After Promoting Others' Work, a Late-Blooming Sculptor Realizes Her Dream.

PHOENIX -- Some of the American Indian artworks at the Heard Museum date back a century or more, while others are brand-new, brought here along bumpy reservation roads just last month or last year. The sculptures of Retha Walden Gambaro, both traditional and contemporary, fit somewhere in between. Now in her mid-90s, Mrs. Gambaro is nearing the end of a remarkable artistic life that began at an age when other artists have already spent many years honing their craft. At 52, with her children grown, she took up clay, stone and bronze and then worked steadily through middle and old age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]