The American Bison is such a keystone species. It is hard to imagine there was a time when they were almost wiped out. When I went through Yellowstone there were so many it seemed that they ruled the park. I was riding through on my motorcycle, considering the sheer audacity of a two wheeled object trying to exist around those ginormous, sometimes feisty, beings. But the truth was I had rode my motorcycle all the way from Minnesota to Yellowstone and had only seen bison behind fences up until that point. A couple centuries earlier that whole area would have been home to millions of Bison (around 50 million to be precise).

You probably already know that Bison were nearly hunted to extinction. Hunting combined with foreign bovine disease brought their numbers down under 1000.

Under 1000. Isn’t that just hard to fathom – from 50 million to less then 1000. Ugh.

I looked it up and there are now close to 30,000 (again, 30,000 compared to millions). This piece is about all that. It is about the toughness it takes to survive. How even soft, cuddly looking critters have to struggle through. When I started painting this I was in a situation where I found myself working with some difficult personalities that reminded me of myself when I was younger. The situation brought me back to being a kid in a difficult situation and I remembered what it was like to have to toughen up in order to survive. I changed and took on new habits like acting tough, wearing different clothing, eschewing bright colors. rejecting the idea of close relationships esp. romantic ones. As I toughened up I buried my soft side. I didn’t want to, and I certainly didn’t want to be in the situation that forced me to, but sometimes we don’t have a choice.

That is how I feel about the Bison. They had no choice, just like any animal around us, they are subject to the whims of us powerful humans. The near extinction of a keystone species and America’s largest land mammal is truly embarrassing moment in our shared history, but it needs to be used as a learning moment. As the beings with the majority of the power we humans have a duty to make better choices. Lets consider the gentle beings around us and do better❤

Feat. American Bison, Milkweed, Thistle, Goatsbeard, Monarch Butterfly