“Ursa Minor”

“As lovers of the wilderness, we wanted to capture something often seen while in Alaska: grizzly bears fishing for salmon in the rivers. The title of the piece come from constellation Ursa Minor, which is more commonly referred to as the Little Dipper. Our title is something of a pun, since we wanted to show a bear ‘dipping’ into the water for a fish, along with acknowledging that Alaska is the northernmost state of the United States.

We covered the piece with sgraffito images of flying geese, caribou, and fish. Streaming back from the bear’s head is a life spiral, representing that continuity of life through time. The polished images on the bear’s back are a hand, representing the hand of man who has responsibility for the habitat of this magnificent animal, and above the hand is a ghost dancer.

Originally conceived in ceramic, we used our ceramic design to mold the piece in bronze. The bear’s feet are large and flattened to provide greater stability in ceramic, and we chose to keep them that way in the bronze.”

– Rebecca Tobey – Excerpt from “Partners in Art”