20% Chance of Flurries

20% Chance of Flurries is a sculpture that won a national competition and was commissioned as a 15 ' tall monument by the Colorado Department of Agriculture and placed at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado. The sculpture honors the dedication and hardships of the people who make their living ranching and farming. I had rancher friends Guy and Vern Robinett from Casper Wyoming model for the sculpture. We were riding out in his pasture to catch a young calf to put across a saddle when he told me about a time a few years back when the weather forecast for that day was a 20% chance of flurries. The storm turned out to be a severe spring blizzard and killed over half of his heard of livestock. As I depict him here, the rancher has his head down against the wind, calf across the saddle his horse pulling through deep snow in the middle of a blizzard. This image of a cowboy on a horse saving a young calf embodies for me the test of endurance that brings out the best qualities in the men who live in the West. They face hard conditions, and take life as it comes. Note more photos of model shoot