The Studio - The Art Of Creating A Horse
You'll have the opportunity to see how Lyle develops a sculpture in the various stages of creating and working on an art project from beginning through completion. His yard is his studio and what many people see as scrap metal junk, Lyle sees as raw material for art. It takes a creative genius to do what Lyle does, and I think you'll agree as you follow this project, that Lyle is truly a unique talent.
The City of Cheyenne, Wyoming contracted Lyle to create a horse sculpture for public display in their city. The project began in the Spring of 2009, and you'll follow his progress through the process on this webpage.
Lyle holds a model of a horse that he used as a
guide to create a horse sculpture that will end up being 10 times the size of the
model. Scrap metal parts are laid out in preparation for building the sculpture.
A wire frame is used as a base to weld metal pieces. Each piece is a
rusted tool or metal part that is fitted to begin construction of
the sculpture. Part of the rear and one leg is nearing completion. A close up shows interesting pieces such as a Wyoming license plate, burro's shoe, a bull nose, leather punch, coors can opener, Fuller crescent wrench, wheel bearing and large horse shoe.
As the sculpture progresses, Lyle continues to fit pieces onto the horse. Each piece is spot welded into place.
You couldn't go shopping for the materials that are used in this sculpture. Many of the pieces are historical artifacts that have been accumulated over years of collection. Look closely and you'll find a butterfly spindle from an old coal burning stove with the date of 1915 stamped on it, triangular lock washers from train wheels, old John Deere wrenches, a hand forged hook probably made 100 years ago, iron climbing step from a train car, pipe wrenches, various size padlocks and cabinet locks, a cheese grater, old barn door hinges and much more. You could spend hours looking at all the different things that are going into this horse.
Work continues on the horse sculpture. Lyle now has 3 legs on the horse. Once the major limbs, body and head have the desired shape; small screws, washers and pins will be used to fill in holes. The tail will be made out of nails and attached to the horse as one of the last stages of completion. All the sharp pieces will then be ground down to prevent anyone from cutting oneself.
You can see more and different pieces that have gone into the sculpture. There is an old corn seed planter disk, homemade chain hooks, a walnut cracker, spark plugs and a pair of scissors. There is a double headed hatchet that says Gambles Artisan on it (Not sure what that means.) Each foot has a full size horseshoe.
There are pieces on this horse that young and old people will recognize. When asked how the sculpture is coming along, Lyle's answer was - "
If it don't look like a horse, I'm in real trouble!".
The horse is nearing completion. There are now 4 legs on the horse, and the head is complete with ears and eyeballs. The front right leg required intricate work with all of the angles necessary with each of the horses joints. The degree of difficulty was in getting the horses muscles just right, showing the horse in a full gallop. All that remain are the mane, tail and overall minor tuning.
Lyle says, "
This horse shows the character of motion more so than any other horse that I've made.".
The mane is now welded on to the horses neck. The mane is made from heavy soft wire. Each wire is then bent into a particular shape to create the actual mane of a horse in full gallop with the mane blowing in the wind.
The horse has taken several months of work and is finally finished. It will be delivered sometime soon to it's final destination in Cheyenne, Wyoming and will be located at the Railroad Museum and can be closely viewed and enjoyed by everyone.
