. Snead has also accomplished much in his long artistic career. He has had many successful traveling one-man exhibits chronicling the life and times of the Buffalo Soldiers, a show at the office of Laura Bush, and many others. He is currently serving as a Commissioner for the Texas Commission on the Arts.
Anna Johnell Crimen- 1996
Bill Rakocy was born in Youngston, Ohio, in 1924. He served three years in the Navy (1943-1946), serving in the Philippines and Marcus Island in the Central Pacific. He pursued his artistic talent by sketching GI buddies. He received a BFA and MFA from Kansas City Art Institute after his military service. He has had a long, successful career as an artist and author. He has also contributed to the El Paso community in his role as curator at the El Paso Museum of Art, and as a teacher, juror, and mentor to local artists.
Mr. Rakocy’s work has been exhibited all over the United States in locations as prestigious as the CIA Building in Washington, D.C. He has won numerous awards, and his work hangs throughout the Southwestern United States. He continues to paint, research, write, and be an integral part of the El Paso art scene.
