Randy Souders is an American artist and a

disability rights The disability rights movement is a global social movement that seeks to secure equal opportunities and equal rights for all people with disabilities. It is made up of organizations of disability activists, also known as disability advocat ...

advocate.

Early life and influences

Souders was born in

Chickasha, Oklahoma Chickasha is a city in and the county seat of Grady County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 16,036 at the 2010 census. Chickasha is home to the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma. The city is named for and strongly connecte ...

. Hoping to become an illustrator he attended

Trimble Technical High School Green B. Trimble Technical High School (commonly known as Trimble Tech) is a Fort Worth Independent School District vocational high school on the south side of Fort Worth, Texas, United States, in the medical district. History Fort Worth High ...

Fort Worth Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. According ...

where he received daily instruction in commercial art. At age 14, his parents also enrolled him in a home study correspondence course offered by

Art Instruction Schools Art Instruction Schools, better known to many as Art Instruction, Inc., was a home study correspondence course providing training in cartooning and illustration. The company was located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. History The school was found ...

which was founded in 1914 and well known for its "Draw Me" art introductory tests. He attended the

University of Texas at Arlington The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA or UT Arlington) is a public research university in Arlington, Texas. The university was founded in 1895 and was in the Texas A&M University System for several decades until joining the University of Te ...

where he received a

Bachelor of Fine Arts A Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) is a standard undergraduate degree for students for pursuing a professional education in the visual, fine or performing arts. It is also called Bachelor of Visual Arts (BVA) in some cases. Background The Bachelor ...

degree in graphic design. On August 5, 1972, three months before his 18th birthday, Souders dove into a local lake and hit a submerged object. He broke his neck and sustained a paralyzing

spinal cord injury A spinal cord injury (SCI) is damage to the spinal cord that causes temporary or permanent changes in its function. Symptoms may include loss of muscle function, sensation, or autonomic function in the parts of the body served by the spinal cor ...

resulting in incomplete

tetraplegia Tetraplegia, also known as quadriplegia, is defined as the dysfunction or loss of motor and/or sensory function in the cervical area of the spinal cord. A loss of motor function can present as either weakness or paralysis leading to partial or t ...

. He adapted and gradually regained enough function to write, paint and live independently. His drawing hand is paralyzed so his artworks are created entirely with wrist and arm movement.

Career

Beginning

Upon graduating college in May 1978, Souders was employed for a short time at a local advertising agency. He had his first one-man show of paintings on November 8, 1978. Based on the success of this first show, he left advertising to concentrate on painting full-time. Many millions of Texans had a piece of Souders art in their home and or office when Southwestern Bell selected a painting called "County Seat" for the cover of the 1984–1985 phone book in Houston, San Antonio, Dallas and Fort Worth. The painting featured a red stone courthouse typical of many historic Texas courthouses.

Partnerships

Since 1990 Souders has created artworks for the

Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

. Souders' involvement with Disney originally began through his exhibits at the former "Old World Antiques" shop in Liberty Square at

Walt Disney World The Walt Disney World Resort, also called Walt Disney World or Disney World, is an entertainment resort complex in Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, Florida, United States, near the cities of Orlando and Kissimmee. Opened on October 1, 1971, th ...

Magic Kingdom Magic Kingdom Park, previously known as Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom (1971–1994) and The Magic Kingdom (1994–2017), is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, near Orlando, Florida. Owned and operated by The W ...

. For ten years he was a featured limited edition artist at each of Disney's "Official

Disneyana Disneyana is a term for a wide variety of collectible toys, books, animation cels, theme-park souvenirs, ephemera and other items produced and/or licensed by The Walt Disney Company. Examples range from products featuring virtually every Disney c ...

Conventions".

Exhibitions

*U.S. Embassy -Dublin, Ireland *200th Anniversary of Washington as the U.S. Capitol Exhibition

Charitable affiliations and advocacy

Souders was a co-founder and committee member of "Call to Rise","Call to Rise" exhibition announcement
/ref> which was billed as the first national fine art exhibition for people with disabilities. Jurors included

J. Carter Brown John Carter Brown III (October 8, 1934 – June 17, 2002) was the director of the U.S. National Gallery of Art from 1969 to 1992 and a leading figure in American intellectual life. Under Brown's direction, the National Gallery became one of the ...

, director of the

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of char ...

Barbara Haskell Barbara Haskell (born 1946 in San Diego, California) is an American art historian and a museum curator. She is currently a curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art, where she has worked since 1975. She has previously worked at the San Francis ...

, curator of the

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), ...

, and contemporary artist

Frank Stella Frank Philip Stella (born May 12, 1936) is an American painter, sculptor and printmaker, noted for his work in the areas of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction. Stella lives and works in New York City. Biography Frank Stella was born in M ...

."Call to Rise" jury
/ref> It opened on January 8, 1988, at the

Orlando Museum of Art Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures rele ...

in Florida.""Call to Rise" opening review
/ref> It was at the opening that Souders first met

Jean Kennedy Smith Jean Ann Kennedy Smith (February 20, 1928June 17, 2020) was an American diplomat, activist, humanitarian, and author who served as United States Ambassador to Ireland from 1993 to 1998. She was a member of the Kennedy family, the eighth of nine c ...

, the youngest sister of

President John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until assassination of Joh ...

. Not long after, she asked him to serve on the national board of directors of

VSA Arts VSA, is an international organization on arts, education and disability, which was founded in 1974 by former U.S. Ambassador to Ireland Jean Kennedy Smith, and is headquartered in Washington, DC. In 2011, VSA became the Department of VSA and Ac ...

,VSA Board of Directors
/ref> which she founded in 1974. Formerly known as Very Special Arts, VSA is the international organization on arts and disability program of the

John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (formally known as the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, and commonly referred to as the Kennedy Center) is the United States National Cultural Center, located on the Potom ...

that annually serves 7 million people across America and in 52 countries.VSA Official Website
/ref> Ambassador Smith dedicated a chapter to Souders in her book '' Chronicles of Courage: Very Special Artists'' co-authored by

George Plimpton George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 – September 25, 2003) was an American writer. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found ''The Paris Review'', as well as his patrician demeanor and accent. He was also known for " ...

and published by

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

.Chronicles of Courage: Very Special Artists
JFK Presidential Library.PARADE Magazine article
/ref>Review of "Chronicles of Courage" by Publishers Weekly
/ref> Souders is also profiled in VSA's 25th anniversary book ''Journey To Here''. He also served on the executive editorial committee and penned the introduction to the book ''Putting Creativity to Work: Careers in the Arts for People With Disabilities''.Putting Creativity to Work: Careers in the Arts for People with Disabilities
/ref> On June 25, 2020, Souders was invited to speak during a live streamed memorial tribute for Ambassador Smith along with former President Bill Clinton, Senator

Chris Dodd Christopher John Dodd (born May 27, 1944) is an American lobbyist, lawyer, and Democratic Party politician who served as a United States senator from Connecticut from 1981 to 2011. Dodd is the longest-serving senator in Connecticut's history. H ...

, Gerry Adams and members of the Kennedy family.

References

External links

Souder's official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Souders, Randy 20th-century American painters American male painters 21st-century American painters 21st-century American male artists Artists from Texas Living people 1954 births People from Chickasha, Oklahoma People from Fort Worth, Texas People with tetraplegia Artists with disabilities 20th-century American male artists