Arthur Short Bull, Artist-in-Residence for Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, will share his work and vision with the public at 1 p.m. on Sunday, July 15, at the Bureau of Land Management Anasazi Heritage Center. Admission to the museum is free all day on lecture days.
Short Bull belongs to the Oglala Lakota (Sioux) people of the northern Great Plains. He works primarily in watercolors, and is the last of four artists this summer to spend time exploring and absorbing the landscape while creating art in response to the experience. His presentation will be from a Native American point of view, and will explain how his cultural background has influenced his creative process.
The artist is related to famed Lakota historian Amos Bad Heart Bull and younger brother He Dog, both of whom rode with Crazy Horse at the battle of Little Big Horn.
The history of the American West is rich and abundant, and inextricably interwoven with that of the original inhabitants... That history has rarely been told visually through the eyes of Native Americans, with the outlook and interpretation that only Native Americans could express, Short Bull said in a written release from the Anasazi Heritage Center.
In 2006 Short Bull was a recipient of the First Peoples Cultural Capital Program Fellowship, during which he commemorated the Wounded Knee Massacre in poems and paintings. In 2009 Short Bull received a First Peoples Fund Business Leadership award, and in 2010 he was a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington, DC. Short Bulls paintings are found in collections throughout America and Europe.
The Artist-in-Residence program promotes awareness through art of the exceptional places protected within the BLMs National Landscape Conservation System, and provides an opportunity for learning and dialogue about the value of preserving public lands.
Beside Canyons of the Ancients, the National Landscape Conservation System includes 887 other protected areas including wilderness areas, river corridors, and historic trails.
The Anasazi Heritage Center, three miles west of Dolores on Highway 184, is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, call 882-5600 or visit www.blm.gov/co/ahc.