Artist Bios

BILL ADAMS

TUMBLEWEED SADDLERY

I am a retired firefighter and a retired cattle rancher. I also do some cowboying part time. I have done leather work all my life and have been making saddles for five years. I work out of my shop at home and make five or six saddles a year as well as any kind of cowboy horse gear, namely chinks, breast collars, bridles, hobbles, bucking rolls, and fence pliers cases. I sell Moore Maker fence pliers, saddle blankets, bits and spurs.

LAILA ASGARI

Warmed glass artist - Kiln fired glass

Laila Asgari, a local artist raised in southern California, took an interest in the western lifestyle at an early age, learning how to ride at the age of five years. As a youngster, Laila coupled her interest in art with her love for horses, experimenting with oil, pencil, and charcoal. As an adult she discovered glass as an art medium, and using the glass fusing technique and crushed glass, she has been able to transfer her passion for the West into functional art, creating pictures with glass. Each glass piece is handmade and kiln-fired creating unique one-of-a-kind pieces. Her collection includes wall hangings, wall tiles, plates, picture frames, and coasters. Many of the pieces are created from personal experiences, which led Laila to market her fused glass art under “Serendipity Blue - designs in glass”.

RON BUTLER

BUTLER'S SADDLE SHOP

For over 25 years Ron Butler has made beautiful, top-quality, custom-made saddles and leather goods for the many of California’s working cowboys. Today, with the help of his wife, Cheryl, and daughter, Sarah, they continue to work hard outfitting all working cowboys and cowboys-at-heart with the same outstanding quality tack people have come to expect from the Butler family!

GINNI CARY

I create western hatboxes, completely handmade and cut in my ranch workshop in the same building my great-grandfather once had a blacksmith shop. My boxes feature western borders, wallpaper, and genuine leather with adornments in variety of size and shapes.

DON AND DORINE CASWELL -- CASWELL TRADING CO.

Western memorabilia. We will have on display and for sale to the public a large collection of antique cowboy and Indian collectibles from the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. We specialize in old fancy chaps, California spurs and bits, braided rawhide bridles, and California gambling items such as silver and ivory daggers. Other items will include Winchesters, Colts, Native American beadwork and jewelry, cowboy and cowgirl decorator pieces, and much more.

RUTH DEOUDES

Pencil drawings and prints

The execution and technique of her pencil drawings are very important to her, but her main goal is to create a vision the viewer can relate to. With humor and sensitivity, Ruth invites you to share a moment in the life of the rural American.

ED FIELD

Bits and more - silverwork

Ed is a well known, 4th generation bit maker who lives in Paradise, near Lake Cachuma in Santa Barbara County. His work is widely sought by collectors. Ed learned the craft from his grandfather, John J. Field, whose bits are very rare and collectible. John J. learned from his father, Ed's great grandfather, who learned his skill at Tiffany's while making silverware, knives and spoons. His great grandfather came out west with Fremont, then returned to Connecticut, packed up his tools and gear and returned to Calaveras, then to Santa Barbara.

Around 1890, you didn't buy a bit from a store. You went to a blacksmith and had one made. They were all different: different sizes and different thickness of steel. Even the cheek plates didn't match. Very few had any inlaid silverwork.

Ed's dad made spurs, inlaid with silver. After WWII he sold all he could make to Jedica Saddlery in Santa Barbara. Ed's aunt, Rita Thornburg, made bits and put two sons through college.

Ed learned his trade while a grammar and high school student. He also worked on ranches and for the Forest Service. Town didn't agree with him, so he moved back to where he got his start.

Ed says he is 85 and still working and "I'm not going to quit. It gets me out of the house and keeps my brain working." His wife says Ed enjoys work, but not when it comes to yardwork. He is happiest when he completes a project.

Ed's son Gary Wayne Field has been working with him for 7 years and is doing a "good job" according to Ed. Both will be at the Paso Gathering, where Ed is a generous sponsor of the event. He donates a handcrafted silver inlaid bit each year for the fund raising drawing.

HEATHER HAFLEIGH

HEATHER HAFLEIGH PHOTOGRAPHY

Heather has devoted more than 18 years to documenting contemporary ranchers, horsemen, and craftsmen in California carrying on the vaquero tradition.

Her work is widely exhibited and is in the collections of the Autry Museum of Western Heritage, the Oakland Museum of California, and the Western Folklife Center in Elko, Nevada.

ZENON HIPOLITO

ZAPOTEC INDIAN ART

Handwoven Zapotec
rugs and pillows

Zenon Hipolito is a master Zapotec weaver. Weaving is an Indian tradition that has been passed down from generation-to-generation. Weaving expresses the determination of a courageous person that is very committed to their artistry and their own tradition. Zapotec natives originated in Oaxaca of Teotitalan Del Valle. Amongst the natives, about 400,000 Zapotecs had lived in valleys and on huge mountains, and later migrated across southern Mexico. The Zapotecs are one of the countries largest indigenous groups dating as far back as the sixteenth century.

Zenon Hipolito was born in Oaxaca, Mexico on May 7, 1956. Taught by his father at the age of eight years old, Zenon utilized circular designs. These designs are amongst the most difficult and require careful use of the loom. Zenon uses the best quality wool and vegetal dyes in each piece of art. Most of the designs come from the ancient Zapotec temples.

It has been difficult to keep the tradition of Zapotec weaving alive in the states. In an attempt to teach the art of the loom and strengthen the tradition, Zenon plans to give classes that will teach people the process of the wool and the dyes. Successfully, this tradition has been kept within the family, demonstrated through stories and the construction of his own loom. Zenon has made it a point to teach his family of their native roots.

BRIAN KUNIC -- TULLY HOLE SADDLERY

Custom horse gear

I specialize in making custom horse gear for today’s working cowboy, including chaps, spur straps, headstraps, etc.

VEL MILLER

Oil painting and sculpture

Vel Miller’s house/studio is a chest of treasures that sits atop one of those rolling Central California hills that meander down to the Pacific some 20 miles away. The house, like the artist, is filled with memories of the most important things in life…people…mementos of family, friends and mentors who have enriched her life. Paintings cover the walls and sculptures sit atop antique tables draped with cowhide. Your eye can’t travel an inch but it encounters some richly patinaed artifact of the Old West…the things of which Vel’s life is made!

In painting and sculpting, Vel concentrates on the more emotional view of the West. Vel says, “The most rugged and strongest people I’ve known have also been the kindest and most loving. This is the feeling I try to portray. I want the person who views my work to see something they have experienced themselves, or to feel a mood that brings them happiness.”

Vel wrote: “The West lives on, not just in the heart of the cowboy roping a calf or an Indian chasing a buffalo. It lives in all of us. It’s the hardships and the rewards. I see it in a child with his or her animals or a mother or father with their children. It’s the wonder of the latest crop of calves or colts, or just the evening light shining across a meadow. I hear it in the creak of a new saddle and the nicker of a mare to her foal or perhaps the crow of a rooster announcing a new and sparkling day.

It is true that some of the images are gone and some live only in the artwork created before us, but there is still a story to tell and world full of subjects to portray. This is what all Artists, whether craftsmen, painters, sculptor, singers or storytellers, are trying to present: the love we feel for the West. We hope you share it with us. If you do, the West and the Spirit of the West will live forever.”

Vel attended the Art League of Los Angeles, studying under Hal Reed and Max Turner. She later taught there. An important mentor, Joe Deyong, a protégé of Charlie Russell, encouraged and inspired her with his stories and love of the Old West.

Participating in numerous exhibitions, Vel has earned over 40 “Firsts,” Best of Show,” and “Purchase Awards.” She has completed several corporate commissions. Her work is displayed in museums and public and private collections Internationally. She and her artwork have been featured in Contemporary Western Artists, several editions of Southwest Art and Art of the West magazines. She is currently listed in “Who’s Who in American Art,” “Who’s Who in the West,” “Who’s Who of American Women,” and “An Encyclopedia of Women Artists of the American West.” Vel was commissioned to do the drawings on Western Horseman’s Cowboy Calendars for 1997, 1998, 1999, and 2000 and has recently illustrated and created covers for several books. Vel was in a show in Sorrento, Italy in September 2000 with The American Women Artists, an artist group of which she is a founding member. The Mayor of Sorrento purchased one of her paintings. In the fall of 2000, Vel was commissioned to do a heroic size monument of the City of Paso Robles, California. The 8-foot high sculpture of a Fireman handing a baby to a Policewoman, titled “Reward for Valor” will be dedicated in 2004.

Richard “Sparky” Moore does a variety of artwork with western flare. His background as a cartoonist for more than 50 years for studios like Disney, Hanna & Barbera, and Dell/Western Publishing had him drawing anywhere from adventure to western comic books like “Little Beaver” and “Range Rider” to many years of drawing, among others for Disney studios, “Winnie the Pooh” for both books and newspaper comic strips. He now uses that creative imagination to give us western art that offers, at times, humor as well as taking us back to a way of life that used to be. Come by and see what “Sparky” has come up with this year, you’ll find anything from hand carved rocking “mules”, cowboy and cowgirl cutouts, and of course his popular western sketches.

ERNEST MORRIS

Ernest Morris was born December 13, 1927, a fifth generation California cattleman. His youth was molded by ranch life in the central coast area of California where he worked with older men who followed the California vaquero horsemanship style. Ernie especially credits his grandfather, Jesse Wilkinson, with teaching him many of the vaquero ways, and the techniques for making quality rawhide equipment.

Ernie's art talents began to show at an early age, with special interests in the California vaquero. Vaquero art was a hobby for Ernie until 1964 when he became a full-time artist as an occupation. In 1967 Ernie began placing a small hackamore beside his name on his paintings as a symbol to connect his art and his rawhide work.

He has created artwork with pen and ink, pencil, charcoal, watercolor, oils, acrylic, bronze sculpting, and wood carving, and he has authored and illustrated four popular books about vaquero horsemanship and livestock handling --- El Vaquero (published in 1989), El Buckaroo (published in 1995), and Riata Men (published in 1999) and California Cowboy Inventions. His art, rawhide work, and books have been featured in galleries, museums, and private collections throughout the United States and in many other parts of the world.

Although Ernie's art encompasses most of his time, he is active in the cattle business, training his won ranch horses, braiding rawhide gear, and occasionally making horse-hair mecates. Ernie and his wife, Blanche, reside on their ranch near Templeton, California, where they enjoy Western art, horses, cattle, and friendly conversation.

DIANNE PARTINGTON

Original Western/Native American Silver/Turquoise
Jewelry

Dianne Partington, has collected vintage western and pawn jewelry for over 40 years and because of that has acquired a keen eye for quality workmanship. Silver Horse Designs, was born out of that passion. Many of her pieces have a Native American influence while others have a classic western style.

Working out of her tack room, Dianne creates one of a kind designs that include new pieces as well as redesigned pawn. Some of the turquoise she finds originates from mines that have long been closed, making her pieces more rare. She also uses top quality coral, pearls & semi-precious stones for added color and unique character, and only the finest sterling silver.

Her designs have been featured in national magazines, and have been worn, most recently, by American Idol winner and country super star, Carrie Underwood in a photo shoot for Country Weekly.

Since she was old enough to walk, Dianne has connected with horses and the classic California ranch lifestyle. A dedicated animal lover, she always dreamed of a life surrounded by horses, cattle, dogs and cats. She made that dream a reality while living on the Cojo Ranch in California, then later by moving to the Central Coast after meeting her husband Dan 15 years ago. It is here that she has firmly planted her roots in the horse country of Paso Robles where she’s bred and raised countless good horses. Her passion for this lifestyle and Native American artistry inspired her to become a designer. You’ll often see her heading to town in her truck and always with her beloved dog Rowdy, hauling her horses or jewelry to events and trade shows, sharing a smile and a horse story with everyone she meets.

Anyone who knows Dianne will tell you that her greatest pride in life will always be her family – her husband Dan and three daughters, Angela, Alison and Aimee.

MICHAEL RHOADS

Silver - new and collectible, bits, spurs, bridles,
saddles and fine Palm hats

DICK & JOANNE ROLL

J.D. ENTERPRISES

Cowboy antiques - custom hats

San Marcos, CA.

DON SHORTS

Historical and collectible books

Don Shorts is the co-owner of Ventura’s Old California Store and is an author of books about Jo Mora and Mexican arts. He also owns the Old California Press, which publishes books about California and Mexico.

JOELLE SMITH

Artist, Painter and Sculptor

We will miss seeing Joelle at our event. Her loss is deeply felt.

GLENN STEIN

Silverwork, Western memorabilia

I have been in California for about 44 years, and have been collecting bits and spurs for 35 years. I have been making bits and spurs for about 8 years.

KAREN FOSTER-WELLS

Western original art and reproductions, tiles and
cards

My uncle taught me to herd cattle on a ranch in Arroyo Grande when I was about twelve. I am still helping with the cattle these days on the same ranch.

I got my first horse when I was fourteen. We rode bareback along the beach, and the horses ran as a herd along the bluffs when we weren’t riding them. My mother was painting all along the coast in those days, and I would watch her set up her easel and paint in oils or draw with pen and ink, the wild waves and rocky cliffs.

All of this still inspires me. The horses and painting outside eventually have become my twin passions. I still love to help my friends and family work their cattle. I still love to ride near the ocean, and on the wonderful ranches of the Central Coast.

I hope to be able to portray in pictures some of the powerful feelings I have for these places. The people, cattle, horses and old-fashioned ways of doing things, along with the historic buildings and lands so potent with memories.

The ECR Gallery in Cambria represents my art as well as California Classics in Templeton. I exhibit at the Cattlemen’s Western Art Show in Paso Robles and the Paso Gathering at the Pioneer Museum in Paso Robles.