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Illustrator Who Was Inspired by Molly Ivins and Ann Richards Wins Bush Library Contest

A detail from the winning entry

A medical illustrator from Dallas who spends his days drawing body parts and molecular structures has won The Chronicle‘s George W. Bush Presidential Library design contest.

Lewis E. Calver, an associate professor and chair of biomedical communications at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, beat out 120 other contestants, taking about 30 percent of the online vote with his beautifully drawn and carefully thought-out “Hole in the Ground” design.

The actual presidential library, which will be built at Southern Methodist University, will be designed by Robert A.M. Stern, dean of Yale University’s School of Architecture and head of Robert A.M. Stern Architects, a design firm best known for luxury condominiums and other high-end projects. The projected price tag is around $500-million.

In accordance with the contest rules, Mr. Calver’s design was submitted on the back of an envelope. It shows a White House façade propped up on stilts to catch the attention of Bush stalwarts as they drive down the highway adjacent to SMU’s campus. “I liked the idea of a false façade showing the White House so people who still believe in his presidency can at least have some kind of inspiration, even if it’s false inspiration,” Mr. Calver says.

The design also features a reflecting pool. “When people look down, they will see reflections of themselves and be reminded that the ones who voted for him were ultimately responsible,” he says. “I’ve always felt that as much as you might want to blame George Bush or Karl Rove or anyone else for the disaster of the presidency, the real people to blame were the voters who were duped.” The design includes an “Iraqi Freedom Military Cemetery” on the front lawn.

“I tried to make it look pretty professional, considering the constraints of drawing on the back of the envelope in pencil,” he says.

Mr. Calver says he drew inspiration from a former governor and from a well-known humorist who loved poking fun at the nation’s 43rd president. “I was inspired by two Texans whom I really admire that we lost recently—Ann Richards and Molly Ivins. I contemplated entering this thing and thought, ‘What the heck—they would probably enjoy the humor if they were here.’”

Mr. Calver, who says he loves to doodle in his spare time, does more serious drawing for a living. He has been the illustrator or co-illustrator more than 20 medical books, and draws everything from proteins to molecular structures and anatomical parts.

Eyes are a specialty—he has illustrated eye surgery with detailed examinations of the layers of cells in the retina. He lets his creative juices flow even when drawing eyeballs. A recent article on Southwestern Medical Center’s Web site promoted a collection of his drawings, describing one entitled “Contact Lens Factory” as “whimsical in nature” and “reminiscent of the famous art of M.C. Escher.”

It’s unlikely there will be any winding staircases in the book he just finished illustrating, though: The topic is gynecological surgery.

The Dallas artist fell into his occupation after switching from premedical studies to art while attending the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in the 1960s. When he was asked for a portfolio, “All I had to show them were cartoons I’d drawn for my high-school newspaper and drawings I had done in the margins of my science-class lecture notes,” he says. Michigan, however, was one of the few universities that had a program in medical illustration. “It was a perfect fit.”

For all of its biting commentary, Mr. Calver’s design, which won him an iPod Touch, wasn’t as hostile as some of the entries submitted to The Chronicle. Several designs were based on toilet or bunker motifs and one of the 18 finalists was a 12-story underground building shaped like a missile with a lounge where visitors would be able to listen in on any U.S. phone call.

That design was by Rosemary Morad, a self-employed architect in Charleston, S.C., who entered the contest after reading about it on a blog. “I was interested in depicting aspects of the Bush administration that I knew would never end up in the actual library,” she says. “I thought the main part should house all of the evidence of weapons of mass destruction that never existed,” she said of the building’s WMD Stockpile of Manufactured Evidence Library.

Another finalist, Patrick Stuart, called his design a “Cruciform Plan” and topped it with a replica of the Statue of Liberty making a decidedly unladylike gesture. That, he says, represents the nation’s foreign policy. The design also has giant fun-house mirrors “to warp future historical perspective.”

Mr. Stuart, an architect from Columbus, Ohio, says his design wasn’t motivated by anger. “It was just a fun way to let off some steam. It seemed like a creative way to make your voice heard.”

The Chronicle is now seeking a good home for the original contest entries. If your library would like to own and preserve them, write and tell us why. —Katherine S. Mangan

Lawrence Biemiller | Wednesday March 26, 2008 | Permalink | Contact us

Comments

1. And you can’t understand why conservatives think academics are a bunch of narcissistic morons? Great waste of time.

   — mike    Mar 26, 08:44 AM    #

2. Check your facts and when you determine that 14,000 died under Clinton while only 8,000 have died under Bush…then we can talk about headstones and whose presidency was legit! You are such a MORON!

   — David    Mar 26, 09:17 AM    #

3. Astonishing: Comments 1 and 2. To defend this hollow man—bereft of compassion, morally bankrupt, despoiler of our freedoms. Until we repudiate this tragic presidency, its legacy of carnage and the destruction of our civil rights will remain a blot on our history.

   — Eric    Mar 26, 09:36 AM    #

4. Eric, using big words doesn’t make you respectable. Defending facts like Mike and David does.

   — texan    Mar 26, 09:38 AM    #

5. Does anyone else find it sad that the “chair of biomedical communications” cannot spell the word “façade” (see drawing), although the Chronicle quotes him as if he could?

   — NWS    Mar 26, 09:40 AM    #

6. well done

   — ANDREW WEAVER    Mar 26, 09:42 AM    #

7. I agree that this contest is nothing but an unsavory political statement by the Chronicle. What a horrendous waste of our subscription dollars. There has not been another attack on the United States since 9/11 2001. The War on Terror has been a tremendous success at a tremendous cost, and is not a joking matter to those of us who have lost our children who willingly fought for us. There really is an enemy and you are their target, no matter how hard you try to be friends with them. Our President, a graduate of Yale with a Harvard MBA, understands this.

   Have a happy day!

   — Cal    Mar 26, 09:51 AM    #

8. Bush Institute will undermine SMU

   “I’m gonna build a fantastic Freedom Institute … an institute that really, you know, just kind of imparts knowledge and deals with big issues.” In “Dead Certain: The Presidency of George W. Bush,” by Robert Draper

   Elected delegates of the United Methodist Church will meet in Dallas in July of 2008 and will be asked by Southern Methodist University (SMU) to give final approval to the use of university land for the proposed Bush Presidential Library, Museum and Bush’s fantastic “Freedom Institute.” The 290 delegates represent of the 1.83 million United Methodists living in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Arkansas, and Louisiana who own SMU.

   Should a majority of them vote to allow SMU to use the land to build the partisan Bush Institute, it will be a lamentable precedent in higher education. While the wisdom of establishing a library and museum may be debatable, establishing an autonomous, partisan think-tank will unquestionably damage the academic reputation of a quality university. The partisan mission and independent structure of the proposed Institute, which has been obscured in the debate, are a bona fide threat to the academic integrity of SMU.

   How do we know the shape the Institute will take? According to a Bush Foundation document signed by the president’s brother Marvin Bush, the Institute’s mission is “to further the Bush Administration’s domestic and international goals,” which is precisely what partisanship is. Further highlighting its partisan nature is the likely appointment, of Republican mastermind Karl Rove to “take charge…of the design, fundraising, and planning” for the Institute, according to U.S, News and Report.

   According to SMU President R. Gerald Turner, the Bush institute will engage in partisan hiring procedures and staffing. He explained to the SMU faculty that “the Institute will want to hire independently its fellows to address its areas of focus…. [T]his approach would fall outside of University practices and standards.” One can only imagine what this might bring to campus: How about Scooter Libby as distinguished fellow in political ethics?
   History Professor Alexis McCrossen at SMU, who has researched the topic and gave a comprehensive report to the SMU faculty wrote,
   There are twelve presidential libraries, all of which are administered and run by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Only three of them are associated with universities: the LBJ Library and Museum (University of Texas, Austin), the Gerald Ford Library (University of Michigan), and the George H.W. Bush Library and Museum (Texas A & M). None have associated institutes, although public policy schools are attached to the two presidential libraries in Texas.

   Schools of public policy at Harvard and the University of Arkansas were established when the presidential libraries of JFK and Bill Clinton were established nearby (though not in affiliation with the universities). The explicitly non-partisan Carter Center is under the oversight of Emory University, although not on the Emory campus. Emory’s trustees appoint half of the Carter Center’s trustees and Emory’s human relations department oversees all the Carter Center’s hiring.

   It is important to understand that all four public policy schools are under the complete oversight of their respective universities. The schools report to the university president and trustees, each follow the university personnel procedures and each are pledged to the same goals as their host institution.

   Although the Hoover Institution at Stanford has been presented as similar to the proposed Freedom Institute, it is a misleading comparison. While the Hoover Institution has a reputation for sponsoring scholars with conservative agendas, its directors insist that it is a non-partisan think tank. Most importantly, the Hoover Institution is owned by Stanford and reports directly to the President of Stanford.
   SMU historian Alexis McCrossen wrote “A more accurate comparison for the anticipated Bush Institute is what was proposed to Harvard in 1963 —1964 in relation to its bid for the presidential library of John F. Kennedy.” In the emotional aftermath of the assassination, the Kennedy circle of friends proposed to Harvard a partisan institute that would be “a memorial to President Kennedy.” It would have been administered by its own board, independent of oversight by either Harvard or NARA. Dr. McCrossen discovered that, “Harvard rejected the proposal, but did build the JFK School of Government, which houses the bi-partisan Institute of Politics (IOP). The IOP reports to the Kennedy School’s Dean, who in turn reports to the President and Board of Overseers of the University.”
   There are various political institutes on U.S. campuses. What they share in common is university oversight and non-partisan agendas. These standards insure academic freedom and the unfettered pursuit of truth. If the SMU trustees establish an autonomous, partisan Bush Institute on campus, it will undermine the university’s reputation and good-standing in the academy.
   Please help us stop the Bush Institute by signing our petition at www.protectSMU.org.
   Andrew J. Weaver, Ph.D., is a United Methodist pastor and research psychologist. He is a graduate of Perkins School of Theology at SMU. He is a contributor to, Hardball on Holy Ground, The Religious Right vs.The Mainline for the Soul of the Church.

   — ANDREW WEAVER    Mar 26, 10:02 AM    #

9. It’s not clear what “facts” David is using in his numbers. What are you counting, and what’s the source?

   — a different history prof.    Mar 26, 10:22 AM    #

10. The winning entry is a beautiful and thought-provoking drawing.

    Bush II has been a disaster for us and the entire world. If we can’t have a little bit of fun with the concept of a completely incurious and anti-intellectual president establishing a library, we’re in even worse shape than I thought. Lighten up.

    — Elizabeth    Mar 26, 10:33 AM    #

11. Reading some of the comments above (mike, dave, nws, cal) console me – what an angry lot you Republicans are!…..Call Carl Rove have a beer, cry, piss and moan……soon this presidency will be OVER!!!

    — suzanne    Mar 26, 11:03 AM    #

12. The selected design and its rational exposes a stunning and disturbing liberal bias that precludes the chronicle from being considered a legitimate news journal.

    In example one of the problems with academia is the ongoing accusation of a liberal bias, any articles by the chronicle that try to argue against this idea will be invalidated by this contest as it exposes and shows that extraordinary left leaning bias.

    I am sick of the self righteous liberals who are opposed to Presidential libraries attached to university campuses, not only did Stanford reject Reagan’s library as well as but Harvard rejecting JFK’s, which finally found a home adjacent to the campus of the University of Massachusetts Boston. In fact the reason that Boylston Street in Cambridge was renamed for JFK was because Harvard started calling the Kennedy school simply the Harvard school of government.

    As far as SMU at this point reneging on the agreement to house the Bush Library and institute. As the contract has been signed by all parties if that were to happen SMU would be exposed to a civil suit that would subject the University to hundreds of millions of dollars US in damages.

    Hopefully John McCain will put his library at the USMA Annapolis and avoid much of these problems.

    — warrren    Mar 26, 12:59 PM    #

13. When you add the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis killed and being killed by a war declared by those too afraid to fight in Vietnam and initiated by false pretenses the number of dead far surpasses 8,000. By the way where is Osama?

    — Rick    Mar 26, 01:20 PM    #

14. To Cal in comment #7

    8 years 6 1/2 months, the time between the first and second attacks on the WTC. Do not let the rhetoric over whelm you, we are at risk and nothing done in Iraq has changed this. The attackers were trained and funded from Afghanistan, which should have been concluded without distraction. Keeping everyone hyped on fear is not protection.

    — mike    Mar 26, 01:26 PM    #

15. So David is using US body counts to measure the effectiveness of a President. Using that criterion, Lincoln was our worst President, by far. Maybe he needs to rethink this a bit.

    — Todd    Mar 26, 01:34 PM    #

16. david, what is the source of these body counts you quote?

    — dfc102    Mar 26, 01:39 PM    #

17. First, I reject the notion I am angry. I am very happy go lucky.

    I also checked the Chronicle archives to see if they offered such a contest when President Clinton was leaving office. Suprising enough, they didn’t. Of course the design of the Clinton Library would probably have looked strikingly similar to the Washington Monument. (maybe a little smaller).

    — mike    Mar 26, 01:42 PM    #

18. If I understand these comments correctly, anyone who supports this president has a grasp of the facts, and anyone who doesn’t has a “disturbing liberal bias.” Is that about right?

    — dfc102    Mar 26, 01:42 PM    #

19. HUM – now let me think – UNDER CLINTON: booming economy/balanced budget, WTC bombing w/limited deaths, no wars. UNDER BUSH: economy goes DEEP SOUTH, 911 w/thousands of deaths, 4,000 US soldiers killed in “Bush’s War.” THANKS REPUBLICANS, can’t wait for 4-8 more years. What would we do without your light—hearted, happy-go-lucky party!

    — granny    Mar 26, 01:46 PM    #

20. Granny:

    Only time, not you will determine the legacy of this President. I only posted #1 and #17, not #14.

    I also think it’s funny that you think I support the President when all I commented on was the Chornicle’s wasted use of my subscription dollars and the fact that they did not offer such an opportunity to design President Clinton’s library.

    — mike    Mar 26, 02:22 PM    #

21. Its Bush’s Senior year. He can hardly wait for Senior ditch day…heh, heh,…I made a funny!

    — jo    Mar 26, 02:42 PM    #

22. I’d like to see the Chronicle posting drawings of Bill Clinton’s presidential library in the shape of a phallus – which about sums up his presidency (Bush has put more women and minorities in leadership positions than Clinton ever did, and none of those ‘positions’ is under a desk). This is why people claim the academy is leftist. It is, and unabashedly so. You should be ashamed.

    — Profet    Mar 26, 03:28 PM    #

23. #7 – there is a lot in your post to argue with, but the most obvious is when you claim there have been no domestic attacks since 9/11. Anthrax? Did we every catch those guys who killed Americans in the first biological attack on our soil since smallpox in the 19th century?

    — Zuckerfrosch    Mar 26, 04:02 PM    #

24. Very disrepectful!

    — BKA    Mar 26, 04:12 PM    #

25. to #23 – your facts are off. There have been a number of biological attacks on U.S. soil since the 19th Century. They were from domestic sources. In one memorable incident, a small town in Oregon was poisoned to make people ill so they wouldn’t turn out for an election, allowing the town of Antelope to be taken over by the members of a nearby commune.

    — TC    Mar 26, 05:19 PM    #

26. Let’s stop all this back and forth on the need for and quality of the Bush Library and let’s try to unite the country and set a better tone in this debate. Let’s begin design of the Hillary Clinton Library….a buidling that swivels to whatever view the majority in attendance believes is right; as a bonus add imaginary bullets flying overhead and then my friend Mike will be there….to enjoy the wonder of it.

    — Tim    Mar 26, 06:36 PM    #

27. Granny…I hope…REALLY REALLY HOPE…you are not a history or political science faculty member. You have managed to tag the World Trade Center attack to the Bush Presidency beyond the timeline. Please, please, please….read a credible history book or even read the 9/11 Commission Report. If you did, and you understood what you read, you would know that the planning and threat of an attack on the US on the scale of the WTC was in the daily intellegience breifings delivered to William Jefferson Clinton for at least the last two years of his Presidency. Also, recognize he had the opportunity to allow the CIA to deal with OSB on numerous occassions and didn’t. Some historians even contend he missed his best chance when he was busy dealing with a little problem he had….Monica Lewinsky and Impeachment Hearings. Say what you will about either Clinton or Bush but PLEASE be INFORMED….

    — Tim    Mar 26, 06:45 PM    #

28. Hey….why wasn’t my illegal alien entry hightlighted. Did it not fit your agenda? For sure it was an unprofessional drawing….but….every skill level was invited to enter the contest. Oh well, what do I know… I am just a typical white person that thought I knew the ‘True’ meaning of illegal. Where is the location of my reeducation camp, Comrade?

    — Joe    Mar 26, 10:08 PM    #

29. Wow. I had no idea people would get so worked up about something that is just a little fun. Sheesh people. Relax.

    — Leah    Mar 27, 12:58 PM    #

30. I agree. All these people who are so eager to rush to the president’s defense, as if he can’t defend himself… It seems a little silly. After all, what are they complaining about? People submitted the designs, and the designs were voted on. Some win, some lose. That’s life.

    — anon    Mar 27, 01:12 PM    #

31. The phallus only sums up the Clinton presidency for those who are obsessed with it.

    I found the competition amusing. If we couldn’t laugh at our leaders (leaders of both parties, who sometimes deserve it), where would Saturday Night Live be?

    — Deb    Mar 27, 07:25 PM    #

32. Regarding comment #2,

    According to the Congressional Research Service, during the Clinton administration, one person in uniform died as a result of hostilities and another 75 died as a result of terrorist attacks. By contrast, during the first six years of the Bush administration, 2,596 troops died from hostilities and 55 from terrorist attacks. Looking at the non-hostile deaths (i.e., accidents, homicides, suicides and illnesses), we find that an average of 947 military personnel died each year during the Bush administration compared with 913 during the Clinton administration .

    http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL32492.pdf

    — Annoyed    Mar 28, 11:02 AM    #

33. Lefites, keep the jokes coming. Enjoy your condescending jibes. Laugh amongst yourselves as you sit on the sidelines. In the meantime, the Right will retain control of the White House for at least another four years.

    — Tom Paine    Mar 31, 06:26 PM    #

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