Ice Bears

10.5" x 21.5" x 15.5" Edition of 24, ©1997

This was my first non-feline sculpture! I've always been fascinated by the Polar Bear's appearance: that fat, fluffy wedge-shaped stuffed-teddy-bear-like body contrasted with a detailed, angular, sculptural head and long, powerful neck.

But the more I learned about these wanderers of the North, the more I found they are like the Big Cats! Carnivores like the cats, they are mostly solitary, though the young stay with their mothers until nearly grown, learning the skills of life. They travel far and wide in search of prey, but, unlike the big cats, when they do come across others of their kind they often stay and play together for awhile!

The terms we use in describing the Big Cats apply as aptly to these denizens of the Arctic ice: supple agility, strength and dexterity, curious, shrewd, smart, adaptable, and above all, patient.

Perhaps I should have called this sculpture "Ice Cats!"

The "Ice Bears" won the Artists' Choice award at the Bennington Center for the Arts "Art of the Animal Kingdom" in VT and was purchased for the Center's permanent collection. It was also given an Award of Merit at the Western Rendezvous of Art in Helena, MT.

They have been exhibited at the National Museum of Wildlife Art in WY, the "Great American Artists" exhibition at the Cincinnati Museum Center, "American Women Artists" at Trailside Gallery in AZ, the Lindsay Wildlife Museum in CA, the Colorado Governor's Invitational, Society of Animal Artists, the Nicolaysen Art Museum in WY, The Smithsonian's Conservation Research Center in VA, The National Sculpture Society and the Fleischer Museum in Scottsdale.