(1945 – 2006)For twenty years, husband and wife, Gene and Rebecca Tobey worked together as artistic partners. They are best known for their unique and distinctive creations of abstracted animal forms in both ceramic, bronze and embossed paper. Their work is instantly recognizable, blending masterful artistry, personal statement and universal meaning that is both sophisticated and primal. When seen from afar, their sculptures are sleek silhouettes; when viewed up-close, however, the surfaces are an intriguing maze of distinctive glyphs and symbols. The artists created their own symbolic language using Native American imagery as well as their own experiences as its source. Bear, bison, elk, deer, birds of prey, human and animal combinations and other majestic creatures stand in dynamic, timeless attitudes that display the dominant personality of each form. Magic occurs as surfaces become canvases upon which the Tobeys have carved, drawn, painted and scratched graffito drawings of other animals, human figures, scenes of starry night skies, mountain ranges, as well as symbols and geometric shapes, all on beautifully patinated planes. Perhaps more than any other animal, the bison provided the Tobeys with a canvas of substantial proportions. Their ceramic sculptures typically have highly glazed hindquarters, with the head and torso in a matte finish that is transformed by colorful paintings of mesas and canyons, running horses, soaring eagles, and their signature wolves and southwestern dragons. The bronzes, which are defined by multiple patinas contrasted with bright, polished areas, use the hump of the bison as a place to carve Mayan figures, dancers and memories of vast buffalo herds across the plains. Rebecca Tobey continues the legacy of creation and spirit after Gene Tobey’s death in 2006, extending the comingling of two minds and hearts into one voice that has resulted in a vital, yet balanced union of opposites. Rebecca Tobey lives and works in Santa Fe, New Mexico.