About this piece
- Title: Texas - A State of Mind!
- Author: Robert Blair Martin
- Date: c.1894
- Condition: Good - A vibrantly colored example on sturdy paper, with minor roughness around edges.
- Inches: 28 x 20 1/8 [Paper]
- Centimeters: 71.12 x 51.11 [Paper]
- Product ID: 308782
Drawn by Robert Blair Martin for Hallmark Cards, this lively pictorial offers a richly detailed and humor-filled celebration of Texas culture, history, and geography. Brimming with colorful illustrations and playful vignettes, it brings together such subjects as the “First Oil Gusher in 1901,” the “Texas Ranger Hall of Fame,” and “Cattle Drives to Abilene,” while pirate Jean Lafitte’s ship appears off the coast of Galveston. Five inset maps extend the same spirited treatment to Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio, and Austin, adding another layer of detail to this exuberant portrait of the Lone Star State. Originally published as a Hallmark jigsaw puzzle, the design was also issued in this promotional poster format to advertise the puzzle in bookstores.
Background on Creator
Robert Blair Martin (1950-2006) was an American editor and illustrator best known for his association with Hallmark Cards. Born in Chicago, he graduated from Wentworth Military Academy in 1968 and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Arizona State University in 1972. After serving as a captain in the U.S. Army, he entered civilian life as a senior illustrator at Hallmark, specializing in humorous imagery. His distinctive style combined whimsical perspectives with densely populated cartoon scenes. Many of his illustrations were adapted into jigsaw puzzles, while others—particularly his pictorial maps of California, Texas, and Florida—were published as posters. He spent most of his life in Overland Park, Kansas.
