8" x 8" acrylic on panel
At a recent art show someone walked into my booth and asked "Why did you paint that dog without eyes?"
If you have to ask....
This painting was but one of a series I've done lately influenced by Fritz Scholder. While I was in art school earning my BFA, the emphasis was on traditional Western European art; although Scholder had been a major figure in the 20th Century art world for decades, I discovered him only very recently, and quite by accident. (I believe it was from a book I found at the Connecticut College library, which is a wonderful resource.) I had no idea until just a few months ago that he had died in 2005; I only knew him through the works I was studying, and so to me he was (and is) very much a living presence. (I'm not sure that I ever bothered to look up his biography, so focused was I on his prints and paintings, and absorbing all he could teach me about color and form. What can I say? I'm an artist.)
The National Museum of the American Indian is having a major retrospective Scholder's work in NYC and in D.C. which I hope to see this year:
