John Ran­dall York was born in Tyler and has lived here most of his life. His par­ents met on the Tyler square in the World War 2 era.  His grand­fa­ther, Hen­ry York, was a pho­tog­ra­ph­er in Smith Coun­ty in the ear­ly 1900s, trav­el­ling by horse and buggy.

John paints plein air water­col­ors in Tyler sev­er­al days week regard­ing them as snap­shots, sou­venirs and doc­u­ments of his beloved hometown.

York was edu­cat­ed in Tyler pub­lic schools, attend­ed TJC and received a BFA from The Uni­ver­si­ty of Texas at Tyler.

He has also designed gift­ware for Fitz & Floyd, Lenox, The Hamil­ton Col­lec­tion and S & D Fine Col­lectibles (sold in Neiman Mar­cus, Nord­strom, Walt Dis­ney World and Bloomingdale’s) and has illus­trat­ed 5 books for Gre­go­ry Miller an author/teacher from in Pitts­burgh, PA.

John lives in the Brick Street Dis­trict with his wife, Ruth, whom he met in French class at John Tyler High School.