“Smokesax” Art has Pipeline Heart

Artist Bob “Daddy-O” Wade used petroleum pipelines to create a towering Texas landmark.

 

With more than 2.5 million miles of oil and natural gas pipelines crisscrossing the United States, an offbeat Texas sculptor in 1993 repurposed about 70 feet to create a work of art.

Most Texas travelers at some point have seen the monumental sculptures of Bob “Daddy-O” Wade, known for “keeping it weird” since making the Austin scene in 1961. The decades of artworks by “Daddy-O” have reflected his unusual Texas sense of scale, according to Texas A&M University Press. (more…)

Oil Art of Graham, Texas

Alexandre Hogue and other artists depicted America’s oilfields during the Great Depression.

 

Oil Fields of Graham, a 1939 mural by Alexandre Hogue, has been preserved in its original Texas oil patch community’s U.S. Postal Service building, now a museum.

When President Franklin Roosevelt created public relief projects, including the New Deal Federal Arts Program, Alexandre Hogue and other artists were commissioned to paint American history on the walls of public buildings.

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