A Cowboy Sculptor

A COWBOY SCULPTOR By H. R. Merrill, Brigham Young University Railroad shops would hardly be recognized as an artist's studio from which would come beautiful pieces of sculptured art, but when one remembers that it isn't the studio that produces the art but a mind so constructed that externals cannot affect it much — why not? From the railroad shops in Ogden, magnificent clay cowboys, Indians, horses, Mexicans are coming — but that is my story. The Arizona freighter, as he "skinned" his freight team over the sand hills between Tuba and Flagstaff, Arizona, twenty-five years ago, little dreamed that the wide-eyed lad who sat beside him, watching the play of muscles on the thighs of his wheel horses, would one day startle his friends by his faithful reproduction in clay of those sinuous mustang muscles. Neither did the Arizona cowboy dream as he roped his broncho that the boy who watched him with such avidity from the high pole fence, would reproduce his every act in plastic clay. But he did. The Arizona freighter and cowboy was William E. Packer; the boy was his little son, J. A. Packer, who today has given to the world several groups of western characters that will preserve as nothing else could do, the Old West just as the old-timers knew it. J. A. Packer, cowboy, rancher, and artist, was born at Tuba, Arizona, thirty-three years ago. Life began among the Arizona sand- hills where the atmosphere of the Old West was still maintained. Mr. Packer says some of his earliest recollections are of the old freight wagon which he rode many a time as he accompanied his father upon his trips between Tuba and Flagstaff. While he was yet a mere boy his parents moved to Utah, in a covered wagon. On their way north the pioneer family crossed the Colorado river by boat, at Lee's Ferry, one of the most interesting crossings of the Grand Canyon. Young Packer early became interested in modeling. He and his brothers had whole herds of clay horses, cows, and sheep which they modeled from ordinary clay, dug with sticks out of the red and white banks along the arroys. These boys each owned well-stocked little, toy ranches, all of their own construction. As they grew older the mania for modeling remained with P. A. and every spare moment of his early life he spent making things of various kinds. Nearly all of his work, however, depicts some phases of western life which he knows so well. "My youth was taken up with life in the open," he says, "with the horse, and other animals as my daily companions. Quite natur- ally I grew up with a great love for horses and out-door life. This life is such a part of me that it comes seething out of me in all sorts of

536 IMPROVEMENT ERA small sculptures depicting the cowboy, the Indian, and revealing the influence of the mountains and deserts of the West." Young Packer began his professional career under the direction of Professors A. B. Wright and Calvin Fletcher, both well known artists of Utah, to whom he owes much for the inspiration they gave him. In 1917a congressman from Utah, Milton H. Welling, gave the eager boy the opportunity of going to Washington, D. C. There he reg- istered as a student of the National School of Fine and Applied Arts, under the supervision of Paul W. Bartlett. Later, young Packer entered A. Packer at work on his latest piece, "The Chief of the Band," a study of a wild mustang of Arizona. the studio of N. S. J. Dunbar, where he remained at work until his return to Utah. The young cowboy artist came back to Utah, his mind full of dreams of what he would do for his beloved West. He began turning out western and pioneer groups, bucking bronchos, playful cowboys upending long-horns, the cowboy at work; and then, to his surprise he discovered what every artist has discovered since the dawn of time, that he couldn't make a living out of art. People gazed at his beau- tiful work, praised it, but failed to purchase. The cowboy was forced to go to work at some more lucrative job. At present he is working in the shops of the Southern Pacific railroad, at Ogden. While he toils for his daily bread and the support of his little family, he is dreaming over the old days spent in the open, upon the hills of Arizona and Utah; and then, when he should be sleeping, he is reproducing his West in clay. As an aid to his salary

COWBOY SCULPTOR 537 "The Range Rider," by J. A. Packer. but more to keep in touch with his art, he teaches a night class in modeling at the Ogden High School. J. A. Packer exhibited five groups of western life at the Utah State Fair last October. Old punchers from the south and east would pause before the groups in surprise and there would burst forth in praise of the art that could reveal every mood of the cowhorse and its rider so faithfully. Provo, Utah. From Pleased Readers "We appreciate the Improvement Era because of its great value to our missionary work." — Fritz Wingenried, Indianapolis, Indiana. "Every mail finds the missionaries eagerly looking forward to the ar- rival of the Era which always bears messages of inspiration and service as a guiding light in our work." — Melvin G. Wagstaff, secretary Samoan mis- sion, Apia, Samoa, January 4. M. P. Baker, Bakersfield, California, writes under date of January 10: "We are well pleased with the lessons in the Era tor this year. They give a person something to think about, and it takes some deep thinking to under- stand some of the lessons. We sure enjoy them, and hope all the Qth« Mutuals that are studying them like them as we do."