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Billy Goat Gruff

This Billy Goat has banished trolls and crossed bridges to appear at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia, today!

Billy Goat debuts with dozens of works in our traveling exhibition Contemporary Folk Art: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The show, featuring pieces by self-taught artists, will be on view in Atlanta through April 13, 2002.

How did the artist make this captivating creature? Navajo sculptor Ray Growler uses a chain saw and an axe to rough out the forms of sheep and goats, then covers them with home-cured pelts and adds horns to give them a realistic appearance. The expressive face of Billy Goat reflects Growler's appreciation for the animal's character.

Pictured: Ray Growler, born 1965, Billy Goat, about 1990, mixed media: carved wood with horns, wool, hide, and plastic, 25 1/2 x 28 1/2 x 12 1/2 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Chuck and Jan Rosenak and museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment.