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Home > Archive > Mar 6, 2008

Brothers and Pardners, No Lettin’ Up
By Cami Cox
Staff Writer
For two Southern Utah brothers, age is a minor detail.
“The closer we get to the grave, the faster we're gonna go – it's like a roll of toilet paper!” Jerry Anderson said.
So Jerry, 73, and his brother Ronny Anderson, 74, are striving to make the most of every moment as they head into the downward swing of life, and these two brothers have no intention of slowing down as long as there's work to be done and a way to have fun.
“Just 'cause you're old and getting into the old age is no sign of letting up,” Jerry Anderson said. “You gotta continue doing what you like to do so you can feel a bit of accomplishment at the end of each day.”
And with their homegrown, die-hard work ethics, both men continue to accomplish much in their lives, both in work and in play.
Raised in the small town of Manti, Utah, Jerry and Ronny were taught by their father to never be idlers, and he instilled in them the value of hard work.
“Daddy gave us the taste of honey early in our lives – he worked us,” Ronny Anderson said. “We worked. We don't remember when we didn't work.”
The brothers started out helping their dad drill water wells and mine uranium in their youth, and the two have been hard at work together ever since.
As adults, Jerry and Ronny spent many years in California, working in the ornamental iron and structural steel business. For about 28 years, they collaborated on such projects as creating spiral staircases, trellises, gates and signs.
Striving for perfection in everything they did, the brothers were very successful in their business, and in the 1980s were able to retire and return to Utah, both just in their 40s.
“We always had a dream of coming back to Utah,” Ronny said.
“We wanted to come back where we could get the feeling of the Old West,” Jerry added.
Jerry Anderson moved to Silver Reef, Utah, leaving structural creation behind to pursue artistic sculpting. He became a renowned local artist, and he still calls Silver Reef his home. His famous bronze sculptures can be seen at his studio and museum there, and his pieces are also on display at various public sites throughout Southern Utah and in galleries and private collections across the United States.
Ronny now resides with his wife in Washington City, in a 12,000 square-foot home he single-handedly built, right down to the smallest detail. He spends the majority of his time skydiving and restoring classic cars these days, and he and his brother get together regularly to play just as hard as they've always worked – riding Harleys and ATVs, piloting their private airplanes and boating on Lake Powell.
In addition to the fun they have together, Jerry and Ronny have rekindled their work partnership for a creative project of grand proportions.
For the past couple of years, the Anderson brothers have been collaborating on a 1/4-scale bronze sculpture of an authentic Wells Fargo stagecoach, endeavoring to “depict the West the way it was,” Jerry Anderson said. And when these men say authentic, they mean authentic.
“Through the mail, we got the original blueprints of the original Concord Stage in the Washington archives back there, so that we would have it right,” Jerry Anderson said. “It's gotta be perfect. For every hour that we spent in actual fabrication, we spent about 20 percent of it in research.”
Perfecting their piece right down to the minutest details, Jerry created horses to pull the stagecoach and people to sit inside it, and Ronny created “everything that doesn't have blood in it,” he said – including the coach itself and all the luggage and accessories. Though it was the first artistic piece the brothers had collaborated on, Jerry Anderson knew he'd picked the right partner for the job.
“Ronny and I can work together,” he said. “We don't have to tell each other anything – we just do it. He goes and does his thing, I do my thing, and we come together and put it together. It's like one man having four hands and two heads.”
Using clay, wood and copper, Ronny Anderson built the stagecoach in complete accordance with the blueprints, slaving over each detail to make sure it was perfectly accurate, and Jerry Anderson gave the same attention to detail to the horses and people in the piece.
“Each one of the horses has its own personality,” he said. “A lot of times when artists do a stagecoach or some other team, they'll take the same horse and cast it two or three times, but each one I tried to give a different personality so that people will see that.”
Each brother worked on his own – Jerry at his studio and Ronny at his home – before bringing their separate sculpture portions together. Molds were made of each finished piece and sent to a foundry to be cast in bronze. The pieces were then returned to the Anderson brothers, who welded them together to form the final sculpture; the piece in its entirety was then returned to the foundry once again for sandblasting and final finishing.
The stagecoach, stretching 15 feet in length, was completed 18 months from the time the brothers began working on it and is now for sale, priced at $240,000. In addition, 35 replicas of the piece will be made and sold in all, Jerry Anderson said. It is currently on display as part of the Sears Dixie Invitational Show and art sale at Dixie State College.
Amazed at the intricacy and authentic quality of the completed sculpture, many have remarked on the impressive talent of the two Anderson brothers, but Jerry Anderson said it is hard work, not raw talent, that has made the project a success.
“I personally don't think that God gives you a talent,” he said. “I think he lets you have one, but you've gotta run with it. And so what I'm sayin' is you can do anything you want if you have a desire.”
And these two Utah brothers continue to show the world that with their desires and drives for perfection, they can do anything they want – and they will.
To view “Wells Fargo Stagecoach,” by Ronny and Jerry Anderson, visit the Sears Art Museum Gallery inside the Dolores Doré Eccles Fine Arts Center at Dixie State College, 100 S. 700 East in St. George. The Sears Dixie Invitational show is free to the public and will be open through March 22. For more information, call 435-652-7905.

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