Artist: Craig Marshall Smith
Year: 2001
Dates: b.1947, Flint, MI
Materials: Mixed media on wood
Dimensions: 7′ 6″ x 7′ 6″

About Rodger

Dedicated and inspired by Craig Marshall Smith’s friend, the late Rodger Lang.

Smith stated “Rodger was a significant – important – GOOD – ceramist. When I moved here from Arizona and Arizona State, where I taught, Rodger rode me around town on his motor bike and showed me neighborhoods where I might live. He was a remarkable teacher – a notable artist – and brilliant at pool; he taught me how to play pool.He died much too young. To my knowledge he had nothing in common with horses. I went on a personal trip to Durango one year, as I always did just before the fall semester began, to meditate in Mesa Verde. In my hotel room there was a magazine for tourists – and a depiction of a single horse. This is horse country, Denver Broncos territory, my dental hygienist is a Denver Broncos cheerleader, and I have always balked at horse imagery. But it is (the horse) an enduring reference, and the time had come. About the same time Luis Jimenez was involved with a horse for Denver, and ultimately the horse did him in. Rodger didn’t do me in, and in facta couple of years after it was shown at the Metro Center for the Visual Arts, I completely reworked his colors, amping them considerably. Rodger is actually as tall as the world’s tallest horse, according to Animal Planet. The back of the horse is an intricate and articulate design intended to assemble the two parts and to project the horse from a wall – I think brilliantly created by a friend and sculptor, Alfred Schossau. So that’s the story. Never be another horse. Thanks very much.”