Coming up on Gallery America.

It's a Western spectacular.

From sculpting to painting to wagon making.

Meet three Oklahomans who explore Western culture through their work Hello, Oklahoma.

Welcome to Gallery America.

Today we're meeting three artists who explore Oklahoma's Western heritage through their art.

First, we're headed to Poteau to meet Ron Roberts.

Ron's been a cowboy his whole life, but it wasn't until age 65 that he became an artist.

Now he's 80.

He's still roping, and he's creating award winning bronze sculptures.

Take a look.

I grew up around horses, cattle and been around it all my life.

Running wild horses, working cattle.

Doing the doctor work.

Going to feed yard.

Working on ranches.

Every time I get a chance I'm at the barn with the horses, with the cattle, with a rope in my hand.

I just love it.

I never thought about doing artwork.

Somebody was to tell me you could do art.

I would just laugh.

I said, I'm a cowboy I don't know how to draw.

I can do art.

Now Michelle’s Worked out here with me for, what, four years?

She's learning the ropes.

Look at you go.

You're a real cowgirl.

I'm Ron Roberts from Poteau, Oklahoma.

I'm 80, almost 81.

I roll up every day.

I get a chance.

And then to take up the extra time, I try to sculpt a little.

I retired at 57 years old and then moved here 22 years ago about.

And so I was on a rope all day long.

Train horses.

Well, that was okay till I got to be about 65 years old and all day long riding horses for too long.

I had some heart issues and had to have open heart surgery.

The lady that we knew in Colorado sent some clay to this is really therapeutic.

This will keep him down.

And I said, I don't know what I'm going to do with that.

I can't even draw.

And so it stayed in the house for 4 or 5 years.

And my wife Joyce said, you need to take that clay to the barn or something and get it out of the house.

So I did.

I took it to the tack room.

So I started playing with it.

I started cutting and carving and.

When I first started, I. It was it was not good.

No.

But I got so frustrated that I couldn't quit.

So just keep doing it till it gets it right.

I believe that you can do anything you set your mind to if you want to do it.

When I first started off, they were pretty crude.

And as I got older and into working with clay more, every sculpture I do, I think gets a little better.

It's something new and it's something that surprises everybody.

But there's, I think, a really good job at it.

I'm Joyce Roberts, I've been married to Ron Roberts for 60 years, going on 61, I guess you would say, when he first called me and said, come down to the barn, I've got something I want to show you.

Here's this big Indian here.

And I said, where did that come from?

And he said, I made it.

And I said, you didn't like that.

You've never done anything like that.

Where did it come from?

come to find out that he did make it.

When he gets started, he will stay down in his tack room all day long and sometimes late into the night.

Once he gets started, he doesn't know when to stop because he has it in his mind.

And that's looking better.

I've sculpted some and and I actually almost get talking to them because they feel like they're just almost coming to life.

A lot of times I don't even know what he's working on until I go down to him and look at it.

Ring on the phone, Joyce.

Come to the tack room, i got something I want you to look at.

She'll look at it all over because she's serious about it.

Most of times you look at and you go.

It's not something's not right.

Wrong.

When she does that I go oh man, I gotta do the whole thing over again.

I'm not really sure what it is, but I can tell that something is not right.

It's hard to say.

And you've been so close to the tree you can't see the forest.

Well, that's the way it is with sculpting.

You're so intricate with it that you just get blinded.

So that's basically what I do, is kind of look it over inside.

I don't really like that.

That plays a key role because without that they would not be very good.

When you're doing art, whether it's handling your kids or whether it's in your work, when stress points come up, we all have them every day.

It's how you handle those stress points.

That makes a difference.

If you handle them the right way, you're going to be hard to be something come up what gets it and you know it's okay.

I'm going to just take it and ride the wave.

But you got to remind yourself of that all the time.

That probably is the most important thing in life that I've ever learned.

That right there.

We've gone to a few art shows, and he's done quite well when he goes, but that's not what he really started doing it for.

He started doing it for basically himself.

Oh, I'll be honest.

The only thing I want to be professional at is anything is being a good family man and a good Christian.

Other than that, I play with it.

That's what makes me happy.

I've been a member of the Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association for, I don't know, 40 years.

Probably entered like shy in Dodge City, some of the bigger ones.

But I never traveled a circuit full time.

My priority was to make a good living for my family and have the happy home life that I had all these years.

61 Been married.

that’s a long time.

God bless her.

Yeah.

I've had lots of blessing.

Two wonderful kids or wonderful grandchildren.

Great great grandchildren.

And I'm get to do what I want to do.

I'm going to keep kicking and keep doing it until I can't do any more.

There's a song about the Toby Keith don’t let the old man in.

If you don't let him in, you still crawling and the horses are still rope.

You can still travel with your family.

You can still be a T-ball coach.

You can do anything as long as it makes you happy.

You know, if you want to do something, then go for it.

You can keep up with Ron by following him on Facebook and Instagram.

At Tack Room.

Bronze.

A couple years ago, we first met artist Megan Wimberley.

She knows there wasn't many women in Western art, so she decided to do something about it.

She founded the Cowgirl Artists of America to support and develop female Western artists all around the country.

Take a look.

Many women who really don't like the term cowgirl.

Instead they'll say cowboy girl or cowboy girl.

I've even heard people say, don't.

Don't call a woman who's a good, like, hand with a horse or or with cattle or whatever.

Don't call her a cowgirl.

Call her a cowboy.

And I think that tells a story about the West that is not accurate.

It's not the story of the West that I grew up in.

People want to be a cowboy.

Why don't they want to be a cowgirl?

And.

I chose my cousin to portray in this art because I think she is an incredible horsewoman, and she's definitely knows a lot more.

Or neither.

She's done it for a long, long time.

My art, which I would say I would call contemporary Western art, kind of falls between the cracks sometimes because there's definitely Western galleries and Western shows that my work would not fit in.

They would say it's too, too modern or too contemporary.

On the other hand, there's shows that, you know, like the things that aren't Western would.

I would be way too Western for a lot of times when people go really colorful, they really begin to be more abstract or, expressionistic and lose some of the realism to it.

And for me, the realism is also important.

You know, I literally was riding horses before I could walk.

And I know that that seems like a tall tale, but it's not.

And there's pictures of me as soon as I could hang on to a saddle, or when I was up there and my mom said I would cry as soon as they took me off.

I just always wanted to be around the horses.

Right now we're in Tulsa.

It's a lot different living in a city.

I you know, that's not really my preferred place to live, but there's beauty no matter where you are.

And then, of course, there's the cowboy Museum in the city.

And I really try to get down to the cowboy Museum as much as I can.

It's always informative, always beautiful looking through the old saddles and all of that.

It's so inspiring to look back at the craftsmanship and the patterns in the styles that were used.

Hi, Priscilla.

How are you?

Good.

Megan, are you doing today?

Doing well.

So, are you ready to get started?

So, cowgirl artist of America is an organization that's working to increase opportunities and representation for female Western artists and makers.

The idea for Shuga happened in 2018, when I went to a really beautiful Western art show, and I as I looked around, I began to notice that there were not very many women and I just thought, I want to do something about this.

And so I just started with Instagram and I started reaching out to female Western artists, and I would send them a message, hey, your work is beautiful.

Can I share it?

I started doing monthly zoom meetings and then people were like, how do I join?

How do I join?

And don't only get stuck in art based hashtags.

And so in May of 2021, I was like, okay, we're doing it.

They are fine artists, so they're painting, sculpting.

They're photographers or traditional artists.

So maybe they're saddle makers or they are boot makers, silversmiths.

When I think about it, it's kind of like mind boggling how much the organization has done in such a short time.

I'm really happy with it.

I yesterday I called it what did I call it?

Vintage vintage pop?

It is.

That's what it feels like to me right now.

A vintage pop piece which I don't know if that's a thing or not, but if it isn't, it should be.

Me?

Women are really good with horses.

I. And a lot of times you see these cowgirls out there, two with a baby on their hip.

All of that is so important.

And it's because of women like my grandma Betty and my aunt Shelley, that women are able to go out and to do the things that they want to do, because we've been supported to to go out there and, and be cowgirl.

So, so thanks, grandma.

You're very welcome.

You're one of my special kids to.

It's time to celebrate the cowgirl.

Back in 2006, we went to Piedmont to meet Bill Duncan.

Bill creates historically accurate scale models of horse drawn vehicles like this.

Check it out.

There's no substitute for enjoying what you do personally, working for yourself.

It just, you know, and I'm blessed that, I made it this for doing what I've done.

I have 43 steps from my back door to the shop.

That's all I worry about is making those steps.

Better.

My name is Bill Duncan, and I'm an artist.

I make pretty well most all, carriages, buggies, stagecoaches, different things like that that, pertained to, the Western heritage.

When I was in my 20s and 30s, I restored the original size rooms, and, I've been around horses and rodeos and roped and and put on rope and and so forth all through my life.

And, this was the thing that I come up with, after making a small miniature saddle.

And when I had the opportunity to get into the modeling business and, and, the art work, I just said, that's for me.

I just thought in my life that I could do something that was creative, that I was satisfied with.

And, it just kind of gives me something, to do that I've never done before.

And that's one of my pleasures out of it, is to build something that is really nice.

Oh, I've been building wagons and carriages for, right at 9 to 10 years.

Right in there somewhere.

When I was seven years old, I had a team of goats, and I would go to the icehouse and, pick up ice and deliver it in the neighborhood, and, I'd made $0.03 to a nickel on every one I delivered.

And we're talking about to me, that was money.

But those are the way I grew up.

And I still have those thoughts of a kid, you know, having a goat and, driving it and that we're talking about.

Now, where to?

That is wonderful to me.

That just some of the ways I lived and, it was wonderful.

You know, my folks didn't have anything that could give me things.

I had to work for it.

I worked on my own when I was nine years old, and basically bought everything I ever had in my life.

And, that's a way of living.

And I'm not sad for that.

I'm very grateful.

So I just like charities because it's an era that's gone.

And, but when I say gone, I'm talking about the everyday use of them.

But let me tell you, there's probably more buggies and carriages and carts today than there was in 1850.

My farm.

There's a lot of knowledge on books and magazines and, a lot of programs, and especially now on the computers, you can pick up a lot of this on the.

It's just through, the desire of wanting to do it first and then the knowledge of doing the research and, and going places and seeing the particular carriages or carts or, and then also people sending me the, pictures of a car or a carriage that their folks had way back in the olden days.

And they want a replica made it as close as possible for a souvenir.

Most of the photos I get are black and white, and, you know, they're they're really not clear, but, I try to make it as close to the photos as I possibly can.

And in that era of, when that particular, vehicle was and, try to get, all the small details, that I possibly can, because it's really hard to, to make small things look like the bigger ones.

You know, what I'm going to have to do is cut this details.

This is the secret of what I do.

I try to put, like, if it's upholstery in a stagecoach, I put a hand grip where you would normally grab it when you get in or get out, steps that fit when you walk up.

And then the right proper place.

Lamps on the side.

With little bolts, nuts and bolts.

I use their point, you know, some, I use point nine O's.

They're not much bigger than a straight pan, so it can get air tight.

And luckily, throughout my process of building things in the last nine years, I've only thrown one in the trash can.

But why I did that, I don't know, because after I did it, I wished I had them because it was a it was a good project and details sometimes bring out the real finish of anything.

You know, it's like a car.

You build a car, you love it, you go paint it, you can ruin it.

You have to really, conserve your time down to, you know, to being able having the time to, build it, finish it up right.

This here is the.

War wagon of John Wayne and Kirk Douglas.

And, They used in the movie you call the war wagon.

And, it's, got a Gatling gun on it that turned.

Opens up, It's got a shape inside of it somewhere in here.

And, And it's a Demko.

There's, the war wagon and the movie.

And.

No, no, no, no.

Good.

No.

Oh, I have been waiting.

This has been, you know.

Great.

Well, this is another one for the collection.

You do such wonderful work.

Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you.

I don't go and brag on my stuff, and I don't try to push it on nobody.

And.

And tell you the truth, I'm a little embarrassed about it.

I don't I don't like to be in that position.

Like I'm so uncomfortable.

Well, this is the the original that they had made.

And this is what I come out and took photographs of it and, went back to my studio and, and made the smaller ones.

And that's the ones that's in the, gift shop.

Now it's my work, and and I don't want to push anything on anybody.

Everybody thinks I'm crazy about this.

But, you know, I don't mean it this way, but I want to sell them, make people happy.

But I just so not to.

Because I made them basically for myself.

And I enjoy that.

And, you know, one of the, the things I worry about is when I send somebody, ship somebody, a product to somebody if they don't answer me, that worries me.

It, it it makes me feel like, did I do something right, or should I have done something else better, or are they happy or or what?

Now that bothers me.

Other than that, I don't get bothered about it, you know?

But I build it and and, go with it.

But if I send it to them and they don't tell me that they received it, they enjoyed it, or if there's anything wrong or they're a knock on wood, I haven't had anybody complain that I really mean that, but that worries me till I know.

I've got orders now from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, I've had some from Africa and Scotland and, quite a few foreign countries.

I think there's seven of them now that I've had.

And then I've had 39 different states in the United States that's ordered things from me.

You know, who ever thought that a model horse show would be in Australia?

And, Stagecoach was wanted, you know, so it's, it's it's kind of different.

It really is.

It's growing and and and I'm so glad it is.

I, I take my shop and what I do and the enjoyment I get out of it, I really feel plus my health and everything, I just really feel that it's, it's carried me a lot longer, maybe than than things would have.

But I just hope I can do it forever.

I hope there's no end.

Because I'd like to go out.

If I do go out and I'm sure I will, I go out with a good, solid and a good feeling.

Satisfaction.

That's all the time we have for Gallery America.

Thank you so much for joining us.

As always, you can see past episodes by going to our website, OETA.

TV Slash Gallery America.

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We'll see you next time.

Till then, stay arty Oklahoma!