Don't miss this Western journey

Poster outside the exhibit

If you are a Westerner, or love the West, or wildlife, or great art, there's an exhibit at the Sam Noble Museum of Natural History that you don't want to miss, and it ends April 26.
"Harmless Hunter, The Wildlife Work of Charles M. Russell" brings 18 paintings, 10 small sculptures and 13 other sketches and work from several famous museums around the country to the OU campus in Norman.
Go see it to be inspired.
You can't take photographs inside the exhibit, but I've downloaded a couple from the Internet to give you a taste.
The show is curated by OU's Dr. Byron Price, Charles Marion Russell Memorial Chair, and Director of Charles M. Russell Center for the Study of Art of the American West at OU.
I was particularly taken by some of the watercolors I'd never seen before, and some of the oils took my breath away. It's like studying art from a master.
It was a day when I needed a boost, and worth the hassle of driving to Norman, because for two hours of watching, studying, taking notes, I forgot about the rest of the world and was transported back to the last days of the Old West.
The West was and is a place of conflict, between nature, humans and wildlife, and nobody caught this more than Russell. I'll admit, I've been around his work all my life because my Dad was an artist who loved Russell and who found inspiration there. 
The exhibit gets its title from Russell, who hunted wildlife with his paintbrush as a "Harmless Hunter," and he had an unsurpassed talent to capture the soul of animals, four- and two-legged alike, in action. 

His favorite subject was probably the buffalo, and out of more than 2,000 works, his portrayal of this wild animal helped make it the icon of the West. His signature on every painting of a buffalo skull is an icon in its own right. 
Other wildlife that he painted include numerous grizzly in conflict, wolves, deer, mountain lions, pronghorn, birds, bighorn sheep, foxes and coyotes.
All of his work tells stories, stories of the West, and most of them leave the conclusions in doubt, as one panel terms them "predicaments," where humans and wildlife face each other. Such is the case with exhibit poster, a detail  of one of the paintings, "Crippled but Still Coming."

"Crippled but Still Coming"--opening painting of the exhibit

The rugged landscapes are as dramatic as the action, and Russell excelled in subjects late in the day, when the light is dramatic with shadows and sunlight  or passing, just as the Wild West was passing while he lived, 1864-1926. My favorite, which I sat in front of for a long time, as the day fades and the full moon rises, is "To the Victor Belong the Spoils," of Grizz taking the kill, while wolves circle at a distance.

My favorite, "To the Victor Belong the Spoils"

I could write much more, but here are some of the main things I noticed as an art student, who was particularly interested in his eight watercolors. The vivid colors and landscapes of the oils are almost the opposite of the watercolors. In the watercolors, the central subjects have brighter colors and the backgrounds fade in the dusty distance. You can almost taste the dust.
But in all his paintings, his meticulous and accurate attention to detail is amazing, whether it is Indian garb, cowboy dress, firearms, gun belts, or more.
And don't miss his humor, as a sketch of a fox and skunk smoking a peace pipe, or his illustrated letters to friends, including one of him up a tree in Florida with a crocodile underneath, or a sculptured wolf sniffing a discarded whiskey bottle.
Another favorite was a five-inch square watercolor on birchbark with a poem to some recently married friends, with the owl and other birds discussing the newlyweds. There are also illustrations for magazine articles, sketches for his paintings, and more. I came back trying to find a couple of favorite large watercolors on the Internet, having never seen them before, and couldn't, including one of Teddy Roosevelt hunting a grizzly with dogs. So worth the trip. But here is one watercolor, of Russell on a horse in a actual buffalo roundup, "Pablo's Buffalo Hunt,"  in his beloved Montana.

"Pablo's Buffalo Hunt"--a watercolor

This is a treasure. Don't miss it.

Breathing the West in Oklahoma

"To walk inside Woolaroc's doors is to breathe the Old West."

Those words of mine introduce the article "Keepers of the Frontier," which I wrote for the latest issue of the state magazine, Oklahoma Today, its Cowboy issue.
For that article I toured four museums--Woolaroc near Bartlesville, Gilcrease at Tulsa, the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, and The Fred Jones Jr. Museum at OU in Norman.
It's not an article about the museums though. Editor Steffie Cocoran wanted a story on the importance of Western Art in Oklahoma.  I discovered that those collections, containing about 75 percent of the great Western art in the world, make the state the epicenter of such, a crossroads of Western Art and history.
Each of the museums is different, has a different atmosphere, and different approach to two subjects dear to me--the West, and art. While Woolaroc is rustic, Gilcrease is sedate, the National Cowboy reflects our automobile world, and Fred Jones is ultra modern on the outside.
I've been to all the museums before, but something happened on these trips and journey of writing. It's a great job where you can walk through those doors, spend time talking to curators, and try to weave a story about the art and its importance in our state. It was a difficult story for many reasons, and that first sentence was a long time coming.
I fell in love with the spirit at Woolaroc. I am subdued and inspired at Gilcrease. I am awed at the size of the art at the Cowboy. At Fred Jones Jr., especially in the Southwestern art, I am just at home.
I'm aware that no words can do justice to the art, or the emotions and stories involved. I'm not an art critic, but a journalist and observer who finds himself in these places. They enrich me and Oklahoma. They help tell the stories of who I am, who we are.
It's not by accident I think, that fellow blogger Alan Bates of Tulsa recently posted a lot of photos of Woolaroc on his blog, "Yogi's Den." Check out his post from Monday, Our World.
If that doesn't inspire you to go this weekend or sometime soon, I don't know what will. And go pick up a copy of Oklahoma Today, look at the photos of the art, and read the article. And the rest of this issue is stunning.
I could show you other photos, but instead, here are the four websites.
Woolaroc
Gilcrease
National Cowboy
Fred Jones Jr.

Go, and breathe the West.

Saturday simmering

A stressful week ends with a Saturday of simmering intentions, but they've not come to a boil.
The blog has wilted it seems, between the start of classes, the death of my first mother-in-law, brief visits with three of my children, surgery on my father-in-law, and my computer getting ready to die.
Only the pressure to keep blogging, as the teacher of blogging class, and watching my monthly blog traffic wither as well, pushes me to the keyboard.
Good news  comes in small packages, including the kids' visit and seeing four of the grandchildren. The a friend writes that she's seen my story on Western art in the new issue of Oklahoma Today. It's a story I sweated over, and enjoyed, but I haven't seen it yet. There is nothing like a byline. And the managing editor of Oklahoma Today writes about my latest story, liking it, and asking for revisions.
There is nothing like a byline. One former students comes up to me this week, just bouncing with joy. "Dr. Clark, Dr. Clark, I'm getting hired by The Vista."She is so thrilled to write and work for the student newspaper and can't wait to tell me This young woman is a successful blogger and can write really well. So much excitement and passion. I need that.
Early this morning, I go to the farmers market, where the crows and produce are dwindling with summer. But the sweet ripe smell of a cantaloupe, porter peaches, some sweet corn for the grill help brighten the day.
There's so much to write about, that may never see the pen, from the horrible Oklahoma murder to the Manning case, to faculty gathering at a watering hole Thursday to laugh the first week away.
And the blogs I follow, including Yogi's Den,  Turtle Rock Farm, Okie Funk, Really Most Sincerely, Red Dirt Ramblings and Santa Fe Daily Photo prompt me, give me ideas and the urge to write, to travel and to photograph.
Tonight we will go see "The Women," the play at Reduxion Theatre , a cool theater in the round in Oklahoma City. That will prompt even more ideas. A New Mexico attack is also infecting me...it's been a year since I've been there, and a long weekend is coming up. 
Maybe these items will turn up the heat and bring the blog back to boiling.