Sage Gessner is perhaps best known in Prescott Valley, AZ for her 10-foot bronze statue Not So Gentle Tamer. The project landed in her lap while she was working as “sort of the in-house sculptor” at Bronzesmith Fine Art Foundry and Gallery, which is also located in Prescott Valley. Ed Reilly, owner and fellow sculptor at Bronzesmith, first approached her about making a statue of an illustration by artist, author, and Arizona historian Bob Boze Bell. The statue depicts a woman settler holding a headless rattlesnake and a shovel, capturing the fierce practicality of the women who helped settle the Arizona Territory. “Bob Boze Bell kind of based this on his own grandmother…
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Photo courtesy of Deb Gessner
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ike many creative people, it’s hard to pin Deb Gessner down to just one thing. Over the course of her life, she has been a jewelry maker, bronze sculptor, rancher, and musician. The thread connecting these pursuits is her deep affinity for the Arizona landscape, as well as the plants, animals, and people that inhabit it. After decades in Yavapai County, she still finds beauty and inspiration in the land.
