An Abstract Play of Acrylic Inspires an Artist to Create an Imaginative Saddle
Maeve Eichelberger transcends the ordinary to craft sculptures of illusion and depth.
Poncho MAEVE EICHELBERGER, 46 x 26 x 22 inches Hand-etched and -formed Plexiglass, sorrelsky.com maeveeichelberger.com
THE ARTIST – Maeve Eichelberger
INSPIRED BY THE WEST – “I lived in Denver until I was about 7 years old, and then my family moved to Larkspur, Colorado. We had a little homestead kind of ranch. And I got into saddles because we had a tack room full of old saddles my father had been collecting for years. The textures and colors and patterns of the Western lifestyle have always had a huge impact on me.”
AN ARTFUL ACCIDENT – “One day, I left a piece of acrylic in the sun and it warped. So, I just started really experimenting with heating, and I was like: ‘I wonder if I could do a saddle?’”
INTO SCULPTURE – “I made my own abstraction of a saddle pattern out of paper, and I went from there—starting with paper collage and then printing my imagery directly onto the acrylic, and then evolving into this sculptural collage. The etchings are my own, made-up kind of designs, but they’re all inspired by saddles: past saddles, and historic saddles with traditional leather tooling. I hope for that illusion effect, somewhat like magic, where you have to do a double-take. ‘Wait, is that glass? What material is this?’ It’s that element of surprise.”
SADDLE CONNECTIONS – “I’d like to think of myself as honoring the West and the Western lifestyle. A saddle is a mode of transportation, of connection, for people; movement from one place to the other, meeting others. I think I use that saddle as a connectedness, to link people to people, and people to animals, and how we move through this world.”
NEXT – Eichelberger’s work is in “Pop! Goes the West” in Cody, Wyoming’s Buffalo Bill Center of the West through January 25, 2026, and was also included in the Buffalo Bill Art Show & Sale.
