About Jeff Wolf:

The importance of persistence was instilled in Jeff at an early age. Jeff excelled in everything he put his mind to except school. Dyslexia—virtually undiscovered at the time—made reading nearly impossible. But that didn’t stop him from graduating from high school and attending three years of college on scholarships, and eventually teaching himself to read.
In high school, Jeff became a champion livestock judge and earned a silver medal at the National FFA convention, earning what was at the time the highest score ever recorded—98 out of 100—in the cattle grading division. He was also a Champion rodeo cowboy in High School, college, and a top competitor in professional rodeo, competed mainly in the bareback and bull riding events, as well as saddle bronc riding, team roping, and steer wrestling.
Through it all, art sustained him. From an early age he was compelled to create. “My gift chose me, I didn’t choose it,” he says. Jeff’s story as a sculptor started at age five when he received modeling clay for Christmas. His hands and heart went to work to mold into the clay the world he saw around him. An early work, a buffalo carved from a bar of soap, earned his first recognition when published in the pages of Western Horseman magazine.
With a constant driving force from within, combined with a wild imagination and insatiable desire to learn and discover, Jeff’s childhood and youth would inform his art. Along with his gift of creation he was given, in his words, “a great gift of upbringing.” Raised on a ranch in the mouth of Goshen Canyon, located south of Utah Lake, he had both the opportunities and responsibilities of any ranch kid. “I lived amongst the local wildlife, learned the art of handling cattle and horses, and had the fortunate opportunity to listen to the stories of real old-time cowboys, memories of which remain ingrained in my mind.” Adding to the fascination, Wolf says, was “spending most of my days, when not working on the ranch, running wild and free in the mountains, along the creeks, building hideouts, and watching wildlife or hunting.”
Even anatomy lessons were in the offing. Jeff’s grandfather owned and operated a small meat packing company, which gave Jeff the opportunity to see firsthand animal anatomy from the inside out. “Grandpa used to take the front or rear leg of a beef carcass and move it as if it were walking and explain how each muscle and every bone made that movement possible.” This led Jeff to study every movement a person or animal made, trying to decipher the bones and muscles working to make that movement possible. “I developed the habit when riding for cows to ride behind another rider and watch the horse and rider as they moved as one in harmony. A nice moving horse and a true horseman is a symphony of visual music.” This curiosity and fascination with anatomy turned Jeff into a recognized master of capturing motion in sculpture.