Born in San Diego, California, on the day of the 75th running of the Kentucky Derby, Deborah Butterfield credits this event as determining her career as a modernist sculptor of horses.

Her work is a combination of abstraction and reality. She uses found objects*, related to both horses and the discards of modern society, and applies these symbolic objects to armaments that are realistic shapes of horses' bodies. The overall effect is of a large, strong, loveable animal, gentle and calm, and it is obvious from the gentle personality conveyed by the objects that she has a strong affinity and understanding of her subjects.

Butterfield received a Master of Fine Arts Degree from the University of California ...