Deborah Butterfield

Deborah Butterfield by Robert Gordon. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780810946293.

Deborah Butterfield transforms pieces of scrap metal and found wood into majestic, life-size horse sculptures that are, as art historian Wayne L. Roosa has written, "like ancient, noble archaeological remains, skeletal and grand." Her sculptures also may be the first works to explore the interior lives of horses - a long overdue answer to centuries of martial and monumental equine art. This volume presents a retrospective look at this important American artist. At the core of the book are color photographs of the sculptures, installed in galleries, in the artists studios, and at Walla Walla Foundry. An insightful essay by novelist and horsewoman Jane Smiley sensitively captures the depth of Butterfields passion for horses both living and sculpted. John Yau, poet and art critic, adds a formal analysis of the artists work. In a selection of poems, the late poet Vicki Hearne, a close friend of Butterfields, translates this world of horse-human dialogue. Robert Gordon has followed the artists career for a quarter century and brings unique insight and vision to her body of work.