“Home on The Range” Is the first of a new body of work I am embarking on exploring the connection between mining and development, and the landscape and ecosystems of our environment. The work is more specifically focused on these ideas as they relate to open land, wilderness, and animal habitats found in New Mexico, and the greater southwest. This work, and others currently in process, revolves around two larger themes. One being the idea of limbo, or the edge between two worlds, and the other coming from the Latin phrase “Ubi Sunt”, meaning “where are they now”, a common motif used in storytelling as a meditation on mortality and transitory nature of life. The work is aiming to evoke broken nostalgia, through a meditation on the consequences of believing in the paradigm of inevitable progress, and allude to the hubris involved in perpetuating the false promises of this ideal.

This specific piece explores the story of the American Bison. An animal considered not only sacred, but also integral to the sustenance of life. They once numbered in the tens of millions, only to be hunted to the brink of extinction for the skin and horns they possessed, and the sustenance they gave to the native people also strategically exterminated by western aggressors. Despite this holocaust of events, the image of this creature is still used as a symbol of freedom by the same government that removed freedom from the people, animals, and land that is claims to own. The American Bison is the only animal species in the United States that is not permitted to live wild, like all other wildlife species, aside from within the confines of Yellowstone National Park, and on privately owned property. This work explores these inconsistencies in order to bring about a more holistic understanding of the history and culture of the American west.

Los Angeles Art Galleries

If you are passionate about art collecting and would like to buy this beautiful artwork, give our Los Angeles art galleries a call. Our art gallery is a wonderful place for art collectors.

Our owner and curator is Linnea Lenkus, who also owns two portrait studios and has a passion for high quality art. Her goal is to promote artists in her Southern California art gallery.