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Charlene and Josephine’s bison “Buffalo Borealis” features the Northern Lights. On one side of the bison, the artists featured the Native American woman and the changes they have seen to their culture and landscape; on the other side, a fox is seen running down the badlands.
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Charlene A. Jones
Bio:
I grew up in Detroit, Michigan. In the 1st grade I drew an elephant and my teacher was impressed and showed my drawing to the principal. She made big fuzz about it, and that was truly the beginning of my artistic endeavors. Getting an art education wasn't that easy. After graduation from Pershing High School, I attended night school and worked for a few years in a factory. I decided to join the Army to get the GI Bill. In Fort Dix, New Jersey I met a North Dakotan-. Dennis Jones. We continued our educational goals, started our lives and family together in the Fargo/Moorhead area. I earned a BS/BA degree in Art and Art Education from Moorhead State University in 1978 and started my teaching career at Shanley High School, Fargo, ND. After a time in Oregon, we finally ended up living in Bismarck, where I have been teaching art for the last 15 years. I am an active artist (painting, sculpture, drawing and lots of landscaping) and an avid supporter of the community of arts. I have been an active member of, BAGA, DWAC and MAA, for many years. I very much like teaching the visual arts because I have never stopped enjoying watching young people learns to create and think. After all art is the thinking process at its best.
Artist Statement:
Josephine Eckman asked if I would partner with her and paint a Herd about the Prairie Buffalo. My first thought how lucky to be an artist and get to do fun, crazy things like paint a buffalo. What a brainstorm! Three cheers to the Lake Agassiz Council of the arts! My second thought was Ð what an artistic challenge and unique opportunity Ð one in a Herd of many. Of course, I said yes! We agreed on the title Buffalo Borealis. A painted abstraction of stars, color against the night came to mind. A rough paper draft of the Aurora borealis painted on a buffalo was developed. I also included a poem I wrote with the proposal.
By
Charlene A. Jones
Buffalo Borealis so eerie
Buffalo Borealis not to worry
Buffalo Borealis lightens up the North Dakota prairie
Prairies where so much has changed
And yet Buffalo Borealis remains the same.
Martha Olsen suggested we think about adding ideas about the Native American culture. A narrative approach evolved. I painted a medicine wheel symbolizing the human life cycle and a colorized talking feather cover ring the elongated nose of the bison. The eyes and horns became different configurations of the Aurora borealis. Later, Dream Catcher details were added to the eyes. (This was Jo's idea.)
Jo discovered a myth about the creation of the Northern Lights. She created a very expressionistic painting of a fox tail sparking the beginning of the Aurora borealis in the Badlands.
Before I knew it, Jo was done and I had barely begun my side. However, I did have a poem and North Dakota to inspire me. I think of North Dakota as flat, hence the horizon would be flat, also. I teach Multi Cultural Art classes, so I thought about the indigenous people and the fact that not long ago they lived in earth lodges. Earth lodges would be the beginning of what would become a timeline on the horizon line. I thought about Lewis and Clark and the Forts that would dot the North Dakota landscape. Not long after the Forts were built, settler arrived, the trains came, and not long after the cities. Hence, my time line reflected change as stated in the poem.
Who did these changes effect? I chose three wise women to represent the Native American cultures. They are expressionless because I feel that they knew there wasn't much they could do to stop the changes. However, they could stand tall and hold on to what would remain Ð the everlasting beauty of the Northern lights. The Eagle and Hunter Constellations were added plus fine distant stars were sprinkled in the night sky and below the bison body to add continuity.
I thank the Lake Agassiz Council of the Arts for this opportunity and look forward to seeing the Herd of Bison on the prairies soon.
Josephine Eckman
Bio:
Josephine Eckman was raised in the Napoleon, North Dakota area where her seventh grade teacher recognized her artistic talent. She had some formal art lessons at Alverno College in Milwaukee, Wisconsin where elementary art classes were part of the curriculum. Later, she attended Moorhead State University where she received a B. S. in Elementary Education and a minor in art.Jo taught elementary classes in Wahpeton and Richardton, ND and Fergus Falls, MN before becoming highly qualified to teach art which she has been doing part-time since 1991 at Bismarck's Horizon Middle School. As a 4H leader her artistic talents were shared with her 4H Club as they made many art related projects. As a member and past President of Capital Quilters' Club, she learned how to work with all kinds of challenging patterns.
Josephine began her painting career when she took a class called "You can Paint I Promise." Jo was so excited to begin the class that she could not sleep that night. She has been painting ever since. Jo enjoys working in all kinds of media as well as doing multicultural projects. Jo prefers doing scenic paintings and flowers but has done many abstract designs also. Murals fascinate her and she has made a few. She is an avid quilter and prefers doing artsy quilts that have a three- dimensional look rather than traditional quilts. Jo made many soft sculptured animals for her three children. Ceramics is another media Jo specializes in and her coil, slab, and wheel thrown pots grace her classroom and home. Jo has also done some whittling and assists her husband Marvin, also an art major, with many of the woodwork projects he does. She enjoys doing public service projects and painted two forks as a fund raiser for Grand Forks. She found painting a bison for the Fargo Lake Agassiz Art Council even more interesting.
Artist Statement
Josephine Eckman decided to participate in the bison project after she saw a small paragraph in the Bismarck Tribune. Jo wanted to work with this fun, challenging bison type of canvas. Jo was hesitant about doing this alone because of the time element, so she asked another art teacher. After brainstorming several ideas withCharlene and Jo's husband Marvin, the Northern Lights theme was chosen since it is very unique to the northern parts of the world. Initially plans were to have two to three inch stars placed as constellations over the Northern Lights with famous North Dakotans, projects, industries or landscape changes painted inside of them. After seeing the bison, Jo and Charlene did further research on the Northern Lights and found some fascinating mythology and folklore that people in the past created to explain the dancing lights across the sky. Charlene picked up on this theme and added the changes the Native Americans have viewed in their recent lifetime. One Finnish lore told about a fox running down a mountain and as he was dragging his tail, sparks began to fly into the sky and the Northern Lights were born. This is the theme Jo choice and added Badlands rather than mountains. To unite the sides, she added a group of Indian women on her side similar to the ones on Charlene's side of the bison to pull the two sides together.
Our signature brands were hand printed below the neck of the bison on the side we did.
Our friends and family were very fascinated by the concept of someone they knew painting a full sized bison. They would keep saying things like: You are painting a bison? Is this a real bison? How big is this thing? Where are you painting it? What are you painting it with? How long do you have to do it? What will you do with it afterwards? How far along are you with the project? We would send pictures showing the bison as it evolved, but many family members could not comprehend how large it really was and how it looked in actuality until they saw it unveiled. Those who saw it after it was finished were totally awed by the artistic quality of the work.
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