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In the artist's own words:
"These paintings represent much more than just the act of rodeo. They reflect the changes in the American West, the slowly dying Americana. The image of the buckling cowboy is becoming a cliché. It is increasingly used as an advertising ploy like the bronco on the Wyoming license plate or the Marlboro Man. Yet, it is still a part of life to many people living in the Western United States. As an outsider, I do not want to make fun of the rodeo riders and their audience, but I also do not want to stress the heroic quality of this act. I portray the rider and the animals in their struggle to overpower each other. The bulls become unwilling actors performing a learned act. The riders are their smaller, supporting acts, flopping in the air just to finally end up on the ground. The spectacle confirms for us the value of life flashing in front of the bull riders’ eyes as they buckle crazily in the airy silence of the arena. The audience is as much part of the performance as the animals and riders. There is a chaotic charge in the air, fueled by the exhaust of diesel trucks and the smell of animals and human sweat. I like to catch these moments in my paintings. I use photographic documentation as a reference. It represents a single fragment of life frozen in time; the moment of danger when a few seconds are a lifetime. Photos show the essence of movement--a quick glance, losing one’s grip--in shimmering colors, making the shapes dissipate into the air. The flash of the camera flattens the image, smudges the edges of shapes, while pulling out certain details that catch the actor in a primal moment of fear. Looking at the pictures later serves as an affirmation: 'We were here.' I am more interested in images of cowboys falling than in their glorious eight seconds on top. The poses the camera catches are puppet-like, disjointed and comical; not those of a strong man in charge of his destiny. The body becomes vulnerable and breakable. The rider's fall represents a moment of open possibilities, full of disbelief and unreality." - Lenka Konopasek |
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