Jean François Boutruche was born in La Guerche-de-Bretagne, Brittany, France in 1967 and grew up in the countryside.
He moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico 28 years ago where he was introduced to metalworks in 1994 in a blacksmith welding shop. Boutruche began making statues of people and animals a few years later. The sculptures evolved into more intricate pieces as he mastered working with metal.
Boutruche's work in recent years is inspired by the legendary enchanted forest of Brocéliande in Brittany, France.
"I like to call some of the statues I make theriathropes; half human, half animal spirits of the forest. Others have inspiration from the magical or subconscious that could be characters of a fable or the warrior of a story told long ago. Maybe they are treasures found in beings that once existed, maybe part of a dream that landed into reality.”
~Jean François Boutruche
