Esther was always horse crazy. There was s time that in order to find her meant to go to the barn or look out on the horizon for the rising dust for she was out there somewhere astride her steed.

Armed with that love the end of high school came with a choice to be made; a career in art or a career with horses. Esther decided on horses first. This led her to college and a degree in horse management from the State University of New York at Delhi. Once her degree was completed, her path then lead her to Oklahoma State Horse Shoeing School in Ardmore OK. With the great instruction of Reggie Kester she was off and on a 16 year career in horse shoeing in New York State. This too was shaping her future by learning the medium of metal and how to work hot iron and enjoy it.

Taking her shoeing ability to the highest level, AFA (American Farriers Assoc.) certified Journeyman; she reached a pinnacle in her career and started to look to the next career in art. The desire grew to a crescendo. Cutting back on half of her shoeing clientele she started sculpting. Esther first sculpted in a familiar and plentiful medium of horse shoes, making all kinds of characters from card players to horse and sleigh. After about three months she decided to move away from the crafty end of art and go for her own style of sculpture. The line sculpture was born.

Taking the steel and heating it with a torch, bending and manipulating it by hand gave the sculpture a one of kind life like feel. Horses were the first topic because of the years of exposure and familiarity with the movement and musculature. These early pieces came out with pure movement and life even though at first there was a very primitive aspect to the sculpture.

Next to be created were was figurative and wild life pieces. They too were primitive but had a real life sense about them. With time the line-sculpture shared it’s place with brazed and hand cut feathered birds or coats of steel hair covering squirrels and bears. Each developed the hand and eye of this artist until they evolved into the realistic sculptures that she is sculpting today. Esther continues to develop and evolve the line-sculpture and brazed hand created pieces.

Yet there is another love for Esther that she feels called to expand, cast bronze sculpture. During the early years Esther had a desire to take up her hand at modeling figures in clay and then having them cast in bronze. This has been a love of hers since 1994 and she has continued sculpt in clay since. All pieces cast had been table top size works until recent years. In 2004 Fountain Technologies from Chicago, commissioned Esther to sculpt three life-size figures of Mississippi river boat era children, for a fountain in Moline IL. Esther fell in love with the life-size clay work and now is striving to turn her commission work toward more life-size cast bronze sculptures. Esther’s hand created metal sculptural works will continue and thrive while the transition to move to cast bronze sculpture continues. Esther says “There will always be a place for all my styles yet I feel compelled to bring to reality my visions that have clearly been given to me, in to bronze.” “Sculpture is exciting, it’s many sided, it’s touchable, it has light play off of it and gives a viewer multiple angles to get the meaning and message it brings. It is hardy and can withstand the elements and over the centuries it still stands. How exciting and a thrill to be able to create a piece that out lives the sculptor and still gives to each viewer a piece of the message or feeling that was inspired by God.”