here and here
Deborah Kay Butterfield (born May 7, 1949) is an American sculptor. She divides her time between a ranch in Bozeman, Montana and studio space in Hawaii. She is known for her sculptures of horses made from found objects, like metal, and especially pieces of wood.
Born the same day as the 75th running of the Kentucky Derby, Butterfield partly credits that birthdate as an inspiration for her subject matter; she has also said that she would have preferred to work in the female form, but that her mentor Manuel Neri dominated that form. Instead, she chose to create self-portraits using images of horses. Gradually, the horses themselves became her primary theme.
Butterfield earned a bachelors degree in 1971 and an M.F.A. in 1973 at the University of California, Davis, where she met her husband, artist John E. Buck.
Butterfield's work has been exhibited widely and there is demand among art collectors for her sculptures. She began crafting horses out of scrap metal and cast bronze in the early 1980s. She would sculpt a piece using wood and other materials fastened together with wire, then photograph the piece from all angles so as to be able to reassemble the piece in metal. She only works in the winter, so works usually take 3 to 5 years.
My work is not so overtly about movement. My horses' gestures are really quite quiet, because real horses move so much better than I could pretend to make things move. For the pieces I make, the gesture is really more within the body, it's like an internalized gesture, which is more about the content, the state of mind or of being at a given instant. And so it's more like a painting ... the gesture and the movement is all pretty much contained within the body. - Deborah Butterfield
1949 Born, San Diego, California
Education
1998 Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana; Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts
1997 Rocky Mountain College, Billings, Montana; Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts
1996 Black Belt Wado Ryo Karate, Bozeman, Montana
1973 University of California at Davis, California, M.F.A.
1972 Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan, Maine
1970 - 72 San Diego State College, San Diego California
1969 University of California, San Diego, California
Big Creek Pottery, Santa Cruz, California, summer ceramic workshop
1966 - 68 San Diego State College, San Diego, California
GRANTS AND AWARDS:
1972 Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan, Maine, Purchase
Award for sculpture and Student Jury Award for sculpture.
1976 University of Wisconsin, Madison, grant, summer session.
1977 National Endowment for the Arts, Individual Artist Fellowship.
1980 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship.
National Endowment for the Arts, Individual Artist Fellowship.
1992 University of California, Davis, Cal Aggie Alumni Association, Davis, California,
Citation for Excellence.
1993 American Academy of Achievement, Golden Plate Award.
1997 Rocky Mountain College, Billings, Montana; Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts.
1998 Montana State University, Bozeman, Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts.
2003 Yellowstone Art Museum, Billings, Montana, President’s Award for Artist of
the Year.
2004 Whitman College, Walla Walla, Washington, Honorary Doctorate of Humanities.
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