Seeing the Elephant
Bronze sculpture 9'

California Trails Museum, Elko, Nevada.
Interpretive sculpture for museum’s permanent exhibit.

The peculiar phrase "seeing the elephant" came about in the 19th century during the Gold Rush craze that drove men and women of every type and description toward the great American West. At the time, it meant seeing things that one had never seen before. This sculpture is based on an etching from the period. But which is more surprised- the prospector or the pachyderm? The sculpture suspends and emphasizes the gestures of astonishment, deftly running a line of realism and the fabulous that existed in the tales of the time.