In team roping, “the face” can only happen when the header and the heeler have each done their work. Both having caught, they maneuver at the end of ropes taught with potential energy to turn toward each other—the only way to complete their run. Done well, the face can be a signal of a partnership set for success.
When Fred Fellows and Deborah Copenhaver married, they held between them their lives as professional artists, parents, and the rodeo roots that shaped them. And in the moments—or decades (what is time, really)—since, they’ve crafted works whose elements also face: On one end of the line, an accurate representation of the subject and, on the other, the viewer’s dream of witnessing the art in the moment the artist captured; then, between them, the known and unknown truths that are paramount to authentic and great works.
Any artist worthy of the name should express all the truth of nature, not only the exterior truth, but also, and above all, the inner truth.
AUGUSTE RODIN (SCULPTOR, 1840-1917)
Fred Fellows was born in Ponca City, Oklahoma, in 1934. His family moved to California following the Dust Bowl years, but not before the Osage and prairie cultures—including a familial history with the 101 Ranch—had made their mark. By his teen years, Fred caught the roping bug.
“I started team roping in high school,” said the now 89-year-old. “I worked in a saddle shop for a
