That there dangerous cowboy with the six-shooters is Frank Eaton, aka Pistol Pete of the Oklahoma State Cowboys! GO POKES!!! That is a 3 ft. maquet of the 12 ft statue installed in Perkins, of all places, home of Frank Eaton. Frank was the real deal cowboy lawman, His life story is interesting. The artist of that piece is Wayne Cooper.
These are taken at The Bronze Horse foundry in Pawhuska, owner John Free Sr. He's also a sculpter of the western genre. He built the foundry over 25 years ago so he could cast his work without having to go to Texas or Colorado. Word spread and other artists started bringing thier work to the foundry, and today it's still a small place, mom and pop kind of business, but we cast for quite a few people. In the photo with Pistol Pete are two examples of John's work, the front one is Ben Johnson, actor/cowboy, native Pawhuskan. It shows Ben roping a steer. The town of Pawhuska is trying ti sell enough maquets to pay for a life-and-quarter size statue to honor Ben and John both. In the first picture, you can see the large horse head and ben's head. John is getting on in years, and this project is just too large for him to work on, so I've had the awsome honor bestowed on me to do the sculpting of the big one, under John's direction of course.
My primary job at the foundry is moldmaker, and I get to do most of the enlargements that come our way, some artists are too busy, or just don't want to do the labor involved in a big one. That's fine for me, because I get to sculpt. T-net memeber Buckshot is employeed there also as a metal chaser and he's learning to do patinas
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