The California Arts Council awarded Tolley a supportive grant for his artistic project, A Tangle of Bones. Written and illustrated by Tolley, A Tangle of Bones is his memoir from age 10 - 14 when he was an Air Force brat on the island of Okinawa during the height of the Vietnam War, circa 1970-1973.
Read More
Member of the California Blacksmith Association
Tolley Marney is a member of the California Blacksmithing Association.
Read MoreTolley Marney, circa 1981 in front of the bunkhouse at Smoketree Stables, Palm Springs, California. Tolley was a wrangler, living in the bunkhouse at the time.
Cowboy Artist Life
Remember the question, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Do you remember your answer?
For little boys, being a cowboy, space traveler or firefighter often makes the list. I wanted to be a lot of things; a forest ranger, an Indian (at age 6 that seemed possible), a pirate, an explorer.
Looking back at my childhood ideas of adulthood, I see that underlying each life-description was a yearning for the freedom I wanted when I grew up. Freedom to explore, create and experience life on my own terms.
I was thinking about that life list looking at my old photos. During the era of these photos, I was living the cowboy life full-tilt. I cowboyed in Arizona, Colorado and California and at the time these photos were taken (in the 1980's) I was living at Smoke Tree Stables in Palm Springs, California and working full time as a wrangler. I was a guy in his twenties who wouldn't go anywhere he couldn't take his horse.
As time went on, I managed to continue some version of that life, raising three sons who have in one way or another lived their expression of the cowboy life. Today I'm still living the dream.
But life has a way of shaping our dreams and adding new ones to the mix. Cowboying led me to farrier work, then black smithing and now sculpting. The freedom that being a cowboy symbolized manifested for me as a life of possibilities has led me to living the creative life of a cowboy artist.
Here I am - Tolley Marney, age 13 circa 1970.
How Dyslexia and Being Called "Slow" Made Me an Artist
Dyslexia in the 1960s left me considered, “slow” and with few options in life. That rough start pushed me into the cowboy life and later I became the artist I am. I wrote a memoir about 3 years of my life as a military brat on the island of Okinawa during the height of the Vietnam war. I’m looking for an agent and publisher.
Read More
Treasure Hunting at Estate Sales and Auctions
I love a treasure hunt. I build many of my sculptures incorporating reclaimed wood and steel that I find at estate sales and auctions. Of course, when I’m there, I find more treasures!
Our Etsy store, WindingCreekHome, is our way to share some of the treasures we find. We are able to pass on a beautiful item to you because selling them gives us more room for the new pieces we can’t resist.
My wife, Cristina Acosta and I are attracted to the odd, interesting and beautiful. Holding a piece of vintage or antique beauty, we get the sense the items are trying to tell us their adventures through the decades. Those pieces may sell at auction for tens of thousands of dollars. To be able to interact with fine pieces of art such as paintings and sculptures that are normally not available to touch is a pleasure. Mostly, our Etsy store is full of affordable items with the occasional expensive treat mixed in.
Please vist our vintage home decor Etsy store, Winding Creek Home. All prices include shipping.
Tolley Built a Sculpture into a Ranch Sign
“Mixing fine art with function and making it an elegant blend was my biggest challenge when I built this horse art ranch sign for the collectors,” said Tolley Marney as he looked over the finished pieces before he sent them to the powder-coater.
Tolley built the horse head metal sculpture first. Then after the client approved that piece, he altered the plans a bit to visually adjust for the reality of the sculpture as it would look with the lettering. He built the metal lettering and numbers by melding separate bars of metal into shapes, then refining those shapes with his hammer.
The client chose to limit the rust patina by powder-coating the final piece before having their on-site metal worker install the sign on their ranch driveway.
Depending upon the size and complexity, a metal sign like this starts around $6,000 up. Tolley makes beautiful ranch decor. Contact Tolley with your plans and questions for your unique blacksmith metal art signage.
Blacksmith Coal Forge Work with Tolley Marney
The red hot coals of the 100+ year old forge glowed every time I turned the crank and forced air through the turbine. That forced air through the bottom of the forge and through the coke. As the coke caught and burned, black greasy smoke billowed. At the end of every day, I was covered in coal smoke and very happy.
I’ve worked with this coke burning blacksmith coal forge for the past two summers. I’ve been an artist in residence, blacksmith in residence at the Tallac Historic Site, South Lake Tahoe, California in 2018 and 2019. Tallac Historic site is a wonderful antique residence operated by the US Forest Service and the Tahoe Heritage Foundation. I highly recommend touring the site, I’ve enjoyed my two summers there and love the people and the spirits of the past and present.
Photo credit: Gaylord Norcross Photography
Honeybee Sculptures to Install Indoor or Outdoor.
I made 6 bees for my wife’s front garden design. She is a landscape designer and during the past two years, we’ve been making the change from a plain grass front yard to a walled garden sanctuary. She was looking for a “room divider” to create a dining area in the garden. Together, we came up with this overhead raised garden bed that doubles as a shade sail pole and sculpture pedestal.
Read More
"Awakening" steel horse sculpture by Tolley Marney
Draft Horse Art Sculpture by Tolley Marney
Clydesdale draft horses are among the largest and strongest horses in North America. Artist, Tolley Marney's, steel horse sculptures are imbued with that strength in every twist and turn of the steel under his blacksmith hammer.
Tolley has had much experience driving horses during his life as a horseman. Here's what he has to say about draft horses, "To watch draft horses work as a team is magical. In the old days, twenty draft horses pulling harrows would be working as one, pulling the tools across the farm fields of agricultural America. A driver would drive a team of horses down the wheat field. Another man would control the depth of the blades, another man had a task, the harvester was like a small factory being pulled across the earth by horses. The draft horses of the past broke the ground that fed us, took our children to school and church, saved and nurtured our lives."
Shop Sculpture to purchase or commission your unique art sculpture.
“Within the Steel is a Beautiful Horse,” Tolley Marney
Handmade Horseshoe Hoof Pick with Carved Horse Head
Completely handmade horseshoe hoof pick by western artist, Tolley Marney, is a piece of Americana and a part of the heritage blacksmith arts. Made from used horseshoes that have traveled the American Southwest desert, Tolley's horseshoe hoof picks are the perfect gift for the horse lover.
Read More