Bronze Rodeo Sculpture by Edd Hayes fine bronze sculptor

By Donna Tennant

For Houston artist Edd Hayes, who once proposed an elaborate bronze sculpture a quarter of a mile long, creating a larger-than-life elephant is business as usual at his Bellaire studio.

The group hoping to see this elephant come to life is the Tusk Memorial Foundation, which is currently in the process of raising $300,000 to fund the creation and installation of this massive bronze. It will be installed at the Astrodome in commemoration of the Republican National Convention held in Houston last July. The foundation is a nonprofit nonpartisan effort by people donating their time to making the commemorative elephant sculpture a reality.

Foundation president Sherry Johnson got the idea when she saw Edd's small bronze elephant at the Republic Convention. "I think it would be a wonderful monument to everyone who helped make the convention a success. It was truly a historic event. The sculpture will be completed about a year after we raise the money," she says.

Once they have about a third of the money in hand, Hayes will begin work on the elephant in earnest. At this point he has sculpted only one huge foot.

Entitled Defiance for its posture of defying the hunters, who would kill it for its ivory tusks, the elephant will be the second monumental bronze sculpture by Hayes at the As-trodome complex. The beautiful and stirring Wild and Free was presented and installed in front of the Astroarena in 1991. However, the base was not completed until February 1992.

Wild and Free, which was commissioned by the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo in celebration of their 60th anniversary, is an eloquent tribute not only to the wild horses it depicts, but also to the spirit of Texas, which many people still like to think of as a frontier. Nostalgia for a vanished past is part of the mystique of this heroic sculpture.

When first installed, the horses were standing on pedestals rather than in a natural environment. "They looked like they were walking in space," Hayes said. He was not content with a typical bronze base either, but had a clear idea of what the completed sculpture should look like.

"I knew that all I had to do was find the right landscape architect," Hayes said. "We quarried 250 tons of limestone from the Hill Country near Austin-one rock alone weighed 8,000 pounds-and stood them on end. It would have been easier to stack them like bricks, but it wouldn't have looked natural."

WiId and Free is installed on the south side of the Astroarena and stretches some 140 feet across the entrance. A heroic stallion, three mares and two colts make up this remarkable family of horses. The two mares lead the group, with the lead mare looking back over her shoulder to check on her colt, who is jumping a stream, his front legs stretched out in front of him.

A pregnant mare follows next, her head down as she works to keep up with the others. Behind and above her, on a rocky knoll covered with yucca and native grasses, stands the majestic stallion. Of all the horses, he best epitomizes the wildness and Spirit of America the sculpture is named for. He lifts his right foreleg gracefully and his nostrils flare as he scents the wind for possible danger. His magnificent tail flows out behind him.

Hayes is particularly good at sculpting the mane, tail and muscular structure of the horses he loves. Never far away from him in the studio is a book entitled Modelling and SculptingAnimals by sculptor Edouard Lanteri, whom Hayes refers to as his master. Lanteri, a friend of sculptor Auguste Rodin, wrote the book in 1911. Page after page feature finely detailed anatomy drawings of animals focusing on bone structure, muscle groups and organs.

Another major influence on Hayes is Bruno Lucchesi, a Italian sculptor born in 1926 in Tuscany. Lucchesi spent years in Florence studying master sculpture by such Renais-sance artists as Filippo Brunellesehi, Leonbattista Alberti and Donatello. Lucchesi's 1957 book on sculpture is also nearby in the studio.

On a recent visit to Wild and Free, the Astrodome parking lot was empty and the morning sun lit up the clouds laying on the southeast horizon. The sunrise and the stallion's noble silhouette were reflected in the black glass of the Astroarena s windows. Standing some 22 feet above the viewer, this horse is an impressive sight. Edd Hayes has an emotional connection with his work that endows it with inner life.

Hayes completed Wild and Free, from conception to installation, in just five months. It cost about $350,000, which was raised from supporters in increments of $16,000 or $25,000. "Many of my collectors contributed and in return received one of the 75 maquettes. Their names are included on a plaque set into one of the limestone boulders."

The short fence around the piece was added to satisfy the Astrodome's insurance requirements. "It wasn't planned and I don't like the way it looks, but it was necessary." Hayes said. "We thought planting prickly pears around it would keep people out, but believe it or not, during the Republican Convention grown men were climbing up on the colt's back to have their pictures taken."

Wild and Free has a waterfall that flows through the sculpture, but often it is turned off. "Water brings it to life," Hayes said. "It's an integral part of the piece, but it's not on a timer and they forget to turn it on." A focused man, who accomplishes everything he sets out to do in record time, Hayes will no doubt find a solution for the water problem.

The stallion was sculpted in just seven days. Working with only one assistant, Hayes set up shop in the south wing of the Astrohall and went to work. The entire sculpture, which he created first in "classic clay," a mixture of clay and wax, took only two and a half months to complete.

The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo gifted former President George Bush with the table-top version of Wild and Free and Bush eventually plans to display it at his Presidential Library at Texas A&M. Bush also has a 26' version of the elephant Defiance.

Hayes completed an edition of 50 elephants for the Republican Convention. Former Vice President Dan Quayle received an elephant from the National Association of Roofing Contractors and a California collector gave one of the sculpture to Governor Pete Wilson. Now Hayes has been commissioned by the National Association of Roofing Con-tractors to do 250 of the 12" elephants for their members.

Hayes, who is not represented by a gallery, deals directly with clients and collectors in his 8,000 square-foot gallery and studio near the Galleria. When you step through the glass door into the gallery, which is wood-paneled and carpeted in a rich maroon, you see numerous bronze sculpture on pedestals and walls filled with photographs.

There are photographs of Hayes at work on his massive pieces, including one amazing series of photographs documenting the creation of The Champ entitled "140 Days from Clay to Bronze." Photographer and friend Jim Barron documents Hayes working in the studio and at notable awards and dedication ceremonies. There are also photographs of rodeo stars that Hayes has known and framed magazine covers and newspaper clippings. A beautiful hand-tooled antique saddle sits next to his drafting table.

When I first met Hayes, who is a tall man in his late forties with salt-and-pepper hair, he was wearing jeans, a purple polo shirt and black cowboy boots. A personable man, he talked easily about his work and how he got started as an artist. A pronounced drawl reveals his west Texas roots. Hayes was born and raised in Midland and went to high school in Kerrville.

"I was a cowboy in west Texas," he said. "I grew up on my family's dirt stock farm in the middle of a cotton field. There was nothing there but tumbleweeds and sand." After a brief stint in the Navy, he came home to Texas to make a living. "I've done it all," he said. "Construction and plumbing and electrical work. I trained horses and I sold livestock feed. And I was a professional rodeo cowboy for 10 years."

Art was not something he considered doing, however, until one cold winter day in 1978. "I was working as the Oklahoma territory field salesman for a feed company. My wife and I got iced in for a week and I was so bored I bought a set of oil paints for beginners. The first thing I painted was a blue gill, just for fun.

"Sometime after that, I went to the Oklahoma Cattler Raisers Convention and met an artist there who was selling his paintings. 'I can do that, I said to myself.' I went right home and told my wife I was going to be an artist." He paused a moment. "She was not thrilled."

Hayes taught himself to paint and entered some art shows until 1980, when he saw a bronze sculpture by an Arkansas artist. "I think I can do that," he said to himself. The artist helpfully instructed him on how to buy the wax, build an armature out of coat hangers and start sculpting.

"I looked at a lot of bronze sculpture," Hayes said, "and much of it was so bad that I was very encouraged. I am very particular about my proportions-I take a lot of measurements and work with some kind of scale. My preference is to work one-fifth of life size for small pieces and one-and-a-half times larger than life for large pieces."

Hayes moved to Lubbock from Oklahoma and eventually to Houston in 1981. He had been to the Western Heritage Show at the Shamrock Hotel and decided that Houston was a ''good place to headquarter."

He prefers to do his own marketing by advertising in national magazines and traveling to promote his work. In the past he has been represented by various Houston galleries including Gallery of the Southwest, Pritchard Gallery and Altermann and Morris Galleries, when it was Connally, Alrermann and Morris. "John Connally [former governor of Texas] saw my work at a thoroughbred horse sale in Austin and suggested that I show my work to the gallery. They represented me for a while."

Hayes and his wife Carolyn have driven to invitational art shows all over the country displaying his sculpture, but he's given that up for now. "I went to the Governor's Invitational in Cheyenne last year, but that was it," he said. "It's just too exhausting and not all that productive."

Inside his enormous studio, several pieces are in progress including an 1880s Texas Ranger three-feet tall. His worktable is covered with books and magazines including a historic book with pictures of Texas Rangers and a catalogue of western clothing from the 1800s. Hayes was excited about having found an authentic rifle to work from.

Along the far wall is a rack hung with seven cowboy hats, a sombrero, chaps and saddle blankets. Nearby are kilns for heating clay. Also in progress is a sculpture of a polo player for Alex Cord (star of the television show Airwolf), who is an avid polo player. A stunning female nude holding a beach towel blowing in the breeze is nearly completed. "I don't want to be pigeon-holed as a western artist," he said. "Even though I am best known for that, I do all kinds of sculpture."

The huge elephant foot sits nearby. It is the beginning of the elephant sculpture that will be created in pieces before being cast in bronze. Hayes will do the head, each leg and then the body itself in two parts. From the top of his outstretched trunk to the floor, the elephant will stand 30 feet tall. The studio's ceiling is only 13 feet high.

Hayes chose the title Defiance after researching African elephants and their tragic fate at the hands of ivory hunters. "I chose the posture of defiance to represent these magnificent creatures who are struggling to survive," Hayes said. "And now it's an appropriate metaphor for the Republican Party."

One of Hayes' most famous sculpture is The Champ, which is located in front of the Pro-Rodeo Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs, Colorado. A tribute to nine-time world champion rodeo star Casey Tibbs, it was completed in August 1989 just three months before Casey died of cancer.

Inside the hall are nine smaller sculpture by Hayes, each one commissioned by and dedicated to a world-champion rodeo cowboy. The series is referred to as "The Legends of Rodeo Collection" and includes Jim Shoulders, who was a 16-time world champion, Eddy Akridge, whom Hayes has known all his life, Harry Tompkins, Big Jim Bynum and Dean Oliver.

Pardners, Hayes' sculpture of Ben Johnson and Joe Crow roping a steer, their horses running flat out, brought $65,000 at the annual Cystic Fibrosis Foundation auction when Red Adair, who is famous in Texas for extinguishing oil well fires, and Eddie Gaylord of Opryland got in a bidding war. Every year since 1984, Hayes has donated a bronze sculpture to the auction, which is part of the Ben Johnson Pro-Celebrity Team Roping and Cutting Horse Event. Past celebrities who have attended include Patrick Duffey, June Lockhart, Wilfred Brimley, Denver Pile and many others.

Ben Johnson is the rodeo cowboy and actor who won an Oscar for his performance in Last Picture Show. Joe Crow, who died last year, was Ben's best friend and partner-in-life. "Joe told me that this sculpture was his Academy Award," Hayes said.

Occasionally Hayes can be convinced to do a smaller commission. He executed Hellfighter, a bust of Red Adair in celebration of Red's 70th birthday. Adair is an avid collector of Hayes' work. Another Hayes supporter is I.W. Marks, who has a complete collection of Hayes' work. Hayes has collectors all over the world, including Mexico, South America, Saudi Arabia and Japan.

Hayes explains why he spells Edd with 2 'ds.' "I used to be called Eddie, and I dropped the 'ie,' just like my daddy did. It's simple as that."

And if you're wondering about the quarter-mile sculpture mentioned earlier, it was to be a narrative outdoor piece with a Mexican vaquero chasing several steers, an Indian watching from a nearby vantage point and two blue herons taking flight. Hayes proposed it for a development near San Luis Obispo on the California coast, but the project was halted for environmental reasons. Maybe one of these days, Hayes will have a chance to tell that story in bronze too.

Museum and Arts Magazine
Houston's Art Journal
March 1993