2010 Honored Co-Chairman: Ed Trumble

Ed Trumble is Founder and Chairman of Leanin’ Tree fine art greeting card company. In 1949, Ed and co-founder Bob Lorenz started selling Christmas cards through the mail to western farmers and ranchers. Strapped for cash, Ed and Bob started their business in Colorado by trading art for advertising. While Ed managed the business side of things, Bob, an aspiring young western artist, created a painting for the cover of Western Livestock Magazine. In return, the two entrepreneurs received a quarter-page ad to promote their Western Christmas cards – all four of them! The response was overwhelming and the business was officially launched.

A lot has happened since 1949.  Ed purchased full ownership of the company in 1965 after the untimely loss of Bob Lorenz to cancer.  Leanin’ Tree has flourished as a family-owned operation, and has grown from four Western Christmas cards to over 3,000 greeting cards in a multitude of themes. From its headquarters in Boulder, Colorado, Leanin’ Tree now ships tens of millions of greeting cards a year.

Ed’s quest for original western art for reproduction on Leanin’ Tree greeting cards has led to lifelong friendships with many artists, and a personal collection of art that forms the basis of the Leanin’ Tree Museum of Western and Wildlife Art in Boulder, Colorado. The Museum exhibits the Trumble Family’s private art collection; Ed, semi-retired, serves as Senior Director of the Museum.

2010 Honored Guest Artist: Gordon Snidow

Gordon Snidow has been the foremost chronicler of the contemporary cowboy since 1959 when he graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the Art Center College of Design. At that time, he started his professional career.  Snidow is a leader in the development of the American Western Art Movement, and a historian who records time in pictures rather than words.  “If one looks at [Snidow’s] entire career, one can see that he has consistently broadened the definition of western art,” Michael Duty wrote of Snidow in his introduction of the Gordon Snidow Retrospective Show catalog, “My Story.”

Snidow was a Charter member of the Cowboy Artists of America.  When he took Emeritus membership in 1988, he had won 27 gold and silver medals, a Colt award, and three Best of Shows in CAA competition.  In 1998, Snidow was awarded the New Mexico Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts. In 2003, he was honored with a Memorial by the New Mexico Legislature, and with a retrospective show at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Snidow was also honored with a retrospective show at the Hubbard Museum of the American West and the Cowboy Artists of America Museum. Snidow’s work can be found in the permanent collections of the leading western art museums including the Thomas Gilcrease Museum, the National Cowboy Hall of Fame Museum, the Cowboy Artists of America Museum, the Cody Museum, and the Phoenix Art Museum. His work has been exhibited internationally in Russia, China, England, France, Germany, Taiwan, and Canada.