Geyserville foundation raising funds for massive galloping horse sculpture

A monumental metallic sculpture of a galloping horse may eventually greet motorists passing through the southern gateway to Geyserville if local fundraisers get their way.

The Geyserville Community Foundation is hoping to raise $100,000 to commission the new creation from Glen Ellen artist Bryan Tedrick, who previously sculpted two other massive animals that were temporarily installed in a field along Geyserville Avenue just east of Highway 101.

That site, part of the Sculpture Trail in Geyserville and Cloverdale, is the same spot where the foundation wants to get a galloping horse housed for good. Tedrick has created a scale model of the horse and the foundation has secured $48,000 in commitments so far, said Victoria Heiges, a Geyserville resident and sculpture trail coordinator.

“That location demands big sculpture, and Bryan works big,” Heiges said. “The horse is readily acceptable for everyone, and that’s what I like about his public art. It’s so available to everyone. They don’t have to take an art history course; they don’t have to read the description to enjoy it.”

Tedrick’s earlier sculptures that have stood on the Geyserville trail were first displayed at the Burning Man festival in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert before moving to the trail and later to Sonoma County wineries, having been sold to local winemaker Ken Wilson.

The first sculpture, a massive coyote, debuted at Burning Man in 2013 and now stands at Wilson Winery in the Dry Creek Valley. The second, a boar called “Lord Snort,” debuted at Burning Man this year and moved in mid-November to Wilson’s Soda Rock Winery in the Alexander Valley southeast of Geyserville.

When the boar sculpture followed its coyote predecessor in making its way to a Wilson winery, Heiges lamented to Tedrick that the community was heartbroken to see another one of his pieces move somewhere else, she said. Heiges liked the galloping motion of the boar and wanted the commission something similar, choosing a horse because it seemed an appropriate fit for the western-style town of Geyserville, she said.

It also helped that the mascot of Geyserville New Tech Academy is the broncos, Heiges said.

The finished product, made of steel and redwood, could be roughly 20 feet tall and weigh ?7 tons, according to Tedrick, who plans to make the piece particularly site-specific by turning to area residents for some of the materials.

“We’re hoping to get local farmers or agricultural people that have old equipment - steel equipment - lying around to donate those, so that I can incorporate them into the piece, which I think would be appropriate for an agriculturally oriented community,” Tedrick said.

Beyond the coyote and boar, Tedrick has several other sculptures on display in Sonoma County, including a grazing horse along the pedestrian pathway along the west side of Healdsburg.

Tedrick said animals have become a niche area for him, as he’s gravitated toward making more metallic beasts due to their positive public reception.

The recent addition of “Lord Snort” to Soda Rock has made for “quite a spectacle,” according to Wilson, who praised Tedrick’s attention to detail.

“It’s just amazing, some of the work he can do and visualize and then put into metal,” Wilson said. “It’s pretty astonishing what he can achieve, and he has a very good, inventive mind as well.”

If the funds are secured and the Geyserville horse comes to fruition, it could be complete by the end of next year, Tedrick said.

You can reach Staff Writer J.D. Morris at 707-521-5337 or jd.morris@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @thejdmorris.