Sculptor Wyatt Gragg discovered his creative side after being diagnosed with benign brain tumors in 1995, and diagnosed again several years later. Instead of discouraging or holding him back, it gave him a new lease on life.
He says he was diagnosed at the time with “my first of three meningiomas, a benign tumor on the left side, or executive side, of my brain. The result was damage to math skills, some decision making, and short-term memory problems.”
He made the tough decision to leave the security of the corporate world of teaching and sales. Gragg had attended Transylvania University in Lexington, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Biology and Education, having no idea he would one day enter the art world.
He taught middle and high school in Lexington for five years before entering sales. He has worked in pharmaceuticals, public relations and advertising at Louisville’s WRKA, and as an account executive in fine color commercial printing. A native of Lexington, he relocated to Louisville around 1976, focusing on his career in marketing and commercial printing.
After his first surgery, the right side of his brain quickly began to compensate. During the recuperation process, Gragg became bored. Remembering an art project he had worked on with his father on their family farm, he began to slowly focus on becoming a sculptor.
He says he and his father had made plaster-of-Paris animal tracks from the animals on the farm. He contacted the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife in Frankfort, and they let him make tracks of the animals there: sand castings of deer, bear, mountain lions and more.
Next he visited the Louisville Zoo. He made track casts of unusual animals like the rhinoceros.
Wanting to expand his knowledge and creativity, Gragg began creating three-dimensional sculptures with the help of bronze sculptor David Kocka. Kocka, who lives in southern Indiana, has been a mentor for Gragg and many others. Kocka studied in Rome, Italy, and in addition to being a sculptor, was a Franciscan priest at the Mount St. Francis retreat center in southern Indiana for a time.
Decades later, Gragg has earned his own reputation by creating commissioned bronze sculptures, which can be found around the country. “My hands continue to surprise me,” he says. “I am truly humbled at being able to provide memorial and public sculpture that allows me to help keep history alive, provide some peace in the cemetery for a grieving family, as well as fine art enjoyed in the home or in the garden.”
Gragg’s artwork can be found from Washington to Florida to Massachusetts. Locally, his work is on display at Kore Gallery.
He has also branched out into other mediums. “I have been spending time with acrylics on canvas too – still lifes painted over a minimal background that most often try to dodge tradition just enough to test the eye, and maybe cause the viewer to wonder why,” he says.
“My bronze work has always been well-received, but the long months from start to finish forced a lot of my sculpture beyond most people’s art budget,” he adds. “As a result, I am now also creating some new, one-of-a-kind work in hydrocal plaster and garden burlap.”
Gragg says he likes “the more immediate-gratification approach. Size is not necessarily an issue. The texture combines soft and smooth with the random weave of the burlap. I usually add a skin of acrylic color or colors in a contemporary blend that adds a spirit the bronze just can’t muster. They’re a lot easier to collect and carry home from the gallery.”
Many of his creations are commissioned work. Included in this list is the Daniel Boone sculpture at the Kentucky National Guard post entrance in Frankfort. In Cincinnati at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, the number-two cast of Freedom is placed among their permanent collection, he says.
For Louisville’s Norton Women’s and Children hospital, he has created sculptures of a mother and baby (located in the labor and delivery department) and a set of baby hands located in the neonatal intensive care unit. At Louisville’s Cave Hill Cemetery, Gragg has sculpted many memorials including a group of flourishing doves, pet dogs and cats, and a life-sized “Dancing Couple” commemorating a couple’s first date.
For more personal gardens, he has fashioned butterflies, doves and large garden bells with leaves and flowers gracing the bells’ contours. Such art “provides a great garden focal point with a few chimes softly enhancing the moment as they catch the breeze,” he says.
At the South Central Kentucky Cultural Center in Glasgow, Kentucky, Gragg created a half life-sized sculpture of his wife’s father, representing Kentucky farmers. He said his wife, Mary, grew up on a small farm in Green County, Kentucky, while he grew up in the city. He spent weekends and every summer on his families’ farms in Fayette and Bourbon counties.
The couple has been married for what Gragg labeled “45 fun years. We met at a mutual friend’s engagement party.” Mary paid him 25 cents to “protect” her that evening after a friend of Gragg’s declared, “She’s mine, Wyatt – I saw her first!”
Mary attended Midway University, and graduated with an associate’s degree in nursing and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Bellarmine University. She spent her nursing career as a registered nurse in surgery at Methodist Evangelical Hospital (later Norton Healthcare Pavilion) as a nurse manager until she retired in 2018.
The couple shares a passion for motorcycles, and have cruised the Kentucky and southern Indiana back roads in their Boxster, a small Porsche roadster. Over the years they have enjoyed riding the open roads on several Harley-Davidson motorcycles they’ve owned, logging over 50,000 miles.
Gragg was even able to incorporate his love for motorcycles into one of his sculptures. He fully understood the love for the bike that his subject matter, Dr. E. Bruce Heilman, had, because he had it too.
Gragg sculpted the “Road Warrior” statue that stands on the campus of the Oldham County History Center in La Grange. It depicts a life-sized image of Heilman, a well-loved Oldham County World War II vet. Heilman is riding his Harley, on which he logged over 200,000 miles.
Heilman’s motorcycle was a special Marine issue, having the Marine insignia on the side that was issued only to veterans by the Harley-Davidson corporation. The sculpture was designed so that visitors can hop on and take a ride with Heilman.
Currently he is working with Falls Art Foundry on two new unique commissions. Gragg says one is of a classical female figure for the Louisville Woman’s Club formal garden. “The life-size figure will be nestled amongst the beautiful landscaping on a large granite base as she interacts with a pair of small songbirds,” he says.
This bronze will replace a smaller statue that was stolen and never recovered. He says this piece will be very securely anchored because “she is not leaving the garden without the 900-pound granite base!”
The second piece is still making its way through the long foundry process and is affectionately referred to as “Chlorine.” “She is destined to be poolside at the home of a Louisville plastic surgeon,” he says.
This artwork depicts a young lady resting on a forest tree stump while playfully holding a small bird. “They are being watched by a chipmunk, which appears to call the tree stump home,” Gragg says. “Her bare feet and grin should be a beautiful patio focal point year-round.”
The Graggs call the Estates of Glen Oaks, near Prospect, home. “We have some fantastic neighbors,” Gragg says. “We are fortunate to have a yard large enough for one of Mary’s passions, her huge annual vegetable garden.”
The garden usually yields an abundance of squash, zucchini, cucumbers, green beans, tomatoes and onions, which Mary uses to devise new recipes Gragg says are “out of this world.” In addition to gardening, she enjoys genealogy, cross-stitching and cooking. “Her country heritage shows up in the kitchen, so there is always enough on the table in case anyone drops by,” he says.
“There’s always a way to accomplish the task,” Gragg adds. “There’s always a way to create art, and there’s always a way to get from point A to point B without an interstate.”
