Sisters artist featured at Western event

Dyrk Godby, Western artist and singer-songwriter, is content to keep a low profile in Sisters.

He's traveled the country as a rodeo competitor, done his time at art shows and sung with luminaries such as Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash and Bob Hope. These days he contends he's happy to muck out stalls at the horse shows his wife, Kanoe Durdan, attends.

Godby sings at various times throughout the day at the Sisters Ranch & Rodeo Show on May 30. He'll be at the Sisters Art Works building, where some of his paintings will be on display.

The inspiration for Godby's work comes from true life experience. Born and raised on a ranch near Gooding, Idaho, he spent many years working with his parents as they bred, trained and showed horses. He worked with natural horsemanship gurus Tom Dorrance and Ray Hunt long before they became household names in the horse training world.

A stint in the boxing ring during high school led to tryouts for the 1976 Olympics. While training for the trials, he lived in Oregon City, working for horse trainer Richard Shrake. The Olympic dream didn't come true, so Godby moved on to another passion: rodeo. He went to Idaho State University on a rodeo scholarship and majored in art. By his own admission, his interests in those days were "rodeo and girls, and girls and rodeo."

He spent three years rodeoing professionally, riding saddlebroncs, until a serious injury laid him up for a year. Somewhere inside the scrappy roughstock rider lived an appreciative soul, and it came out during his recovery. He picked up a paintbrush, wrote more songs and started his career as an artist.

He'd always sung in bands, writing much of his own music. Godby sings of what he knows, of life lived outside, beauty appreciated, and hard lessons learned. His grandparents had an appreciation for art, music and hard work, and he credits a good parental example when he freely gives his art to benefit a cause.

"I get more of a thrill doing that than selling a piece," he said.

He's currently helping injured Madras boxer Jovany Medina by making several of his limited-edition prints available at Art Adventure in Madras. Proceeds go the Medina family.

There is significance in being a recognized artist, particularly one who chronicles a way of life. Godby realizes that, creating realistic images of the life he's lived and loved, singing of the sweetness and heartache.

"I'm capturing it for future generations," he said.

Dyrk Godby is a genuine cowboy artist, one who savors the simple life and says, "Music is a fun hobby now, and each painting is like a big adventure."

Sisters Ranch & Rodeo Show, Saturday, May 30, at various venues around town. For more information, contact the Sisters Area Chamber of Commerce at [email protected] or call 549-0251.