An Okotoks-area metal artist is marking a Calgary Stampede milestone.
Having taken part in the Calgary Stampede’s Western Oasis Art Show for years, Michael Perks is returning with a new centrepiece to his exhibition dubbed Half Mile of Hell.
It’s a fitting name for his metal sculpture consisting of four chuckwagons, just in time for the Rangeland Derby’s 100th anniversary.
“The idea has been brewing for about eight years, and we kind of held off for when the time was right and my ability level could actually do it justice,” Perks said.
The twist that becomes apparent getting closer to the sculpture is the driver and horses are all rendered as skeletons, à la Day of the Dead.
“I love the idea of rebirth, and that of the Day of the Dead, where it’s not like Halloween, a festival of ghoulish horrors, but instead that of death as just another door, a happiness,” Perks explained.
The aesthetic has been a recurring theme in his work, having created a Day of the Dead series of skeletal figures 10 years prior.
“One of them was called ‘The Corporate Ladder’ where people were climbing up each other and kicking them off,” Perks said.
Another in the series was titled Death by Vanity, featuring two skeletons with real diamond necklaces, looking in the mirror, and his stall at the Millarville Farmers' Market typically features some sugar skull designs.
Last year his work took centre stage at the Stampede's art show with a 1971 antique swather modified with ornate metal cut motifs of agricultural landscape, dubbed The Fragility of Farming.
Compared to modifying a large piece of farm machinery, this year Perks has shifted from macro to micro, with intricately crafted details that presented new opportunities – and challenges – for the artist.
Dealing primarily in multi-layered and multi-coloured precision-cut metals, the intricate details were still new territory and he even need to pick up jewellery crafting tools for some of the work.
“I had to buy magnifying lenses which don’t work out well when you’re welding – they just magnify the flash,” Perks said.
Beyond just the intricacy and finesse involved, Perks’ wife Claire explained they enlisted experts to ensure the sculpture was true to the source material.
For the horses and riders, they consulted Claire’s sister, Dr. Erin Thompson, a veterinarian with the Moore Clinic and a former chiropractor.
"We used her textbooks from both chiropractic and vet school to get perfect anatomy for the horses and drivers,” Claire said. “Then we went through photos of horses galloping, so every position you see is anatomically correct.”
Then they turned to a chuckwagon racing mainstay for the other part of the equation.
“We went to Mark Sutherland’s place, and he took out all the rigging for us to see how it was all put together,” Claire said.
“It’s so complicated; he laid it all out and put it on the horses, drew it out for us and then we looked at a bunch of reference photos to double check, but for the rigging it should all be pretty much bang on for a statue.
“So the cool thing is for people that are knowledgeable about horses or the human body, or chuckwagons, they should be able to look at this and it should all be accurate.”
For more information about the Stampede's Western Oasis, visit CalgaryStampede.com and for more information about Perks' work, visit michaelperks.com.
