Lenore Thomas Straus
Lenore Thomas Straus (1 November 1909 – 16 January 1988) was an American sculptor and author.
Lenore Thomas Straus | |
---|---|
Born |
Lenore Thomas 1 November 1909 Chicago, Illinois |
Died |
16 January 1988 78) East Blue Hill, Maine | (aged
Nationality | American |
Education | Chicago Art Institute |
Known for | Sculpture |
Life and work
Lenore Thomas was born 1 November 1909 in Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of Andrew S. Thomas and Lucy Haagsma, and died at her home in Blue Hill, Maine, on 16 January 1988. Although she studied at the Chicago Art Institute, as a sculptor she was largely self-taught.[1] Much of her early work involved public art created under various New Deal programs, including terra cotta murals for several post offices. She fashioned two major pieces for the Resettlement Administration's planned community in Greenbelt, Maryland—a large Mother and Child[2] and several panels illustrating the Preamble to the United States Constitution.[3] Along with other Public Works Administration artists Hugh Collins, Carmelo Arutu, and Joseph Goethe, she created playground sculpture for Langston Terrace, the first federally funded housing project in Washington, DC.[4] In the early 1940s, when she was living in Accokeek, Maryland, she married Robert Ware Straus, who was to play an integral role in the preservation of the view across the Potomac River from George Washington's home at Mount Vernon.[5] In 1968, she moved to Maine, where she was a student of zen teacher Walter Nowick at Moonspring Hermitage.[6] in Surry, which later became the Morgan Bay zendo. She was an active member of the Morgan Bay zendo,[1] and several of her sculptures remain on its grounds[6]
In 1987, the University of Maine honored her with the Maryann Hartman Award, which recognizes distinguished women of Maine.[7] Shortly after her death in 1988, the Lenore Thomas Straus Scholarship was established in her name at the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, where Straus had taught as an artist-in-residence in 1984 and 1986 and plunged into the medium of handmade paper.[8]
Gallery
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Greenbelt, Maryland bas relief "Promote the General Welfare"
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Greenbelt, Maryland bas relief "Provide for the Common Defense"
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Greenbelt, Maryland bas relief "Insure Domestic Tranquility"
List of selected works
1937 | Preamble to the United States Constitution | limestone | Greenbelt Community Center, Greenbelt Maryland |
1939 | Delivery of Mail to the Farm | glazed terra cotta | Post office, Fredonia, Kansas |
1939 | Mother and Child | stone | Town center, Greenbelt, Maryland |
1939 | Rural Life | Post office, Covington, Virginia | |
1940 | Frog | concrete | Langston Terrace playground, Washington, DC |
1941 | Industries and Agriculture of Leetonia | terra cotta relief | Post office, Leetonia, Illinois |
1943 | Springtime | Post office, Webster Springs, West Virginia | |
1967 | The Fisherman's Wife | Vestvågøy, Lofoten, Norway | |
Two Headed Sculpture | Blue Hill Public Library, Blue Hill, Maine | ||
Seamstress | Roosevelt Public School, Roosevelt, New Jersey | ||
Blue Rhinoceros | Alice Ferguson Foundation, Accokeek, Maryland | ||
Alice | Alice Ferguson Foundation, Accokeek, Maryland | ||
Henry | Alice Ferguson Foundation, Accokeek, Maryland | ||
Bibliography
- The Tender Stone (1964)
- Stone Dust: The Autobiography of a Stone Carving (1969)
References
- 1 2 "Lenore Thomas Straus obituary". Bangor Daily News. 18 January 1988. p. 11. Retrieved 21 January 2014.
- ↑ "Mother & Child sculpture". DCMemorials.com. Retrieved 21 January 2014.
- ↑ "Constitution Frieze". DCMemorials.com. Retrieved 21 January 2014.
- ↑ Quinn, Kelly Anne (2007). Making Modern Homes: A History of Langston Terrace Dwellings, a New Deal Housing Program in Washington, D.C. (PDF). University of Maryland Digital Repository. pp. 154–156. Retrieved 21 January 2014.
- ↑ Kienholz, M (2012). The Canwell Files: Murder, Arson and Intrigue in the Evergreen State. iUniverse. pp. 238–239. ISBN 9781475948806. Retrieved 21 January 2014.
- 1 2 "Nowick, Walter (Biography)". Sweeping Zen. 2013. Retrieved 21 January 2014.
- ↑ "Maryann Hartman Awards - 1987 Award Winners". University of Maine. Retrieved 22 January 2014.
- ↑ "Haystack Scholarship Honors Late Sculptor Lenore Thomas Straus". Bangor Daily News. 27 January 1988. p. 28. Retrieved 21 January 2014.