Okay, I'm only going to do this once. I have many friends, and bunches of associates, and maybe a half- dozen of them have had more than ten words with my wonderful wife. Unobtrusive, private, steady as Enchanted Rock, she has been the anchor to my sails for 45 years. But there is a good chance that most of you have never seen her, never talked to her, have no idea that I am even happily married. So I wanted to say these things, in case for some reason time might pass and I would pass and the chance would pass...

I met Linda Hardy in High School. The first time I remember seeing her, I wanted to ask her out. Every year, when it came time to nominate the “most beautiful” in our class, she was my pick. But she was engaged to a tall good-looking guy... then she broke that off and quickly she was “claimed” by another big hunky red-neck guy... everybody she dated was over six feet. Campus celebrities. Anyway at the end of our Junior year, she finally broke up with another guy who would later be our Valedictorian. I saw my chance and went for it. I asked her out...She stunned me when she said yes.

It was a dream come true. Damn she was beautiful... and really smart, and she always had a cute thing to say in class. And now I had to think of what I would say, if I had her all to myself. Of course I had no trouble.

I took her to the Literary Club Banquet, end of the year, where I had won the first prize in the school literary magazine. It was at Brennan's in downtown Houston. She was on the Annual Staff so I thought that might impress her. She was sweet and friendly AND she could have told be to jump off a cliff and I would have tried. I tried to be cool, like I dated girls like her all of the time. I'm sure she knew better. I was a “kicker”- as we were known then, had cows and horses and lived on acreage. Spent my extra time milking or riding or hunting rabbits. I did paint some then. And obviously, I wrote a little poetry.

She was used to guys that pretty much had one thing on their minds... and it wasn't poetry.

She said later that I was the most interesting person that she had ever gone out with. So it was a great start, and I was IN LOVE. She was somewhat more experienced in relationships, and although I had gone “steady” before, I had never been so smitten as I was with her.

Our Senior year was a blur... but a glorious one. Soon she was “running into me” at opportune times in the hall at school. Eating with me at lunch. Very much a lady. But hot as a two dollar pistol. 

We had tons in common- both the middle child in our family, both creative, both grew up in the Episcopal church, we scored similarly on our college entrance exams... But even I would have agreed that we were a “Lady and the Tramp.”

She wore these sexy scarves tied tightly around her elegant neck... and slacks that, well, revealed a very womanly form. Her eyes were emerald green. But it was her smile, a really wonderful, wholesome smile that reeled me in. I could go on. We finally kissed while strolling along the beach during a church retreat, on a cold November at Bolivar Peninsula. I will never forget that. We had been just holding hands... I did not want to scare her off, she was so precious. I remember how disappointed the other guys in the retreat were when we began to sit... REALLY close together. Our friends found the romance curious, even dubious. My best friend told me outright that she was too good for me. Several guys waited like pool sharks for me to finish my game. They are still waiting.

But she was going to have to break my heart to get rid of me. No, I was in it for the long haul. We went together all through our senior year, went to church retreats together, walked along the beach, took walks in the woods. Yes, WALKS. We had both been in “serious” relationships and did not want to rush things. I told her one day about my theory of successful relationships... marriages. It was a threesome. Me and her and GOD. Every great marriage that I had witnessed was centered in God. The really bad ones I had seen were not. If we were supposed to spend our lives together, God would show us in time... meanwhile, we would take it slow.

So far, so good.

When it came time to go off to college, neither of us was ready to declare any kind of engagement. It would be a test. We would either find somebody else, or nobody else would do. A year apart would tell the tale. She went off to Stephen F. Austin University in Nacogdoches. I was four hours away in Fort Worth at T.C.U.. We were both miserable.

It was a no-brainer for me. But she tried dating and got all tangled up with some jerk who kind of scared her after one date. She called me in tears. She wanted us to be closer together. We made plans to move to Denton the next year. She was so gorgeous and sexy, she was all I could think about. No other girl even tempted me.

How could I do any better? My High School sweetheart. She was lighthearted, witty, and believe it or not, absolutely as funny as Lucille Ball, if she wanted to be. This was a girl who actually sewed me clothes. Just wanted to hang out with ME... not a bunch of loud, drunk friends. She loved to read. She smoked cigars... just to show off... she could pick up things from the floor with her feet. She was always wanting to go see her Granny. She was silly about animals, especially cats. She loved the things I loved. Nature, sunsets... little calves in the pasture... going to church... praying before meals. 

When she called me from Nacogdoches and told me some friends had introduced her to the BIBLE, and that she wanted to get Baptized... I knew then that God had brought her, without my interference, into a relationship with Him that could now become that THREESOME.

We moved up to Denton the next year, I went North Texas, she to TWU, and we became Youth Directors at the Episcopal Church, and well, the rest is “Ourstory.” There were plenty of ups and downs... after all I was half of the equation, but she stood by me through all the downs... it was not easy, and took every ounce of Faith we had. When we got married a couple of years later, my grandfather said it was the most beautiful wedding he had ever seen. We sang Morning is Broken. We asked everyone to join us in Communion. Linda laughed and cried... and laughed... Joy is like that.

I had to give all of you just a tiny glimpse of what has kept us together, married for 43 years. A glimpse at my “mystery girl.” Now you know, it was from the very beginning, people were trying to steal her away. But all she wanted was a loving home. And God made that for us. It was love. It was forever.

That special day, when she stopped me in the hall back in High School, and said she knew that “we” were a “thing,” I was thrilled, and yet I wasted no time in telling her that to live my life, to live it with me, was going to be something like being a missionary in a foreign country. It would be hard. She said that she did not care. She believed in me. Sadly, I could not believe her. I did not deserve her. But that was the beginning of my wonderful life. God is like that.

Many of you have seen the trappings of my public life, actually an amazing amount of art all over the place. I wanted you to know, every time you see it, think of the wonderful girl, who could have done better, who did everything so I could follow my dream. She made it all possible. No telling what a mess it would all have been without her. She saw, as a fairly young woman, the wonderful things we could accomplish together. Whatever good or lasting we left behind in the Brazos Valley, has her name on it too.

 Linda, Russell and Raegan Joy Cushman, about 1990

The Black Cowboy Proposal

One of my often spoken sayings is that “Everything I have ever done, God will use to prepare me for the next thing He has for me to do.”

 

Thursday I met with a small committee from Houston- a historian, a cowgirl, and a custom prayer stool maker, who may have introduced me to “that next thing.” And afterwards they even prayed for me and the project they came to recruit me for… standing on the sidewalk in front of Classic Rock Coffee Company... These were messengers, seekers, believers. And they were driven by a Faith that as Jesus explained, can move mountains.
 

So it’s all about cowboys and the Texas horse culture and Houston heritage and Black History, and as they described their dream, I knew that I had been prepared all my life to do their sculpture. A sculpture, a monument, to the Black cowboy.

 A photo from one of my family photo albums. This cowboy worked
 on the Blakely Ranch, where my grandmother spent many happy times playing cowgirl.

If there was a significant ethnic group which was taken for granted at the time and then almost completely ignored by the American myth makers all through the golden age of “Westerns,” it was the Black cowboy. And citizens of Acres Homes in Houston have decided to fill the vacuum left by Western authors and filmmakers, and perhaps establish a new landmark on West Montgomery Road. And they came all the way up to Grimes County to see my works and ask me to help them.

The very subject, the precious committee of Black leaders, the honor they presented to me took me back, for a nanosecond, and then I saddled up like Gus after Lori darlin’. This is the announcement of a great new undertaking, for the folks at Acres Homes and the artist they will hire. And when we agree on a design, and a price, that will be me.

I have been especially honored before, by several “prestigious” major commissions, but none could be quite like this; the request for submissions that could result in a large monument, on a major thoroughfare, in the fourth largest city in America, and as it happens, my hometown.

 This is the first thing that comes to mind... ( this is a digital image 

I have created ) A traditional equestrian monument that would attract 

attention and even tourists, as it teaches our local heritage. But 

this would be the least visible from the highway and 

the most expensive alternative.

The whole process could take a year, even longer, and here is how the steps would progress:

1. Conceptualization: At least a month of design work, where ultimately three distinctly different ideas are illustrated, considered by those interested and one is finally selected.
2. Maquette: A scale model of the selected design will then be sculpted for the design committee, (one month) and when it is approved a 1/3 down payment will be made to start the actual monument original.
3. The Monument: Depending on which concept and material is decided upon, this process could take from three to five months.
4. Installation: Approximately five to seven months from now, if all goes well, the original sculpture should be complete. If it is welded steel, it will be ready for installation, which would take another month or so, weather permitting. If the original is clay, it must then be cast in bronze at a foundry and this adds as much as four to six months to the process.
5. Estimated costs at this point will be hard to establish with so many variables in size, possible processes and materials. But fund-raisers for the Black Cowboy Monument should prepare for a minimum of $34,000.00 for a welded steel sculpture, OR $50,000.00 for an installed cast bronze cowboy figure, and up to $120,000.00 for a figure mounted on a horse, with a stone pedestal.
    
    More "bang for the buck," a contemporary welded steel
   

    "sculpto-mural," ten feet high, would be more visible and 
   cost much less. No walkway, or pedestal necessary. The steel

   could be powder-coated or just allowed to rust. Very little up-keep.

   
   

As for now the research and development begins… a vulnerable time for the sculptor as a great deal of time and energy is required to create a vision of a monument which will find consensus among the committee and the community. Only then does the commission actually begin.

In the meantime I want to thank Reggie Brown for connecting me with Sandra Price and Tammie Terrell, the two devoted visionaries who will make this happen. And they can because they are bathing this dream in prayer, and depending on God, the Creator of the Universe, who brings all good things together.

You can follow the progress on this exciting project right here; Mission Control. So as the old buckaroos used to holler, “Let 'er rip!”

 Of course, a painted steel mural would be very effective,

 but would require maintenance over the years... But what a wonderful 
icon to greet travelers to the 
Greatest Cowboy Town in America!

So join  us prayer... and if you have ideas or money you want to contribute, contact Sandra Price at (713) 906-6401,