Sherry Salari Sander

Devoted to sculpting animals and illustrating their coexistence with nature, wildlife sculptor Sherry Salari-Sander finds the majority of her inspiration at the 300-acre wildlife preserve that surrounds her Montana studio in Glacier National Park. She spends a substantial amount of time observing, sketching and photographing her subjects, which consist of bears, eagles, ducks, otters, foxes and deer, as well as numerous other animals that inhabit the surrounding area. Salari-Sander has also traveled to various locations in the United States as well as Africa, Spain, Alaska and Italy in order to expand on her vast repertoire of wildlife subjects.

Salari-Sander has two primary modes of expression in her work. The highly texturized surface of her sculptures, often referred to as impressionistic, conveys emotion and movement. She also uses a varied range of colored patinas, creating green, grey and tawny hued bronze sculptures. The colors allow her to highlight and accentuate various parts of the sculpture. She is always conscious of how the light will reflect off the surface and chooses her patinas very carefully. Salari-Sander notes that the shapes and colors used in the paintings and drawings of Wassily Kandinsky, Henri Matisse, and Paul Klee, have served as an inspiration for her own work.

The National Museum of Wildlife Art proudly holds a number of Salari-Sanders' sculptures. Works such as Cougar (1983), Great Northern (1985), Kudu (1985) and Gorilla (1987), demonstrate her tendency to incorporate aspects from the animal's natural environment, such as tree stumps and mountainsides, into her sculptures. Other works in the collection include, Bull Elk Bust (1982), Bighorn Sheep (1984), Wolf Bust (1989), Jumping Fox (1995), Croc (1998) and Foxes on the Bayou (1992), the latter of which is on permentent display in the outside foyer of the Museum.