Title: Grizzly is my Soul (1979)

Artist: Dave McGary (1958 – 2013)

Medium: Bronze

Size: 27 x 13 x 9″

How Acquired: Donated by Mahlon Thatcher White in 2001.

Dave McGary, born in 1958 in Cody, Wyoming, was raised on a cattle ranch in Wyoming. At 12, he sculpted in clay. At 16, he was one of four students in the United States to be awarded a scholarship to spend a year in Italy studying the human form and the art of bronze casting. In 1978, McGary began working at a Santa Fe foundry, and began a friendship with Sioux artist, Daniel Long Soldier, who contributed significantly to McGary’s interest in sculpting the American Indian. In 1981, he opened his own foundry and finishing facility in the southern mountains of New Mexico.

McGary is also known for his monumental work. One of his most well-known is Free Spirits at Noisy Water, a monumental sculpture of eight horses running through a natural landscape. The work was installed at the Hubbard Museum of the American West in Ruidoso Downs, New Mexico in July of 1995. The bronze sculptures and the surrounding park were designed, sculpted and engineered by McGary. Considered an engineering feat, the eight horses, weighing 3,000 to 5,000 pounds each, are balanced on only nine hooves.

His sculptures are in permanent collections of the U.S. Capitol National Statuary Hall, the Smithsonian Museum and the White House collection in Washington, D.C. Other monuments are placed at the Buffalo Bill Historical Museum in Cody, Wyoming, and the Governor’s Mansion in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Dave McGary died in Paradise Valley, Arizona in 2013.

Note: The Pueblo Chieftain features a piece from the Sangre de Cristo Arts and Conference Center’s permanent collection on the first Sunday of each month. This piece is on display in the King Gallery of the Helen T. White Building during the month of October. Gallery hours are Wednesday through Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Timed tickets must be purchased in advance at sdc-arts.org. Patrons must wear masks.