Dan Ostermiller, a renowned Loveland sculptor, first found his love of animals watching his father, a commercial taxidermist, work.
He found an enduring love for the form and beauty of animals traveling with his father and spending so much time in the wild and was ultimately called to sculpt, a medium he felt better able to express his creativity and love of wild things.
That was 50 years ago, and Ostermiller is still working his art, putting the finishing touches on his 50th anniversary show in Santa Fe, N.M. in June.
A workaholic with no intention of slowing down, Ostermiller has produced more new pieces for this show than any other in his long career.
“It’s just a moment for me,” he said in his sprawling home studio, amid sculptures the size of automobiles, all in various stages of completion. “I feel really good, and I feel like I’ve got another 20 years of work in me. It’s just a milestone that I wanted to celebrate, and really not much more than that.”
His work is singularly focused on animals, stemming both from his fascination with wilder things since childhood, but also his philosophy towards his work.
“You’ll never see me sculpt anything political,” he said, standing before an enormous model sculpture of a family of rabbits playing, a playful piece he said he loves for the range of different personalities evident in it. “My work is all done to make people feel good. And this piece, it’s hard to look at and not feel good.”
Ostermiller has seen and helped shape the Loveland art scene since very near the beginning.
He first started casting in town in 1979, and moved here the following year, and was one of five artists who first established the High Plains Art Council in 1984, premiering the very first Sculpture in the Park in 1985.
Two of his pieces can be seen in the Benson Sculpture Garden, “A Friend Indeed,” featuring two rabbits,” and “Heart and Sole,” featuring two dogs.
Ostermiller was quite young by the standards of the industry when he began sculpting professionally, and he attributed much of his success to the culture in the town at that time, as it was beginning to make a name for itself in the art world with its foundries and talented young sculptors.
“That’s why I love Loveland,” he said. “It gave me so many opportunities as a young sculptor that I wouldn’t have had anywhere else.”
The Santa Fe show will be held at Nedra Matteucci Galleries, one of Santa Fe’s most notable, and one that Ostermiller has worked with for 45 years.
The show will have a private opening June 26, and will open publicly the following day, running throughout the month of July.
It’s a fitting place for the show, given Ostermiller’s long history with the gallery, and the fact that he first began showing his work there after being introduced to Matteucci at Sculpture in the Park, another early opportunity provided to him by Loveland’s art scene.
“We sort of grew up in the art business together, and she’s got the biggest and best gallery in Santa Fe now.”
He’s pulled out all the stops for this show, producing 10 brand new pieces and 12-15 retrospective pieces, old works that he’s putting on sale again.
“I’ve done more pieces for this show than any show I’ve ever done,” he said. “I love working, and this was a really good excuse to do a lot of work.”
