Prime time arrives for the equine

I'm off to hang the show at the Northeast Community Center (for more on that, see the next post), but in the meantime here's something for the first day of the lunar new year. The illustration is a cut I found among a treasure trove of type in Montana last summer.

It's by Jesse Gleason (1881-1983), whose cabin you can still see in Choteau and who used to drink and draw, or more like: drink about drawing, with Charlie Russell. I like to imagine those two snug up against the fires in their studios or outside, comparing pencils, quality of light, scenes they'd like to capture. Or maybe they talked none of it.

Let's take a closer look at Gleason's work. The lasso rightly draws you in: See the figure eight? And then there's the hat and chaps showing the texture and wrinkles of time and use. Despite all that detail—the twists in the rope, the dust swirling—it's still all about the horse.

Have a happy one.