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“COWTOWN BOUND”

He’s off to tear up the town. Most likely he’ll blow his three months wages in one night on booze, women and cards. Three months of playing babysitter to several thousand head of cattle can do strange things to a man.  In a way, I’ve been there.

The summer of ’89 found my hide up in the Chugatch Mountains of Alaska working a hard rock gold mine.  The crew of eight we brought up from Texas started out docile. By the end of the third month (and with a cook that quit) it was tempers on edge, cabin fever, everyone was looking for a little relief. Some chased the girls, others drank, some got in fights. I’ve seen the raw edge of life that comes out of men when left to their own unchecked desires.

Ever spent any length of time away from so called ‘civilization?  I’ve been a week running the Middle fork of the Salmon in Idaho. Five times I’ve run the Buffalo River in Arkansas – numerous campouts lasting days on end. Bar none, every time I’ve been away from the city, for whatever reason, I hanker to get back. Why, is beyond me.  Maybe it’s what I am used to – the familiar noises of the city, of voices other than my own.

SCOTT ROGERS

Scott Rogers’ love affair with bronze began when he bought a bronze sculpture from his uncle, Grant Speed. Six months later in October of 1990, he came home from work one day, looked at that bronze, and said, “I can do that”. He sought counsel at the hands of master teachers, Fritz White CA, Stanley Bleifeld, Herb Mignery CA, Mehl Lawson CA and Grant Speed CA.

“My desire is to use art as a vehicle to inspire mankind to see the beauty of life. Artists are prone to leave emotional fingerprints all over their work; hence, what you’ll be seeing, in a way, are self-portraits. I love how shape, line, and form communicate. Every line has a spirit and speaks volumes. Put a lump of clay in my hands and a short while later you’ll know exactly how I feel and physically see my soul. I am finding that the key to life is to develop eyes to see what is really ‘there’.”

Scott Rogers loves what he does and portraying the Old West. “I remember, fondly, the hours spent as a youth reading of renegades, rebels, rogues, outlaws, wild men and horses, ferocity, passion, power, cunning, independence, honor, loneliness, fear, rage, courage and freedom. These words worked their way into my soul and now find expression through my fingers in clay. The “West” was about men and women who had the courage, who were part of something bigger than themselves. I find great pleasure in doing these people justice by creating a fair portrayal of their characters.”

“I sculpt feelings and not reality. In fact, to me, the words sculpture and feelings are synonymous. I love it when someone says, after viewing one of my pieces, ‘I can feel the bullet hitting him, I feel like I’m on the back of the bucking horse’ or ‘I can hear the roar of the stampede.’ I know art uplifts the spirit, it makes one want to be better, to feel good about themselves and their fellow man, to reach out for that which is good in life. It’s my wish that you experience some of what I feel through my art.”