Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1942-10-09
MONTANA ARTIST
PAINTS INDIANS
AND ENJOYS JOB
n. MARDSEN HAZARD SCULPTOR
TURNED PAINTER, is NOW
DOING WORK HE LOVES

fist. is sculptor turned painter.
After many years of success in the
sculpturing medium in the east, where
many wealthy patrons have bought
his bronze castings-and success, too,
in the field of interior architecture,
where he sold designs for yachts and
mansion interiors as well as sets" for
the movies-he has turned to canvas
and oils.
All he wants to paint is Indians
the plains Indians who we're the
leaders of the proud people who once
not only roamed but owned this part
of the country.
In doing this he believes that at
last-after years OF weary struggle and
searching-he has found his true ar
tistic love, the form of art and the art
subject in which he can best express
himself.
Explaining his preference for paint
ing over sculpture, Hazard says. 1t
is something that is hard to explain,
since it consists largely Of a feeling on
my part of greater satisfaction when
working with oil and canvas
Painting Is Organic
However, perhaps this will help to
explain. Painting is organic-a living,
growing kind of work. Once piece
of sculpture is complete, it is finished;
there is nothing more you can do
about it. long time after an artist
has decided he has finished a piece of
painting, he can return to the canvas
and rework it, hope to better it. In
other words, a painter can keep on
struggling to express himself until all
that he feels about his subject at last
grows into the canvas"
The oils of Indians which he hung
in his first exhibit at the Northern
hotel at Billings are startlingly good.
Hazard has something" as the
vernacular goes. He has an under
standing-a feeling Of the plains In
dams as they once were-and a
technique at catching that under
standing and feeling on canvas
Hazard is not interested in the
spectacular. Obviously he rather
wants to catch and crystalize the
characterize feelings, thoughts,
traditions and customs of the In
dams as they once were-what one
might call the humannesS of them in
their own civilization, mysticism and
culture.
student of the American Indian, par
ticularly of the Sioux and other
western plains tribes. While he lived
in New York-2O dull and tedious
years. he said-his studies took him to
the American Museum of Natural
History and to the American Indian
OHeye> foundation. He draws now
upon the learning gained then and up
st accnNiotiNYo yIi
Indians in the west, in his painting.
For L. years he has studied them and
listened to their legends.
AS he looks back on his life, Haz-
card says, it should be no surprise
that he has finally found himself
artistically with the Indians, for as
younster in North Dakota he became
fascinated by them and the fascina-
ton really never left.
Born In North Dakota
Hazard was born in Grafton, N.
D., Sept. "a. 1900. His first close as
ISOLATION with Indians came when ne
was 7 years old. The family moved TO
Devils Lake, which at that time was
a salten lake big enough to support
a steamship business. Immediately ne
began to play with Indian boys from
nearby Fort Totten lin the weird
black oaks country" These Indian boys
were Sioux Hazard remembers that
while they were good companions,
they hated the water; when he wanted
a swimming companion, he had to
turn to the one Chippewa boy in the
settlement whose family had migrated
from Canada.
Hazard recalls trying even then to
draw pictures of his Indian pals
He and his sister, Leta, who later also
became an artist, spent most of their
time trying to draw pictures.
When Hazard was in his freshman
year at the Grafton high school, his
father, j. H. Hazard local agent for
the ]. I. Case Co., moved to Billings
to enter the insurance business.
Young Hazard entered the Billings
Polytechnic institute.
After he had been at Poly about
three years, his mother decided that
something must be done to give Harry
and Leta a chance at the art educa-
ton they both coveted. She gathered
up the two children and took them to
New York City.
Art For A Living
After a family conference, it was
decided that Harry should go IN Tor
some form of art education that
would later assure him a living. He
entered the New York School of Fine
and Applied Arts to study interior
architecture and design.
In the evenings he satisfied his
yearning for the fine arts by studying
at Cooper Union and the Art Students
league His third year in New York
he won a three-year scholarship to
study in Paris.
The three years in Paris were
largely a repetition Of the New York
experience, so far as routine was con-
cerned days spent in studying interior
architecture and design, evenings
spent with artists and in the study Of
fine arts.
Hazard returned from Paris to
New York where he became associat-
ed with the famous art director and
designer, Joseph Urban. Among other
things at that time, Urban was art
director for the Cosmopolitan motion
uict1lre compenv Hazard DESIGNED