Though he has traveled the world and studied his craft in places as far-flung as Pietrasanta, Italy, bronze sculptor Gerald Shippen still calls Riverton, WY, home. “I spent a lot of time on the East Coast being really interested in the Hudson River School, but I don’t think I could work there,” he admits. “My subject matter is mostly of the West, of Native American and cowboy iconography. It’s the inspiration of being next door to Yellowstone.” 

Shippen draws on his love of anatomy and takes an e’corche approach to his work, “building” his sculptures from the inside (muscles and bones) out. “If I boil it all down, my real interest is the human figure,” he says. He reflects that if  he wasn’t an artist, he might have gone into medicine. 

Shippen grew up in Dubois, WY and at age 20 traveled to Italy with renowned sculptor Harry Jackson, studying with Italian artists and developing his love and skill for working in bronze before coming back to finish his master’s degree in fine art  at the University of Wyoming.