Carol Grende

Bronze sculpture

Artist' artwork/info

Carol Grende's Bio:

With her waist-length brown hair, passion for American-Western history, and a life-long love of horses, one can easily imagine Carol (C.A.) Grende in pioneer attire adventuring in the early west with her favorite explorers, Lewis & Clark. As though in a time machine, the Montana painter and sculptor's career has stepped back through history to when the West was yet to be won.

In 1803 the speed limit, while not posted, was as fast as a horse could run or a ship could sail. The little emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, desperate for cash to fight wars back home in France, offered President Thomas Jefferson some prime real estate for a mere three cents an acre. The Lousiana Purchase, 800,000 square miles from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains, opened the West and the rest - as they say - is history.

That same year Merriweather Lewis and William Clark began what is known as "America's Journey". This rich cache of history is at the core of much of Grende's artistic expression. The Grende sisters - Janene is also a well known artist - were nurtured by their parents to appreciate art, history and nature. "We loved to listen to my grantparents' stories of the old days. These are some of my favorite memories," says Grende. "We travelled over the Lewis and Clark Trail on Highway 12 over Lolo Pass to visit them as often as we could. I always looked for the trails and any other traces along the way and I still do."

As a young woman and promising artist, Grende grew to feel close to the history of the expedition as she hiked or rode horseback along the many miles that these adventurous explorers once trod. Her father Dale had pioneered roads along the Lochsa River. Lila O'Connell-Grende, her mother, was a native Montanan and second generation cowgirl who had been raised on the breaks of the Missouri River. Says Grende, "My grandmother Blanch Graham O'Connell rode in rodeo relay races in the 20's with her lifelong friend, the famous Fannie Steele who was Ladies World Champion Bronc Rider in 1912-13. I did a sculpture of Fannie riding like the wind." The sculpture is in the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame in Fort Worth, Texas.

Every summer mother and daughter would ride into the wilderness. "To walk in the footsteps on the original trails of these explorers fills my heart with honor and humbles me." She says. "I feel so fortunate to have lived in the West where the traces of the past are etched into the Earth. Indian trails, old stage coach roads, and buffalo wallows are commonplace. It pulls at my heartstrings."

To Grende, the old trails vibrate with imagery and sounds of the past: the crunch of hooves and wagon wheels, greetings among fellow travellers, smells of food wafting on the smoke of evening campfires under starry skies. As she rides, the only sound is the easy step of her horse, the soft squeak of saddle leather and the whispers of the past that speak of rugges determination, raw courage, and above all, adventure. These traits etched on the faces of lives both well-lived and well-worn became a creative challenge for the sculptor.

Passion for history, along with her love of wildlife and horses, have focussed Grende's artwork and sculpture throughout her career, culminating in a recent monument commission for the Southern Indiana Visitor's Bureau. Time was short, there was only seven months from Grende's selection to the presentation date at the Bi-centennial of the Lewis and Clark Expedition at the Falls of Ohio, in Clarksville, Indiana. This was surely an impossible feat!

The principals gathered, including Brad Hamlett, Grende's promoter. "There's still time to do the monument," Grende confidently announced, waiting for a kick from under the table by Hamlett. When none came, Grende smiled and offered her long-time motto, "Charge on, have no fear!"

The project was funded by Jan Huff, Ray and Phyllis Yeager, Elmer Hoehn, and the Southern Indiana Visitors Bureau via their executive director Jim Keith.

However, it would take an army to do the work. Ascribing to the principle that "nothing great is achieved alone", Grende rallied the troups: relatives, friends, her art students and supporters showed up for action. Her can-do attitude kicked the task into high-gear.

Seven months later the smell of burnt rubber followed the heavily laden trailer from Montana to Indiana in a thirty-six hour marathon against the clock. The imposing ten foot bronze figures of Meriweather Lewis and William Clark arrived a mere thirty hours before the bicentennial dedication before dignitaries and a crowd of thousands.

The inspiration for the composition of the sculpture and its title came from Undaunted Courage, the book by Steven Ambrose who wrote, "When they shook hands, the Lewis and Clark expedition began." Permission to use the quote as title as title for the monument came from the late author's daughter Stephenie Ambrose-Tubbs, who has since become a friend of the sculptor.

Believing with all her heart that she was born to this - recreating history through sculpture - Grende's life in retrospect seems to support her claim.

The artistic gene came from both sides of the family and is multi-generational. "Draw three lines and I'll make a drawing out of it," her father would say. Grende and Janene would comply and be rewarded with a fun cartoon or character.

"It's amazing how you just know you can do something - even as a little kid, in my heart I just knew I could sculpt this alien character I saw on the cover of a science fiction magazine. The only thing available was a sharp kitchen knife and a piece of wood. Mom caught me and decided to get me the right tools before I killed myself," she laughs.

While many artists wend their way towards their art careers through various jobs, Grende never bothered. "I never had to put on skates and serve at an A&W. It would have been a Lucille Ball situation anyway." The visual makes her erupt into infectious laughter, another of her well-known traits. So, throw out the skates and root beer and substitute a saddle and bridle, pencil and paper, and voila you have drawings of horses, which Grende sold for spending money. The precocious young artist entered the world of professional art shows at age eighteen.

In 1977 Grende began a series of drawings and oil paintings of historical events for Hell's Gate Park on the Snake River near Lewiston, Idaho. In 1983, she illustrated Journal 1862, a book on the travels of the big sternwheelers on the Columbia and Snake rivers from Portland, Oregon to Lewiston, Idaho. Throughout her art career, she has derived creative satisfaction from this milieu.

Further satisfaction comes from her life-long love of horses. Flash, a sorrel quarter horse gelding with flaming red mane, entered Grende's life when she was thirteen. Grende reminisces about this special friendship. "I picked the most spirited horse I could find. He had been a race horse, but you could rope off him too. He was an awesome all-around horse. We played cowboy polo with a broom and ball and competed in steer dobbing." In this cowboy version of pin the tail on the donkey, one horse and rider hazes (tries to control) the steer while the other takes a stick with a painted fabric end and tries to dob the steer within a drawn circle on its shoulder.

In passing she mentions the S.O.B. (stupid old boyfriend) who become the "unmentionable first husband" she married just out of high school. Today though, it is David Carmona whom Grende affectionately refers to as her prince charming. She met him years later in 1991 after having persued her art career alone for eight years. Meeting as neighbors on connecting ranches, the two had dinner at Carmona's sister's with their current significant others, never dreaming that sitting across the table was their future. After a short courtship they married and formed a business partnership around Grende's career.

Shortly after their marriage, Carmona had a jeweler friend send his new wife a beautiful ring set with a large citrine gem. "I had never received anything for Easter from a man in my life, not since Daddy had given my sister and me Easter baskets. I just did not expect anything, especially something so beautiful," Grende confides. Prince Charming? Indeed!

Today, she and David support an extended family of paints and cross-paint horses. She recently completed the first in a series of Baroque equestrian bronzes with a unique romantic flavor. Two exotic breeds, the Andalusian and the famed Lippizan, will be featured in various stances known as "airs above the ground", athletic performances that would take years of training and attract audiences worldwide. Originally war horses were trained to perform these stances as a means of inflicting damage to the enemy. Today they are a beautiful equestrian ballet.

Adding to the romance of this bronze is the breast collar of 18-karat gold inset with precious stones including chrysoprase, Montana sapphires, emeralds, and a large smokey quartz. It is a one-of-a-kind fine art jewelled piece that can be removed and worn as a necklace. Inside the base of the sculpture is a secret jewelry box with matching earrings. Grende adds, "The style of the necklace is equestrian with the look of straps and tooling in the design. The edition will be very limited and the jewels can be anything the heart desires."

Overlapping the creation of the equestrian series is Sacagawea, Arduous Journey, Grende's next monument project. "She is the closest to my heart," she says of the legendary Native American. "I have studied the faces of her ancestors, as no drawings exist of her. She lives in our imaginations and is a most honored woman in American history. Many places bear her name and she is portrayed in more works of art than can be counted."

Sacagawea, at sixteen, gave birth to a son before beginning her trek to the Pacific Ocean carrying her newborn on her back. The Shoshone woman was the wife of Toussaint Charbonneau, a French-Canadian trapper and fur trader serving as interpreter for Lewis and Clark.

Known for her uncomplaining ways and cool head, she was an intermediary between the Indians and the expedition. Above all she was a symbol of peace. The legend of Sacagawea became larger than life itself. And so will be the monument bearing her name. It will have a permanent placement in Great Falls, Montana at heroic size plus 1/4, or in lay language, about ten feet.

Grende's dreams are as big as her monuments and she would like to show her appreciation for the blessings in her life by leaving a legacy for other artists. The couple's twenty acres in Big Arm, Montana, boasts a panoramic view of Flathead Lake and Wild Horse Island with the Seeley-Swan Mountain Range standing guard in the background. Here she envisions a new studio that will expand her current artist-in-residence sculpting program to provide space for a school of fine art and music, with guest artists invited to teach. The studio will overlook a new arena for Iberian (Paint/Andalusian crosses) horses, models for the students of equestrian art.

Grende's pioneer spirit, sense of humor, and dogged determination insure she will find a way to continue to realize her dreams. Noted philosopher/mythologist Joseph Campbell would say Carol Grende found her life by following her bliss.