Abiding Spirits 

28 3/4 above stone

Keeper of the Treasures 

93" above stone

Love, Peace, Light

10" above stone

Mysteries in the Madrugada  

15 1/2" above stone 

Mysteries in the Moonlight   

9 1/2" above stone

One with the Universe

83 1/2" above stone

ORDINATION

28" above stone  Ed/50

The Prophecy  

78" above stone

Shaman of Abiding Grace    

8 3/4" above stone

 

Spirits Among Us 

32", 34", 31 1/2" above stone

SOMEDAY I WILL FLY 

19” above stone  9.75 “ wide Ed/50

UNITY

8", 8.75", 8.5" above stone  Ed/50

STONES

 In the late 1980’s my career was beginning to blossom.  I do not intend to be arrogant in stating this.  It was a sort of unexpected thing because I had surrendered to never making it as an artist and to simply allow my professorial salary to support my passion for creating paintings and sculptures.

In the summer of 1986, the C. G Rien Galleries gave me my first big break in Santa Fe, followed by Frank Howell and his galleries there.  By 1989, I was able to leave the university and devote full time to sculpting and painting.  Earlier, and for a very brief time, I made clay bases fired into stoneware and used these to mount my bronzes.  Then one day a revelation came, and I ceased this.  God said, “Worrell, you make bronzes.  I have created the stones.”  I listened and our partnership has worked wonderfully well.

For several years some of my rancher friends and neighbors have allowed me to procure stones from their properties.  I selected stones lying about in the fields.  Not one time did I take a stone from an old rock fence -- not until I purchased the ranch next door to my Texas studio.

Whether it is accurate or not I do not know, but Mason County, Texas, home of OLD YELLER, is purported to have more miles of stone fences than any other Texas county.  These fences were constructed at the rate of about ten feet per day.  On my property it is far too rough for those early German settlers to have used wagons or carts to access all of the places where these fences are situated, so much of the construction was accomplished by hard human labor.  It must have been backbreaking labor from the size of some of the stones. 

The rocks on what is now my property are mostly gneiss and granite, with occasional stones of schist and quartzite.  Not all are suitable for sculpture bases and some are splendid.  Selecting the splendid stones is a thoughtful process.  My driveway is lined with a stone fence that I myself constructed.  I built it out of rejects.

I began using stones from fences on my place due to considerations of romance and awe.  There is a spellbinding link with the past in using them, and if I sculpted for another hundred years I would not consume them all.  I can imagine some hot, sweating, and perhaps even begrudging team of father and brothers finding, lugging, and stacking these stones, many with incredible dry rock beauty, without the slightest prophetic premonition that one hundred and thirty, forty, or fifty years later they might wind up anywhere in the world adorning my bronzes. 

Worrell, 10/19 /07 – 4:25 p. m., Ranch Road 152 west of Castell.