Oklahoma artists Mike Larsen and Harold T. Holden share a friendship that transcends death
Although they live just a few miles from Stillwater and Oklahoma State University, Mike and Martha Larsen have breakfast with "Boomer" every day at their Perkins home.
It isn't a Bedlam thing, unless you go all the way back to the bedlam of the 1893 Cherokee Strip Land Run that acclaimed cowboy artist Harold T. Holden depicted in his Enid monument of a racing horse and rider, which he titled "Boomer."
"H gave Mike one of the smaller 'Boomer' bronzes ... and 'Boomer' lives in our kitchen," Martha Larsen said. "We won't get to see H this side of Jesus again, but we still get to see (his wife) Edna Mae, which is wonderful. And as a result of our friendship, we get to have breakfast with 'Boomer' every morning."
Before Holden — known affectionately as "H" — died Dec. 6, 2023, at the age of 83, he, his wife and the Larsens enjoyed a long friendship going back at least a dozen years.
"H was my best friend — and remains so. ... I have never known anybody like H, and our relationship, I think, was very special. It was to me, obviously, and it's something that I will always remember and hold close to my heart," said Mike Larsen, an acclaimed Chickasaw artist.
Although Holden died a month before he and Larsen planned to open the exhibition "Cowboys and Indians" at JRB Art at the Elms gallery in Oklahoma City's Paseo Arts District, his widow and the Larsens decided to go on with the show, which is on view through Feb. 29.
"It was already in the works — they already did a lot of the preliminary work — and so it didn't really take long to decide to go ahead and do it," said Edna Mae Holden. "I think it all worked out well, and I'm glad we went ahead with it — and that Mike wanted to go ahead with it."
When can people attend artist talks for 'Cowboys and Indians?'
With the exhibit, Mike Larsen will give an artist demonstration and talk from 2 to 4 p.m. Feb. 10 at the OKC gallery.
Instead of Holden's planned artist talk, Edna Mae and gallery owner Joy Reed Belt will have a discussion in the gallery at 2 p.m. Feb. 24.
"Mike's wife is the one that contacted me to tell me H had died, and she said, 'We're devastated,' because he was Mike's best friend. I said, 'Should we cancel the show?' Martha said, 'Knowing H, I bet Edna Mae will want it to keep going — and we're certainly in.' Then, in a few hours, I heard from Edna ... and I said, 'What do you want to do about the show?' And she said, 'We go forward,'" Belt recalled.
"I think it's wonderful ... and the show is so good."
How does 'Cowboys and Indians' showcase the work of acclaimed Oklahoma artists?
Over more than four decades, Holden and Larsen each carved out celebrated careers as Oklahoma artists, with Holden becoming particularly renowned for crafting Western sculptures with startling realism and Larsen becoming especially acclaimed for painting vivid expressionist portraits of Native Americans.
The OKC exhibition features an array of the works the Oklahoma Hall of Fame inductees are best known for, along with a selection of Holden's paintings and drawings and a few of Larsen's bronze sculptures.
"Their work is so different, but it seems complementary in a way," Edna Mae said.
The two artists previously joined forces in 2017 for a similar show, also called "Cowboys and Indians," at the hall of fame's Gaylord-Pickens Museum. In addition, the JRB exhibit includes contemporary Western works by another Oklahoma artist, Jack Fowler, who has several of his absurdist acrylic landscapes — some in lively colors and others in striking black and white — in the show.
An OKC painter, Fowler said he talked to Belt last year about doing an exhibit at her gallery, and she told him she only had two spots left on her calendar. When she mentioned one was with Larsen, he immediately said, "I want that one" — and then found out Holden also was to be featured.
"Those are the two most prestigious people I've had the honor to show with," Fowler said. "(At the opening) I got to meet Mike and his wife and daughter and Harold's wife. ... I got a chance to tell them how much I admired their work and how thrilled I was to be a part of the show. And they were all very gracious. I just felt like a kid at the grownups' table a little bit — and it was awesome."
How is Harold T. Holden's legacy continuing after his death?
The "Cowboys and Indians" show isn't the only way that Holden's artistic legacy is continuing after his death.
When he died, Holden was working on the 25th large-scale monument of his long career: A statue of one of his boyhood heroes, legendary cowboy Frank Eaton, the inspiration for OSU's Pistol Pete mascot. His widow said two of her husband's friends and fellow Oklahoma artists — Paul Moore and John Rule — have been coming to his studio near Kremlin to handle the finishing touches.
"It's really one that he's wanted to do his whole career, and he had it almost done. So, they're using H's tools, and they're using his methods. It's odd to have somebody else in his studio, but they're really following his lead in finishing it up. So, it really will be his piece ... and it looks really good," Edna Mae said.
"They're getting close. ... We're probably within a couple of weeks of that being done. Then, the mold maker will come and cut it apart to make the mold, take it to the foundry, and then it'll be cast. So, it will probably be dedicated sometime in summer or early fall at OSU."
After receiving OSU's Distinguished Alumni Award in 2005, Holden also was inducted posthumously into the OSU Alumni Association’s Hall of Fame on Feb. 2.
"He knew he was going to be inducted ... so I made about three minutes worth of remarks that he and I talked about," Edna Mae said. "It was very bittersweet ... but it was a just a great evening. There was a whole lot of support for us and love for him in that room."
She said she felt a similar outpouring of love and support at the opening for "Cowboys and Indians," especially since she and her husband were so close to the Larsens, sharing a bond that transcended even their artistic connections.
"I think it started because we have so much in common, with them being the artists and Edna Mae and I being their support staff. But then it just became these good old guys ... and they just shared so much of growing up in Oklahoma at a specific time," Martha Larsen said.
"We are both Oklahoma boys, and we both greatly love this state and the people here," Mike Larsen added. "H was a working cowboy and rodeo guy for many, many years. That was something I never got to really participate in, not because I didn't want to, I just never really had the opportunity. But the cowboy life is something that H lived, and to a degree, so do Martha and I. It is our way of life."
'COWBOYS AND INDIANS'
Featuring: Works by Oklahoma artists Mike Larsen, the late Harold T. Holden and Jack Fowler.
When: Through Feb. 29.
Where: JRB Art at the Elms, 2810 N Walker.
Mike Larsen art demonstration: 2 p.m. Feb. 10.
Discussion with Edna Mae Holden: 2 p.m. Feb. 24.
Information: https://www.facebook.com/jrbartgallery.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: 'Cowboys and Indians' showcases Mike Larsen and late Harold T. Holden
