Dave McGary always worked from the inside out. He only sat down to create a sculpture after countless hours of research. In most cases, that meant traveling to distant corners of the lovely plains with tribal elders and historians, and visiting with the kinfolk of the subject. Only when he felt like he had a true sense of the person he was about to sculpt – a connection to that inner self – did his studio work begin.His first step was to build an armature, which he considered a three dimensional sketch. Using steel wire, he would craft a framework that was in reality a skeleton, the internal structure that supported everything. Even though no one would see these wire bones, McGary worked diligently to get them just right. This was where the posture and attitude, much of the spirit of the piece would be conveyed. From Beginning to Bronze.