Badlands Green Mounds
This area on the Badlands loop is called Green Mounds, as there are strikingly green areas of earth that are exposed through the eroded landscape: very intriguing!
Ghost Dance Shirt
“Ghost Dance Shirt” 12 x 36” Oil on Clayboard The inspiration for this painting is a period Northern Cheyenne Native American Ghost Dance Shirt. Adorned with traditional beading, hair, quill work and rawhide fringe, this shirt was intended to protect the wearer and bring forth the strength of the ancestors. The petroglyphs imagery incorporated into the painting is symbolic of …
Cactus Boot Jack
The title referring to a boot jack is a play on words, referring to a device which is designed to hold the heel of the boot as one works it off one’s feet. In the westerns, there was always some overworked woman there to do that for the cowboy…
Sitting Pretty
I love the sentimental attachment I have to things from the past such as old wallpaper patterns, embroidery designs and leather tooling.
A Studio on Wheels
Spring in the Black Hills has arrived along with my commitment to expand my studio: to the outdoors! We have an old Jeep which has been sitting in the driveway, and I have now officially converted it into a studio on wheels. I will be using it to travel to beautiful areas here in my own backyard, while I explore …
Reno’s Retreat in progress
This is the painting I have been writing about, in progress. It is in a stage of drying right now, as I like to rest my hand on the painting surface to do small detail work, so need it to be dry. I am really pleased with it thus far, and am ironically, sort of hesitant to proceed until I …
Beneath the Surface
This is a detail of a painting I did of Lookout Mountain, in Spearfish, South Dakota. This local landmark is symbolic of home to me. The painting is titled: Beneath the Surface. To the west of this beautiful valley, headed to Wyoming, is an intriguing site. It was discovered when Interstate 90 was being built. It is an ancient buffalo …
Sunshine cometh
After a long and cold winter, I am seeing more sun in the Black Hills. There is still snow, grant you, but now there is sun. I walked my dog, Tip, yesterday, and heard birds chirping. Between the mud puddles there were traces of green grass poking up. I am so glad Spring is nearly here! I cannot imagine how …
Borrowing Symbols
Symbols have been borrowed and exchanged forever. I am drawn to the petroglyphs and symbol studies I have been painting, by that very thing: how symbols are a visual language, which seemingly jumps across time and continents. Many of the same type of imagery in yesterday’s petroglyphs is found the world over. Those same images are prevalent in society today. …