"Lyle recently completed a sculpture called "Dolly" the cow. It was a commissioned work for the City of Westminster in Colorado and is displayed in Westminster at 72nd & Sheridan. Just a few facts about the cow piece: it is 5 feet tall and 8 feet long; it weighs 800 lbs.; there are almost 500 pieces in this cow and includes farm tools and and other metal scraps; the cowbell is a real cowbell; the tail is made from drill bits; and the teets are made from spark plugs. Many of Lyle's sculptures are recycling at it's best.
Wearing farmer's overalls, a cap and a beatific smile, Lyle Nichols could easily pass for a fruit grower in the small agricultural community of Palisade near Grand Junction, Colorado. Only when you visit his home, a converted barn surrounded by an assortment of glass, steel and stone lawn sculptures, do you catch a glimpse of this unpretentious artist, who can turn chunks of sandstone and rusted metal into unusual and often humorous works of art. Several of Nichols' large sculptures can be seen in downtown Grand Junction's "Art on the Corner" project, while a recent composition, Rusty's Dream, brightens State Highway 6 near Palisades National Bank. The stone-and-metal construction features a dog made of surplus bolts standing on his hind legs, his front paws resting on a granite pedestal containing ten red fire hydrants.
Nichols' smaller pieces, such as the carved bowl and spoon that appeared on a cover of Architectural Digest in 1990, as well as in a recent issue, are be-coming sought-after home accents. Several of his "match-strikers''—granite bowls with a rough inner surface for lighting matches, adorn Cher's Aspen home. Arnold Schwarzenegger also owns one. "He smokes cigars, so he has one in his office," Nichols says. A self-taught artist who grew up in Colorado's Grand Valley, Nichols takes great pleasure in using local materials. He shaped an enormous piece of granite from the Uncompahgre into a countertop for Carlson's Vineyard, in Palisade. He recently recycled farm equipment into a life-size of a horse for a Palisade family... Nichols marketing strategies are as low-key as the man himself. "I let one of my neighbor kids sell peaches in my yard this year. A couple stopped and bought $3 worth of peaches and a $6,000 yard sculpture."" (from (
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