Bob Pack

Pack spent about six months designing the statue to create the original collector bronze and another year and a half to complete the 18-by-24-foot monument. The statue depicts Austin on a rearing horse as he lassos a struggling pack horse within a granite fountain, which was designed to symbolize the hero emerging from a fast-moving river.

The project is meant to bring to mind the struggles of settlement and colonization in Austin's original colony, which is today Fort Bend County, Pack said.

More recently, Pack has been completing a number of works commissioned by the management of the Riverstone community—a collection of bronze statues along University Boulevard. Traveling down the corridor, residents and visitors can see several installations of bronze deer and ducks.

"My intent was to create an ambiance using individual scenes of wildlife in their natural settings," Pack said. "This is something unique to me that I have never done before—mixing the beauty of stainless steel and bronze together."

Another notable project by Pack includes "The Guardian," which is a bronze statue of a uniformed police officer and a small boy with book in hand at the Sugar Land police headquarters. The child represents the city's focus on public service and the guidance of young people in the community, Pack said.

Two years ago, the Houston Museum of Natural Science at Sugar Land featured Pack's limited edition series of bird bronzes of Texas, Louisiana, and the Gulf Coast. Other projects include Pack's "Legends of Golf" collection—a series of a few of the golf greats, such as Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, in bronze at the United States Golf Association Headquarters in Far Hills, N.J.

Although his works can be seen throughout the U.S., Europe and Japan, Pack works from his home studio in Sugar Land, where and his wife, Cindy, have resided since 1986. Pack's body of work can be seen at www.bobpack.com.