20% CHANCE OF FLURRIES

20% CHANCE OF FLURRIES Monumental Bronze, 15’ x 11’ x 7’ is a sculpture that won a national competition and was commissioned as a 15-foot tall monument by the Colorado Department of Agriculture. 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. Guy and Vern Robinett, my rancher friends from Casper, Wyoming, modeled 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 seemingly small storm turned out to be a severe spring blizzard and killed more than half of their herd. As I depict him here, the rancher has his head down against the wind, calf across the saddle, with his horse pulling through deep snow in the middle of a blizzard.  For me, this image of a cowboy on a horse saving a young calf embodies the test of endurance that highlights the best qualities of the men and women who live in the West. They face hard conditions and take life as it comes.