Artwork 'bear'ly misses first place

Photo courtesy of Pam Kraft

This bear designed by Encampment High School students recently took third place in a state art competition.


By Janice Kurbjun
Times staff writer

Bradley Russell was getting frustrated with his bear’s design, so as a joke, he just started to draw it into a pile of rocks.

The other advanced art students from Encampment High School quickly latched onto his design, enhanced it and turned it into the project that took third place out of 35 entries at last weekend’s state art competition.

The contest asked students across Wyoming to decorate a three-dimensional, Fiberglas bear with any design theme, much like the pronghorns scattered throughout Rawlins. The competition celebrated the 20th anniversary of the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson.

“We wanted to use a bear because it’s a Wyoming animal, it has a smooth figure and it’s a blank canvas,” said Jane Lavino, Sugden family curator of education at the museum.

The students in Encampment thought their rendering of Vedauwoo, the rock formation near Laramie, would take first place. Brandon Russell, Bradley’s older brother, formed and painted the rocks while his peers personalized the project with molded figures.

“It was like having a Play-Doh hour to build each figure,” Brandon Russell said. The bear was built from epoxy, a sticky substance that can be sculpted before it has a chance to harden.

Art teacher Pam Kraft said her favorite figures are the raccoons that are stealing chips and Pepsi from the landscape artist’s tent. The inhabitants of “Bear Rock,” are visible upon closer examination, she said. Rabbits peer from the rocks on which an eagle, ram, deer and mountain lion are perched.

Though the students won a $2,000 cash prize for the furtherance of the school’s art program, they are disappointed with not getting the blue ribbon. The $7,000 for first place would have bought them a trip to an art center in Sante Fe, N.M., or New York City, not to mention a lot of glory.

However, Kraft said people outside the program who have seen the statue are excited about it. She is unsure of what she’ll do with the bear when it returns from it’s tour of the state.

“There are a lot of creative ways to use these once they’re done,” said Lavino. According to her, some schools have talked about auctioning the piece, some plan to display it and some will donate theirs to the community.