Tolley Marney - Fidelity

Title of Piece: Fidelity

Medium: Hand built steel

Dimensions: 38” long by 20” tall x 8” deep.

Style and Technique: Horses have been part of my life for about fifty years. I was a wrangler, then a farrier for most of my life and when I shut my eyes, I can feel the shapes of a horse.

My style is stylized realism. I developed my style because I do not make models or sketches of my sculptures. I begin working directly in the steel with an idea in my head. I heat pieces of old horseshoes, bars and other steel scraps in my forge until they are red hot. I remove the red hot piece with blacksmithing tongs, then hold it over my anvil and hammer it into shape with my free hand.

I have to be quick and get as much shape out of my steel as I can before it cools and becomes less malleable. I usually start with the head of the being I’m sculpting. Then I work to the next part of the body. And so on, and so on.

In this piece, Fidelity, I began working at the tip of the nose, shaping the lower and upper lips, then connecting steel pieces up the top of the nose until I could shape the eyes. When that ratio was just right (sometimes it takes a few tries), I continued to shape the head, adding in pieces of mane as I sculpt.

Making a sculpture with two heads is a bit more complicated than making one head, because the spatial relationships between the two heads supports the emotional feeling I’m conveying.

A passionate love of life, relationship and living in one’s true nature is the theme of this sculpture.