{"id":376627,"date":"2026-04-13T00:58:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T00:58:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/376627\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T00:58:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T00:58:13","slug":"cheyenne-trucker-was-on-a-road-to-destruction-then-sculpting-saved-his-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/376627\/","title":{"rendered":"Cheyenne Trucker Was On A Road To Destruction, Then Sculpting Saved His Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Brandon Clark wasn\u2019t drowning himself at the bottom of a bottle, he found himself staring out the windshield of his big rig, watching his life pass him by.<\/p>\n

His passion was art, and Clark was good at it \u2014 good enough that professionals in that world encouraging him to develop his talent.<\/p>\n

Instead, the 49-year-old Cheyenne man made choices that nearly destroyed him.<\/p>\n

In 1998, Clark was working as a fly-fishing guide in Breckenridge, Colorado. It was while there, sitting around a campfire with his co-workers, that he impulsively sculpted a fish.<\/p>\n

\u201cI grabbed a piece of wood from the firewood pile, built a little wire armature, and sculpted a trout jumping out of the log,\u201d Clark said. \u201cMy friends were impressed, and I liked it, so we displayed it in the front of our fly shop.\u201d<\/p>\n

A fishing client and local artist, Michael Adams, noticed Clark\u2019s fish and was impressed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Adams is the co-founder of Arts Alive Gallery and creator of two monumental sculptures for the performing arts center of Breckenridge. He invited Clark to work with him at his studio.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Clark took Adams up on the offer and created a sculpture of a mountain man.<\/p>\n

\u201cMichael told me I had the ability\u00a0to capture movement which couldn\u2019t be taught,\u201d Clark said.\u00a0\u201cHe said, that’s special, and I should do something with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adams didn\u2019t want Clark to waste his talent and encouraged him to keep sculpting. However, Clark\u2019s art was soon tossed to the wind.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI drank more and kept guiding fishing trips,\u201d Clark said. \u201cI basically had an emotional breakdown in the middle of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clark ended up entering rehab programs to get his life back in order. He had hit rock bottom and wasn\u2019t sure where to turn.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"BrandonBrandon Clark of Cheyenne has worked for over 30 years in the trades, from electrician to truck driving, before quitting to pursue a career as an artist. He had been encouraged to do so by other professionals and has finally thrown caution to the wind to be an artist. (Courtesy Brandon Clark)\"BrandonBrandon Clark of Cheyenne grew up loving art. At 8\u00a0years old, he drew a picture of an elephant and at 12, another pencil drawing won him a school art award. He continued to be drawn to the arts but went into the trades instead. He finally quit his truck driving career to instead plunge into the world of art. (Courtesy Brandon Clark)\"InIn 1998, Brandon Clark was guiding fishing trips in Breckenridge when his art was discovered by Michael Adams, a professional artist, who invited Clark into his studio. The result was the sculpture of a mountain man. (Courtesy Brandon Clark)Arrow leftArrow rightNatural Artist<\/p>\n

Clark described himself as just a normal kid of the 1980s who\u00a0always enjoyed doing art projects. Throughout his elementary years, he would enter and win art contests but never pursued his art until eighth grade.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSomeone handed me a piece of clay, and I made a shark and an ocean fish,\u201d Clark said. \u201cIt came really easy, and it was fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

After that initial success, he once again set aside his art until his senior year at Greeley Central High School.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He took a 3D art and design class and created another sculpture that was featured as a top art project in his school.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was a Celtic woman reaching into the sky that captured the attention of his teachers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just took it for granted that I was able to make whatever I see in my mind,\u201d Clark said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter the subject or what type of art. I\u2019ve used wood, pencil, and everything else.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always brought me a lot of comfort.\u201d<\/p>\n

Addiction Detour<\/p>\n

When Clark was in fifth grade, he was placed on Ritalin, and by his early 20s was addicted to the prescription drug and was an alcoholic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After graduating from high school, Clark had become an electrician. He said that he was diagnosed at a young age with a very severe case of attention deficit disorder.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This made it difficult for him to focus on things, but he pushed himself to learn his new trade.<\/p>\n

Although he was a successful electrician, his life was spiraling out of control.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That was when Clark quit the trades and started guiding fishing\u00a0trips in Breckenridge where he met Adams.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite the encouragement and help he was given by Adams to pursue his art, Clark abandoned any idea of a career in clay. Eventually, his addictions chased him into rehab.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI was required to volunteer at the food bank in Denver as part of the substance abuse program,\u201d Clark said. \u201cWhile I was there, I saw a father and son, and it was like the sky opened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inspired by seeing the relationship between the two, Clark called his own dad and returned home to Greeley. He started volunteering at the food bank there for nearly a year before they hired him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI started out as the low man in the extra room, and I ended up becoming the warehouse manager of the food bank,\u201d Clark said. \u201cI ended up working there for eight years, and that’s how I was able to get the strength to start building my life again.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Clark rebuilt his life, he moved to Wyoming, married and had a son.\u00a0<\/p>\n

By then he was 38, but\u00a0his life was still a struggle. His marriage failed, but he is grateful for his 9-year-old son, a driving factor to finally succeed in his art.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough depression and everything else, I still had clay,\u201d Clark said. \u201cI made things during those hard times.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BetweenBetween working on his art, former truck driver Brandon Clark spends his time on the river guiding fishing trips. His dream is to use part of his art sales to fund charity fishing trips. (Courtesy Brandon Clark)\"BrandonBrandon Clark of Cheyenne created a fish sculpture in 1998 that caught the eye of Michael Adams, a professional artist and co-founder of the Arts Alive Gallery in Breckenridge. (Courtesy Brandon Clark)\"BrandonBrandon Clark of Cheyenne quit his reliable truck-driving career to pursue his art. His first piece is a mountain lion that he has dreamt about creating for 30 years and is now becoming a reality. The statue is being cast into bronze and Clark said he has thrown caution to the wind to bring the art to life. (Courtesy Brandon Clark)\"BrandonBrandon Clark of Cheyenne grew up loving art. At 8\u00a0years old, he drew a picture of an elephant and at 12, another pencil drawing won him a school art award. He continued to be drawn to the arts but went into the trades instead. He finally quit his truck driving career to instead plunge into the world of art. (Courtesy Brandon Clark)Arrow leftArrow rightLife On The Road<\/p>\n

To make ends meet, Clark worked numerous\u00a0jobs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He drove truck in the oil field, did time as a tow-truck driver, hauled explosives for Dyno Nobel to mines across the United States and hauled food to Walmart stores all over to the East Coast.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI realized that even though I was looking out the window and seeing the world, I was seeing nothing but the inside of a windshield,\u201d Clark said. \u201cI was working for other people and I had no life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Deep down, Clark knew he was called to be an artist.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nearly a lifetime ago, Adams had tried to help Clark not waste his gifts and now Clark felt a deep frustration growing that he was not doing what he was called to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had something to bring to people, and I had something to leave behind,\u201d Clark said.<\/p>\n

He just didn\u2019t know how it was going to happen and life continued to move forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Clark eventually remarried and life on the road became unbearable. He finally turned in his keys at the end of February last year and with the encouragement of his wife, Amy Larson, started a sculpture that had been in his mind for 30 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am trying to capture the moment when a mountain lion senses someone on the trail,\u201d Clark said. \u201cHe just rolled over to see what’s coming and needs to decide if it’s prey or not.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the \u201cEye of the Trail\u201d sculpture began to take shape, Clark also faced the disappointment of his father.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I told my dad that I quit my job and took a lower-paying job so I could work on my art, my dad lost his mind,\u201d Clark said. \u201cI just destroyed him because he has always been the kind of guy that everything has to be by the book, and if you don’t have everything prepared, then you’re ruined.\u201d<\/p>\n

A week later, Clark\u2019s dad called him back and asked if he was happy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When Clark replied that he was, his dad accepted his decision to quit truck driving and follow his dreams. The next day, another call arrived. Clark\u2019s dad had died.<\/p>\n

Devastated at the loss, Clark continued to pour himself into his clay. Then came the news that he was being fired from the bronze foundry he was working at.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBoy, when the world kicks you, it really kicks you,\u201d Clark said. \u201cI needed to get away so Amy got me back on the river fly-fishing and I finally found some peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rewriting Life In Clay And With Flies<\/p>\n

With his wife\u2019s encouragement, Clark decided to go back to guiding and a new dream has emerged.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He wants to take a percentage of his art sales and give back to others by providing trips on the river to those who would otherwise never be able to from Wounded Warriors to Make-A-Wish kids.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to make my art translate into what I do on the river` for people,\u201d Clark said. \u201cThere are people who can’t afford to fly fish and the trips that bring me value are when I take a father and a son, and I can help them bridge that connection.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clark describes himself as an empathic person and that he can feel other people\u2019s joy when they are on his boat.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI threw everything to the wind,\u201d Clark said. \u201cI still don’t know if it’s going to work but it’s out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

It took five months and Clark\u2019s mountain lion is now in the process of being made into a bronze. He is already at work on his next sculpture, a commissioned piece that Clark said tells how Medusa in Greek mythology\u00a0was actually\u00a0a misunderstood figure and not a villain.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want my son to see me give up on my dreams,\u201d Clark said. \u201cI want him to know that no matter how hard life gets, you should never give up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jackie Dorothy can be reached at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Brandon Clark wasn\u2019t drowning himself at the bottom of a bottle, he found himself staring out the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[442,498,499,500,501,156,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-376627","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-new-zealand","15":"tag-newzealand","16":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}