Galapagos Tortoise
By Tom Knapp, Installed 1990
Tom Knapp is a bronze sculptor recording the modern Western scene. He was born in Gillette, Wyoming in 1925, and since 1971 lived in Ruidoso Downs, New Mexico. His wife is artist, Dorothy Bell Knapp.
He is intensely interested in the contemporary Indian and strives for ever-fresh way to depict the dignity and culture of the present-day Indian and Westerner. Of this commitment, he said: “There’s a Western art fad in progress, and things that happened 100 years ago are currently being re-examined for use as subject matter. I feel that this
is largely wasted effort, After all, such artists are trying to breathe life into something they didn’t actually experience.” This interest in Indians dates to his adolescence when a Plains Indian tribe camped near his family’s ranch every summer.
