Gail Jones Sundell takes a roughly shaped stone from the earth and brings it to life. Carving figures from stone that is hewn out the earth is a very challenging and rewarding experience. Although this career is physically demanding, she has found a very special advantage to being a woman sculptor. The hours that she spends caring for and nurturing family and friends have enabled her to relay a depth of feeling to her work that speaks to those who view her creations and leads them to share in the wonder of life created from stone.

Stone has been her favorite medium since she was a child, and she has had an abundance of experience working with alabaster from her family’s quarry near Fort Collins, Colorado. While primarily self-directed, early in her career she benefited from the influence of artists who taught at her family’s art center and from the sculptors who frequented her family’s business.

Her main subject matter: the legends, spiritual life and family relationships of Native Americans, was inspired by her father’s stories and his own paintings of his early life, growing up among the Cheyenne/Arapaho Indians in Oklahoma. Since she moved to Cheyenne, Wyoming in 1981, Sundell has continued to associate with and study various cultures of Native Americans to give authenticity to her work.

Sundell has been an exhibiting artist in numerous shows in the West. Her participation in Cowgirl Up!, where she received the Best of Show Award in 2013, has added patrons and friends to Sundell’s list of numerous private collectors.  Since 1999, she has shown in the Cheyenne Frontier Days Western Art Show and Sale, where in 2000, her sculpture was selected as one of the Old West Museum purchases. She became a Signature Member of the Cowgirl Artists of America in 2024.

 Some of the corporate collections in which she is included are the Governor’s Residence and State Museum in Cheyenne, the Community of Christ Temple in Independence, Missouri, the Art of the Rocky Mountain West Collection in Dublin, Ireland, and the Great Plains Art Museum in Lincoln, Nebraska.