About Dyrk Godby
The resume of Idaho native Dyrk Godby reads like that of a true Renaissance man, Western style. His career accomplishments include being a successful painter, a champion professional bronc rider, an Olympic-caliber boxer, a songwriter and a recording artist. Godby is also the man whose songs inspired the 2012 movie Soda Springs.
Godby was born in Gooding, Idaho, on a ranch with 80 broodmares and three to four stallions. The family earned a living training, buying and selling horses. His father, Bud Godby, was a champion rodeo cowboy who rode bulls and saddle broncs and ranked among the top 15 in the country.
Godby's father passed not only his talents in the rodeo arena to his son, but also his strong faith and calling to ministry. Before many professional rodeos, Bud would preach on horseback and also initiate his own Sunday services."He would preach to the cowboys in the chutes or in the car or anywhere they would listen," Godby said. This was before the "Cowboys in Christ" movement began.
As he grew up, Dyrk Godby loved to sketch cowboys, many of whom were friends of his father. Godby balanced high school life with rodeos, working horses, art and his other love-boxing. In fact, he moved to the West Coast during high school so he could train with the best boxing trainers. Godby won numerous amateur fights and earned a spot in the Pan American trials in Lake Charles, La. After training for the 1980 Olympics, Godby and teammates were deeply disappointed when the United States boycotted the Moscow Olympics after the USSR invaded Afghanistan. Responding to this turn in life, Godby returned to rodeo at a high level. "I was more interested in riding broncs than I was in art," he said. Godby followed in his father's footsteps riding bulls and saddle broncs.
Although he claimed not to be very good at riding bulls, Godby rodeoed in high school and college and went on to join the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA). He competed for two years in saddle bronc events and learned horsemanship from well-known trainers Jim Dorrance (older brother of Bill and Tom) and Ray Hunt. "They were on ranches in Nevada, and I got to go down there with my dad when I was about 6 years old before they started doing the clinics," Godby said. "The Dorrances were the best that ever lived. They knew how to get a horse first to trust you. I spent the first 20 years of my life with horse trainers and guys showing horses."
Godby also had the opportunity to work and learn from Richard Shrake in Oregon City, Ore. Shrake was a leading trainer of Quarter Horses in the youth division of the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA).
Godby excelled in saddle brone riding and was leading the PCRA rookie standings in 1981 when a career-ending injury occurred in Albuquerque, N.M. A bronc threw him, crushing Godby's leg. The injury was so serious that exposure to the soil caused an infection of the bone and nearly cost Godby his leg. He could walk again only after months of rehabilitation, and the long period of recuperation caused him to become more interested in art. "I couldn't really move or get around much, so I started painting and drawing a lot more," he said. "God had a plan for me."
When he was younger, Godby had always been interested in sketching and drawing. His father had some cowboy artist friends, and Godby spent time with them when he was growing up. The biggest early influence on his art was the pencil-and-ink work of Gary Erickson, an artist he met in Idaho. Godby spent three years of college taking painting and drawing classes at Idaho State University and the College of Southern Idaho. Besides having a great passion for painting, Godby saw painting as an alternate career to the tough ranching life he had known as a boy. "I remember one time when I was 6 years old, we had to move 25 head of Hereford bulls 12 miles, and bulls are slow—really slow," Godby said. "They put me on a pony, a good pony, the best pony in the world. I fell asleep on that pony because it was 12 miles, and it took all day. I'm glad I started painting in my 20s because that's too tough a life—that cowboying."
Throughout all his careers, Godby kept returning to his interest in drawing and painting horses. His hands-on life experience with all types of horses has influenced his art, and he credits years of working and grooming horses for his knowledge of the anatomy of the horse. "Since I was a kid, I have been around horses every day," he said. "Having to brush every muscle, getting them ready for a show and knowing where every ligament is—you have to know those things about a horse just to make sure you have the muscles and the bone structure in line. You want things to flow."
Godby works from both photography and memory. He has photographed many cowboys he grew up with from Idaho and the Northwest. Most of Godby's work is in acrylic paint rendered in a realistic style. He fills his canvases with significant details as he captures the horses and cowboys of the Northwest. Counting 'Em Out was based on his work at the big ranches in Idaho. The cowboy in the painting skillfully counts the cattle as they run through the gate, often several at a time. The painting features a Paint Horse, a breed that Godby often depicts in his paintings for artistic and compositional reasons.
Godby loves the action of horses, particularly at rodeos and ropings. He has become known in the Northwest as an excellent painter of performance horse portraits. There Comes a Time was commissioned by the owner of this World Champion and National Reined Cow Horse Association (NRCHA) Superior Reined Cowhorse. Godby's mother had previously owned this stallion for six years in Idaho. Godby has also been asked to create several portraits of famous National Finals Rodeo (NFR) cowboys from the Northwest. In The Heeler, NFR cowboy Dean Tufton is shown roping at the Pendleton Rodeo Grounds in Oregon. Though this image shows an accurate likeness of Tufton, Godby insists that his central interest was the cowboy's equine companion.
"The horse fascinated me all the time," he said. "They're way smarter than a human and to be able to capture them turning a cow or [in] a sliding stop is lots of fun. I'm getting too old to ride them and do that stuff, so now I can just paint it and put my face on the rider." Through years of rodeo, ranching and art, another constant in Godby's life has been music. Godby believes that the stories behind his paintings are similar to the stories behind his songs. "There are always stories behind the paintings-funny stories, sad stories, happy stories— just like there are in the songs. You paint the picture in both of them."
Godby writes songs about horses, rodeo, faith and the cowboy life he knows so well. He was invited to take part in the opening ceremony for the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, with Bob Hope. "I got to go on a US tour with Bob Hope and Brooke Shields in Korea," he said. "There were 3,000 troops, so we sang for the troops. Bob told some jokes, and Brooke and I sang some songs."In 1994, Godby recorded his first CD, When 1 Grow Up. He was selected in 1997 to perform his song "Fly Without Wings" at the opening of the final go-round of the NFR in Las Vegas. Godby released his second CD, Where the Fire Burns, in 2015. Godby was named American Paint Horse Association Artist of the Year in 2006 and awarded Best of Show in the Silver State Stampede Art Show in Elko, Nev., in 1998. In 2009 he was invited to exhibit at the America's Horse in Art Show at the AQHA Hall of Fame and Museum in Amarillo, Texas.
*I am so blessed to have horses in my life, growing up with 60 to 80 head of horses all the time, new ones coming in and out, and babies being born, and breaking them to ride," he said. "It's such a great opportunity that God gave me—I'm so blessed to have the horse. It meant so much to me and then getting a chance to write songs about the horses and paint the horses. There has been nothing better in my life than that, and God gave that to me. He thought maybe I'd like it, and I did." Godby works out of a rustic studio in Sisters, Ore., and paints surrounded by years of memorabilia from rodeo, boxing and music. His studio bookcases are lined with an extensive collection of art and research books on the West. In addition to his artwork, Godby and his wife, Kanoe, train Warmblood horses. He remains a very humble man and frequently reflects on God's role in the twists and turns of his life. Godby's brand—and motto-is "Godby with you."
