W.H.D. Koerner, “A Charge to Keep,” 1916
I have been thinking about getting back into blogging for awhile and for some reason, today felt like the right time. The semester has started up again at school and my creative mind has started rolling again. Westerns have been on my mind this week, probably due to the fact that I have still not seen No Country for Old Men, and there has has been some really weird cowboy-related news this from the world of entertainment and politics.
In the past couple of days an article about George W. Bush’s favorite painting has surfaced on the web. Bush views the painting (in which he owns) of a western cowboy serving his christian ideals of a greater good. Instead the painting actually depicts a cowboy escaping his captors. O how the the classic western struggle of freedom versus the civilized self plays true! I personally was hoping it was going to be a Richard Prince photograph instead, but I think the irony holds stronger with the story behind the Koerner painting. Additionally, in strange cowboy-related news actor Heath Ledger, famous for his role in the film Brokeback Mountain, passed away at 28. His death and short, but accomplished film career mirrored many talented actors that have played similar roles and had untimely deaths before him. It will be interesting to see if Ledger is iconized as other entertainment figures have been after death with a cowboy-like mythology.
Richard Prince, Untitled (Cowboy), 1989