• Tweet

Bronze and Steel
Dimensions: 5' tall, 600 lbs
Project Agency: Oklahoma State Banking Department
Artwork Location: 2900 N Lincoln Blvd
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73105

The Artwork

There are 562 indigenous tribes in the United States with several hundred languages and dialects. Tribes often have different understandings of life with different philosophical and theological beliefs. Customs and ceremonies can vary greatly. Generally speaking, however, the concept of the circle seems to be the major symbol that ties Native peoples together.

All the people throughout the world - without out regard to race, gender, societal status in life - are of equal value. The theme of many tribe members is to seek “harmony with all things in creation.”

The Artist

Kelly Haney is an internationally recognized artist who has exhibited throughout the United States, England, Austria, and Asia. He works primarily in both small and monumental scale, commission-based sculpture. His art has received many awards and recognition. He has received the title of Master Artist of the Five Civilized Tribes. In addition to decades of success as a painter, Kelly became the highly esteemed creator of the 22-foot, bronze sculpture entitled, The Guardian that was chosen to top the Oklahoma State Capitol Dome.

In addition to The Guardian sculpture atop the Capitol dome, Kelly has seven, seven-foot replicas of The Guardian at various businesses and college campuses throughout the State of Oklahoma. He was also commissioned to create the Chickasaw Warrior at the Chickasaw Nation Headquarters in Ada, Oklahoma and the Standing His Ground sculpture in the Enoch Kelly Haney Center foyer at Seminole State College in Seminole, Oklahoma. Kelly has also created roundels for the Chickasaw Nation Cultural Center and the State House of Representatives and State Senate Chambers at the Oklahoma State Capitol. His latest monumental sculpture is a 12 foot bronze of a "Chickasaw Horse and Warrior." It was installed during spring of 2013 at the Regional Horse Race Track at Remington Park in Oklahoma City, OK. These pieces form an extraordinary repertoire of sculptures from an artist who was never formally trained in sculpting and started at age six using the red clay from his front yard to create a bust of Abraham Lincoln.

He was professionally trained in painting, by Dr. Dick West at Bacone College in Muskogee, Oklahoma. Kelly was the recipient of a Rockefeller Scholarship to the University of Arizona in Tucson,Arizona, and graduated with a Minor in Religion from Oklahoma City University in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma with a degree in Fine Arts. When Kelly was merely two years old, his mother noticed Kelly recreating with crayons what he saw.