[Music]
well I suppose now you’re wondering how
can this guy be a spokesman for the
cowboy way I’m a professor of art that
Minot State University I am wearing a
hat but anybody can buy hat doesn’t mean
owning horses or cattle but I do a
Hawaiian shirt not the typical striped
shirt or a plaid shirt that most Cowboys
wear but that’s just what I wear so I’ve
brought along an image that I think I
would like to prove my credibility as a
real bona fide cowboy and that is this
image of myself and a much younger age
much thinner at the memorial for Tom Mix
in Florence Arizona where he was killed
in an auto accident that should prove my
cowboy credibility until the 1950s and
into the 60s was cowboy art too limited
in the kind of representational art that
it produced because it was an art of
illustration and it was an art of
storytelling and in the 50s and 60s some
people wanted to try to bring it up into
a more contemporary look the one on the
left
what is more adventurous what is more
romantic than Native Americans hunting
Buffalo with Spears by John mix Stanley
very very full of sentiment and romance
one on the right side riders on the dawn
five Cowboys riding the breast through
the range once again a great
illustration for a story or a great
standalone
peytie turn him loose bill on the left
by Frederick Remington what a great
story this tells in and of itself but it
might have been an illustration for a
poem for a short story pretty typical
the more detail the better the better
tell the story of the Great West this is
what people wanted they wanted
illustrations that illuminated more the
story in every detail if I was that
cowboy I would not have asked for built
the Train loose that horse has got the
best of him right now and I can tell you
that that rider probably is not going to
make the ride one on the right blue
locks the Queen from NC Wyeth who is a
father of Andrew Wyeth the great
American painter Blue has a native boy
who jumps on this wild horse as it runs
by locks the White Queen once again
these are very typical of the
illustrations and the artwork of the
American West and the American cowboy up
until the 1950s and 60s a bit of my
history I went to good Cordia college to
get out of the haystack
I got a four-year degree in secondary
art education and when I didn’t get a
job right out of college I applied to
the Graduate School at the University of
North Dakota
I married high school or I should say a
12-year classmate and Marion Becky Barch
and we moved to Grand Forks my first
painting class there my instructor Dave
Brown said I hear that you go out on
weekends and follow the rodeo circuit
and I said yes my father has rodeo stock
and we produced rodeos and he leases out
stock other producers and Dakota Dave as
he was sometimes called said well why
don’t you paint the rodeo instead of
those lame and insipid landscapes that
you’re working on
yeah it did get my attention after I
took a breath I said well I didn’t think
was appropriate
I didn’t think something as a romantic
and his sentimental was the subject
matter that could be used in a fine art
department he said nothing is it
appropriate only concept only style only
technique might be appropriate but no
subject is inappropriate
so I wholeheartedly embraced the
challenge but where do I start
I look to art history for other artists
that might have tried to portray the
dynamics of motion and action that I saw
as the primary aspect of the bucking
stock in rodeos I looked to the Italian
futurists in early 1900s
a group of very radical anarchist artist
in Italy or in yes Italy the one on the
left very typical of them trying to show
move motion it looks rather comical
because the dog and his handler seem to
be spinning but you can see that they’re
trying to suggest motion the one on the
right the red horsemen even though it
doesn’t have quite as much fluid action
it does show that the legs are churning
in a certain kind of way and the rider
is leaning over the horse’s head and it
doesn’t look like it is running charge
of the Lancers on the left a lot of
energy a lot of dynamic composition on
the right jumping horse by Franz Marc
one of my favorite artists who was part
of the blue rider the writer school of
painting out of Munich Germany the blue
rider is important to me because it’s
also the name of a little pub that my
family runs in Minot North Dakota so I
looked at these people as how perhaps I
could start to portray the action of
rodeo the one on the left my first
attempt looks pretty conventional and
the instructor side
conventional also I wasn’t satisfied
with it but it was a way to start a robo
and bronc in a very contorted kind of
position the rider going off the one in
the middle
very much influenced by the Futurists
but to me it wasn’t satisfying because
it was far too regimented far too
mechanical it just really didn’t have
the flow that I would like to see in a
bucking horse picture even in a drawing
even in the study like on the right it
was far too mechanical looking what else
could I do
what else could I bring to it that might
give it a better effect well I looked to
the American School of abstract
expressionism or the American school of
action painters in New York this is
Willem de Kooning on the left with his
woman number one he painted with great
energy the paint was fluid it dripped it
splattered he moved it around
he gave the energy of his paint
application to that woman she becomes
the earth-mother she becomes the fierce
woman that can be on the right side we
have Franz mark Franz Kline pardon very
strong simple brushstrokes but full of
force and full of energy
my next attempts slash-and-burn the one
on the Left I tried to get that kind of
energy into my pieces and you can also
see that those are very colorful much
different than those first paintings
that I did trying to image the Futurists
you can see the riders yellow sheared at
the top his boots at the upper right
hand corner the horses front head front
legs in the lower right hand corner
Tiger Rag one in the middle a very
strong splash of red paint in there
there are some multiple images like the
futurists would use the heads in a
couple different places the feet have
smeared and are moving the rider’s hand
is in a couple three different places I
believe so this was a little closer to
what I felt I needed to do the one on
the right
moonstruck is the title of this one it’s
named after that great bucking horse
sire that comes from Mandan North Dakota
owned by Jim Moss Rucker in the Moscow a
rodeo company very abstract but you can
make out the horse’s head in the upper
left-hand corner the riders boots are in
the stirrups and they’re up on the
horse’s neck up in the shoulders where
they need to be when that horse made his
first big jump out of the chute he was a
terrific bucking horse you can ask my
son he threw him off many times I then
did a series of paintings where I tried
to incorporate hearts into it because I
loved the idea of the action of the
rodeo and then the sentimental nature
and the romantic nature of a heart and
it also visited the subject of a
wonderful rock country rock album by the
Byrds in 1968 called sweetheart of the
rodeo and the sweetheart of the rodeo
covered for that album was a painting
made by a very famous California artist
by the name of Joel Mora and he made
that in the 1930s so it became the cover
of this Byrd’s country rock album and I
thought that sweetheart of the rodeo was
an appropriate title for the whole
series of paintings that I did dealing
with rodeo one on the left
proud cut hopefully it’s kind of doing
what I wanted to do smearing movement
it’s a lot of energy a lot of dynamics
of the horse the riders in trouble the
one in the middle
comes around title of it the name of the
horse comes around sweetheart of the
rodeo series very colorful again think
back about those early attempts that I
did on mundane the color was the horse I
think shows probably four different
heads and this one the riders in several
different places the front legs of the
horse probably shown in eight or ten
different positions the one on the right
a Nana Rama I don’t know where that
title came from it just popped into my
head I recall that and again the head
seen in three different positions
positions as a horse moves his head from
side to side
it has very energetic paint application
hopefully you can see that so
brushstrokes are put down with great
energy hopefully that energy interprets
into the energy of the horse and the
rider and of the bucking horse theme of
that particular painting could I then
use that same kind of device that same
kind of concept to show the action of
both riders and that series now the one
on the left is called the American
military because the Minotaur was a
Greek mythological character who had the
body of a man and the head of a bull I
think you have to become part of that
bull in order to make the ride you can
see on the left there the Bulls head
swinging from side to side as they try
to do to knock the rider off their back
the back legs in many different
positions the ride are very abstract but
with a white hat on and his hand kind of
moving over on the right side of the
canvas the one on the right yellow
jacket once again named after a
wonderful world’s champion saiyr bucking
bull out of Mandan North Dakota from the
Joe Berger string of rodeo bucking bulls
a lot of bright color a lot of
abstraction
they bullet once again throwing his head
around as they so often do especially
when they have horns this particular
painting I did 15 18 years ago at an art
festival and Bismarck State University
and had a lot of fun doing it in fact
one of the local young children walked
up and was standing very close to me as
I was demonstrating and talking and it
turns out that it was these daughter of
your mayor Mike seminary and as there
was movement paid around I said to her
you want to try it and she said yeah so
she took the brush and she put some
paint on and around and I believe the
marks that she paid stayed on the
painting I don’t own it anymore but I
recall that as a very interesting part
of that particular painting
on the left head bagger horses sometimes
store their head back make it very
difficult for the rider to ride
sometimes knocking him off and again a
lot of color in the top half not so much
in the bottom the one on the right side
Freebird title of that one I made
several compositions of that particular
composition free bird again reminiscent
of that great rock and roll song by the
Leonard Skynyrd group named many
paintings after rock and roll or country
albums so my point being art any kind of
art no matter how good it was the
illustrators of the past centuries they
were very good but they were very
limited in the way in which they
portrayed their subjects Ark should be
unlimited art should be open to
originality uniqueness and hopefully to
paraphrase a cliche that is so often
used today as artists as musicians as
poets as everyone we should learn to
think outside of the loop thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
well I suppose now you’re wondering how
can this guy be a spokesman for the
cowboy way I’m a professor of art that
Minot State University I am wearing a
hat but anybody can buy hat doesn’t mean
owning horses or cattle but I do a
Hawaiian shirt not the typical striped
shirt or a plaid shirt that most Cowboys
wear but that’s just what I wear so I’ve
brought along an image that I think I
would like to prove my credibility as a
real bona fide cowboy and that is this
image of myself and a much younger age
much thinner at the memorial for Tom Mix
in Florence Arizona where he was killed
in an auto accident that should prove my
cowboy credibility until the 1950s and
into the 60s was cowboy art too limited
in the kind of representational art that
it produced because it was an art of
illustration and it was an art of
storytelling and in the 50s and 60s some
people wanted to try to bring it up into
a more contemporary look the one on the
left
what is more adventurous what is more
romantic than Native Americans hunting
Buffalo with Spears by John mix Stanley
very very full of sentiment and romance
one on the right side riders on the dawn
five Cowboys riding the breast through
the range once again a great
illustration for a story or a great
standalone
peytie turn him loose bill on the left
by Frederick Remington what a great
story this tells in and of itself but it
might have been an illustration for a
poem for a short story pretty typical
the more detail the better the better
tell the story of the Great West this is
what people wanted they wanted
illustrations that illuminated more the
story in every detail if I was that
cowboy I would not have asked for built
the Train loose that horse has got the
best of him right now and I can tell you
that that rider probably is not going to
make the ride one on the right blue
locks the Queen from NC Wyeth who is a
father of Andrew Wyeth the great
American painter Blue has a native boy
who jumps on this wild horse as it runs
by locks the White Queen once again
these are very typical of the
illustrations and the artwork of the
American West and the American cowboy up
until the 1950s and 60s a bit of my
history I went to good Cordia college to
get out of the haystack
I got a four-year degree in secondary
art education and when I didn’t get a
job right out of college I applied to
the Graduate School at the University of
North Dakota
I married high school or I should say a
12-year classmate and Marion Becky Barch
and we moved to Grand Forks my first
painting class there my instructor Dave
Brown said I hear that you go out on
weekends and follow the rodeo circuit
and I said yes my father has rodeo stock
and we produced rodeos and he leases out
stock other producers and Dakota Dave as
he was sometimes called said well why
don’t you paint the rodeo instead of
those lame and insipid landscapes that
you’re working on
yeah it did get my attention after I
took a breath I said well I didn’t think
was appropriate
I didn’t think something as a romantic
and his sentimental was the subject
matter that could be used in a fine art
department he said nothing is it
appropriate only concept only style only
technique might be appropriate but no
subject is inappropriate
so I wholeheartedly embraced the
challenge but where do I start
I look to art history for other artists
that might have tried to portray the
dynamics of motion and action that I saw
as the primary aspect of the bucking
stock in rodeos I looked to the Italian
futurists in early 1900s
a group of very radical anarchist artist
in Italy or in yes Italy the one on the
left very typical of them trying to show
move motion it looks rather comical
because the dog and his handler seem to
be spinning but you can see that they’re
trying to suggest motion the one on the
right the red horsemen even though it
doesn’t have quite as much fluid action
it does show that the legs are churning
in a certain kind of way and the rider
is leaning over the horse’s head and it
doesn’t look like it is running charge
of the Lancers on the left a lot of
energy a lot of dynamic composition on
the right jumping horse by Franz Marc
one of my favorite artists who was part
of the blue rider the writer school of
painting out of Munich Germany the blue
rider is important to me because it’s
also the name of a little pub that my
family runs in Minot North Dakota so I
looked at these people as how perhaps I
could start to portray the action of
rodeo the one on the left my first
attempt looks pretty conventional and
the instructor side
conventional also I wasn’t satisfied
with it but it was a way to start a robo
and bronc in a very contorted kind of
position the rider going off the one in
the middle
very much influenced by the Futurists
but to me it wasn’t satisfying because
it was far too regimented far too
mechanical it just really didn’t have
the flow that I would like to see in a
bucking horse picture even in a drawing
even in the study like on the right it
was far too mechanical looking what else
could I do
what else could I bring to it that might
give it a better effect well I looked to
the American School of abstract
expressionism or the American school of
action painters in New York this is
Willem de Kooning on the left with his
woman number one he painted with great
energy the paint was fluid it dripped it
splattered he moved it around
he gave the energy of his paint
application to that woman she becomes
the earth-mother she becomes the fierce
woman that can be on the right side we
have Franz mark Franz Kline pardon very
strong simple brushstrokes but full of
force and full of energy
my next attempts slash-and-burn the one
on the Left I tried to get that kind of
energy into my pieces and you can also
see that those are very colorful much
different than those first paintings
that I did trying to image the Futurists
you can see the riders yellow sheared at
the top his boots at the upper right
hand corner the horses front head front
legs in the lower right hand corner
Tiger Rag one in the middle a very
strong splash of red paint in there
there are some multiple images like the
futurists would use the heads in a
couple different places the feet have
smeared and are moving the rider’s hand
is in a couple three different places I
believe so this was a little closer to
what I felt I needed to do the one on
the right
moonstruck is the title of this one it’s
named after that great bucking horse
sire that comes from Mandan North Dakota
owned by Jim Moss Rucker in the Moscow a
rodeo company very abstract but you can
make out the horse’s head in the upper
left-hand corner the riders boots are in
the stirrups and they’re up on the
horse’s neck up in the shoulders where
they need to be when that horse made his
first big jump out of the chute he was a
terrific bucking horse you can ask my
son he threw him off many times I then
did a series of paintings where I tried
to incorporate hearts into it because I
loved the idea of the action of the
rodeo and then the sentimental nature
and the romantic nature of a heart and
it also visited the subject of a
wonderful rock country rock album by the
Byrds in 1968 called sweetheart of the
rodeo and the sweetheart of the rodeo
covered for that album was a painting
made by a very famous California artist
by the name of Joel Mora and he made
that in the 1930s so it became the cover
of this Byrd’s country rock album and I
thought that sweetheart of the rodeo was
an appropriate title for the whole
series of paintings that I did dealing
with rodeo one on the left
proud cut hopefully it’s kind of doing
what I wanted to do smearing movement
it’s a lot of energy a lot of dynamics
of the horse the riders in trouble the
one in the middle
comes around title of it the name of the
horse comes around sweetheart of the
rodeo series very colorful again think
back about those early attempts that I
did on mundane the color was the horse I
think shows probably four different
heads and this one the riders in several
different places the front legs of the
horse probably shown in eight or ten
different positions the one on the right
a Nana Rama I don’t know where that
title came from it just popped into my
head I recall that and again the head
seen in three different positions
positions as a horse moves his head from
side to side
it has very energetic paint application
hopefully you can see that so
brushstrokes are put down with great
energy hopefully that energy interprets
into the energy of the horse and the
rider and of the bucking horse theme of
that particular painting could I then
use that same kind of device that same
kind of concept to show the action of
both riders and that series now the one
on the left is called the American
military because the Minotaur was a
Greek mythological character who had the
body of a man and the head of a bull I
think you have to become part of that
bull in order to make the ride you can
see on the left there the Bulls head
swinging from side to side as they try
to do to knock the rider off their back
the back legs in many different
positions the ride are very abstract but
with a white hat on and his hand kind of
moving over on the right side of the
canvas the one on the right yellow
jacket once again named after a
wonderful world’s champion saiyr bucking
bull out of Mandan North Dakota from the
Joe Berger string of rodeo bucking bulls
a lot of bright color a lot of
abstraction
they bullet once again throwing his head
around as they so often do especially
when they have horns this particular
painting I did 15 18 years ago at an art
festival and Bismarck State University
and had a lot of fun doing it in fact
one of the local young children walked
up and was standing very close to me as
I was demonstrating and talking and it
turns out that it was these daughter of
your mayor Mike seminary and as there
was movement paid around I said to her
you want to try it and she said yeah so
she took the brush and she put some
paint on and around and I believe the
marks that she paid stayed on the
painting I don’t own it anymore but I
recall that as a very interesting part
of that particular painting
on the left head bagger horses sometimes
store their head back make it very
difficult for the rider to ride
sometimes knocking him off and again a
lot of color in the top half not so much
in the bottom the one on the right side
Freebird title of that one I made
several compositions of that particular
composition free bird again reminiscent
of that great rock and roll song by the
Leonard Skynyrd group named many
paintings after rock and roll or country
albums so my point being art any kind of
art no matter how good it was the
illustrators of the past centuries they
were very good but they were very
limited in the way in which they
portrayed their subjects Ark should be
unlimited art should be open to
originality uniqueness and hopefully to
paraphrase a cliche that is so often
used today as artists as musicians as
poets as everyone we should learn to
think outside of the loop thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
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