The artist who carved Niwot's tree sculptures passes away

Admirers left flowers, notes and appreciative comments on social media for the artist who brought Native American images to life from the stumps of massive willow trees along Niwot Road. Artist Eddie Running Wolf died Aug. 5 at age 62.

"He put his heart and soul into that project," said his sister Margie Albert. "He knew all the history of what he was putting in there. And knew it as if it was his own history, as if he was that Indian warrior. He put himself into it."

Starting in 2007, Running Wolf's imagination and steady hands brought forth Eagle Catcher, Spear Lodge Man and Cheyenne Holy Man. Running Wolf often worked on a scaffold, wielding chainsaws and chisels. "I'm just doing my job like a carpenter or plumber or the guy making pizza," Running Wolf told the Left Hand Valley Courier in 2009.

He said that cars would crawl by while he was working and people would come up and chat. "I kind of like getting to talk to people when they stop by," he said at the time. His sister would also come to watch him create. He wasn't always there, so they started communicating by hiding notes for each other under the scaffolding.

Albert said her brother was an introvert, but the tree carving project brought out a different side of him. "He kind of came out of his shell with those projects. It helped him to grow as a human being," she said.

The project was envisioned in 2005 when Boulder County determined that the willow trees were dying and needed to be removed. A group of Niwot residents saw an opportunity to turn the stumps into art, imagining Native American images to honor Arapaho Chief Niwot, for whom the town is named.

It took over a year for a committee of Niwot residents to raise the money and select an artist. There were a number of people who wanted the job, but committee member Tim Wise said they had their sights on Running Wolf whose work had been displayed at a gallery in Aspen. That, along with his portfolio made Wise doubt whether the artist would actually take the job. "Oh god, we'll never be able to get this guy," Wise thought at the time. "He's too good."

Running Wolf embraced the opportunity and his sister said the project became very important to him. "That is a huge part of who he is and was," she said. The Niwot community appreciated him as well, sending the family condolence emails and photos, including one that is especially meaningful to Albert. "She (the Niwot resident) sent us pictures she took January 10th of the wolf moon over Eddie's carving."

Albert set up a Go Fund Me page a couple of weeks ago to help her brother, his wife and two boys. At the time, Running Wolf was in the hospital. Medical bills and other expenses seemed daunting. He hadn't been able to work for some time. Albert said he got very sick in early March, showing signs of COVID-19 before the illness was as widely known. She said he recovered, but couldn't shake the lingering cough. He started losing weight this summer and on July 22 he was admitted to the hospital. Albert said he was put on a ventilator and died within two weeks.

Running Wolf is survived by his wife, Melissa, a teacher that he's been with for 37 years, and two sons, Calvin, 23, and Dustin, 21. "Amazing, amazing father. He loves those boys more than life itself and Melissa more than life itself," Albert said.

One of Calvin's friends started his own fundraiser, Running for Eddie, to help the family. Preston Cates ran laps for 24 hours starting Sunday, Aug. 9 at 2:10 p.m., at Fairview High School, and committed to donate one dollar to the family for every lap he ran. The Niwot Cultural Arts Association, which is responsible for Niwot's sculpture park where the tree carvings are located, donated $1,000 to the fundraising effort in recognition of Running Wolf's contributions to the arts in Niwot.

Albert said both boys have inherited their father's talent and that Dustin is living at home and pursuing his art career. The family had moved into a house that belonged to Running Wolf's grandmother in Ft. Lupton. He was doing the renovation. Along with medical expenses and an unfinished home, there are now funeral expenses. Albert said that she promised her brother she would help his family --- a favor she is returning after her big brother took care of her while the four siblings were growing up in Boulder.

"We had a rough childhood, very, very poor. He took care of us and made sure we were taken care of and protected us. He honestly was the most tender-hearted soul I have ever met in my life. When we were kids, we were scrappy little rug rats. Eddie was the one that protected us and picked us up off the ground," Albert said.

She said her brother had a wicked sense of humor and a tender heart. "He always had a sensitive soul that felt the pain of people. It started with us as kids and carried forward into the Native American world and Indian rights. He captures that pain and injustice and the heartfelt expressions in his artwork," Albert said.

On his website, Running Wolf talks about dropping out of school at 16 when the art class he wanted to take was full. He worked in an auto salvage yard and was severely burned when a car exploded. It was a long healing process during which his father gave him some carving tools. "In my boredom I decided to carve a small Totem Pole out of an old fence post," he wrote.

He pursued his artistic passion and taught himself. "Art has never been easy for me. It is a struggle, a battle. I am rarely happy or completely satisfied with anything. Art is hard, it is an obsession, an addiction. It was from the very start," Running Wolf wrote.

"The thing about Eddie," Albert said, "you could not rush him, he was going to do it his way. I know he put so much into those projects over there and he was going to do it his way and re-do if he felt it needed it."

Running Wolf took longer than expected to complete the sculptures. One tree stands waiting, a reminder of the painful loss of the talented artist who was deeply intertwined with Niwot.

"It's an amazing thing to see how the community has reached out and how much Eddie touched everybody there. There is artwork and something tangible there, but there is something intangible that he left with the community and that he felt with the community there," Albert said.