This sculpture is one of a series on bears. I especially enjoyed doing this series because of the subtle humor I can play with in their expressions. 

I was able to study this first hand when I visited a wild life refuge that kept their large animals, like the bears, cougars, and buffalo, in 15 acre paddocks and created environments as close to natural for them.  They allow cars to drive thru on tracks, so one can sit and study the wild life with out interfering with them.

I was very entertained watching the bears, who very much enjoyed entertaining themselves!  Playful as puppies, while doing their usual scavenging for food tidbits.

In every bear paddock, ravens and crows flew in to join the fun, teasing and pestering the bears, purely for the fun of it!  This is a behavior very familiar to me since ravens do the same thing with my dogs at home.

“Grin and Bear It” has an expression I have seen on my own dogs when finally getting annoyed with the chattering ravens, but still trying to be tolerant of their bird playpals.