Bill Nebeker-Art of the West Magazine-November-December 2013

Bill Nebeker

M aking T hem P roud

By Myrna Zanetell

The Wonder of it All, bronze, 26” high by 16” wide “America and cowboys: The words are synonymous.

The cowboy has been the symbol of American independence, individuality, self-determination, the work ethic, and ‘his word is his bond’ for more than 150 years. They gained notoriety during the great longhorn cattle drives across the West and became heroic figures because of those exploits. Opening up the West for settlement gave the cowboy freedom to pursue his dreams of owning land, and he worked hard to secure those dreams. I wanted to honor this cowboy, who stands in awe, overlooking the grandeur of his ranch, as he gives thanks to the good Lord for life, liberty, the land, and his family. This rancher remembers the generations before him who worked hard, raised the cattle, and helped build America into the greatest nation on earth—and he ponders the wonder of it all.”

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Season of the Buffalo, bronze, 21” high by 31” wide rtistic talent cannot be taught; rather it is birthed by a passion that lies deep “Imagine you are on the Great Plains more than 200 years ago and come upon this scene: Southern Cheyenne scouts have reported the sighting of a large herd of buffalo. Their camp within the heart and soul. There is no comes alive with songs of the hunt to come. Warriors are sharpening their arrows and more shining example of this truism than preparing their bows. They are catching their best buffalo ponies and preparing them for reflecting on the prolific oeuvre created by the hunt by painting circles around each eye to give power to the horse’s vision and have Arizona-based sculptor Bill Nebeker during painted butterflies on each shoulder to give the ponies the ability to dart and dive, as they chase the buffalo, which keeps them away from danger. Hawk feathers have been tied to an amazing career that has spanned nearly the ponies’ tails to give them swiftness. The hunt is on; it is the season of the buffalo, the four decades. giver of life.”

Born November 13, 1942, in Twin Falls, Idaho, Nebeker’s early values were shaped by life in the small ranching and farming community. Although he spent many youthful hours whittling images of dogs, horses, miniature saddles, and even small sailing ships from unused wood he found on the family farm, he simply looked on this pursuit as a hobby.

“I wasn’t one of those guys who was born knowing he was going to be an artist,” Nebeker says. “I was just good with my hands.”

His family moved to Prescott, Arizona, in the 1950s where Nebeker melded into the local ranching lifestyle, purchasing a horse and teaching himself the skill of roping. After high school, still uncertain about his future, he spent a year at the University of Arizona in Tucson. The following year, he transferred to the University of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff where, through the world of college rodeo, he began to gain insights into the lifestyle he was seeking.

However, the last pieces of the puzzle would not fall into place until Nebeker returned to Prescott in 1963 and accepted a job surveying roads and trails for the Prescott National Forest. The following year he proposed to his high school sweetheart, Merry Harkins. It was during that same period that his parents took him to an exhibition of work by a local artist—renowned sculptor George Phippen. That experience was so electrifying that Nebeker immediately realized sculpting was the way he wanted to earn his living.

November/December 2013• ART of the WEST

Trial and error has always been Nebeker’s preferred method of learning, so he spent the next two years experimenting with a variety of clays and armatures. Not satisfied with his progress, in 1967, hat in hand, he drove out to Skull Valley to investigate Bear Paw Bronze, a small foundry run by the Phippen family. Hiring on as an apprentice, he began to learn the art of sculpting from the ground up.

Nebeker spent his daytime hours casting, grinding, and chasing work for foundry clients and dedicated his nights and weekends to perfecting his own art. After a few years, the foundry was casting Nebeker’s work along with that of wellknown clients such as Joe Beeler, Bill Owen, Deborah Copenhaver Fellows, Richard Greeves, and Pat Haptonstall.

In the early 1970s, the operation moved to Prescott. Renamed Thumb Butte Bronze, it is the foundry Nebeker continues to use for his work today. “The relationship

Home is the Hunter, Home From the Hills, bronze, 19” high by 22” wide “For ranchers, settlers, and Native Americans, hunting has always been an intrinsic aspect of daily life, sustenance, and their self-reliance.

Even today, in homes, teepees, and hogans alike, elk, antelope, and venison are staples. As fall and winter arrive, many modern cattle outfits offer cowboys as hunting guides, and native tribes offer the same service, which produces added sources of income and keeps wildlife and rangeland in balance.”

with your foundry is as personal as that of a marriage,” he says. “You can create the best sculpture, but what happens at the foundry after that is critical. Because it is just two miles down the road from our home, nothing leaves the foundry that I don’t look at first.”

Asked about his use of patinas, Nebeker says, “Although I started with the traditional French brown— a dark, shiny brown—I currently use a variation on that, which I call a dusty or rusty brown. It also has shiny highlights, but down in the cracks it looks like its dusty, which

ART of the WEST • November/December 2013

really makes the bronze details stand out. With my Native American pieces, I incorporate chemicals to add very subtle color for such things as the hair roaches, which are red with black tips, or perhaps lighter hues on the breastplates. People seem to really like a bit of color if it’s not harsh.”

Influenced by his early skills as a carver, Nebeker does not create preliminary sketches. He simply visualizes an idea, builds the armature, and then begins shaping the clay.

“My work is detailed, but over the years, I think my style has become a bit looser,” he says. “I leave more thumb prints and marks. However, in Western compositions texture needs to be more subtle, so I often use folds and wrinkles in the garments if I want to show muscle tension or the direction of movement.”

No matter the subject or the size, Nebeker says his work must meet two criteria. “First, I want it to have good form, and a pleasing line and composition,” he says. “Authenticity ranks second only to that. One of the things I admire most about Charlie Russell is that he was not only a great artist but it was important to him that his paintings represent people in the most authentic way. To him, feeling was more important than great art.

He succeeded because he loved the life he was portraying. What’s in your heart has a big thing to do with being an artist. Your work can be technically correct, but it will never be great if the feeling is not there.”

And there is no substitute for hands-on experience. Having spent many years on local ranches, working cattle during branding and roundup, Nebeker says his greatest honor is when the “real deal” cowboys invite him out to help.

“Based on these opportunities, the sculptures I produce have become a record of people I have encountered during my lifetime,” he says. “This is the reason it is so important to me to portray their way of life in a manner that would make them proud.

“Lots of artists say, ‘I have so many ideas, I will never run out.’ I used to say that too, but sculpture puts you in a different position. Painters have landscape and colors that add dimension, but how many ways can you portray a bucking horse? For

Comanche: Lord of the Southern Plains, bronze, 27” high by 25” wide “The Comanche ruled the Southern Plains, from Kansas to central Texas, for nearly 150 years.

An expanse of land that was more than 20,000 square miles was teaming with buffalo, deer, and antelope and provided these nomadic inhabitants with fertile hunting grounds. In the 18th century, the Comanche began capturing the herds of mustang horses left by the Spanish, which transformed them from nomads on foot to superior and legendary warriors. The secret of their success was their amazing horsemanship. Courage was their supreme virtue, and war was not an event, but a way of life. By the early 19th century, the Comanche had driven off all other tribes that tried to take over their hunting grounds, and they became known as the lords of the Southern Plains.”

this reason, sculpture is bit more limited; it shrinks everything down to one initial concept. Now that I have been doing this for 40 years, I look for an idea that’s exciting to me and, once I find that, I can’t wait to begin sculpting.”

To keep his work fresh, Nebeker has expanded his subject matter beyond depicting historic or contemporary cowboys. “I’ve always been fascinated by birch bark canoes,” he says. “They are an art unto themselves. Because most of the travel in the eastern states was by water, these canoes are a major part November/December 2013• ART of the WEST

The Eyes of Texas, bronze, 34” high by 19” wide “This Texas ranger is carrying his ½ seat, double rigging saddle with a Cheyenne roll, developed by J.S. and G.H. Collins of Wyoming, and his Henry rifle. The legendary Texas Rangers date back to 1823, when Stephen Austin called for 10 men to protect new Texas settlers from Indian raids. By 1835 the rangers were required to supply their own horses, saddles, and firearms. This ranger is not wearing the ‘famous’ 5-star badge because, prior to the 1890s, no official badges were issued, but some created their own from $5 Mexican pesos. Their legend grew after 1873, when they captured desperados like Sam Bass and John Wesley Hardin and won decisive victories over Kiowa, Comanche, and Apaches. With low and sporadic pay, some rangers hired on to cattle drives from Texas through Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, and Wyoming. It was said that a Texas Ranger could, ‘Ride like a Mexican, trail like an Indian, shoot like a Tennessean, and fight like the devil and, if you were wanted for a crime, they were the eyes of Texas.’”

ART of the WEST • November/December 2013

of early history in America. Some were as short as 13 feet, while others could go as large as 40 feet long and carry up to eight tons of supplies plus their crew. I have experimented with three different versions, which include trapper figures, and viewers just love them.”

Another theme that has found its way into several of Nebeker’s recent compositions is the “code of the West,” the concept that a man’s word is his bond. “During the early days in the cattle industry, millions might be riding on just a hand shake,” he says. Emphasizing this concept, Nebeker sculpted a cowboy in a slicker leaning forward, with his right hand outstretched.

When one collector bought several of those sculptures to present to family members, Nebeker knew he had captured an emotion that touched people from all generations.

Nebeker differs from many artists in that he seldom uses live models. One exception was for a set of bookends that depicted a warrior playing a flute on one side, a maiden leaning against wall with a feather fan in her lap on the other.

His daughter Jeannie posed for the latter.

“Mostly I use myself,” Nebeker says. “Ideas come to me and, when I reach a certain point, I get on a horse, or put my saddle on a saw horse, get in position and then have Merry take photos. That way I can see what kinds of creases I have in the chaps, how the toes point, wrinkles in the shirt. Getting a real cowboy to pose for you is not easy.

It’s hard enough getting his boss to let you come out and take photos.”

Although his preference is for smaller scale work, Nebeker has received commissions from three cities in his home state of Arizona to create monumental works honoring historic and modern heroes, including a memorial to fallen officers that has been placed at the Arizona Highway Patrol Headquarters in Phoenix. In 2009 the Arizona State Historical Society honored him with the Arizona Culturekeepers Award Nebeker also was pleased when his friend, Bob Norris, Colorado Springs horseman and philanthropist, personally chose him to sculpt a bronze to be placed at the rodeo

Across the Divide, bronze, 23” high by 16” wide “The Northern Plains were a harsh environment in winter, where icy ground, frozen rivers, blowing snow, and frigid winds made life extremely difficult. The U. S. Army was always chasing and attempting to prevent the tribes from settling into their camps. In winter it was much more difficult for villagers to move from one camp to another, as they tried to elude the soldiers. This Blackfoot and his horse struggle against the frigid winds and blowing snow, as he searches for a trail across a high mountain pass, where he can safely take his villagers, as they try to escape pursuing soldiers.

Wrapped in a buffalo hide and wool blanket, he climbs the icy ground as he pushes on, knowing freedom for his tribe lies across the divide.”

Photo Credit - Marchetti Photography

grounds there. “I reminded Bob that I wasn’t a portrait artist,” he says.

“He just replied, ‘That’s okay; you’ll make me look like a cowboy, and that’s what’s important to me.” Both sculptor and client were pleased with the end result.

Celebrating his 35th anniversary with the Cowboy Artists of America in the fall of 2014, Nebeker is one of only a handful of long-time members retaining an active status in the prestigious organization. “Most of the early CAs had some experience working as cowboys,” he says.

“For this reason, we enjoyed participating in the rodeo events at our exhibition in the Kerrville, Texas, museum. In fact, Fred Fellows and I won the team-roping event more than once. Nowdays only a few are cowboys, but most ride horseback on the annual trail ride. CAA has survived so long because we are primarily interested in the man, his character, and his artistic talent. In 2015 the CAA will be celebrating its 50th anniversary. I don’t think there is any other group that has stayed together that long.”

In addition to being a member of CAA and a Prix de West Artist, Nebeker, along with Merry, was instrumental in helping to start the George Phippen Museum of Western Art in Prescott, which opened its doors in October 1984.

In addition to being Nebeker’s first love and his soulmate for nearly 50 years, Merry handles the business end of his career and is a volunteer and an advisor for the museum’s board.

In a recent sculpture, Nebeker depicted a puncher on horseback, overlooking the grandeur of the land below. That piece sums up Nebeker’s respect for the cowboy and his way of life.

“They give thanks to the Lord for being able to maintain their freedom and independence while making a living doing what they love,” he says. “I also am fortunate that God blessed me, not only with artistic ability but, more importantly, He gave me the desire to follow through with it.”

Myrna Zanetell is a writer living in El Paso, Texas.

November/December 2013• ART of the WEST