October 8, 2011 – What a Bear Does in The Woods

Having painted big piles of rocks over the years, this might be seen as a natural, artistic direction to go in. Being silly, I couldn’t resist taking the photo the other day near Lake Tahoe. And as soon as I took the photo, I turned back on the trail not wanting to really meet the source. One of my rules for painting poop was that the painting itself, in an odd way, had to remain aesthetically pleasing (as subjective as that can be). Also, some great art has incorporated excrement — the British artist Chris Ofili who incorporates elephant dung into his work comes to mind. I have only seen one piece of his in person and really want to see a larger show of his work some day.

And to answer the proverbial question, yes, a bear does shit in the woods.

August 12, 2011 – Does a bear sit in the road in the woods?

As a kid, I remember being fascinated by the thought of going on a car trip with my family to some national park where bears would come up to the car. Those images of happy families feeding snacks to bears in the middle of the road — who wouldn’t want to try that? By the time we all knew better, bears were better managed in parks. But it’s not surprising that I tend to collect those of bears with people on old postcards and in old photos. In my bathroom I even have some framed photos of bears and a car in the 1930’s. It wasn’t until two years ago that I finally saw a bear along the road. It was in Sequoia National Park and the bear was big and brown and completely uninterested. Not even willing to look up when I snapped a picture from the safe confines of my rent-a-car.