Posted on 08/13/2005 8:31:57 AM PDT by Theodore R.
Road to the Top Renaming of street spotlights sculptor's resounding success
BY WILLIAM KERNS A-J ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
Internationally revered sculptress Glenna Goodacre on Friday morning officially joined award-winning singer-songwriter Mac Davis with a Lubbock street renamed in her honor.
Eighth Street between University Avenue and Avenue Q now is Glenna Goodacre Boulevard.
Nearby is Mac Davis Lane, formerly Sixth Street.
Even more streets in the same area could be renamed after Lubbock natives who shine a favorable light on the city, according to Mayor Marc McDougal.
City Councilman Jim Gilbreath opened Friday's ceremony at The Centre, 2400 Glenna Goodacre Blvd., by describing the area east of Texas Tech as "the largest private redevelopment effort in the United States, thanks to McDougal Properties."
McDougal said that, as mayor, he recuses himself from voting on issues involving family.
That said, he noted that his father, Delbert McDougal, harbors a desire to see more Lubbock natives honored with streets in that neighborhood, "whether they represent the arts or music or athletics."
"Even some cross-streets might be eventually renamed."
Goodacre credited a group of Lubbock women with making the push for a Lubbock street to be named after her.
"Jane Henry, Margaret Talkington and Louise Underwood just got a bee in their bonnet," she said, "and thought this was something I deserved."
Underwood said, "Actually, it was Kay Milam who first told us she could not believe there was a street named after Buddy Holly (Buddy Holly Avenue, formerly Avenue H), but not Glenna Goodacre. So we all took it on as a project. The City Council agreed and I think now this is happening at the perfect time. I am thrilled for Glenna."
Goodacre is considered one of America's finest sculptors. She said that she is proudest of sculpting the
Vietnam Women's Memorial, installed on the Mall in Washington, D.C., in 1993.
Glenna Goodacre Born: 1939 in Lubbock.
Home: Santa Fe, N.M.
Education: Studied art at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colo., and Art Students League in New York City.
Family: Married Mike Schmidt, an attorney, in 1995. Children: Tim, real estate broker and Jill, former international Victoria's Secret model married to musician Harry Connick Jr.
Honors: Member of National Academy of Design since 1994, and National Sculpture Society since 1981. She is featured in numerous books on American artists and is the subject of "Glenna Goodacre: The First 25 Years."
Her other accomplishments include bronze castings of Ronald Reagan, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Barbara Jordan, Katherine Anne Porter, Scott Joplin, Greer Garson, Dan Blocker and General "Hap" Arnold.
In 2000, her rendering of Sacajawea, the Native American interpreter for the Lewis & Clark expedition, was used on the face of a new dollar coin by the U.S. Mint.
The Irish Famine Memorial, with 35 life-size figures making it the largest project to be sculpted by Goodacre, was dedicated at Penn's Landing in Philadelphia in 2003.
Goodacre, born in Lubbock in 1939, began her career as a portrait painter. She switched in 1969 to sculpting in bronze, and opted to build a home and studio in Santa Fe, N.M., in 1983.
She told a reporter for People magazine, "I generally do what I wish, and I'm fortunate people want to collect my pieces."
Considered for years a prolific artist, Friday found Goodacre saying that she plans to "slow down."
"I've stopped accepting commissions," she said. "I'm only doing what Glenna wants to do."
Turning her back on art obviously is not an option. She added that she has been inspired by the tragic tsunami in Sri Lanka. "Most fishermen lost their boats," she said, "but I've learned that many fish from poles in the water. I want to sculpt those poles with little fishermen on them."
Goodacre again joked about the size of the street sign and the decision to use boulevard, rather than lane, after her long name. "I don't laugh to be sarcastic," she explained. "I laugh because I am embarrassed. I don't know of living artists who are honored with street names."
She then joked by explaining the sign could have been longer, had someone used her full name and called it Glenna Maxey Goodacre Schmidt Boulevard.
"Just call me Ms. Boulevard," she quipped.
Mike Schmidt, whom Goodacre married in 1995, said, "People don't know how much this means to Glenna, to both of us really, because we share West Texas roots. People in Lubbock always have supported her work.
"We just met with Glenna's daughter Jill and her husband (jazz musician Harry Connick Jr.) back east and told them all about it. They are so proud of Glenna and mentioned that this is a wonderful legacy being passed on for her kids and even her grandkids to see."
Goodacre also remembered those who helped when she first began expressing her artistic nature.
"It was always a goal of mine to be a professional artist," Goodacre told People magazine in 1999.
On Friday, she thanked Lubbock artist Connie Martin for first teaching her how to draw, and recalled that it was Forrest Fenn who handed her lumps of wax, encouraged her to try to sculpt and eventually poured her first bronzes at his foundry, then on Brownfield Highway.
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