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BONNIE SHIELDS: A Legacy of Loving Longears

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By Meredith Hodges

“You have to be crazy to draw mules!” At least that was a popular opinion, but one Bonnie Shields chose to ignore. “I love mules. That’s why I draw ‘em.” It’s as simple as that. Born and raised in Southern Indiana, Bonnie wasn’t around mules until she moved to Tennessee in 1965. But, the meeting has proven to be remarkable. A longstanding member of the Cowboy Cartoonists Association, her wide variety of “mule art” can be viewed at numerous venues: mule and draft horse shows, Western arts and crafts shows, Western trade shows and on the internet at her website at www.Bonnieshields.com.  Her talents include drawing, painting and sculpture. She has done a wide variety from ink drawings to acrylic painting to bronze sculpture, from commissioned work to originals, all revering the mule. She has also written a multitude of articles for such publications as The Brayer, a bimonthly publication put out by the American Donkey & Mule Society, Mules and More Magazine, Western Mule Magazine and the Bishop Mule Days program.

Bonnie Shields has been my friend and illustrator for over forty years! I became a fan even before I met her when I bought one of her many mule-team portraits. I truly admired her attention to detail. Even animals are as different in their faces and bodies as we are, and she captures those details with artistic precision! Instantly, I became an avid and devoted fan of all things Bonnie Shields! I was completely thrilled when we actually encountered each other with this common bond at Bishop Mule Days in 1981! A happier, funnier, kinder person that anyone could ever meet…that was Bonnie Shields! Two women, intensively afflicted with terminal “Mule Fever,” THOSE were Bonnie Shields and Meredith Hodges! Our friendship was instant and has been a long-lasting journey, and a legacy of loving Longears!

Bonnie Shields’ art is diverse and completely enrapturing. In the numerous portraits she does, you can really tell just who you are looking at whether it is mules, other animals or human “characters!” Her love and attention to detail is in every piece of her art whatever the medium she chooses: illustrations, sculpture, water colors, acrylic paintings or pencil drawings. Her sculpture is always anatomically correct. I commissioned Bonnie to do two life-sized pieces of bronze sculpture for me. The first was of my Sire Supreme, Little Jack Horner, jumping over a four-foot brick wall. The piece was dubbed “A Leap of Faith” because he had to have faith in me and I had to have faith in him that a donkey could actually accomplish this daring feat. During JASPER CELEBRATION DAY in 2005, when we launched our Jasper The Mule children’s book series, this life-sized bronze was the first piece of life-sized sculpture to grace the grounds in the South Park of the LOVELAND LONGEARS MUSEUM & SCULPTURE PARK at the Lucky Three Ranch!

Bonnie’s second contribution to the LOVELAND LONGEARS MUSEUM & SCULPTURE PARK at Lucky Three Ranch, titled “Friends,” was a depiction of the three main characters in the Jasper the Mule children’s series: Kylie, Moxie and Jasper. This sculpture was strategically placed at the entrance to the North Barn where the Champion Mules of the Lucky Three Ranch were housed. The people on our tours are always captivated, and smile broadly, when they spot these animated characters exhibited in bronze! Bonnie was my illustrator for the Jasper the Mule series, so we both did a book signing tour together for the launch of the first book that included: Nashville, Dallas (Children’s Hospital and several TV & Radio appearances, and book signings), National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas and Los Angeles. Those were exciting times!

Bonnie’s sense of humor is unique and infectious! Mules and More Magazinepublished her stories, mostly involving mules and their appearance in history with their human counterparts. They were always lively and entertaining! What is certain to end in disaster, usually takes you on a long journey that ultimately results in compromise and wide grins. Of course, this is what living with Longears is all about. Either you have a good sense of humor and enjoy the ride, or you DON’T. If you don’t, the joke’s on you! With each individual mule owner, the stories are different, but our introductions to Longears are basically the same. Most humans are not always ready for the pranks of their mules and donkeys! This is the source of Bonnie’s amazing sense of humor with her numerous cartoons and whimsical paintings. Bonnie did a classic painting just for me titled, “I Don’t Know…Maybe I’m Overorganized!” She sure knows me well! Even her way of spelling words adds to the charm of her work. For instance, “sure,” she spells “shure!” My mother once told me I should help her with her spelling. I told her that even Bonnie’s spelling was unique about Bonnie! It is all about “Artistic License!” Then my mother asked if she ever got dressed up when she went OUT? I replied, “Of course! She wears her WHITE overalls for those kinds of events! She DID get some pretty snazzy BLACK overalls from the Draft Horse Club for ‘Black Tie’ events!”

Many of Bonnie’s humorous paintings are a mixture of adverse situations, general chaos and the humor that is found in lieu of anger in her Western montages. At a loss for words, there is nothing you can do but stare and then quietly giggle to yourself! Her rendition of Caboose, Kansas, titled “PEW,” is one of those that could engage you for HOURS! It is one of many works of art that we proudly display at the LOVELAND LONGEARS MUSEUM & SCULPTURE PARK at Lucky Three Ranch! As her biggest fan, my Bonnie Shields Gallery is quite extensive!

Bonnie’s art is diverse, widespread and is on display in a vast number of mediums. She has numerous ceramic statues, small bronzes, painted wooden statues and painted bronzes. During her career, she has attended a wide variety of Trade Shows across our country to display and sell T-shirts, greeting cards, calendars, jewelry, originals, prints and books that she has illustrated. Although Bonnie is now limiting attendance to only her favorite trade shows close to home, she is still getting requests to illustrate books and do interviews about her work. Bonnie has illustrated numerous books from a lot of different authors over her 50+ year career. Even the more serious books still have a “tinge” of humor and are certainly not without “character!” She and I have always been fans of author, Marguerite Henry (Misty of Chincoteague Treasury and much more). As a last request before she passed, Marguerite Henry asked Bonnie to illustrate her last book, Brown Sunshine of Sawdust Valley. This wonderful opportunity really touched Bonnie’s heart! This book will live on as one of her greatest accomplishments.

A lovely coffee table book, produced by Lucky Three Productions, L.L.C., is the most complete collection on record of Bonnie’s numerous artistic accomplishments. Longears lover or not, you will be amazed at the expansive diversity of her work and you will be amply entertained by her unmatched sense of humor! This is a MUST HAVE for any library!

It has been both an honor and a privilege to be asked to do this coffee table book all about my best friend, Bonnie Shields, the Tennessee Mule Artist! I am so glad that I kept everything she ever gave to me over the years and acquired such an extensive collection of her work. Doing this book to immortalize the career of my favorite half-assed artist was truly a labor of LOVE! She really DOES have a Legacy of Loving Longears!

To learn more about Meredith Hodges and her comprehensive all-breed equine training program, visit LuckyThreeRanch.com, MEREDITH HODGES PUBLIC FIGURE Facebook page, or call 1-800-816-7566. Check out her children’s website at JasperTheMule.com. Also, find Meredith on Pinterest, Instagram, MeWe, YouTube and Twitter.

Covered in the JASPER THE MULE children’s series of books and videos at www.luckythreeranchstore.com or at www.JasperTheMule.com.

© 2022, 2024 Lucky Three Ranch, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.

For more information about BONNIE SHIELDS new book, contact www.bonnieshields.com, (208) 263-6534 or www.luckythreeranchstore.com , (970 816-7566)

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From the SWISS BULLETIN: Project Mule Museum in Törbel

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By Mariette Herzig and Josefine Jacksch

Background

The idea of creating a mule museum is already old. When the association “Interessengemeinschaft für das Maultier” (IGM) was founded 30 years ago, some members wished to realize this idea at some point. They started to collect everything about the mule and they could present small exhibitions in other museums in Switzerland.

In 2007 the working group “Museum” was formed, in 2012 the association “Mule Museum Switzerland” was founded. Its task was to push the idea of a mule museum forward.

Already in 2012, a permanent exhibition was opened within the Open-Air Museum Ballenberg, which still exists today. It shows the history of the muleteers in Switzerland and a small sust (goods handling and resting place for the muleteers).

The search for a proper location and a building for an own mule museum was started. The association found a matching barn in Turtmann, a village in the Canton of Valais. It would be the ideal location, as this is where the large mule and horse markets in the canton of Valais used to be held, and it was the starting point of the mule trails into the southern side valleys and into Italy.  Unfortunately the project could not be started until now for various reasons. It has been put on hold until further notice.

When it was founded in 2017, the Swiss Mule Museum Foundation was given an old barn and stable in the Valais mountain village of Törbel by three families. The barn is already 350 years old and stands in the middle of the historic village center. It is registered in the Swiss list of villages worthy of national protection.

Törbel is a real stroke of luck. It was the village with the most mules at that time; it was famous for its muleteers, who showed good handling in dealing with the animals; the artist Helen Güdel still lives here, who wrote and illustrated the children’s book about the mule “Apollo”. She also has her small Hosennen-Museum; the people of Törbel donated many objects to the museum, which were formerly used in the work with the mules; the political community and the inhabitants are fully behind the project and help everywhere; with the association and open-air museum “Urchigs Terbil” we could agree that our museum would be integrated into its tour.

The foundation started looking for sponsors. It was not easy, but little by little money came in. Not only from Switzerland, but also from abroad: Loveland Longears Museum & Sculpture Park, Meredith Hodges.

The foundation engaged the young architect Thomas Juon and various craftsmen from Törbel and the surrounding area to renovate the barn. In October 2019 the renovation plans were drawn up and fortunately the craftsmen were able to start work despite the Corona crisis. Everyone was very motivated and did a good job.

Spring 2020

At the end of May we (Ursi, Elke, Josefine and Mariette, members of the Foundation) met for the first time with Beat Gugger in Törbel, the exhibition expert who had already helped with the exhibition at Ballenberg. He will again develop an exhibition concept.

On a short tour of the village, Beat was able to get a first impression of this mountain village high above the Visper valley. He was already impressed by the narrow road and the steep slopes just behind the crash barriers during the bus ride here. He immediately realized that up here one could only work with mules.

During a stopover in the barn, we got an idea of the progress of the renovation work and the future exhibition rooms. During the tours, the historical building (stable barn) will be shown on the one hand, and the mule and its history in the mountain region will be presented on the other.

Erich Wyss, village historian and one of the guides, accompanied us on to the baking house, where he explained how rye bread (a Valais specialty) was baked for the whole village at that time. We were all very impressed by Erich’s enormous knowledge.

In the late afternoon we had to go to the civil defense facility. The community had provided us with a room there as an intermediate depot. The numerous museum material, which had been stored in several barns until now, was collected by the volunteers Erich Wyss, Ludwig Petrig, Othmar Zuber and Thomas Juon and delivered to the intermediate depot. Elke, Ursi, Beat, Josefine and Mariette sorted the things according to origin. We were simply overwhelmed by the crowd that gathered there. Already that evening we started with the inventory. This meant that every single object had to be taken in hand, marked with an inventory number on a label, photographed and recorded in an Excel spreadsheet with details such as name, size, material, origin.

The next day, the entire Board of the Foundation met with the architect and the carpenter to inspect the construction site. The two explained the progress of the work and drew attention to new problem areas, and the next steps were discussed. In the evening, the Foundation Board discussed with the people from “Urchigs Terbil” what the future cooperation should look like in concrete terms.

The inventory could not be completed in full, so after two weeks Josefine and Mariette travelled to Törbel again for three days. In the meantime, the foundation has already received new objects from the village as gifts.

We were only allowed to use the intermediate depot for a few weeks. Therefore all material had to be transported to Turtmann, where the foundation rented an old airplane hangar as a depot. Many objects that were donated to the foundation by the IGM and private persons are already stored there.

Before the exhibition, the objects must be cleaned, greased and prepared for the return transport to Törbel. Especially the leather objects are in dire need of it, as they were exposed to dry air and dust in the barns for years. For this cleaning action we need support from volunteers and members of the IGM.

Summer 2020

An old building often turns out to be a bag of wonders, as is our barn. Instead of renewing only a small part of the brickwork as planned, the foundation had to be renewed on three sides. It also turned out that a lot of earth had been washed up in front of the entrance, so that the lower beams rotted and had to be replaced. The budget had to be adjusted several times, resulting in additional costs of several 10’000 Swiss francs. The major renovation work could now be completed. The wooden walls still had wide gaps, which we filled ourselves with a special stuffing tape.

Meanwhile Beat has created an exhibition concept. The upper floor, where the hay was once stored, will be the actual exhibition space. One part will tell the story of the mules in the Valais mountain villages, with Törbel as a representative. The other part shows the mules in use as an all-round means of transport in the surrounding valleys and the wider surroundings.

Autumn 2020

The inventory of all museum objects from Törbel and Turtmann is now complete. The data of the Excel spreadsheet have been fed into the database of the Association of Museums of Valais. Unfortunately, some errors occurred. So now all data sets have to be rechecked and then activated individually.

The opening ceremony, which was initially planned for the end of this October, has been postponed to spring 2021. The reason for this is, as is now the case everywhere, the coronavirus. But now the Foundation is giving us more time for the preparations.