By Warren Miller
Dobie rode a bronc to breakfast.
That cayuse was plumb green.
He fed ol' Dobe some biscuits,
Still in the fire, I mean.
The camp cook wasn't none too pleased
When Dobe went in the fire.
That bronc spilled all the coffee;
Stomped the bacon in the mire.
Now, Dobe was some preoccupied,
That biscuit dough was hot,
And the lid from that dutch oven
In his galluses was caught.
These lines begin cowboy poet Mike Logan's poem, "Bronc to Breakfast," from his book of the same title. The poem continues through sixteen more stanzas to tell a great story, rich in detail and humor, of an early morning roundup camp incident that left the cook hopping mad and breakfast and hot coals scattered all around the chuckwagon.
This story, like most cowboy poetry, probably began with a slim foundation of fact. Mike Logan got the story, not from something he heard about or experienced, but from the classic painting by Charlie Russell. Aside from the miscreant cowboy's name, every detail in Logan's poem comes directly from the painting. Charlie Russell was a master of cowboy narrative art-art that contains all the elements of good storytelling.
Prescott's own George Phippen was another painter in the same tradition. He researched the background, elements, people, setting, and historically-accurate gear to portray incidents from history with as much accurate detail as possible. His painting, The Walker Party, depicts the first encounter, in 1863, between gold prospectors in the company of Joseph Reddeford Walker and the resident Yavapai Indians. From the painting we may learn that this was a comfortable encounter, that the Yavapai were welcoming and did not feel threatened, that the buckskin-clad prospectors were going about their business of unpacking the mules and making camp, that weapons were present-rifles for the prospectors, spears for the Yavapai-but were not brandished. One could conclude that the Yavapai had dropped in on these new neighbors to borrow a chew of tobacco.
The rich narrative of Phippen's painting adds to our understanding of a critical moment in history. It is, no doubt, interpretive, in the same sense that the writing of historians is interpretive, but these historical paintings often provide images of events that otherwise would not exist. The Sharlot Hall Museum's new exhibit on the history of the Yavapai people includes a print of Phippen's The Walker Party to illustrate this momentous first meeting.
The Arizona Cowboy Poets Gathering values storytelling in many different forms. Narrative Western art has had an interesting place in the Gatherings. Each year a painting by a contemporary Western artist is selected to be reproduced in the Gathering poster. Paintings selected contain the elements of stories, and participating poets are invited to write the stories they see and read these in special Poster Poem sessions. This has proven a rich and entertaining activity. Some of the past poster art, such as Joe Beeler's Fixin' to Get Excitin' (1999), was quite specific. Beeler's painting shows a cowhand on the verge of a great wreck: he has roped a calf and his horse has managed to get the rope between his hind legs as the calf takes off and starts to pull the rope tight. The expression on the cowhand's face makes it clear that he is aware of the predicament he is in. The sharp-horned mama cow prepares to deliver her opinion of these doings while the other hands look on with a mixture of alarm and amusement-the final mixture to be determined by the outcome of the wreck. Other poster art, like this year's The Lead Man by Walnut Grove painter Bob McCarthy, leaves more room for interpretation.
The concurrent show at the Phippen Museum, The Other Side of the West, presents more contemporary styles of Western painting, but some of these artists also tell stories. Nelson Boren's watercolors show close up details of the gear and life of the contemporary cowboy. His painting Blow Out, shows a single boot, worn way past out, bent to ninety degrees by the kneeling stance of its cowboy wearer. The boot is fitted with an equally worn spur, which is tied with bailing wire under the heel. You can smell the manure! If only this boot could talk . . . but in this rich painting it does indeed.
One of the most distinctive styles in this show is that of Bill Schenck, whose vibrant colors and flattened images look almost like paint-by-numbers raised to a high level of execution on giant canvases. His stories can be enigmatic, challenging, and intriguing, while containing familiar icons of Western art. One painting, 4 Flusher, is a playful self-portrait of the artist and fellow artist, also in this show, Ann Coe. The two are seen seated on the barren, flat, ground, 120 miles from the nearest prairie dog-in front of a classic '30s Rolls Royce Phaeton-playing poker as the sun sets in the west. A can of Coors for him, wine in a crystal glass for her. I'd like to turn that one loose on the imaginations of the cowboy poets!
Stories capture and amuse us, whether told as poems or presented in art. People who love good stories are invited to attend the Arizona Cowboy Poets Gathering, August 16-18, and see The Other Side of the West at the Phippen Museum.
Warren Miller is Curator of Education at the Sharlot Hall Museum and Jigger Boss of the Arizona Cowboy Poets Gathering. Information about the Gathering may be had by calling 928.445.3122 or visiting www.sharlothallmuseum.org.