During the 30s we call them the Dirty 30s.

I heard tales it was very hard at that time to to make a living.

And, on Black Sunday, I was four miles from home with our cattle and horse herd.

And you couldn't see your hand in front of your face at that time, of course, I couldn't see the cattle, but I could hear the horses running and winning.

They were afraid.

It was quite some time before the light began to show again.

Let's go.

I've been involved with cattle and, horses all my life.

My name is Mary Spurgeon.

I'm a rancher, artist, sculptor, and parent.

I have four children.

Linda Marie is my oldest.

Dale Roy is the oldest boy.

Shannon Wade and James Robert.

My husband, was a horseman all his life.

His his paternal grandfather and family and also his maternal parents came to this area while it was still no man's land.

That was before 1893.

He worked on, ranches here and there until we finally leased the ranch where we run the cattle now.

I think that my art, I would classify it as Western style, and a lot of it is based on my experiences and my life.

I find it remarkable that at the age of 70, my mother started a career.

She had never sculpted before.

She, of course, had an artistic background, but my dad was killed in a horse accident on the ranch, and she was continuing to run the ranch.

Was calving out heifers, riding, but it I don't know if she just had a little bit of extra time on her hands.

And of course, she missed my dad a lot and decided to explore new horizons.

And, that's when she started sculpting.

And, it's just it is a remarkable thing that a person that has reached the age of 70 then would forge a name for themselves, like she has.

She.

People who like my sculpture are often horseman, and, they can see what's wrong.

I seen sculpture that had had too many joints in the legs.

And maybe they have a, Well, it had would be an unsoundness in the horse.

And somebody who's a horse owner and a horse lover doesn't want to look at a piece of sculpture that maybe the horse would have a span of an hour.

You know, or a joint would be wrong.

You see this?

You know, the bone structure and you know where the joints are.

I think my mother's, horses are probably one of the best.

As far as not only getting the, anatomy of a horse.

Correct.

But she's been there, done that.

She knows what happens to a horse's muscle when he moves.

She knows what happens to his joints when he moves.

She also knows what happens to his mind.

And so she has a unique capacity to capture not only action, but also attitude in a horse.

And for, true horse lover, that is what, you know, becomes appealing to them because they recognize that instantly.

Yeah.

It's good to see you.

You've got so much to be proud of.

Oh, thank you.

I grew up, riding horses, and dad was a horse trainer and and rope kids.

And he was a top notch rodeo roper.

And, so we trained roping horses for other people.

And my sister ran barrels and and, we all kind of made a little bit of extra income at times from a rodeo and, and mom ended up rodeoing and later on and, and, she had won several professional rodeos before in her barrel racing career.

So.

Until a few years ago, she used to help round up the tour.

It was hurting her hips for her to ride.

You ready to go check the cattle?

But Delroy takes care of the cattle.

But I help with the bookkeeping, and, when they round up and work the cattle, I spend my day over there keeping track of things and looking my cattle over.

When I do, sculpture of a cow, I have the cow there that I can, look at.

And, you might think that you know everything about a horse or cow or a person, but when you go to putting it into the sculpture, you find there are so many things that you don't know.

And so you need to reference.

I would rather work from the actual person or animal or scene, but that's a long process.

And so it's better to to get the details from photographs or whatever material you have.

My mother has always been involved in artwork.

She started paintings and had had a lot of people that enjoyed them and would commissioned her to do oil paintings.

I think I eased into it over the years.

During the 1940s, I began to get commissions to thank certain people, certain horses, or certain scenes.

My mother's, artwork, for the most part, I think, does capture the life that she leads.

I guess that's true.

Most of them are things that I have seen.

I don't think I could have done a good job if I hadn't lived the life that I have.

It's, And then I'm kind of a surprise and a blessing to the whole community around here.

I mean, everyone's proud of her.

All of her acquaintances, and that's first thing people ask me is how my mom's doing.

You know?

Yeah, probably.

If it wasn't for mom's artwork, we might have had some problems.

Staying in business.

It must be somewhat unique to still be able to take a little hunk of clay that big and make Wyatt Earp face or doc Holliday or Bat Masterson, and be able to look at it and know instantly that that's who that is.

She's 88 years old, for God's sakes, you know, how can she do that?

Oh, yes.

Just I'm then raised in the country, you know, I don't think that having a lot of patience is a lot of why she's been able to be an artist.

I hope that, that I'll be able to go ahead with my artwork as long as I live.

And I feel fortunate to have lived this long and had the capacity to do what I want to.

I think that if you really want to do something and, are patient and persistent, that you can do it, and I found that to be true.