T.D. Motley

T.D. Motley is a Texas painter and academic. Born in Beaumont, he’s been drawing since age three. His family has farmed in Texas from the mid-nineteenth century. He and artist wife, Rebecca, marketed their organic, heirloom herbs and produce to North Texas chefs for years.

Motley is Professor Emeritus of Art and Art History at Dallas College. His drawings and paintings have shown in national exhibits and are included in numerous U.S. and Texas collections. Motley has lectured at the Dallas Museum of Art, the Umlauf Sculpture Garden and Museum, Austin, Texas, the Meadows Museum at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, and the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth. He has published essays for museum catalogs, art periodical critiques, and reviews, and National Endowment for Humanities research papers on art and literature of the Greeks and Romans. He is contributing author for Eutopia and ArtSpiel and has written about mid-century modern Texas artists for DB/Zumbeispiel and the Grace Museum, Abilene. 

Motley has received Fulbright Grants to Belgium, the Netherlands, and the UK. He is past Board President of Artist Boat, a Galveston non-profit, teaching students about coastal nature through art and science. He was Chair of the North Texas Fulbright Teacher Exchange Peer Review Committee for many years. Motley was a printer in the U.S. Air Force, an illustrator for Ling Temco Vought Corp, and a cartoonist for the infamous Dallas Notes from the Underground. Motley’s artworks can be seen at J. Peeler Howell Fine Art, Fort Worth.

T.D. Motley is the author of "The Art of Farming - A Novel"