Dennis Harrington Biography scroll down to view works
| Dennis Harrington was born and raised in Bozeman, Montana. Initially Harrington wanted to be an Air Force pilot but an elective art class drastically changed his perspective and he enrolled in the Seattle Art Institute.
Harrington studied illustration because he saw this as the most practical pursuit. Harrington didn’t begin using clay until a few years past graduation. According to Harrington "Someone gave me some clay. I started playing around with it and I really liked the three dimensional aspects of the process." Harrington discovered that much of what he learned in illustration also applied to sculpture –presentation, conceptualization, and working with a timeline. Sculpting the west became a full time profession for him in 1990. His first notable bronze "Guardian Spirit," is a monumental sculpture of a grizzly bear that is on display at Bozeman’s Gallatin Airport. After focusing on wildlife sculpture for many years Harrington shifted to the seductive western woman in 1999. He felt that many people couldn’t tell if an animal was accurate but everybody knows the shape of the human body. He felt it would make his work more challenging and so he undertook sculpting the "sensual and sublime" personalities of the western lady. He chose to show the softer side of the west as opposed to the rough cowboys so often represented. According to Harrington "there’s strength in the cowgirls." Harrington lives with his wife Kathy and their two children in Bozeman. |