The 2,000 Yard Stare Was Invented In El Paso

It's not really a "thing", it's a phrase used to describe the look people get when undergoing major, mental trauma or overload and a legendary El Paso artist coined it.

Tom Lea, (whose name graces Tom Lea Park in Kern Place), was described as one of the "most iconic Southwest artists of the 20th Century". He also served as a war correspondent and artist for LIFE magazine.

Following an intense battle during WW II, he saw something that really struck him, a marine lost in the hell he'd just been through. Lea recreated the moment on canvas and gave it a name that has practically become an official psychological term - "the 2,000 yard stare". Check out the painting below.

Tom Lea was born and raised in El Paso and despite work related travels that took him all over the world, he always came back home to El Paso. He didn't care what critics thought nor did he kiss up to museum curators. In fact, most of his work went to friends.

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What I love the most about his work is how well and how often he worked elements of life in the southwest into them. Several of his paintings made it to the White House including "Rio Grande" which hung in the Oval Office for 8 years when George Bush (jr) was POTUS.

He painted a mural that takes up an entire wall in the El Paso Federal Building. You can see a picture of him actually working on it, and learn more about it, here. The mural is still there, you can view it at 511 E. San Antonio, across from the El Paso County Courthouse.

Tom Lea was also a writer who wrote and, (of course), illustrated books like The Brave Bulls and The Wonderful Country.

Best selling novels that were later made into movis.

Tom felt a real sense of duty during his days as a war correspondent/artist and he used his talents to accurately report what he saw.

Tom Lea, War Correspondent

I became, for deeply felt reasons, an eye-witness reporter, in drawings and paintings, of men and their machines waging a war worldwide. I want to make it clear that I did not report hearsay; I did not imagine, or fake, or improvise; I did not cuddle up with personal emotion, moral notion, or political opinion about War with a capital-W. I reported in pictures what I saw with my own two eyes, wide open. - tomlea.com

Sadly, these days, reporters and the media spin everything one way or another - we need more Tom's.