Horse sculptures donated to Plains resident
Jamie Doran/Valley Press Don Grazier and Sonya White stand next to one of the horse sculptures Grazier made.
Don Grazier has been sculpting for 22 years. At the age of 87, he said he’s not quite done yet.
Grazier first began sculpting when he was 65, basically to see if he could, and now his huge bronze sculptures of animals have homes all over the world.
“I have several large birds in Switzerland,” Grazier said.
Grazier currently lives in Ronan, but lived for 50 years in Dixon. He always manages to come back for the Dixon Melon Days. This year he had a large full-bodied horse that he displayed during the parade.
“I lived there for so long that it is always nice to get back there,” he said.
Grazier was in Plains Monday presenting two large flat horse sculptures to Sonya White.
“He gave them to me,” she said. “He wanted to give them to me for my gate.”
White said she has known Grazier for about six years and he though the horses would be a perfect addition to her yard.
The horses will have a good home once White gets a welder to mount them properly to make sure that they don’t fall.
Grazier has made all sorts of large animal sculptures, from humming birds to wart hogs and woolly mammoths.
The full-sized woolly mammoth was probably the largest sculpture that Grazier has ever done and it now currently resides in San Antonio.
Grazier has gone to art shows all over the country, and also has geese currently displayed in Caras Park in Missoula.
While Grazier has been very successful in selling his art, he cautioned that artists shouldn’t give up their steady paychecks.
“If you want to try and be an artist you better keep your day job,” he said. “It isn’t an easy thing.”
Grazier said that selling art can be tricky because it isn’t something that they need.
“Artwork isn’t really something people need to have,” he said. “It is something that they want, which can make it difficult to sell sometimes.”
Being an artist can be hard as well because it can be subjective. Grazier said that there have been times when people have had negative things to say about his artwork, but that is part of the business.
“You have to find a balance,” he said. “You’ve got to balance the negative and the positive.”