Hello My Name is Bill

 

This is Bill. He is Bison. I attempted to embed the skull into the life of the bison in this painting. The stark contrast of the skull against the array of colors and strokes creates a great portrait of both the vibrant life of the animal and what's generally left behind. Studying both live bison and the bison skull was eerie. And the painting reflects that eeriness through its color vibrations. This painting has a great (what I call) Ohm. Hans Hofmann guided me through this one with his theories on push and pull in painting. 

I chose Bill as the name in reference to the mass extermination of the great American Bison. From the wikipedia:

  
William Frederick Cody ("Buffalo Bill") got his nickname after the American Civil War when he had a contract to supply Kansas Pacific Railroad workers with buffalo meat. Cody earned the nickname by killing 4,280 American bison (commonly known as buffalo) in eighteen months, (1867–1868).

Seems these great American beasts were nothing but walking dollar signs.  Also, in my image searches I've been staring at this picture.

The American Frontier was brutal.