Bradford Williams 

Bradford J. Williams was raised in Eastern Colorado, a place bearing only a geographical relationship to the congested cities of the modern American West. It's his early experiences - of cattle drives and county fairs, endless vistas and the small, intimate gestures that bind a hardy people together - that are the foundation of his love for the cowboy and the cowboy way of life.

Eastern Colorado is where he found his medium - sculpture, although early on he worked not in bronze, but in clay, the slick "gumbo" type so prevalent on the range. Little did Williams know that the small, rough images he fashioned out of prairie dirt as a child would provide the inspiration for a distinguished career!

After serving in the military, Brad moved to Montana, where he pursued a variety of jobs. Logging, ranch hand, horse-breaker, saddle-maker, a theme was developing. Like the cowboys from a distant time, Brad didn't just visit the "great outdoors" of his imagination, he occupied it, savoring the simplicity and the quiet rhythms of a way of life that, for most of us, is long gone, and yet resonates.

It's been said that a place isn't a place until an artist defines it for us. The place that Brad Williams defines takes its cues from the cowboy way of life he reveres. "The fabric of the Cowboy's way has woven into it a number of philosophies such as, you take care of your livestock before you take care of yourself; your word is your bond; and a belief that brotherly love is not just something you read somewhere, but the act of reaching out to your neighbor. "Through each sculpture, I want people to feel what I feel about this way of life."

Deceptively simple depictions of small moments, his western sculptures are symbols of our need to believe that another world exists beyond that of our experience a world that is richer and truer, a world where hard work, trust, decency and strength without excuse aren't just rumors, but fact. Two cowboys shaking hands over a fence, a faithful horse nibbling the posies a bashful young cowhand is about to present to his girl - Brad's artwork is a tonic for the soul, full of shared emotion and sometimes shared jeopardy.

Brad is a self-taught artist, but success didn't come easily. "Each attempt at a bronzed sculpture brought me closer to that reality of becoming a successful, self-sufficient artist. I remember many long nights of sculpting after working all day at something else."

By 1991, Brad was one of the most sought after artists in his genre and the demand for his work became so great that he finally became a full-time artist. His persistence had paid off. "It is my sincerest wish that I can communicate through my sculpture the passion that I feel for the cowboy and the cowboy way of life. I want to leave a legacy for generations to come, one that exemplifies all the good things that this way of life has to offer."