Focus on Texas: Yard Art

In the hands of imaginative artists, different kinds of critters come home to stay

By Ashley Clary-Carpenter July 2012

Deep East Texas Electric Cooperative member Delbert Beckham says his mailbox dragon, built from 600 pounds of salvaged steel, is a real traffic stopper.

Ross Edgerley, nephew of CoServ Electric members Janene and Joe Spratt, created this life-size horse sculpture shown here in the Spratts’ yard northwest of Sanger. Made as a high school art project, the sculpture won first place in a contest and was temporarily on display at the Dallas Museum of Art.

Chris Cunningham, who used an angle grinder and pottery wheel to carve ripples into the yellow pine, created this butterfly-shaped wooden bench for his wife, Terri. The Cunninghams, United Cooperative Services members, love sitting on the bench in their backyard.

Grayson-Collin Electric Cooperative member Priscilla Pope found this old washer in a cellar on her property near McKinney. “I thought it looked aerodynamic, so I painted it rocket red,” she says.

Bartlett Electric Cooperative member DeAnna Young discovered this decorative swirl of saws on a barn door in Salado.

Joy Leal, a member of Pedernales and Victoria electric cooperatives, says she made this mosaic snake to brighten a garden pathway and her drought-stricken backyard.

Pedernales Electric Cooperative member Laura Jelemensky says this little herd of metal javelinas showed up on her birthday a few years ago and has lived happily along her driveway ever since.

“Our three-tiered BarbMan becomes a baseball player in spring! With each season, he puts on a different hat,” Fayette Electric Cooperative member Florian Kana says of this barbed wire creation.

“These vultures are in my front yard every day,” says Pedernales Electric Cooperative member Dallas Gorman.

The late David Cox created this nature pole in just nine days, using a chain saw to transform a pine tree killed by drought into a work of art that features animals and plants native to the Hill Country. The pole’s owners, Central Texas Electric Cooperative members Ken and Verna Caskey, cherish this work of art that rests on a concrete pad in their driveway.

Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative member Norma Richter says this scorpion is made of: railroad spikes for the legs; scrap iron for the base; motorcycle shocks for pincher arms; a vintage agricultural drive chain for the tail; an insulator from an electrical pole downed in Houston during Hurricane Ike in 2008; vintage sheep shears for pinchers; a rake for the mouth; an old farm implement for the stinger; big marbles for eyes … and a LOT of creativity.

A garden without its statue is like a sentence without its verb.”
—Joseph W. Beach, literary critic

The same could be said for a front yard without a mailbox dragon, for that matter! We received well over 100 entries in this month’s contest, but in the end, the following five stood above the rest. Not that it was an easy task to decide; the creativity and artistry evident in yards all over Co-op Country left little to be desired. We hope you enjoy these—and the additional ones here on our website—as much as we did.

Recipe Contest

July 2012

This article appeared in the July 2012 issue

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