Garland was born in Amarillo, Texas, in 1942, reared in Wichita Falls, and graduated from high school there in 1961. He then attended Texas Tech University in Lubbock, graduating in 1967 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Economics. While attending Texas Tech, Garland was active in all aspects of student life. He was a student body officer and student council member representing the School Of Agriculture. He was also a member of the Greek social fraternity Sigma Alpha Epsilon and was a 2 year letterman in the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association. He earned the honorable Dub Parks Memorial Award from the Texas Tech Rodeo Association in 1966 and later was inducted into the Texas Tech Rodeo Hall Of Fame in 1992. Garland pursued his rodeo career in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association until 1973 after having served the U.S. Army in the 73rd Signal Battalion in Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam, in 1968-1969.
Garland quotes H.L. Mencken:
You can't do anything
about the length of your life,
but you can do something
about its width and depth.
about the length of your life,
but you can do something
about its width and depth.
Art is a journey, not a destination, and it requires a never-ending search for knowledge and understanding on the part of dedicated artists—everyday, every year, every decade—and that's the love we have for our chosen profession. I desire that my art communicates my inner-most passions, visions, observations, and experiences of the world and cultural heritage around me.
Garland began sculpting as a hobby in 1970 and continued this moonlighting activity while also being actively engaged in the cattle feeding industry as a market analyst, commodity broker, and agricultural economist. In 1978, Garland took the plunge into making art full-time and has never looked back. He has lived, worked, and sculpted in California, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, etc. honing his skills. He finally established his studio and home in Lubbock in 2000, where he is happily living and sculpting on the high plains of Texas. Garland traces his direct Texas roots back 6 generations to 1835 when Texas was a Republic. “Life in Texas is good—everyone should be so lucky!”
As a representational, figurative sculptor of the 21st century, I pay homage to the great voices of the sculptors of the past, many of whom are my heroes; however, I must sculpt in my own time, representing the lives, emotions and natural forms of my own cultural heritage. I desire that my art communicates my innermost visions, observations, and experiences of the world around me. While I repeatedly come home to the human figure, it is not to the exclusion of other animal and allegorical interests. Variety in subjects stimulates and invigorates the imagination and provides one a wider, more comprehensive view of life—a broader diet of artistic nourishment. It is that presence of life, that essence of life that artists have striven for since cave drawings were created. The artist must see what every man has seen and think what no one else has thought.
— Garland Weeks
