Freedom is the name of Terri Malec’s national award-winning sculpture of a wild mustang.

Wallowa County sculptor and artist Terri Malec’s love of horses led, in late March, to The Founders Award for Classical depiction of a horse and The Sam Savitt Award, at the national juried equine show “American Academy of Equine Arts, in Aiken, South Carolina.

Malec’s award-winning bronze, “Freedom” is an approximately 18” tall likeness of a rearing wild mustang, one of her favorite subjects. It was cast by Valley Bronze. The award considerations included correct equine anatomy and spirit—fields in which Malec has lots of experience.

Malec grew up in Virginia’s horse country where she trained horses and learned dressage. Over the years, she’s owned and trained many equines, including Icelandics and Morgans. Today her stable includes two Welsh ponies and a Morgan mare from local breeder Cindy Erikson.

Malec, a long-time local artist in both sculpture and painting, founded the first gallery in Joseph in 1979, where she featured her own paintings. She learned sculpture from David Manuel, she said. She has been a member of the Society of Animal Artists and in addition to horses, Malec also paints and sculpts wildlife and canine subjects.

Her equine sculpting class at the Josephy Center was well received, several years ago, as students learned to create a clay sculpture of a horse from the inside out. Freedom was used as the inspiration.

“Freedom” can be seen and is available online through her website www.marysfieldstudio.com which is named after a favorite field below the house where she grew up. Her works are also available on Facebook- Edge of the Wilderness Gallery/Studio