Bob “Daddy-O” Wade(1943-2019)

The Texas Book Festival chose Wade's “Let ’er Rip,” an image of a vintage cowgirl riding an oversized, bucking Texas horned frog, for its 2020 festival poster. During his last months of life Wade collaborated with over forty artists and writers on “Daddy-O's Book of Big-Ass Art”, a book featuring images and tales of more than a hundred of his most famous pieces. It was published ten months after his death in November 2020.

Wade soon turned to a new process with his work in photo-emulsion canvases, which quickly drew attention in the larger art world. Wade transferred vintage and Texas themed photos to photo-emulsion canvases on a large scale and applied color. These works include photos such as Mexican revolutionaries, a cowboy band, Texas boys and their guns, Yaquis, and his most well-known, the 10' wide canvas, ‘Cowgirls on Harleys’.