Artist Jesus Moroles. Photo: Political Science Junior Fellows

Renowned Texas stone sculptor Jesus Moroles died Monday in a car accident on I-35 north of Georgetown.

Last Thursday, Moroles and his crew from Rockport, near Port Aransas, delivered four giant granite columns to Dallas. Moroles’ 15-foot tall columns were installed Friday in Hall Arts. That’s the new tower complex going up in the Arts District, across from the Winspear Opera House. Each of the columns weighs more than 10,000 pounds. Called Spirit Inner Columns, they were installed in what will be the Hall Texas Sculpture Walkway – a path that will run between the office tower that’s nearly finished and the condos and a small hotel that will eventually be built.

The 64-year-old Moroles returned to Rockport Sunday and then left town Monday. Driving alone, he was headed for Chickasaw, Oklahoma, where he was artist-in-residence at the University of Science and Arts. Further details of his accident north of Austin were unavailable.

Moroles was a graduate of the University of North Texas who won the National Medal of Arts. In Dallas, he created the Stele Parkway for A. H. Belo Corporation (left) — it stands in Lubben Plaza Park near Young and South Austin Streets. Moroles’ biggest work, by far, is the Houston Police Officers’ Memorial, which spans 120 feet by 120 feet (below).

Patricia Meadows is an arts consultant for the Hall Arts complex who worked with Moroles. She says he worked almost exclusively in granite.  “Jesus was magic with stone. He could carve stone, he could chisel stone. It was an earth form for him, so it was a natural form. It was a piece of the earth. I think he is one of the magnificent artists, and I am so sorry for the loss.”