One Trick Pony

Horses are one of artist Mark Yale Harris's passions. Harris loves to observe their behavior and has explored the mountains of Mexico, West Texas and Canada on horseback. A phrase used by avid trail riders about horses is "give them their head" – freedom of action - and they will do their job, take care of themselves and you. Nature helps as well when the birds pick the flies from their hide. This bronze sculpture is a humorous take on a bird’s natural behavior, climbing aboard to help out the horse.

This bronze work began with conceptual visualization, multiple sketches and a clay model preceding sculpting in stone. The stone sculpture is the original work cast into bronze. Using proficiency with tools and innate sense of what necessitates broad strokes vs. economy of movement, the figure emerges from the stone. It is cast using a 6,000-year-old tradition called the Lost Wax Method of Casting Bronze.