Laura's Buffalo Hunt - Summer '06 Part One
Tatonka - is the Lakota word for Bison. A sacred animal, the legend has it that Tatonka was once part of the earth and looked up from within the ground and saw the people suffering on the land with no food, no shelter or clothing. And so Tatonka came up from the earth to give the people what they needed. This summer in Moorhead and Fargo there have been Bison statues all around town as part of a Lake Agassiz Arts Council project called "Heard about the Prairie". People from the community of all walks of life have designed and decorated Bison with different themes. Starting on Memorial Day, I made it my project to go on a Buffalo Hunt and photograph as many as possible. Here are the results of my quest so far.
This buffalo was painted by students at Horzion Middle school, the same school where my Linking Up program takes place. This specimen is titled "Spudicus Maximus" because the Moorhead Middle School "Spuds" designed it based on the artwork of Peter Max, an artist from the 60's. From the design of the buffalo I take it his work was really similar to the way Dr. Teeth and the band painted Fozzie's studebaker in The Muppet Movie. Here it is pictured in front of Moorhead Public Library.
This bison is located in front of an art museum I've never been in. Watch for it, it will come back later because I didn't really like this picture.
Buffalo Borealis shows the Native people of the plains gathered on one side to witness the northern lights. I also tried to capture the medicine wheel painted on the buffalo's forehead and a little girl running in the park in the background. I think I over reached.
