John Sherrill Houser Society and the American National Portrait Society. John Sherrill Houser John Sherrill Houser (1935 – January 10, 2018) was an American painter and sculptor. He was born in Rapid City, South Dakota where his father, Ivan Houser, was assistant sculptor to Gutzon Borglum in the early years of carving Mount Rushmore; he began working with Borglum shortly after the inception of the monument and was with Borglum for a total of seven years. When Houser left Gutzon to devote his talents to his own work, Gutzon's son, Lincoln, took over as Assistant- sculptor to his father. Encouraged in art from
Gutzon Borglum art and music in Boston, New York, and Paris. Her marriage to J. W. Putnam ended in divorce. She taught music in Milwaulkee before moving to San Francisco in 1881, studying art at the School of Design under Virgil Williams and L. P. Latimer, moving to Los Angeles, California in 1884 and the next year began art study with William Keith. In 1885, she met Gutzon Borglum, who was also a student of Keith's. In 1889 in Los Angeles she married Borglum who was her pupil and 19 years younger. The Borglums spent the next ten years traveling widely, studying