Amanda Markel has been thinking lately about the legacy she wants to leave behind. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is the mark you want to leave on the world? How can you leave it a better place?\u201d she asks herself.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The 31-year-old Bozeman artist has been sculpting bronze for interested buyers for the past five years, and she finally debuted her first public installation, the largest piece she\u2019s ever created. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Observers at the Benson Sculpture Garden in Loveland, Colorado, can see \u201cRidge Runners,\u201d a sculpture forged in the Kalispell Art Foundry depicting a trio of bounding bronze wolves that spans 14 feet and weighs 1,000 pounds.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bronze is an expensive medium to work with, so getting to share her art with the public and leave a positive mark was something she\u2019s always wanted to do. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not just something that people get to enjoy now. It\u2019s also something that people get to enjoy several hundred years from now,\u201d Markel said about her latest project.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Each metal wolf is mid-stride and only attached to the ground by one foot and welded together at the hips. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt kind of symbolizes the way that we need each other. We need people in our lives that we can lean on and that will help us be strong. And I think that really, we need more of that in the world right now,\u201d Markel said. \u00a0\u201cI think that there\u2019s a lot that we can learn from wolves because they\u2019re also very family-oriented.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
A noticeable feature of “Ridge Runners\u201d and many of her sculptures is her use of negative space. \u00a0Rather than creating solid, enclosed bronze figures, she likes to mimic the characteristics of a drawing. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI really love the simplicity of a sketch, and I love lost edges, and I love color fades and things like that. I was really trying to figure out, how can I simplify bronze and make it look light and allow things to just flow a little bit more?\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The empty space also left room for another unique feature: Inside each wolf is a mountain range. \u00a0<\/p>\n
One wolf has the Bridger Mountains inside it. Another has the Tetons and the third depicts the view of Glacier National Park from Many Glacier Hotel. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to represent mountains that were unique and iconic, that people would be able to recognize. But I also wanted to represent places that have wolves there naturally,\u201d she said. \u00a0<\/p>\n
The mountains also hold a symbolic meaning, she said. To form a mountain, the Earth has to buckle and break. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI really was trying to depict what happens inside of us when we\u2019re going through a hard time, because we get broken and fractured,\u201d she said. \u201cSo, it\u2019s kind of visually portraying that when you\u2019re going through something hard, good things are being built inside you.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
LIKE ALL of Markel\u2019s sculptures, it was born from a sketch. \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
From the sketch, she builds an armature for the framework. While she usually uses wire, the sculpture\u2019s size required foam so it wouldn\u2019t get too heavy. \u00a0She had to put all her furniture in a storage unit so she could use her living room as a studio. \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The armature was then lathered in a non-drying clay and sculpted. She spent hours detailing every muscle and every hair, which takes lots of trial and error. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI cut off all of their legs, probably 30 different times independently, just like sawing them all off. Anytime one of my friends would come in and say \u2018Hi\u2019, they were like, \u2018What is happening?\u2019\u201d she laughed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Getting the face right was important because that\u2019s how people connect with art. Her red heeler became a great help in getting the structure right. \u00a0<\/p>\n
“My dog was a great model,\u201d she laughed. \u201cHe was very patient with me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Markel also spent time at the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone observing how the canines moved and interacted. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
To get each mountainscape right, she pored over hundreds of pictures. Unlike a one-dimensional painting, every angle is depicted in a sculpture. \u00a0<\/p>\n
The entire sculpting process took a year. \u00a0<\/p>\n
After the clay sculpture was completed, it was carefully shipped to the Kalispell Art Foundry to be transformed into a bronze statue. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe process is very, very complicated. There\u2019s like 13 different steps. There\u2019s a ton of different people that touch the piece from start to finish. They\u2019re all very, very skilled craftsmen,\u201d Markel said of the foundry. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Markel\u2019s clay sculpture was first butchered into roughly 100 different parts so separate molds could be made. \u00a0<\/p>\n
A rubber mold is made from the clay sculpture and filled with hot wax to create a hollow casing. The wax is then dipped in sand several times, forming a hard outer cast. \u00a0<\/p>\n
When put in a kiln, the inner wax burns off, leaving the hardened sand mold. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Molten bronze is then poured in the molds. After cooling, the sand casing is broken off and each metal piece is welded together, resurrecting Markel\u2019s original clay sculpture. \u00a0<\/p>\n
To give the wolves the shaded coloring, the bronze goes through a process called patina, which involves using chemicals and heat to alter the metal\u2019s surface. \u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n
The sculpture usually spends three to four months in the foundry, Markel said. \u00a0<\/p>\n
WHILE MARKEL didn’t collaborate with foundries until 2020, she has been sculpting since she was a toddler, making shapes in the mud in Colorado Springs, Colorado. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Living on a few acres with horses, cats, dogs and chickens, she grew up with an affinity toward animals and the outdoors, ripping around on dirt bikes and chopping down yuccas with machetes. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Markel began recognizing the power of art at 15 years old, selling her work to fundraise for a child care program in Swaziland, Africa.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were doing a good thing and fundraising, but the impact that the art was having on the people that were buying it was also significant,\u201d she said. \u00a0<\/p>\n
At 19, Markel moved to Bozeman, where she still lives 12 years later. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to try something different for a year. So, I just went on an adventure to see what would happen. And I loved it so much I just never left,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was in Bozeman that she took part in the Montana Entrepreneurship Program that paired her with a mentor who introduced her to bronze sculpting, and five years later has no intentions of slowing down. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Markel has six large bronze monuments sketched out that she hopes to eventually share with the world and continue to portray human resiliency and perseverance through her work. \u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhatever is happening right now, it\u2019s not going to be forever. And so don\u2019t get discouraged. But also, don\u2019t let it pass you by. Use every moment and be present,\u201d Markel said. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Reporter Jack Underhill can be reached at 758-4407 and [email\u00a0protected]<\/a>. \u00a0<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Sketch_of_the_Idea.jpeg.1366x1024_q85_box-0,0,2732,2048_crop_detail.jpg\"\/)
<\/a> \u00a0Initial sketch for “Ridge Runners” bronze sculpture. (Photo courtesy of Amanda Markel)