Cow Skull

For a long time, I've been fascinated with animal bones and skulls. I love the symmetry; I love thinking about the living creature that inhabited the bones, and I like to think about what its life was like. In this image especially, I wanted to explore the shape of the bones, and give the feeling of past/future cycles. A friend and his partner happened to have a cow skull in their backyard, so I made a date to go spend an afternoon painting outside with him.

This was definitely inspired by Georgia O'Keeffe's cow skulls. She was one of the first artists to really inspire me, and I feel a strong connection to her work. I just love the way that she meshes reality with the sublime, there are so many ways to read her art. Her work is almost spiritual in its blending of realism and the (almost) surreal.

I was also inspired by a painting that I saw a long time ago at the San Diego Museum of Art, "After Many Days" by Thomas Hart Benton. It was hanging in the gallery on one of my first trips there, and this was one of the few paintings that really stands out in memory. The two tiny horses in the far distant background add so much to the story. Were they owned by the former inhabitant of the skull? Did he or she die while riding? Was this the person's farm? Who or what killed the person?

I love the idea of nature taking over again, and bodies (human or animal) feeding the earth, growing new life out of what has passed. Maybe that's why I love ghost towns and abandoned buildings so much also. The idea of our temporary existence is terrifying and beautiful all at once. We try so hard to control our environment, but eventually nature catches up.