Big Eagle

Author: Roberta Landman

Issue: March, 2010, Page 104

Dave McGary’s 14-inch-high bronze of Mandan Chief Four Bears’ horse shows the equine in a colorful war mask.

The sculptor’s 11-foot bronze of early-19th-century Hidatsa tribal leader Iron That Walks is part of the art collection at Camelback Inn in Scottsdale.

A detail from the sculpture of Rain in the Face shows the Sioux warrior’s beaded and leather-fringed gun case. McGary devised a special tool that allows him to render the effect of multiple tiny beads. Many say they are compelled to touch these and other elements on the artist’s sculptures, to be sure they are made solely of bronze.

This life-size McGary bust of early-19th-century Hidatsa Chief Two Crows wears a neckpiece of grizzly bear claws and trade beads, all made of bronze. Noting that the chief was a “strong figure of dignity,” McGary points out the sculpture’s head, which is adorned with realistic-looking bronze owl feathers, and the face, which he says is painted authentically, half in red and half in black.

Sculptor Dave McGary’s rendering of a beaded “pictorial” vest, which was worn by 19th-century Oglala Sioux Chief American Horse, is seen in this sculptural detail.

Carrying a staff, and with her children near, is McGary’s 10-foot bronze representation of an 1860s-era South Dakota Sioux woman, Good Voice Elk, part of the art collection at Camelback Inn.

Photos - From left -Walks Among the Stars, another 19th-century South Dakota Sioux woman, is depicted by McGary wearing a beaded ceremonial dress and a cherished Star quilt. The 10-foot-high work likewise is located at Camelback Inn, in the spa area. • McGary says he learned to create texture in bronze from bronze-casting artisans in Italy, as seen in this close-up from the sculpture of Good Voice Elk. “I’m a product of my ItaIian teachers,” he remarks.

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