About Elie Hazak:

Elie Hazak Elie Hazak is an unlikely looking Western artist. When you see his bronze sculptures depicting vivid scenes of Indians, cowboys and mountain men, you imagine their creator to be the strong silent Gary Cooper-type. The kind whose mouth forms a perfectly straight line opening only at the corner to say "yup" or "nope." The kind whose long, lean frame fits into a saddle as if he were born in it. But Hazak, who works in a studio in his home, doesn't look like an Old West character. He prefers to wear shorts and a T-shirt rather than denims. After a serious riding accident, he prefers to sculpt horses, not sit on them. With his round jovial face and short stocky frame, he doesn't wear a cowboy hat as much as it wears him. And Hazak knows it. "Just call me Jewish cowboy from Israel," he says with a laugh. Eliee feels his biggest gift is his imagination. "Bronze is cold metal," he says. "When you think of bronze, you think of cold and heaviness. I like to bring in motion, and put emotion into the faces of both men and animals. I like to give human feelings to animals." Hazak succeeds with his goal. His bronzes, some of which weigh up to 200 pounds, practically surge with life, capturing moments of dramatic intensity. Why would an artist raised in Israel, halfway around the world from the United States, become so captivated with the Old West? As Hazak explained, the West is a state of mind that is universally appealing.