I was looking for a way to draw in space when I taught 3-D design. Steel wire was available at hardware and farm stores, and allowed me and my students to explore shape, volume, and form. I started collecting my students’ unwanted wire exercises because I couldn’t stand to let perfectly good sculpture material go to the landfill. 

When I crushed a bunch of abandoned wire spheres and 3-D sketches together, I recognized a memory:

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My parents rented an RV and drove their little kids to western South Dakota for a family vacation. I was three or four years old, and my only memory of the trip was climbing up to a bench at the RV table so that I could see what my sisters were excited about. Just outside the glass louvres was the most majestic animal! A herd of bison had wandered into our campground, and except for the window screen, I could have touched one of them. 

 

I read Dan O’Brien’s books about how bison manage prairie, and learned too much about their heartbreaking history and near-demise. I apologized to all of the taxidermy mounts I encountered in outdoor sporting goods stores. How can I honor these animals? By making wire bison. They exist somewhere between 3-D scribbling and steel wire crochet. Every member of the herd develops with its own personality. 

 

Angela Behrends grew up in MN, earned an MFA at UNL, taught at DSU in Madison, SD, and now resides in Sioux Falls with her three cats. She has artwork in permanent collections at the State of South Dakota, Washington Pavilion, Dahl Arts Center, and South Dakota Art Museum.