Native American Influences

The fact that the ranch I grew up on was tucked away in a corner of the west between the Cheyenne and Crow Indian reservations had a great deal of influence in my life and in my artwork as well. I graduated from Lodge Grass high school, on the Crow reservation and many of the rodeo cowboys I knew were Crow or Cheyenne.



One of my more recent pencil studies was done from photos taken at a small "ranch roping" held on the Red Star ranch where I lived for the last two years before moving to Kentucky.

Very informal, with the majority of the contestants simply local cowboys having a good time.

This is the one of the photos used as the basis for the vignette pencil study above, which I call "Crow Indian Roper", taken during the hot August afternoon.