James Surls

James Arthur Surls (born 1943) is an American modernist artist and educator, known for his large sculptures.

[2][3] His mother Martha Lucille Surls (née Ramsey) had been made an honorary Cherokee Nation elder as one of "The Wisdom Givers".

[2][4][3] He was raised in Malakoff, Texas, and spend much of his childhood helping his dad with chopping wood and building wooden structures.

[3] He is best known for large sculptures that are roughly hewn and derive much of their power from a close connection to nature and raw materials.

Having built a career in the 1980s and 1990s as a Texas artist, Surls relocated to a Colorado ranch and removed his work from for-profit galleries.