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A
broken heart no longer; baby gets heart transplant
Dundee fires police chief
DLCD returns golf course for more work
Scientists present case for fish deformity
findings
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Another rodeo in the bag |
Family values, artwork and athletic ability is jut a
part of the 69th-annual St. Paul Rodeo |
By Schellene
Clendenin, Newberg Graphic reporter
E-mail Andrea at aolson@eaglenewspapers.com
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ST. PAUL — His face was wear worn, much like the old hat settled on
the top of his head as if it had become a part of him. His hands,
one holding a half-finished cigarette, are work roughened. The
checked shirt, faded from many washings, was rolled up at the
sleeves.
Details made all the difference.
The image looked like a photograph until one got right up on it and
can see the lines from the pencils that have completed the sketch.
And that’s how Kim Ragsdale likes it.
Ragsdale, an artist from Trail, near Crater Lake, and first in show
of the Wild West Art Show at the St. Paul Rodeo, called her work
“ultra-realism.”
She said her work has centered around commissioned portraits for
the last three decades, but she prefers to draw people she knows,
people with character.
“Pencil is more personal, more intimately involved with the
creation of individual likenesses than some other mediums,” she
said. “My goal is to portray my subject accurately and interestingly
and with a breath of life.”
Ragsdale uses 19 different types of pencil, from soft to hard, to
create the subtle shading in the artwork.
 She portrays mostly
cowboys and ranch hands in her artwork — some working, others
relaxing.
The art show was just one of the events featured at the 69th-annual
St. Paul Rodeo, held July 1-4 and attracting thousands of
participants and revelers to the town of less than 350 people.
Near the artists’ tent cowboys ruled. From young competitors to
retired bull riders the attire included worn jeans and big belt
buckles, straw hats and heavily decorated chaps, spurs, dusty boots
and crisp button-up shirts. Young and old, they wandered through the
crush, often shaking hands and offering a bit of encouragement.
David Gaillard from Canby has been part of the St. Paul rodeo for
five years. Gaillard said he brings some of the small bulls ridden
by kids in the junior bullriding event. In addition, he and John
Boudreaux, who’s son Jake Boudreaux competed in junior bull riding,
travel with the bulls and eight aspiring bull-riders to rodeos to
help the youngsters learn the ropes, so to speak.
“I rode myself for about 13 years,” Gaillard said, adding that when
he broke his leg riding a bull at 36, he figured it was time to
quit.
As a chute opens nearby, everyone on the platform behind it
concentrates on the rider. The bull rushes from the small enclosure,
back bowed high, kicking its rear legs up, twisting and trying to
get the man clinging to its back off as quickly as possible.
Dust and clumps of dirt fly through the air as the cowboy’s body is
flung from side-to-side, back and forth like a rag doll, one hand
flipping up and down with the rhythm of the bull’s movements.
Rawley Koch, 3, held aloft by dad Todd Koch, watches
with wide eyes, even though this is not Rawley’s first rodeo, Todd
said. Todd, a bareback rider from St. Paul, said due to an elbow
injury this is the first time in 15 years he hasn’t been on a
bucking horse at the St. Paul rodeo.
An angry bull, rubbing and kicking at the rails surrounding him,
makes the platform vibrate. Its violent movements don’t seem to
phase Clayton Hanson, 10. Clayton, from Payette, Idaho, quickly rubs
his glove over a bull rope coated with rosin.
A competitor since he was 4, Clayton said the action makes the
glove sticky and allows him to cling to the rope on the bull.
Clayton can’t stand still as he watches the events unfold around
him, bouncing on the balls of his feet, throwing one hand in the air
and pantomiming riding a bull or just dancing to the music.
His twin brother Chase Hanson, 10, seems quieter, but as open to
talking about the rodeo as Clayton.
“I like it, it’s fun,” Chase said. “It couldn’t get any better.” He
said both his dad and grandfather rode bulls when they were younger.
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From
July 7,
2004, Newberg Graphic
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