Noah David Wakefield: Western Sauna

For as long as I have memory, I have been interested in cowboy imagery, films, tradition, advertisements, and the like. A childhood spent watching Gunsmoke, Bonanza, and the Lone Ranger had me fascinated with cowboys from an early age. When I started these paintings, we had been living in Lubbock for about 6 years, and I spent a lot of time considering the positive and negative impact of environment and change and looking for inspiration. After more than 20 years as a metal worker, blacksmith, and welder I found inspiration in a brush and in painting. Around that time, I inherited my father’s hat collection and considered both the presence this mountain of a man had in my life, and the presence of a cowboy out on the West Texas plains. The portraits in the exhibition were all painted with oil-based media and various enamel spray paints.