36 THE COASTAL BEND MAGAZINE • Late Spring 2019 TheCoastalBend.com “Invitation to the Dance” is Ullberg’s homage to the whooping crane, the endangered bird that migrates to South Texas each Winter. elephant, “Reaching Elephant,” at the St. Louis Zoo in 2010—not to be outdone, Ullberg’s first employer in the United States, the Denver Museum of Nature and Sci- ence, commissioned their own 19-foot tall pachyderm, that of an ancient American Mastodon, called “Snow- mastodon,” installed in 2014. In the late 90’s, Ullberg was challenged by the First National Bank of Omaha to create a history-making pub- lic art display in celebration of the bank’s centennial. The concept was a flock of Canadian geese, startled into flight by a herd of American bison, together traveling through a five-block section of downtown Omaha, Ne- braska. In 2002 the installation of 58 Canadian geese in bronze and stainless steel, flying into and out of build- ings, attached to lampposts and soaring above busy intersections, completed the first stage of what would become the largest, bronze sculpture installation in the world. The second stage of the “Spirit of Nebraska’s Wil- derness” project was completed in 2009 with the instal- lation of the last of nine American bison monuments. In 2012 Ullberg delivered what was certainly his most scientifically challenging work, “Interdepen- dency,” which sets in front of the University of Texas Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas. The 17-foot bronze monument depicts a jumping Tarpon, the game- fish most closely associated with “Port A,” onto which an ascending display of marine life is attached, including seabirds, crustaceans, sea turtles, smaller fish species, a stingray, an Atlantic dolphin, and even microscopic organisms, all sculpted by Kent Ullberg to scientifical- ly derived, anatomical accuracy—a high standard that must be met to impress career marine scientists. Today, the Ullberg’s split their time between Padre Island and Colorado, and Kent’s energy and ambition, now at age 73, seems boundless as he searches for the next great challenge as the Master of Monuments.