PHIL WHITE Star-Tribune correspondent | Posted: Friday, October 10, 2008 12:00 am
LARAMIE - "Talk About Your Cowboy," a larger-than-life bronze sculpture by D. Michael Thomas of Buffalo, was dedicated at the University of Wyoming Alumni House on Friday afternoon as part of UW's annual Homecoming.
The 1,100-pound work stands 10 - feet tall and was cast by Caleco Foundry in Cody.
Thomas said the statue depicts a cowboy with 1880s costume and tack coming to a halt and waving goodbye, saying, "Until we meet again."
The work was commissioned by the UW Alumni Association Board about 18 months ago and will be paid for by the sale of 14- and 24-inch limited edition replicas, according to Roberta Darnall, executive director of the group.
Thomas, who grew up in Big Piney and graduated high school in Jackson, said the sculpting took about five months, followed by five months working with the foundry to produce the piece.
Thomas earned an agri-business and animal science degree at UW in 1977 with an eye on becoming a veterinarian. During his college years he first began to work with wax, but sculpting was only a serious hobby while he worked in agricultural businesses for 16 years. In 1993 First National Bank of Buffalo contacted him about making an outdoor sculpture, and that turned his career toward art.
He has been working on a statue of Nate Champion of the Johnson County Cattle War the past 2 1/2 years. He will soon start on a monument of rodeo cowboy and country singer Chris LeDoux.
Among those helping with the unveiling of the UW work Friday was Jeani Staehr, a Jackson teacher and a former Alumni Association board member who was instrumental in bringing the statue to reality.