"I know you aren't [supposed] to touch the art, but when people have the reaction to reach out and touch when they see my work, it's very moving," says bronze sculptor Patsy Lane. "I know then that my story has come true for them, too -- especially when it's accompanied by that little o-o-h and the involuntary reach out to touch."
Twenty-one pieces of Lane's work are on show through Oct. 15 at the Fort Smith Regional Art Museum -- including among them her first sculpture and her latest one, she says. But bronze wasn't her first medium once she discovered the magic of the art world. As a child growing up in Konawa, Okla., Lane drew, inspired by her school principal, who was the only person she had ever seen create art.
Later, living in Utah with her husband -- whom she married when she was a senior in high school -- Lane discovered oil painting via her local PBS station.
"That awakened a desire to restart the liking I always had for drawing," she says. "Still no opportunity for classes of any kind, but I did purchase some oil paints and struck out. I'm so glad I retained one of the very first paintings I ever did -- because it lets you see how far you've come!"
After years of office work in Utah and Washington, it wasn't until she moved back to Oklahoma that Lane found her true artistic calling.
"I rather floundered along with painting while raising a family until about 25 years ago, when myself with two friends got the opportunity to attend the Prix de West exhibit" at what is now the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.
"At that time, 1966, the Cowboy Hall of Fame was a reasonably new thing for Oklahoma," she remembers. "I fell in love with the bronze work I saw there. [And] upon our very first visit, I met cowboy artist Mehl Lawson."
For all his success, Lawson too was self taught, Lane learned. A horse trainer from California, he had stopped at the Cowboy Hall of Fame while trucking a horse back east and "like me, fell in love with sculpture."
"I kept up with his work for the next three years, and I approached him with a small photo of a buffalo I had created from Sculpey and baked in my oven," Lane continues the story. "After looking at it, he invited me to attend a workshop he was doing in the fall at the cowboy artists' museum in Kerrville, Texas. I applied, was accepted, and the rest is history."
The subjects for Lane's bronze sculptures were inspired by her life in the Uinta Basin in Utah, the first place she was exposed to mountains and mountain creatures -- her first mule deer, wild horses, a mountain lion. "I found the country and wildlife fascinating," she recalls.
Bronze sculpture, however, is more than an idea and some clay.
"I only have the dream," she says, "and put that into practice with clay. Then it becomes the job of the mold makers and foundry to make it a reality. They are such artisans themselves, it's almost hard to take credit for the finished work.
"Many people can't relate to the price of a sculpture, but there is so much that goes into the finished art," she adds. "It can take anywhere from 90 days to six months to see it in reality. I have been blessed with foundries that have helped me from the start until today.
"My work is a story brought to life in bronze," she concludes. "The story lives forever and is hopefully shared with others. A piece of art, whether a painting or a sculpture, is a joy, something to instill emotion each time you look at it. I hope this is what my work does."
FAQ
'Patsy Lane: Cast in Bronze'
WHEN -- Through Oct. 15; hours are 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday & 1-5 p.m. Sunday
WHERE -- Fort Smith Regional Art Museum, 1601 Rogers Ave.
COST -- Free
INFO -- fsram.org
"I only have the dream, and put that into practice with clay," Patsy Lane says of her bronze sculptures. "Then it becomes the job of the mold makers and foundry to make it a reality." (Courtesy Photo/Patsy Lane)
"I only have the dream, and put that into practice with clay," Patsy Lane says of her bronze sculptures. "Then it becomes the job of the mold makers and foundry to make it a reality." (Courtesy Photo/Patsy Lane)