Echoes From The Plains (wall mount)

What echoes do you hear, see and feel in viewing photographs or holding artifacts of the past? I hold Grandad’s both the pocket watch and straight razor he carried in the trenches of WW1 ~ I wear my father’s bolo tie made with turquoise stones he had since the 1950’s ~ my daughter is thirty-six now and I still treasure a painting she made at age two. I’ve held in my hand the death mask of Sitting Bull…and became lost in the feelings of struggle, commitment and death. I’ve got in my studio skulls of horses, cattle and varmints and pause now and again (sometimes holding them) to honor both their lives and life itself. This piece was created to honor a beast that roamed the North American continent, in the tens of millions…the bison.

I love iconic images of Americana (i.e. The Grand Canyon, Texas Longhorns, The Giant Redwoods). The “American Bison” is one such iconic image. Can we of this era, (we who call “Animal Control” if a stray dog shows up out of place) come close to imagining the sounds made by millions upon millions of bison as they rolled across the prairie? Can our minds wrap around the sight of these unchecked animals moiling, fighting, rolling in movement for days…..as they come into view and then pass on into the horizon? Pondering such thoughts….adjectives abound: “Majesty,” “Power”, “Nobility…one more came to me, Unfathomable.”

I find a dichotomy, of sorts, with the bison. Here is an animal, one of the most powerful beasts on earth, yet it is not a predator. It’s content to be left alone, eat grass and move on to the next range to graze.

I like to think that what our nation holds as the “American Spirit” can both be found and witnessed in the bison. Here is power in the individual, instincts geared towards the protection of self and others. An animal oriented towards family, AND, what I find most fascinating, for a beast so strong,…..not predatory.