Bison Stories 2 Words and Visual Art Together

My love and respect towards bison resulted in books and a magazine article or two. In this post, I'm showing how creators can share with one another and with each other's work.

Montana artist Monte Dolack created this bison painting that shows the power and beauty of an adult bison bull. (Courtesy of Monte Dolack)

The visit to the Bison Range I described in my first Bison post impressed me with the power and agility of these iconic animals. My book “Buffalo: The American Bison Today,” with Bill Muñoz as the photographer, was based on both my experiences with bison, my research talking to researchers, and reading up on the subject. That book, for middle grade readers, came out in 1986.

Bison and an Iconic Montana Artist

Artists can be just as taken with wildlife as writers and photographers. Montana artist Monte Dolack loves to use animals in his art, and the bison keeps coming back in new versions.

Here’s just one of Monte’s several works that feature bison. “Montana History Lesson,” from the 1980s, shows a bison in front of a classroom, with information on wildlife and Montana history around him. The bison is key to understanding the history of the American West. (Courtesy of Monte Dolack)

Here’s another of Monte’s painting that portrays an American Bison enclosed in a house of sky. The artist ponders the historic and mythical proportions of the once numberless herds of bison that roamed the plains and their near demise.(Courtesy of Monte Dolack)

By far my favorite of Monte’s bison paintings is entitled simply “Big Medicine.” It honors a rare white buffalo. Big Medicine was born on the Bison Range in 1932. Some white buffalo are albinos, with pink eyes. But Big Medicine had blue eyes and a dark clump of fur on his forehead, so he was not an albino.

Bill Muñoz and I both felt that kids would love to learn how artists do their work, and painting Big Medicine seemed like a perfect way to show an artist’s process. Monte was all for it, so Bill and I came to his studio to document how he works.

The Artist at Work

Here’s Monte in his studio, putting some last touches on his Big Medicine painting (Wm. Muñoz photo).

Once Monte imagined how he would represent the concept of the white buffalo, he gathered all sorts of images and researched the subject in many ways, including eating a buffalo burger, collecting toys and models of his subject, and visiting the Bison Range to see his subject up close and personal.  He collected bison images from all over and pinned them on his idea board.  He read articles about buffalo in general and the rare white buffalo in particular.  Before beginning the actual painting, he painted a small color study, which he enlarged to full size and transferred onto his canvas as a guide to the final work.

Monte carefully adds detail to the Big Medicine painting. Every blade of grass and bit of soil is painted in so the painting has as much detail as a photograph. But it comes from Monte’s imagination, not from a camera. (Wm. Muñoz photo)

Because Monte’s images contain so much detail, they take a long time to finish. He often listens to music or books on tape while slowly building a painting up to completion.  From the decision on what to paint to the last brush stroke of a major work takes Monte from two to six weeks, depending on size.

Monte steadies his hand as he adds details to Big Medicine’s white coat. (Wm. Muñoz Photo)

While Monte’s work is immediately recognizable through his attention to detail and his focus on nature, it has evolved  into an exploration of different themes.  “I want people to look for more than just what’s on the surface when they see my work,” he says.  “Look deeper, and you’ll see so much more.”

As I looked around Monte’s studio, I could see the billboard, covered with images of bison, native objects, and articles about bison from newspapers, all part of Monte’s research on his topic.

This beautiful image is the final result of Monte’s intense research and art creation. (Courtesy of Monte Dolack)

Bill and I both wanted to tell Monte’s story to others so they could see how independent artists work to create meaningful art. We were able to show how Monte creates in articles for young readers and adults.

In my next newsletter I’ll update the story of the bison into the present day, showing how researchers, Indian tribes, and the American Prairie reserve are helping bring back this vital prairie resident.