John Coleman

John Coleman is an American sculptor and painter. His subject matter focuses on the American West, especially Native American historical and mythological figures of Southwestern United States. His works are held in the permanent collections of the Briscoe Western Art Museum, The James Western and Wildlife Museum, Desert Caballeros Western Museum, Joslyn Art Museum, Gilcrease Museum, National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, Phoenix Art Museum, Tucson Museum of Art, and Western Spirit: Scottsdale's Museum of the West.

Early life and education Coleman was born in 1949 in Southern California, and grew up in Manhattan Beach, California. He was the second child of three boys born to Mark and Jean Coleman. From a young age, he developed an interest in art, which was encouraged by his parents, especially his mother who used to take him to art stores during the family's trips to Laguna Beach. At the age of seventeen, he began working as an illustrator for a syndicated columnist and later at Butler Publications in California. However, Coleman never graduated from his California high school due to his learning difficulties caused by dyslexia. After marrying his high school girlfriend Sue Coleman, the couple moved to Parker, Arizona, where they had a business selling awnings for mobile homes. He re-immersed himself in the art world and his newly awakened appreciation for sculpture by attending classes at the Scottsdale Artist School. In 1999, Coleman became a member of National Sculpture Society, In 2012, Coleman created and donated a new piece named The Greeter, Black Moccasin Meeting Lewis & Clark to be installed at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York. The eighty-percent life-size statue depicts the Hidatsa chief and is based on a painting by Catlin who was later buried in the Gregory family plot, to which this statue will serve as a marker.

Another notable work by Coleman, Visions of Change is a large bronze sculpture depicting a Native American atop a hill overlooking a stampede of bison juxtaposed against an American cowboy standing over a group of Longhorns also streaming down what appears like the other side of the hill. The sculpture is in the permanent collection of the Tucson Museum of Art. Caught in Time: The Sculpture of John Coleman (2005), Desert Caballeros Western Museum, Wickenburg, Arizona. Gilcrease Rendezvous (2010), Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma. Honored Life: The Art of John Coleman (2013), Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, Indianapolis, Indiana. John Coleman: Past/Present/Future (2016), Western Spirit: Scottsdale's Museum of the West, Scottsdale, Arizona.