NatureWorks Art Show and Sale feels like home

Annual art sale lifts spirits and raises thousands for Oklahoma wildlife conservation

Scot Storm of Minnesota, a two-time national duck stamp contest winner, sets up Friday for the NatureWorks Art Show and Sale. Photo by Kelly Bostian/KJBOutdoors

A great love for wildlife conservation is on display this weekend, and, like always, it is beautiful.

Like most involved in the NatureWorks board of directors, a part of me marks the passage of time with our annual Art Show and Sale. It’s underway this weekend at the Tulsa Marriott Southern Hills off 71st Street at Lewis.

I first attended in 2009 and didn’t care to do the math on how many years I’ve seen the same faces dedicated to the cause. The smiles are familiar and warm, the graying hairs and multiplying wrinkles predictable. The roots of this group run deep for Oklahoma’s wildlife and the Tulsa community.

We sit at tables and organize the goings-on, and every year, rain, shine, snow, or sleet, the price has been $5 to get you in the door for both days, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. Sunday. Admission helps us rent the space and host our artists. Thirty percent of every sale goes to wildlife conservation efforts in Oklahoma.

I take photos of all the participants. I’ve written columns and news stories about several of them. Every year, we lowly board members get to have a sort of class reunion with some of the country's best wildlife and Western artists. The quality of stuff on display at the show is constantly humbling. The artists always have amazing stories to tell about wildlife interactions, photography expeditions, and other adventures that fuel their art. The conversations and annual renewals of friendship are fun and fulfilling.

In the background, a crew of dedicated volunteers help with the sales and crunch the numbers, and since the programs began in the late 1990s, more than $2 million has been funneled to Oklahoma wildlife, mainly to the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation.

In fact, during set-up work Friday, Todd Craighead and the Outdoor Oklahoma crew turned up to shoot one of their weekly intro spots for the television show.

If you go, don’t miss the winning entries in the student wildlife art contest organized by the Sutton Avian Research Center. It never ceases to amaze me. When I think back on what we felt was art when I was in high school, let’s say kids today have higher standards. We have some incredibly talented young people in our local school systems.

This year, the rumble around the aisles involves a monuments effort that isn’t part of the show but involves NatureWorks and one of this year’s artists, sculptor Stephen LeBlanc. He is working on 40 sculptures that will become The Tulsa Herd at LaFortune Park, off Yale Avenue.

NatureWorks runs both the Art Show and Sale and the Monuments Program, which is responsible for all the incredible bronze sculptures along Riverside Drive and neat stuff like the scissor-tailed flycatchers in the terminal at Tulsa International, the giant bronze turkey at the Turkey Mountain trailhead, and the stately elk at the entrance to Washington Irving Park in Bixby.

Funding for the two efforts is entirely separate. The monuments, including The Tulsa Herd, are funded only with private donations from patrons recognized for their generosity to our community. Most have been erected in the name of a particular “conservation steward” in the community, recognized for going above and beyond for wildlife.

Part of my volunteer work had me edit a video promoting The Herd during this year’s art show and for other website and social media uses. It was an enjoyable exercise. It’s hard not to enjoy something fueled with images and video provided by Harvey Payne, co-author of “Visions of The Tallgrass” and communications director for the Joseph H. Williams Tallgrass Prairie Preserve.

He’s a heckuva shooter, if you didn’t know. Get the book.

As I typed up credits on the video, I realized that the late Joe Williams and Harvey Payne are past NatureWorks conservation stewardship award recipients.

The idea for the Herd arose years ago with several folks, like the late Tiny Tomsen, who co-founded the group responsible for most of the bronze around town.

“Because bronze is forever,” Tiny always used to tell me.

The American Bison is a national icon for wildlife conservation and a key Oklahoma species, so this effort to erect not just one statute but a walk-through monument with 40 bulls, cows, yearlings, and calves in a herd seems fitting here. The memorial will draw people here to experience walking through the place.

The desire is that it will attract people; the hope is those people will walk away with a greater appreciation for the story of the American bison and wildlife conservation.