Sedona sculptor Susan Kliewer’s most visible works, which include the statue of Sedona Schnebly in front of the Sedona Public Library and representations of American Indians in Uptown, grew out of her childhood experiences of doing plein air paintings  of eucalyptus trees and farmhouses around El Toro, Calif., where her family had a ranch.

“A family friend who was our milkman’s wife was a good painter,” Kliewer said, explaining how her mother traded a coat for her first painting lessons. “I still have a painting I did when I  was 10 of this little lake at Irvine Park. She was a good teacher. I liked to draw from the time I was little. I won a contest at Laguna Art festival for kids. I [painted] some steeplechase horses jumping over a jump and it got a blue ribbon. I was excited. From then on, I wanted to be an artist when I grew up.”

Kliewer grew up with a fascination with the West rooted in such elements as a wall calendar of Frederic Remington prints, trips to Knott’s Berry Farm and a love of all things Roy Rogers, complete with a memorial horseback ride on Rogers’ trusty steed Trigger.

Kliewer’s cousins tried to save the family farm by attempting to put a riding and boarding stable on the property, but the income from those ventures and the orange orchard were not enough to support them, and Kliewer said the land eventually became an industrial park.

“We came [to Sedona] on a camping trip in about 1968 after reading about it in an issue of ‘Arizona Highways,’” Kliewer said. “It was really smoggy in California at that time. But Sedona was blue skies, red rocks and green trees. It was just amazing. We went back and put our house on the market, moved real quick … red rock fever like a lot of people get.”

After living in Sedona with her former husband for four years, the couple relocated to Marble Canyon to work at a trading post at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon “That was a real, real trading post and that was isolated,” Kliewer said. “But it was an adventure and I had three kids at the time up there. They had to go to school in Page, which is a long bus ride. Eventually my kids needed to get back to a regular life. But it was great because [my time there] inspired so many sculptures of the Navajo people.”

The couple relocated back to Sedona and divorced soon afterward.

“I just moved back from Marble Canyon and I got fired because I was too slow of [a] waitress. I was, oh my god, I was a single mom. I thought, what am I doing to do? I remembered one of my customers said he worked at the foundry,” Kliewer said.

She was hired at Buffalo Bronze Works and went on to work there for the next nine years, beginning her career as a sculptor as a result of the encouragement and help of her coworkers.

“The boss didn’t want to hire me and he never hired a woman,” Kliewer said. “I think I was the first woman to do any foundry work, at least in Arizona. He said, ‘We’ll give you a month,’ and they all helped me learn and I got to stay.” Most women who were sculpting at the time would use their initials on their work “because they didn’t want anybody to know you weren’t a man,” Kliewer said.

She feels that her past in ranching, horses and working at the trading post allows her learned experience to be seen.

“You can’t make yourself have a style, it just has to evolve,” Kliewer said. ”When  you’re painting, you’re doing an illusion of depth … I think painting is harder. Sculpting is more direct, and it’s — you’re hands-on. I love that part of it, [but] I don’t like clay under my fingernails all the time.”

Outside of Sedona, Kliewer’s work is on display as part of a number of annual shows at which she is a regular, including the Desert Caballeros Western Museum’s “Cowgirl Up” exhibition in Wickenburg and the Mountain Oyster Club in Tucson. Kliewer’s sculptures of Julian and Maria Martinez are also slated to be installed in one of Sedona’s roundabouts as part of the city’s Art in the Roundabouts program. The installation is awaiting approval from the Arizona Department of Transportation.

“They were innovators in their art, always searching for new techniques and designs,” Kliewer said of the Martinezes. “Together, they created masterpieces in clay, which are known throughout the world. Both were from a small place, not unlike Sedona in the early days. I feel Sedona is often overlooked as a world-class art destination with splendid artists, galleries, workshops, seminars and festivals. Sedona’s amazing scenery has inspired so many visitors to try their hand at their art form of choice. The thriving art community of Sedona was my inspiration for moving here in 1969 to pursue my art career. I am so grateful for the love and support this town has given me through the years.”