Wildlife Artist Dawn Senior-Trask of Moonhorse Art Studio
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Senior Keeps Busy Traveling, Working and Enjoying Life

She uses many different mediums in her work.

By Trina Jo Hitchcock, Saratoga Sun

Dawn Senior, a well-known artist from Saratoga, has been doing art projects since she can remember.   "I can't remember a time when I didn't," she said.

Senior grew up in a cabin near Saratoga that her father and brother built in 1963.

When Senior was eleven, her family moved to Arizona and spent five years living on the Navajo reservation.  "The Navajo people are 'The People of Beauty', and I had marvelous experiences." Senior is now working on a novel about her teenage years among the Navajos.

Senior said she attended a Navajo school, but when the family moved back to Wyoming her father tutored her for high school.  Senior then went on to college at the University of Wyoming in Laramie and Hastings College in Hastings, Nebraska, taking many studio art classes.

She then returned home to the family's cabin, where she still lives.

She said she bases a lot of her art on the cabin and the surrounding area.  "A lot of my art is based on adventures I had growing up around here."

Senior's father was an artist, and taught her a lot of what she knows.  He was also an author, and started his own publishing house, called Willow Bee Publishing House.  Senior and her sister Lenore edited and published small books and magazines, she said.

Senior also illustrates poetry books, as well as writing poems and short essays.  She has had essays published in two books, "Leaning Into the Wind," and the following book in the series, "Woven on the Wind."  They are anthologies of poems and essays by western women.  Senior also has six poems in the book "Visions of Wyoming."

She uses many different mediums for her artwork, including oils, bronzes, woodcuts, scratchboards, pen and inks, and illustrations.

According to Senior, doing woodcuts is a long process, which involves first drawing the picture, then tracing the picture onto a block of wood, then carving a separate block for each color in the picture.  The next step in the process is to roll ink onto the carved wood, and placing a piece of paper over the wood and rubbing the back of the paper until all the ink is pressed onto the paper.  The reason the process is so long, Senior explained, is because a different piece of wood needs to be carved for every different color.

Senior said she has been doing woodcuts since she was eleven.

Right now Senior is working on a series of woodcuts called "Lakota Moons" for a book of poetry on the history of the Black Hills called Inland Island by Gary David.

Senior's other favorite medium, bronze, keeps her busy.  She is working on making a "bronze quilt" that, when finished, will be about 36 inches by 50 inches.

Senior said the animals and scenes she sculpts in relief on her bronzes all have a special meaning to her, which is why she uses them.  For instance, when she was a child her older brother saved a porcupine that was injured and blind.  She said they raised the porcupine, and she learned a lot from it.  "Porcupines are really sweet," Senior said.  "I could actually pet that porcupine.  Just don't rub it the wrong way," she laughed.

Senior travels about ten weeks a year teaching art to school children in Wyoming, South Dakota and Idaho.

But, she pointed out, she also likes her time alone at her cabin with her artwork and her horses.  "It's a nice variety," she said.

Senior's bronze work can be seen at the Blackhawk Gallery in Saratoga.

If you would like more information on our artwork or would like to place an order, email Moonhorse Art Studio or call us 307.327.5381. We look forward to hearing from you!