The Killing Spot, the Meat, the Trophy, and the Treat
28" x 24", 1994, $1200
At the time of this painting I was doing alot of reading about bison. My approach to this painting was an analytical/deconstruct of the bison. This was meant to be a respect for the animal and its story of survival. The title refers to different aspects of that story. The 'Killing Spot' refers to the buffalo hunters that could decimate a grazing heard by shooting them at will, hitting them in the heart, killing them instantly and not alert the herd, as opposed to hitting them in the lungs that would startle and stampede the rest of the herd. The 'Meat' is the obvious reference to the meat, the 'Trophy' being the mounted skull, and the 'Treat' is the tongue of the animal which is supposed to be very good if you are a wild-game meat eater. The lower left of the painting is a reference to a rifleman in the reflection of the buffalo's eye. The upper right is a tongue reference. I used a very aggressive mark-making approach for the image instead of a representational scene which I do most of the time as evidenced by the landscapes.