Harry O'Hanlon was a native Albertan, born in Edmonton, and spent most of his life in Alberta. Although he had travelled widely, he still loved the Foothills country, and thought it is the finest place in the world to live Harry had been fascinated with the Indian way of life since he was a youngster, when he spent many happy hours building Indian villages out of paper, and carving people and animals out of wood. He lived for several years on an Indian reservation in Montana, but his immense knowledge of early Indian customs comes from research he did mainly at the Glenbow Foundation in Calgary. He found it disappointing that the young native people today know very little about the customs and living conditions of their ancestors. Harry had no formal instruction in either painting or sculpting, and no one really encouraged him in art when he was a child to explain his "natural" artistic talents. Harry speculated, half- jokingly, that he was probably a Blackfoot in his last incarnation. He adds, "some people are born with a certain talent, and they must bring it from somewhere with them, because this talent is very real and definite". Before starting to work in bronze, Harry expressed his interest in the Blackfoot people and their culture through his oil paintings. One of his ambitions was to paint the last of the old "longhairs" of the Blackfoot Nation, and he completed over 50 portraits. Several are owned by the Glenbow Foundation. Others are in private collections in Canada. Bronze work fascinated Harry O'Hanlon for years before he actually started sculpting. He examined very carefully a bronze that particularly interested him, and said to himself that he too could do that. To create a piece of sculpture, he soon found there was much research work to be done to depict a subject properly and to make sure that every detail of dress, equipment, hairstyle etc. was authentic. To Harry it was a new adventure, and he went at it with the same enthusiasm he always displays in everything he had done. Undoubtedly, an astounding book could be written about the true adventures of zestful Harry and his talented wife Betty, quite aside from "studio life". In continuing studies of the Plains Indian life and culture, Harry found that he could portray typical scenes in the life of the tribe better through sculpture than through painting. (He carved his models in wax, and had them cast in editions of 12 at a fine arts foundry.) O'Hanlon had completed 25 such studies, depicting Blackfoot camp life, hunting, scouting, tribal warfare and religious practices. For O'Hanlon each new sculpture was a new adventure, and he tried to make each one better than the last. The authenticity of his work is impressive, with meticulous attention paid to every detail of dress and equipment. It faithfully portrays the Blackfoot people whose way of life is one of the true treasures of Southern Alberta. Harry O'Hanlon's work is shown at the Gainsborough Galleries in Calgary, the Bearclaw Gallery in Edmonton, The Nickle Museum University of Calgary, The Historical Resources Foundation of Alberta in Calgary, and the Red Deer & District Museum in Red Deer. His works are in the collections of His Royal Highness Prince Charles, The Nickle Museum University of Calgary, the Nickle Family Foundation, Gulf Canada Ltd., Home Oil Company, Chevron Canada Ltd., Bodium Resources of Calgary, the Premier of Alberta, the Alberta Government Museums, the Fijian Museum in Suva, Fiji, and in many private collections across Canada.