|
 Dollars
and Artistic Sense
As a student, Glenna
Maxey Goodacre ’61 concentrated on
painting and zoology, with the thought that she
might someday translate those talents into a career
as a medical illustrator. But the “accurate
draftsman of frog guts” never took up that
line of work.
Instead, after graduating from CC with an art degree
and studying art at the Art Students’ League
in New York, Goodacre raised a family and pursued
a career painting portraits and Native American
subjects in her hometown, Lubbock, Texas. One day,
however, an old friend who owned a gallery and foundry
in Lubbock sat her down with a softball-sized lump
of wax and suggested she try sculpting.
The 6-inch bronze sculpture of her young daughter
quickly engaged Goodacre, and she embarked on larger
projects. Her passion for capturing emotion in sculptural
form revealed itself as she progressed from life-size
head studies and figures in bronze to historic public
monuments.
While her studio is based in Santa Fe, N.M., Goodacre
is a world-renowned sculptor whose work is widely
exhibited and displayed in more than 40 countries.
Her most well-known works include the Vietnam Women’s
Memorial, installed on the Mall in Washington D.C.
in 1993, and the Irish Memorial installed in downtown
Philadelphia in 2003.
 Her
rendering of Sacagawea — the Shoshone interpreter
and guide for the Lewis and Clark Expedition from
1804 to 1806 — on a dollar coin was selected
for its “remarkable emotional depth”
and issued by the U.S. Mint in 2000.
Among her many awards, Goodacre has honorary doctorates
from CC and Texas Tech University, and the prestigious
Texas Medal of Art, received in 2003. She is an
elected member of the National Academy of Design
and a member of the National Sculpture Society.
Success hasn’t stopped Goodacre from taking
on new challenges and spending long hours in the
studio. The recently completed Irish Memorial statue
is her most ambitious public sculpture, depicting
35 life-size figures stepping off a late 1800s ship
that is 30 feet long, 12 feet tall and wide. The
14,000-pound bronze piece was sculpted in clay in
her Santa Fe studio and cast at Art Castings in
Loveland, Colo.
 In
2003, she also completed a bronze statue of the
legendary West Point football coach Col. Earl “Red”
Blaik. Goodacre relied on Blaik’s friends
and photos to guide her in creating the sculpture
— commissioned by a group of prominent West
Point graduates, former players, and his son —that
stands 11/2 times life size at the College Football
Hall of Fame in South Bend, Ind.
The sculptor has never stopped learning. “My
liberal arts degree allows me to go in so many different
directions,” she says. “Classes in anatomy,
zoology, anthropology, and history have all assisted
my sculpture.”
Goodacre advises the aspiring artist to study the
basics in any art media, take a lot of workshops
from a diverse assortment of artists, and try different
techniques. Above all, she adds, avoid being narrow-minded.
Goodacre is currently working on smaller projects.
She divides her time between her Santa Fe studio
and Dallas, Texas, where her husband, C.L. “Mike”
Schmidt, has a law practice.
– Jennifer Burris Olson
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