WHEN HEATHER JOHNSON BEARY made her first clay turtle in the second grade, she thought by the joy it gave her that she’d found her path. Overhearing her teacher tell her parents, “She has an aptitude for art,” gave her the confidence to keep going. “I just remembered being an artist was my first job. I never really thought of it like that, but I sold my first drawing when I was 13. Schoolmates actually paid me to make paintings and sculptures for them, and at my first ‘real job’ at a movie theater the owners asked me to paint a mural on the wall while the movie was playing,” recounted Heather.
Bringing with her the peace and wonder of the cypress swamps and palmetto forests of Florida, where she grew up, Beary got her BA from the University of Toledo, where she specialized in bronze sculpture and anatomical drawing. In the tradition of great masters, she enrolled in premedical classes and studied human dissections at the Medical College of Ohio to increase her understanding of the human form.
From there she headed to Prescott, where she fell in love with all things Southwest, the flora, fauna and native and pioneer influences, and continues to be inspired by the rugged freedom and wild nature the area provides.
When she first arrived she took a job at the Prescott Resort, where she remembers meeting Jerri Wagner (Prescott’s first woman mayor and founder of the Prescott Area Art Trust in 1983), who oversaw the facility’s art gallery. Heather shyly told her, “I’m an artist,” and Jerri’s response was encouraging, even though Heather wasn’t quite sure where she would take it next. “I knew I wanted to create public art pieces, and the more I learned about Sharlot Hall, I came to love her and all she had accomplished in her lifetime. I wrote my first proposal to sculpt her over 25 years ago.”
Sharlot’s beginning
Heather was working in a bronze foundry when she met with Sandy Lynch, Curator of Anthropology at the Sharlot Hall Museum. Sandy got her a meeting with Director Richard Sims to discuss the sculpture idea. “It was my first proposal, and it was kind of scary, but I presented my vision and ideas on how to raise the money. Unfortunately it didn’t move forward at that time, and now I’m glad that it didn’t because I gained experience with other pieces I did.”
Sandy Lynch went on to champion the idea, and her partner George Fuller, the museum’s Curator of Exhibits, kept the hope alive. He also purchased several small pieces by Heather as gifts for Sandy. After Sandy passed away in 2023 George wanted to do something special for her memory, and commissioned the statue. Following a thousand hours of sculpting and months of foundry work, Heather’s vision of Sharlot Hall was unveiled on May 2 this year in the museum’s rose garden, to the delight of the over 300 attendees.
If you haven’t had the distinct pleasure of seeing the beautifully crafted, larger-than-life Sharlot, make time for a visit. She imparts an aura of benevolence, vision and grace, and adds so much to the history of Prescott and the museum grounds.
Lizards and more
Years before Sharlot, Heather’s first large public art piece developed from a showing at a natural-history gallery in Sedona. A few weeks later another artist asked permission to pass her name to the Department of the Interior, which was looking for a large piece for Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. “I was commissioned by the Department of the Interior to create Monumental Collared Lizard in 2002, completed in 2004. I worked with the state herpetologist, George Oliver, to get the details correct, but he had not seen my rendering until the unveiling, when he said, ‘I didn’t know it was going to be so lifelike. It’s beautiful!’
Heather’s Collared Lizard was her first large public piece. “Heather’s bronze sculpture of the ‘super-sized’ collared lizard in front of our Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is our key icon. People love the sculpture, taking it with them in photographs and memories, and hopefully encouraging them to learn more, appreciate and protect our wildlife and landscapes,” wrote Carolyn Shelton, the monument’s assistant manager for science and visitor services.
Heather’s contributions to Prescott are iconic, including Library Lizard, the Highlands Center’s Equipoise, and the Heritage Park Collared Lizard. “I have so many people that send me pictures of their children either on the library lizard or the lizard at the zoo and they’re smiling, and I hope that someday that will translate to them appreciating art,” said Heather. Completed in 2008, Library Lizard came about as the Prescott Public Library was planning an expansion, including a welcoming piece that children could climb and sit on. The lizard has a mischievous personality, welcoming visitors to the library as he sits and enjoys his books.
Giant Collared Lizard at the Heritage Park Zoological Sanctuary was completed in 2006, and is another large piece for kids to climb on and enjoy while at the zoo, with many a photo taken astride him.
In 2007 the Highlands Center’s Equipoise (meaning a complex entity constructed of many parts) took its place as the primary monumental sculpture for the new 84-acre campus. “The idea was to help inspire and educate the curious observer about nature. That idea, and the sculpture itself, incorporates many important aspects of nature and education essential to the HCNH mission, not the least of which is their special hands-on method of teaching about science and the natural world. It invites people to touch it, to feel it, to walk around it, to investigate all its parts, then wonder about it. Children discover hidden insects among the spiraling manzanita branches, they find the four cardinal points at its base, and Planet Earth held gently in the center of the piece. Through the playful composition of plants and animals of the Central Arizona Highlands represented in this sculpture, visitors can learn about the interconnectedness, balance and dynamism of ecological systems, and relationships between the living and nonliving worlds.” For details on the piece and its elements, visit the Highlands Center website.
Many collectors both locally and internationally have acquired Heather’s work, including Toni Tennille, Richard Branson and Bahrain’s head of state. Other monumental pieces include The Gift, commissioned in 2011 by the Salvation Army and installed in its Ray Kroc Center in Phoenix. There’s also a gathering of six life-sized reptiles in the international terminal at Sky Harbor Airport.
“I feel lucky I get to do what I love best for a living. I’m probably obsessed with my work, and don’t pull away from it very often. My husband, local musician and woodworker Pat Beary, built a 400-square-foot art studio with a 15-foot vaulted ceiling that I love to work in. When I do occasionally pull away, I love to garden, cook and walk my dog Jasper,” Heather adds.
Some of Heather’s tabletop work is featured at the Black Arrow Gallery in Prescott, and new ideas for monumental works are to come. Visit HJohnsonBronze.com for images and more information on her work.
