Self-Taught Sculptor Waxes Western

Photos and story by John Schlageck

Western sculptor Frank Reese recreates a bit of history in each one of his efforts. Photo by John Schlageck

LINDSBORG - Harken back to those days of yesteryear and it's easy to picture Frank Reese riding tall in the saddle: While he's already celebrated his 70th birthday, he looks every bit like the Western cowboys he toils to reproduce in bronze.

Reese sports a carefully shaped straw hat on his closely cropped gray flattop. Blue denim coveralls are his preferred suit of the day. The only place he doesn't wear them are at a wedding or a funeral, he says. A pair of well-worn brown boots complete his Western attire.

Behind his blue eyes burns a passion for recreating history as hot as any renegade Kansas prairie fire. One look at the detail of his bronze sculptures reveals one man's love for Western people and wildlife. History provides his inspiration.

The McPherson County native Western sculptor owns and operates the Hitching Post Studio in Lindsborg. He displays the western sculptures he's created in the 65 by 30 foot gallery he built almost 20 years ago.

His latest effort is titled, "Once we ate buffalo." Reese's creation is round, about the size of a 50-gallon drum. The bones of a buffalo, covered with a little hide stretched tight over the skull, lie in the dirt on the base of this unfinished piece.

Sitting next to the skeleton is an Indian holding the reins of a calvary pony that is outfitted with army-issue saddle, bridle and saddle bags. No doubt, the Indian has confiscated the pony from a soldier.

Behind the saddle are two jackrabbits. Tied by each pair of hind legs, the critters are draped, one on either side, across the rump of the horse. "The Indian is recalling better days when he enjoyed buffalo meat instead of rabbit," Reese says. Every Reese bronze tells a story.

Another one of his favorite pieces depicts a bull hitting a horse while the rider flies through the air. This happened to Reese in a pasture north of Salina.

"I didn't know it at the time, but the horse I was riding was blind on one side and didn't see the bull charging," he recalls. "When the bull hit, I flew through the air, hit the bull on the rear and landed on my feet running. I knew I had to mount that horse or be gored by that raging bull."

Luckily for Reese, the bull didn't charge again. Instead he turned tail and "ran four miles just as straight as a string through seven fences snapping some of the posts like they were made out of toothpicks."

In addition to being quite a storyteller, Reese is also a self-taught man. He left home before finishing high school to work as a machinist making parts for B-29s during the Second World War.

Tools of the trade include a discarded pocket knife, a scraper and a smoother he made from welding rods. Photo by John Schlageck

Having no formal art education, his creative style is unique.

"I do everything wrong according to the art teachers and other experts that come through to see my work " Reese says stuffing his bear-sized hands into his coverall pockets.

"They always want to see sketches of my work."

There are no drawings of Reese's sculptures. Instead he thinks about a scene for two or three weeks before he begins to create his figures out of wax. He refines the picture in his mind, then sits down and goes to work.

"As soon as I tell a class I have no education and the teacher hears I'm a high school dropout, the matter of schooling rarely comes up again," Reese says, a broad smile breaking across his face.

While he would never mention it, the Lindsborg native is proud of his determination and ability to finish anything he starts out to do. He was nearly 55-years-old before he finished his first sculpture.

A severe heart attack forced Reese into early retirement from his welding business in 1972. He'd farmed before that, but he wasn't willing to listen to Uncle Sam tell him how to run his operation.

Following his illness, Reese began reading and admiring Western artists like Russell and Remington. Soon after, he visited an exhibit of Remington's work in Lindsborg. Reese had never been to an art gallery in his life. He considered artists sissies.

"The show fascinated me," Reese says. "I was hooked and went straight to my shop and proceeded to carve four pieces out of solid steel."

These pieces remain some of the 70-year-old Kansan's favorites. Reese has created 31 different sculptures. Animals include buffaloes, bulls, elk and longhorn steers. Figures include Indians, cowboys and settlers. Reese's tools are as unorthodox as his training - a discarded pocket knife, a scraper and a smoother he made from welding rods.

"The Gift of the Great Spirit." One of Reese's first efforts at figures is this Indian giving thanks for the buffalo meat that helps sustain life. This bronze figure weighs a whopping 60 pounds and sells for a lot of wampum - $4,000.

"Hell, I never knew the names of my tools, but I know how to use them," he says.

Tools in hand, Reese zeroes in on his bronze sculpturing. When he's working on a piece, he never thinks of anything else.

"If you have anything else on your mind, you could ruin it," he says. "I don't want anyone talking to me, or anywhere near me when I'm out here."

To avoid distractions and interruptions, Reese prefers to work at night. It's also cooler in his studio at that time. Reese doesn't believe in air conditioning, but that's another story best left for another time.

Working at night also gives the Lindsborg native plenty of time to drink coffee with his cronies and argue politics at the Chuck Wagon cafe during the day - something he enjoys almost as much as his hobby.

The average piece takes nearly eight months to finish. Reese usually has more than one project going at a time. He prefers to work on one, set it aside, and return to it later.

"Generally, when I come back to a piece, if something is out of proportion, I see it right away," he says. "If you work on a piece from start to finish and never put it aside, you're apt to wind up with something wrong."

And Reese cannot stand a flawed piece.

Reese carefully smoothes wax around the base of the tail of this cavalry pony. "I always have in mind something I could do better next tirne," Reese says of his sculptures. Photo by John Schlageck

"Believe me," he says, "if you make a mistake there will be this one guy out of 10,000 that will know it and he'll tell you about it."

But detractors have never inhibited Reese. The sculptor dismisses them like a bull disperses a swarm of flies with a swish of his tail. He's always looking toward his next piece.

Trader Jesse Chisholm is one project Reese hopes to finish some day.

Jesse Chisholm never drove any Texas cattle north to Kansas, but he gave his name to that great trail, Reese says. This same trail ran through a pasture south of the farm where Reese grew up, and he plans to renew his quest to finish a bust of the famous trader.

Another sculpture Reese is itching to start will depict the Dust Bowl days.

"I lived those days," he says. "I know what they're all about."

Reese already has the sculpture fixed in his mind.

"I can see the dirt - just like snow," he says." I'll place an old skinny steer next to the rusted-out water tank that's half filled with dirt. I'll add a fence with only the tops of the posts sticking out, and I'll finish it off with a piece of weathered machinery."

Not many modern-day sculptors can envision the final product, that will some day be bronze, before they ever melt a 10-pound block of brown wax. Yep, like the long-gone Western cowboys he admires, Frank Reese and his style of sculpturing are fast becoming a relic of the past.

Skull and jawbones provide a fitting complement to Reese's Hitching Post Studio sign. Photo by John Schlageck

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