Experience the Adventure!
THE HUNT
By Mike Call
Limited Edition Bronze
Edition of 25
24" Tall
Now Available at a Special Pre-Cast Price!
In order to help offset the mold-making and casting expenses, I am offering the first three sculptures in the edition at a special pre-cast price of $2250. This piece will retail for $3995. It takes up to 12 weeks for delivery. It comes mounted to a beautiful hardwood and marble base.
About the Piece:
One of my fondest memories growing up was playing mountain men with my best friend Brett (names changed to protect the innocent) in a vacant lot near our home. We spent hours building forts, making bows and arrows, and practicing our hunting skills. We would watch movies like Jeremiah Johnson and Call it Courage. We read the biography of Daniel Boone and books like Sign of the Beaver.
At one point when we were about 9 or 10 years old we decided we were tired of city life and carefully planned our escape into the mountains that were about a quarter mile east of our home along the Wasatch front. I packed everything that was important to me including my wrestling medals, my soccer and baseball trophies and a framed watercolor sketch by my great grandmother who was my inspiration.
We met at the appointed time to begin our trek, but much to my chagrin Brett had told the neighbor kid and his little sister about our plans and they demanded that we take them with us. I had to agree or otherwise they would tell on us. Besides, Brett told me, the girl had some play dishes that would be sure to come in handy.
Well, off we went. We made it about quarter of a mile up the trail before the little girl had had enough. She started bawling and we had to take her and her brother back down to the road before we could start again. I guess it was fortunate for us (though it certainly didn’t feel like it at the time) that when we got down to the road there was a white sedan waiting for us. The driver promptly rolled down his window and told us to get in the car. We promptly responded that we weren’t allowed to talk to strangers. He promptly got out of the car and showed us his police uniform and badge. We got in and had our first and only (at least for me) ride in the back seat of a police car. Apparently the girl wasn’t known to be gone for long stretches of time like Brett and I. Her mom must have noticed she was missing fairly soon to have the police out so fast. I was pretty bitter for a while. Not only did I not get to go live the life of a mountain man, but I was grounded for a month and the only other time that I got to spend in the mountains that summer was retracing my steps the following day with my dad looking for lost medals and trophies that had fallen out of my backpack.
While I no longer have aspirations to marry a sqaw and trap beaver in frigid temperatures, I still love to watch Jeremiah Johnson, and spend a lot of time in the mountains with my family and the boy scouts.
This sculpture has been developing in my consciousness for a long time. This spring I met Mel, known by his Mountain Man friends as the Canadian Honker. He agreed to model for a figure sculpture class that I teach at a local art center. The idea for the piece came from a story that he told us. He had been out hunting with friend in the mountains. They had been trekking in a large circle. When they got back to the beginning of the circle they found the tracks of a cougar that was tracking them. In this piece the hunter turns to look behind him. He sensed something. Was it predator or prey? Friend or foe? He had to be ready for anything.
I plan to do a companion piece to this one with a cougar on the hunt. He will be peering down from a large rock formation.