Sculptures of Karren Cassavant
Karren
started collecting model horses in the 7th grade. Two lifelong friends
and
Karren were gathered at Linda Kelly's (another life long friends) house
when in
walked one of Linda's little brothers with a rubber horse. He didn't
get
out of that room without trading his horse! (Karren still has Rhumba)
Thus began
the weekly Saturday meeting of the FILLIES club. Every Saturday morning
neighbors saw tree out of the four girls trucking down the street with a
satchel
full of model horses in hand. It was the sacred duty of the hostess to
supply a bottle of Pepsi to each member. A lot of the
horses that went to the kitchen table Barter block every week were
Stuart polyethylene horses. Even then the Fillies were cutting them
apart and
using Elmer's glue as filler. They also did the hard mane and tails
with
thread and Elmer's.
Due to
using less Tester's paint (which was a whole .10 a bottle), Karren then limited
herself to the 3 or 4 inch variety of models. Those were the days when the
Breyer PA mare came in glossy white and had not stamp, and lots of the horses
going to the weekly meeting were mini Hagen Renakers.
Karren had to leave town to get her first DW HR! A Monrovia, tri-eye,
Forever Amber was her going away present from the Fillies when her family moved
to the Phoenix area. She attended Phoenix College and graduated with
distinction in Commercial Art. She was the editor of Appy Talk carried in
the Arizona Horseman magazine. She also did many types of free lance art
work including commissioned oil painting and advertising signs.
She did
not actively collect again until he early 70's. Linda Kelly moved to the
Phoenix area and the old collecting fever broke out. Karren's husband
actively participated in the collecting binges with at least one day of the
weekend spent searching Park and Swap for models. Soon the Valsun Model
Horse club evolved with Karren being one of the four founding members.
Karren
created close to two hundred models during the years she offered
customizing. Her horses won many ribbons and championships at various
shows under a number of judges all over the country. Several of her horses
belong to European and Australian collectors and have been successfully shown
abroad.
It came
as a shock to her to find she could also sculpt. When there was a shortage
of good cattle to show in performance, Karren sculpted her first four legged
critter, Cross 'Bread". Then came Fellow Conspirator (Percheron
Drafter). His name honors all those friends who offered constructive
criticism. Karren doesn't consider Fellow Conspirator to be a remake since
she used a Breyer Tennessee Walking horse as an armature only. Fellow
Conspirator was one of the first horses in the hobby to be reproduced in
ceramic. Terminator is Karren's first horse to be reproduced in resin.
| - Name - | - Size - | - Year - | - Run - | - Price - | - status - | - picture - |
| Dynamic | TR | 2003 | sold out |  |
||
| Terminator | TR | 2002 | 185$ | sold out |  |
